A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, September 14, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. in the aldermanic
chamber and via Zoom teleconference which meeting link can be found on the agenda and on the City’s website
calendar.
President Lori Wilshire presided; City Clerk Susan Lovering recorded.
Prayer was offered by City Clerk Susan Lovering; Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu led in the Pledge to the Flag.
Let’s start the meeting by taking a roll call attendance. If you are participating via Zoom, please state your presence,
reason for not attending the meeting in person, and whether there is anyone in the room with you during this meeting,
which is required under the Right-To-Know Law.
The roll call was taken with 12 (2 via Zoom) members of the Board of Aldermen present: Alderman Michael B. O’Brien,
Sr., Alderman Patricia Klee, Alderwoman Shoshanna Kelly (via Zoom), Alderman Richard A. Dowd, Alderman June M.
Caron, Alderman Benjamin Clemons (arrived at 7:39 p.m.), Alderman David C. Tencza, Alderwoman Elizabeth Lu,
Alderman Ernest Jette, Alderman Jan Schmidt, Alderman Skip Cleaver (via Zoom), Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright,
Alderman Wilshire.
Alderman Thomas Lopez and Alderman Brandon Michael Laws was recorded absent.
Mayor James W. Donchess, Corporation Counsel Steve Bolton, were also in attendance.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
President Wilshire
Mayor did you wish to address the Board this evening?
Mayor Donchess
Yes, Madam President. First, | just want to briefly touch on our COVID-19 status. Of course Public Health continues to
monitor this on a daily basis. We're still in substantial transmission, although things seem to have stabilized a bit. The
positivity rate - in other words, the number of people who test and come out with COVID, the positivity rate has been
5.5%. That's a little less than the last time | spoke to you and the number of new cases per 100,000 for 14 days is still
over 200 but again, in the last few days, there have been a few less cases than in the previous weeks. So we continue to
look at all that carefully.
Madam President there were two very nice ceremonies and events which | wanted to mention to you and to the
community. | want to thank the Fire Department for sponsoring and hosting the 9/11 Memorial that was held on Saturday
at the fire station on East Hollis Street. A number of people attended. Our Fire and Police Departments, of course, and
others and it was just you know, a sad day because we were thinking back to what occurred 20 years ago and all the lives
that were lost in the 9/11 attacks. But it was great that the Fire Department put that entire ceremony together.
Also, Madam President on Sunday there was a Welcoming Week celebration at the at Greeley Park at the band shell put
on by our Cultural Connections Committee and | want to thank Deepa Mangalat and our entire committee for working on
that. There was some really beautiful dancing by and other entertainment, music, drums, other things by a whole group of
people and it seemed everybody had a good time and everybody did a really good job on that event. So | wanted to thank
all of them.
And finally Madam President, | wanted to mention the escrows which | Know we're up for final vote tonight. Of course that
has gone to the Budget Committee. As | said before, | won't go through it in the same level of detail but over half the
money is being allocated into equipment purchases. Without this allocation, there would be no equipment purchase this
year and this is the practice that we've adopted over the last number of budget years to use unappropriated, unused
funds, unspent funds to make equipment purchases. So this would be equipment that's required by the Public Works,
Fire, Police, and our other departments to make sure that our fleet of vehicles and equipment remains in good repair and
up to date. A lot of the other money is being allocated into various trust accounts to save future taxes or reserve accounts
against the need for unexpected building repairs and other things. | know that the Budget Committee discussed it in quite
some detail and of course their usual thorough review and therefore | think it is ready to be passed. That's it for my
remarks Madam President.
