Board of Aldermen 08-10-2021 Page 29
Nay: Alderwoman Lu 1
MOTION CARRIED
R-21-152
Endorsers: Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE CITY CHARTER RELATIVE TO ADDING TWO ADDITIONAL MEMBERS
TO THE BOARD OF HEALTH
Given its second reading;
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Lopez
So just before | make a motion, can | ask Attorney Bolton to clarify? If | motion for indefinite postpone does it stop any
other aldermen from commenting if they wanted to?
Attorney Steve Bolton
No.
Alderman Lopez
Okay. Just making sure.
MOTION BY ALDERMAN LOPEZ FOR INDEFINITE POSTPONEMENT, BY ROLL CALL
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Lopez
So out of deference to what Alderman Clemons pointed out earlier, | didn’t want to either a) make a long comment and
then just move to table, or b) table right out of the gate and then not explain why. My intention in proposing a Charter
amendment for the Board of Health was it is a similarly aged institution. It provides for three physicians to oversee the
health matters of Nashua and I’m very much oversimplifying that so | apologize to the Board. My intention was to add two
more members to it to expand its quorum. This would allow members to have a little bit freer conversation. It would allow
some redundancy if someone couldn’t make it and it would allow them to still have a quorum and proceed with the
meeting. | saw advantages to it but | didn’t really account for 1) the timeframe for presenting it to the Board itself in
having it proposed to me and moving it forward onto the Board of Aldermen. | managed to completely coincide with them
going on break for the summer so | wasn't able to present it to them first or in a detailed matter before it went to
Personnel/Administrative Affairs.
So | want to thank Alderman Caron for working with me to invite them to the Personnel/Administrative Affairs. The way
the timing would have worked out is there regular meeting is tomorrow So if she hadn’t been so accommodating, we
wouldn't have had the conversation before it went back tonight the full Board. If it didn’t come back tonight, then it
wouldn't have made a difference because it’s not going to get on the ballot. We had a health discussion
Personnel/Administrative Affairs. | kind of wanted to stick to it because the idea of five versus three as a dynamic is
something I’m very familiar with. | see most boards operating on that level. Because of the advantages it offers, that
made sense to me.
Expanding it to include members who might represent the psychology field as well, | added an addition physician or
individual with doctorate level psychology. | thought that was relevant to today’s Nashua. We just literally had a Special
Board of Aldermen meeting right before this about being a recovery friendly workplace. Issues of recover and substance
misuse are increasingly falling under the umbrella of public health. There are major issues that affect all levels of Nashua
life. Then we also have issues that are not quite so well understood or discussed. We have a lot of people who are
committing suicide and we have a lot of people who are experiencing the trauma that comes from that. We have a lot of
people who just went through a life shattering or life changing experience in 2020 where suddenly a lot of the behaviors
and patterns that they were used to were pulled away from them and they were instead replaced with a period of
uncertainty, and competing narratives, and a lot of stress. Again, it made a lot of sense to me to introduce somebody at
least a possibility that a specialist in the field of psychiatry would potentially be useful.
