Board of Aldermen 04-13-2021 Page 4
| wanted to report to the Board of Aldermen, Madam President, regarding a fraud issue that has occurred with
respect to one of the contracts that the City is a party to. It involves the contract for the moving of the Health
Department from their building on Mulberry Street over to Main Street at the Odd Fellow’s Building. It appears, and
we are still investigating so we will give you more information later, but what it appears is what happened is that
someone hacked into the vendor, the vendor is from Massachusetts, computer hacking into their system. It appears
that this is what happened at least so far and determined as a result of that hacking that there was a contract,
determined the name of the person at the vendor that was dealing with the City and determined her email address,
then altered the email address by one character, adding an “S” to the email address and began approaching
Accounts Payable payment and changing the bank to which they were seeking to have a so-called ACH transfer.
Eventually Accounts Payable made that transfer to the fraudulent vendor and the amount is $41,000.00
approximately. Now the City is not out the money at this point because, again, we are still investigating. The Legal
Department, of course, is involved and there is some case law suggesting that if the first cause is the hacking of a
party because of insufficient security that they may be the one that suffers the loss. But this is not a final
determination or a final report. But | just wanted to let you know, | called you Madam President, the day after |
learned about this and that was a week or 10 days ago but | wanted to tell the Board of Aldermen as well. Again,
we will update and give you more complete information when we get it.
Another item, Madam President, the City’s equalization ratio is out, 83% is the City’s Equalization Ratio given by
the State DRA. This means that on average, the average property in Nashua is assessed at 83% of Fair Market
Value. This is, of course, as a result of the appreciation that has occurred in real estate values over the last several
years. And as you know, we are in the middle of a revaluation. Our plan here is to — all houses have been viewed,
all properties have been viewed from the exterior only because of COVID.
But now that people are beginning to get vaccinated, now that we have masks, we think it is important to offer
people the opportunity, if they wish, no one has to do it, offer people the opportunity of an interior inspection. So
that should be beginning next month. Now it will circulate in the same way that the exterior visits did, first with Ward
1 working through the Wards from the north end to the south end. Again, if anybody does not feel comfortable for
any reason, COVID-19 or anything else, they certainly don’t have to agree to a visit. But if they do feel comfortable
and think it'll help in terms of their assessment, that opportunity will be available. We think, given that we haven't
done a Full Measure & List since 1991 that we really don’t want to do this or finish this revaluation without those in-
person visits.
Finally the barriers as you see have been painted by our artists, by Positive Street Art and Beyond Walls. They did
a great job | think and now the expanded outdoor dining is being put in place and that should be a great season. |
know that we were down there last weekend and there was a 2 % hour wait at one of the restaurants for the
outdoor seating. So | think that will go well this season and | want to thank the artists for their efforts. Unless there
are questions, Madam President, that concludes my remarks.
President Wilshire
At this point, | think | will call on Director Kleiner to give her update on the building renovations.
Kim Kleiner, Director of Administrative Services
Good Evening and thank you Madam President, Members of the Board. So tonight | am joined by Jennifer
Deshaies, the Risk Manager. Ms. Deshaies and | have worked on this on this project with a team of individuals
since last June. It has certainly had its share of complex challenges; everything from structural changes when you
are dealing with a building of this age to material challenges due to COVID-19. But in June, the building was
assessed by the Emergency Operation Center and we realized that in order to comply with CDC Social Distancing
Protocols, significant building modifications were required in Motor Vehicle, Tax, Assessing and the City Clerk’s
Office.
