A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, November 9, 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; Alderman June M. Caron 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 13 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 (via Zoom), Alderman Thomas Lopez, Alderman David C. Tencza (via Zoom at 7:34 pm), Alderwoman
Elizabeth Lu (via Zoom), Alderman Ernest Jette, Alderman Brandon Michael Laws (via Zoom), Alderman Skip Cleaver (via
Zoom), Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire.
Alderman Jan Schmidt was recorded absent.
Mayor James W. Donchess, Corporation Counsel Steve Bolton, were also in attendance.
REMARKS BY THE MAYOR
Mayor Donchess
Yes, Madam President. Thank you very much. First, | did want to update you on the COVID situation. Unfortunately, the
numbers continue to rise. The two big measurements are the following: first, the number of new cases that have arisen
per 100,000 people over the last 14 days and that number is 403 in Nashua. The positivity rate is 8.1% at the present
time. That means the percentage of people who get tested for COVID who come up having the disease having the virus.
Those numbers are higher than they've been recently so we can need to continue to exercise caution and urge everyone
to get vaccinated. Right now Nashua is 52% fully vaccinated with 57.4% having received at least one vaccination. Also
Public Health is holding a clinic for 5 to 11 year olds who are now eligible. That will be November 20" and December 11".
| believe they're full and they have 720 scheduled vaccinations. So again, we should encourage everyone to get
vaccinated.
Madam President | wanted to go on to the election. First of all, | want to congratulate and congratulate all of our
successful candidates. Thank everyone for participating. Those who put themselves out, put themselves on the ballot.
It's often not easy to put yourself forward like that and whether you win or lose, you are working to try to make our
community better. Of course, | want to thank those who voted and all of the workers in the polling places who did such a
good job. First and foremost though, we owe a debt of gratitude again to Sue Lovering, Allison, Waite, those people in the
City Clerk's office who, again, ran a very smooth election. No problems. It went well. Turnout was actually very high for
an off year - like around 14,000 people voted. Madam President you may recall that this is a lot for an off year. Some
other off year elections a few years back, we only had about 7,500 people. This time 14,000. So we should feel gratitude
that so many people are committed enough to come out even in an off year.
Question two, of course, was the result there was quite decisive. | did support and do support local control on all matters,
including Police Commission, pensions, and all others. | believe local control is always best, but as | mentioned, that
result was decisive.
One item that | particularly wanted to mention Madam President is the appointment, my appointment of John Griffin, CFO,
as the Treasurer Tax Collector. That would consolidate those positions CFO, Chief Financial Officer, and the
Treasurer/T ax Collector as Mr. Griffin. He and | have talked about the departure of David Fredette a number of times and
have been thinking about it. Mr. Griffin knows the Treasurer's duties very well having worked very closely with David
Fredette over the last 11 years. John has been here 11 years and there is precedent for the idea that the same person
would be the Treasurer and Tax Collector. That was the case before David Fredette was appointed as Treasurer/Tax
Collector. So that nomination will be, | believe, going to the Personnel Committee on Monday night. | believe John
having served very successfully as CFO is very capable, very qualified for this role and given our confidence and | believe
your confidence in him, | believe that's the best way to go for the city. But we will talk about that in more detail when the
Personnel Committee meets next week.
