Board of Aldermen 10-13-2020 Page 42
MOTION BY ALDERMAN DOWD TO AMEND O-20-009 BY REPLACING IT WITH THE GOLDENROD
COPY OF AMENDMENTS MADE AT THE PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, BY
ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Dowd
I'd like to speak to it. I’d like to explain the rationale for the Golden Rod revisions to O-20-009, which
makes changes to the Board of Aldermen’s rules and order of business, Section 5-14 Order of Business.
This Ordinance and the clarifications proposed for revision this evening is not meant to overly restrict the
public’s input to the Board of Aldermen. Rather its intent is to provide some clarification and guidance to
these procedures. The full intent of the Ordinance is to establish guidelines to structure public comment to
allow more than one person to comment on an evening’s agenda or comment in the general at the end of
the meeting. The Board has had the aforementioned rules in place for some time limiting public comment
to 15 minutes with a provision to allow that it be extended if there were more people who wanted to provide
input and the majority of the Board were OK with extending the period of public comment.
For the most part, this has been the practice we have followed, though we have often on occasion has a
period monopolized by individuals who often went beyond their 5 minute restriction of the time with their
comments and some went beyond the 15 minute allowance. Some also commented at the first 15 minute
period on items not provided for by the rules of order. The first Public Comment Period is restricted by
current rules to communications requiring final approval by the Board of Alderman that evening or other
items that are going to be acted upon with final approval for that evening.
Let me be clear that we don’t wish to limit what anyone can provide for comment from the public. That is
why we have allowed for public’s ability to provide written comments to the Board and have them included
as part of the meeting minutes. As part of the meeting minutes these comments are available as well to the
General Public on our web site. All public input requires a name and address included with both oral and
written comments in order to be accepted. This revised Ordinance also clarifies wnat may be addressed at
each public comment period as a guide to whoever is Chairing the Full Board Meeting or Chairing the
Committee Meeting.
It further clarifies that a speaker providing oral comments in either public comment period be limited to 3
minutes and that they only get to speak once. This allows a person to clearly state their position on any
items of business and no one may delegate any part of their time to another speaker. This is a rule
followed by most Board of Alderman or Selectmen meetings in the State of New Hampshire. While the
specifics of timing people is not in the Ordinance at this time, we have had the timing light system installed
in the new Aldermanic Chambers and will use it hopefully when we return to our new chambers.
Further clarification identifies that this public comment period is for comment only and not for question and
answer period with the Board of Aldermen. Only the Chairperson may receive a question and determine if
someone answering this question will help clarify the item being discussed for the Board of Aldermen. The
Chairperson may answer the question or delegate the one person who may answer the question.
Questions and dialogue are only allowed during public hearings on subjects that require public hearing by
law. Public Comment periods are not to allow speeches on any subject and all discussion should be
relevant to items that fall under the purview of the Board of Aldermen or the Committee conducting the
Hearing.
The second Public Input Period is for comments relative to the purview of the Board of Aldermen or City
Government and have the timing spelled out in the revised Ordinance. Again, the public has the ability to
provide written comments to the Board on any subject, via mail or e-mail, which may be included in the
minutes of the Full Board or Committee Meetings, having justification on that subject. Matters that are
under the purview of the Administration Branch of the City of Nashua should be addressed to the Mayor’s
Office. Thank you.
