Board of Aldermen 05-11-2021 Page 28
could we know how the polling turned out. | understand it seems to be a poll sent out to perhaps Mayor
Donchess’ email list but that would help me if | knew. Apparently Mayor Donchess thought it was a good idea
to get that information. Could we have the results of the poll from your chosen list?
President Wilshire
Mayor, did you wish to speak on that?
Mayor Donchess
In thinking about this and talking with some of the Aldermen who contacted me about it, | thought it be worth
sounding out the people | am in contact with at least regarding what they thought. So about 1,900 and some
people got the email and opened it. About 600 people voted, the two questions, now we are in a history where
there had been 130 years of the Nashua Police Commission and there’s only been one woman appointed in
130 years. So | asked the question, should there be a mandatory number of women on the Commission. And
that sort of tracked the current requirement that there has to be a party balance; you can’t have more than two
members of the same party on the Commission now according to the Charter. And that came out fairly close,
it was in favor of mandatory female members but it was 51/49 or so.
The other question was asked, well who should make the appointment, should it continue to be the Governor
and a Council up in Concord or should it be local appointments, the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen. Now
that came out quite decidedly in favor of local appointments; more than 2 to 1. And | think the exact numbers
were at about 600 people voted so it was like 410 to 194 of the people who decided to express an opinion.
President Wilshire
Are you all set Alderman Lu?
Alderwoman Lu
Yes, but actually a follow up. Have there been a lot of females that have been overlooked, presented as a
candidate and overlooked?
Mayor Donchess
Well | don’t know, this is a very political and secretive process. So what happens is there’s something that
goes on between the councilor and the governor, usually as I’ve heard it over the decades, often it is a friend of
the governor's councilor who gets, not in every case, it depends on the relationship between the governor’s
councilor and the governor. But somehow, I’ve never heard of an application process or any kind of vetting
process or anything like that. And someone proposes a member and then the council votes on it. So | don’t
know if women have been considered. | don’t know who has been considered, | don’t know who has applied, |
have no idea of who has expressed an interest.
But | do know that there are many qualified women in Nashua who could be appointed and serve very
competently on the Nashua Police Commission. But because there seemed to be a divided opinion on that,
this does not mandate women. It just says that — it expands the number of appointments from 3 to 5 and says
that the membership should reflect the citizenship of the community. And it says that merit, qualifications and
a history of community service should be considered. | think that using that procedure we could arrive at a
group of appointees that would serve the community and the Police Department very well.
| would point out that there used to be many other cities, a number of other cities, Manchester, Laconia, Berlin
and other cities who had the governor appoint the Police Commissioners. All but Nashua have abandoned
that process. Portsmouth was the last one about 20, 25 years ago opted for a local procedure as have all the
other cities. So of the 200 and some communities in New Hampshire, we are the only one where — whoever
supervises the Police Department is not selected locally.
