Board of Aldermen 09-14-2021 Page 19
Alderman Klee
Thank you Madam President. Apparently I’m older than everybody else here because my mother didn’t send me to buy
bread. She made her own. | guess that makes me a little bit different. | do want to also speak to the escrow and how we
use them. We did return some back to the taxpayers and there may be many there that say return it all. As it was pointed
out, the key here is to know when we can fund certain projects at a lower rate than it might happen. | know they're talking
about groceries going up like 30 percent in the next couple of months or so. | Know going to a restaurant what used to be
a $9 hamburger is now $15 and $17. Prices are jumping quickly and | think that it’s best for us to take advantage of these
things. I’m glad that we are putting money back into the CERF. It is important as Alderman Dowd had pointed out. It has
been woefully underfunded and it’s one of those things that | think we sacrifice when we need money in other areas. It’s
time to put some of that money back.
The other thing is that sometimes it’s easier to say why do we need this one item or why do we need that one item? It
doesn't affect my ward or | don’t see the benefit of it for the city. Well that’s one voice, or two voices, or maybe five voices
but that’s why we have 15 people here. We look at it as a city whole. The one voice program | sit there and say well you
know what I’d like something like that in Ward 3. As a matter of fact, I’m thinking of talking to somebody about that. We
need it in the French Hill area. The truth is, Alderman Lopez has worked very hard toward that and the Mayor has been
so kind in that project, and so on. It brings the community together. It brings them together to vote on what they think
they need and so on. | don’t think it’s that much money in the long run for the benefit that we get and community
especially in the areas that it's meant for. So to cherry pick one, or two, or ten items off of the list | just don’t think its right.
We need to look at it as the whole and maybe there are one or two things there that | didn't like but I’m not going to ask to
have them taken off. Thank you so much.
Alderman O’Brien
Thank you Madam President. | would like to just do a little public service announcement. Next Tuesday, September 21%,
at 7 p.m., we’re going to have a Special Board of Aldermen meeting. We’re going to invite a representative from the New
Hampshire Retirement System. | think we’re going to have Mr. Marty Karlon will be here. | just want to tell the folks at
home, believe me this is the elephant in the room. The New Hampshire Retirement System is a $9 billion account. Last
year it only made one percent in interest. Now if | took that $9 billion and put in the Michael O’Brien savings account,
number one | would be arrested but | would make more than one percent. How does this happen? It’s going to be
questions that | think that we can ask. What about the fast tracking? Where did that come from? Why does that exist?
By the year 2039, we’re supposed to fund our unfunded liabilities on an account that has $9 billion. They used to pay 35
percent. In 1968, they cut it back from 35 percent — well not in ‘68 but in existence since ’68 and they cut it back. So
today the State pays nothing. Why? | put a bill in to just get 5 percent to come back to help Nashua. Manchester — it was
backed by the NH Municipal Association. It failed. It failed. So these are questions that | think need to be asked. I’m sure
the Mayor would agree but it’s one of the things that constantly face us as we work our budgets. Yes we deserve to pay
our people a good retirement and a fair retirement but the State seems to be having some troubles mismanaging. So I’m
looking at this not like the circus is coming to town. More like a root canal but | think this is going to be pretty good. | think
it’s definitely going to inform the public on what’s going on here. So thank you Madam President.
Mayor Donchess
Yes. Well | urge everybody to go to this retirement meeting and gets some questions answered. | just had one thing to
mention about tomorrow. There is scheduled to be a story about Nashua on NBC nightly news. The NBC news crew was
here last week. The thrust or the purpose of the story is to explore the changing demographics of our city. As you
probably saw, the population didn’t grow from the last census from 86 odd thousand to over 91,000. The nature of the
community has changed over that time and the direction of the story has to do with those changes. So could it get
bumped or something? Maybe but they were up here and we’ve been told it will be on tomorrow night on the NBC nightly
news. Let’s find out and hopefully it will be there.
Committee announcements:
Alderman Tencza
So on Monday evening at 7:00 p.m. the Planning and Economic Development will meet. Director Marchant will be there
to talk about the Master Plan which is very exciting for us the Master Plan that the city has undertaken in almost 20 years.
It will be an important meeting for anybody and | invite everybody on the Board to be there. A lot of good ideas have been
talked about in the Master Plan Committee. However, the first step in the Master Plan is to address our zoning and land
use laws. So it will be maybe a little different from what people are thinking. Maybe a little bit more technical so | would
