Special Board of Aldermen 09-16-2021 Page 15
One of the speakers who spoke against the Charter alluded to the fact earlier that there are perhaps not
enough diverse people who may have the qualification to sit on the Police Commission. That is factually
incorrect and an unacceptable argument and | take offense to that.
Secondly, shifting the nomination process from State to local with the public waiting process will allow for
the community insight into the process. We're citizens of Nashua. We'll have an opportunity to raise any
concerns they may have with the appointees. It will support a more democratic process with the goal of
keeping the Commission a nonpartisan entity comprised of Commissioners from both sides of the aisle. As
Representative Ray Newman stated earlier, for people who fear that this may become a partisan
commission, there are enough safeguards to ensure that that does not happen. As Representative Sherry
Dutzy stated earlier, it cannot get any worse than what it is now. Thank you.
President Wilshire
Thank you. Anyone else who wishes to testify in favor? Seeing none, we'll go to those who want to testify
in opposition.
TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION
Alicia Houston
Alicia Houston, 139 Westwood Drive. I'll keep this brief because | really agree with all of the other
oppositional testimonies. First things first. | cannot imagine a world where Mayor Donchess appoints
anyone. | have personally seen what that looks like towards women. Additional outside of that, | guess the
only other thing that | would be concerned about is the fact that in this city the people that would be
expected to vote for these Commission seats are the very same people that may or may not have
appointed someone by the name of Deanna Lawrence who was one of Americans Most Wanted. So thank
you.
President Wilshire
Anyone else who wants to speak in opposition?
Mike Ortolano
I’m Mike Ortolano, 41 Berkeley Street. The reason | oppose the change is really because | feel like the
process that was used to bring it forward was not thorough and you know a good process brings people
together and | think a bad process breaks people into pieces. What we see here is a lot of that. There’s a
lot of different approaches that could have been taken with the Police Commission. For example, you
could possibly directly elect the Police Commission instead of having it appointed. You could do away with
the Police Commission but you know a lot of times solving a problem the best way to do it is to define it
really well. Once you’ve defined what that, you know, the problem is or what the opportunity is than to look
at different possible solutions to it and to include as many as people as possible in that process so that the
process itself brings people together and makes them want to move it forward.
You know | don’t know if there’s a better way to the Police Commission. Maybe there is | mean but
certainly the process that has been used here hasn’t built confidence that the proposal gets us there.
That’s the basic reason why | really feel, you Know, | urge as many people as | can get in contact with to
vote no. This process has already demonstrated it brought nobody together. It’s busted us into pieces. It’s
made it impossible to heal some of the wounds that exist between these groups and it really is a shame
because it’s a missed opportunity. Anyways, | strongly urge the community to vote no on this thing. It was
poorly executed and it’s going to cause a lot of division in the community.
