Special Board of Aldermen 09-16-2021 Page 17
is singling out the Nashua Police Commission for no legitimate reason other than because he wants to
change it regardless of what the Board of Aldermen says.
Whatever problems the City of Nashua has, the Police Department is most definitely not one of them. |
was a member of the Nashua Police Department for more than 32 years. It’s not just my opinion but the
opinion of professionals across the law enforcement spectrum that the Nashua Police Department is a
nationally recognized model police agency. A police agency that other...
Alderman O’Brien
Thirty seconds.
Andrew Lavoie
...are supposed to emulate. | believe that the Board of Aldermen and most citizens know that. It is my
opinion that Mayor Donchess most definitely knows that yet he continues to advocate for unneeded
changes that will adversely affect the department. As Nashua voters, that fact should concern you the
most about this entire process. Thank you.
President Wilshire
I’ll call for anyone else who wants to speak in opposition.
Michael Carignan
Good evening everyone. My name is Michael Carignan and I’m your Chief of the Nashua Police
Department. I'm here to voice my opposition for this legislation to be placed on the ballot and | will be brief.
There’s been a lot of discussion around the 100 plus year history of the nomination process for the Police
Commissioners. The fact that the process is that old, some calling it “archaic” has been used against it. In
reality it is a system that has proved to be effective, trustworthy, transparent, and best practice. | would put
the Nashua Police Department up against any agency in New England as a leader and an example of how
to effectively police within a community. Why would you want to change that? This process will do nothing
but hurt our ability to do that.
Much has been made about the diversity of the Police Commission. We as an agency welcome a diverse
board. | believe the actions of the Nashua Police Department have consistently demonstrated our
willingness and our desire to diversify our entire police department. So much has been said about the fact
that over the years we have had only one woman as a Police Commissioner. During those discussions, it
has been brought up several times that no names were presented to the Governor for a position on the
Commission by the Mayor or Aldermen. In checking with the Governor’s office this morning, | want to
confirm to everyone that last month one of our sitting Police Commissioners was re-nominated and
reappointed to his position. Not one female nor person of color was presented to the Governor by the
Mayor or the Aldermen for consideration. That should tell you that diversity is not as important to those
pushing this legislation as it seems.
I'd like to discuss the language on the ballot question regarding the Police Commission as it had been
presented to the citizens of Nashua. We've made it clear that we as an agency we’d be happy to sit down
to discuss the pros and cons of this topic and discover ways that we can improve. We are willing to work
with the Aldermen and community members to try and do just that. The language as it’s been presented to
the ballot has not been allowed to be changed or improved upon. There are members here tonight who
have been strong proponents of this legislation who have reached out to me and expressed the fact that
they were not happy with the verbiage of the legislation. They think it could be changed and be better. Yet
the methodology that went into getting this on the ballot prohibited them from doing that. They should tell
citizens of Nashua that the main sponsors of this legislation have rushed it through to the point that they
were not able to change it and make it a process that is best for the community even in their own eyes.
