Aldermen, Board of

A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, December 28, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. President Brian S. McCarthy presided; City Clerk Paul R. Bergeron recorded. Prayer was offered by City Clerk Paul R. Bergeron; Alderman Wilshire led in the Pledge to the Flag. The roll call was taken with 12 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Aldermen Tabacsko and Sheehan were not in attendance. Alderman Cox arrived after the roll was taken. President McCarthy Alderman Tabacsko was unable to attend this evening and Alderman Sheehan is ill. I would like to wish her a speedy recovery. Her Honor Mayor Donnalee Lozeau and Corporation Counsel James M. McNamee were also in attendance. REMARKS BY THE MAYOR Mayor Lozeau Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening. I wanted to just take a moment to again point out some wonderful volunteers that we have in this city that are up tonight. Three of which are reappointments, Mr. Michael Rosenblum to the Airport Authority, Beth Todgham to the Child Care Advisory Committee, and Thomas Monahan to the New Hampshire Housing Authority, and a new appointment tonight to the Review and Comment Commission, Mr. Corey Genest. I am very pleased as I know you all are with the turn out that we have with people willing to participate in our government, whether it’s a volunteer position, long term or short term, we’ve had some great success, but I will use this opportunity to point out that if anybody is aware of people interested in serving, we certainly could use some help on the Zoning Board. I’m making sure to say that more often these days because that has been a real challenge for us to find people that can give the time for that board in particular. I would just close my remarks this evening by wishing everybody a safe and prosperous New Year, for those families here and for those families that are a little splintered through this season and into the New Year because they are serving abroad. Thank you for your kind attention tonight. RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR - None RECOGNITION PERIOD - None READING MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS THAT THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING OF DECEMBER 14, 2010, BE ACCEPTED, PLACED ON FILE, AND THE READING SUSPENDED MOTION CARRIED COMMUNICATIONS – None PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED UPON THIS EVENING - None PETITIONS Petition for Street Acceptance: Smithfield Terrace • Committee on Infrastructure Recommends: Petition be Granted MOTION BY ALDERMAN COX TO GRANT THE PETITION FOR STREET ACCEPTANCE FOR SMITHFIELD TERRACE MOTION CARRIED Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 2 NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND ELECTIONS Joint Convention with Edgewood Cemetery Board of Trustees MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE THAT THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEET IN JOINT CONVENTION WITH THE EDGEWOOD CEMETERY BOARD OF TRUSTEES FOR THE PURPOSE OF ELECTING A TRUSTEE MOTION CARRIED President McCarthy called for nominations. Trustee Douglas Barker nominated the appointment of Carl Andrade, 10 Clydesdale Circle, Nashua, for a term to expire March 31, 2011. MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE TO CLOSE THE NOMINATIONS MOTION CARRIED A Viva Voce Roll Call vote was taken on the appointment of Carl Andrade, which resulted as follows: Yea: Alderman Clemons, Alderman Vitale, Alderman Craffey, Alderman Deane, Alderman Pressly, Alderman LaRose, Alderman Melizzi-Golja, Alderman Cox, Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Chasse, Alderman Flynn, Alderman Cookson, Alderman McCarthy, Douglas Barker, Mayor Lozeau 15 Nay: 0 MOTION CARRIED President McCarthy declared Carl Andrade duly appointed to the Edgewood Cemetery Board of Trustees for a term to expire March 31, 2011. Oath of Office administered by Corporation Counsel. MOTION BY ALDERMAN FLYNN THAT THE CONVENTION NOW ARISE MOTION CARRIED Appointments by the Mayor The following Appointments by the Mayor were read into the record: 14 Court St. Commission Alan Sewell (Reappointment) For a Term to Expire: January 23, 2013 5 Lincoln Avenue Nashua, NH 03060 Tony O’Malley (Reappointment) For a Term to Expire: January 23, 2014 24 Webster St. Nashua, NH 03064 Auditorium Commission Arthur Olsson (Reappointment) For a Term to Expire: December 31, 2013 169 Coburn Woods Nashua, NH 03063 Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 3 Dennis Schneider (Reappointment) For a Term to Expire: December 31, 2013 32 Clearview Drive Nashua, NH 03062 BPW Retirement System Trustees Frank Anderson (Reappointment) For a Term to Expire: December 31, 2013 17 Rancourt Street Nashua, NH 03064 Historic District Commission Elizabeth Foemmel (Reappointment) For a Term to Expire: September 30, 2013 51 Berkley Street Nashua, NH 03064 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO CONFIRM BY VOICE VOTE THE FOLLOWING APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR: TO THE 14 COURT ST. COMMISSION ALAN SEWELL FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE JANUARY 23, 2013 AND TONY O’MALLEY FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE JANUARY 23, 2014, TO THE AUDITORIUM COMMISSION ARTHUR OLSSON FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2013 AND DENNIS SCHNEIDER FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2013, TO THE BPW RETIREMENT SYSTEM TRUSTEES FRANK ANDERSON FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2013, AND TO THE HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION ELIZABETH FOEMMEL FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE SEPTEMBER 30, 2013 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Clemons Informally I had discussions with Alderman Chasse on this. It was his idea to do this, and I think it makes a lot of sense. As Chairman of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee I can tell you that re- appointments are something that we need to get done quickly. Unfortunately the schedule for the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee meetings is once a month. By doing this in this manner we’re speeding up the process for essentially something that we would do in committee anyway. These folks don’t normally appear before the committee unless there are extenuating circumstances. Thank you. Alderman Cookson My understanding is not that there are instances where a person may appear, but I thought that it was at the request of a member either of the committee or somebody who would like to interview that would determine whether a re-appointment would appear before the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee. Alderman Clemons That is correct. President McCarthy Typically if there are questions we invite them to come in. If anyone has objections to any of them being confirmed as re-appointments this evening point that out. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 4 Alderman Pressly I just have some concerns for shortcutting the process. There is a lot to be said for time to think about something. They have just been announced now maybe there is someone in the public that would like to have the opportunity to speak to it. I think any time you leave out the process of having time to think about something and opening it up to public comment…I think I will vote against this just on principle. Thank you. Alderman Chasse I understand Alderman Pressly’s concerns, but I still believe any time any one of these re-appointments come in front of us I believe they still meet with the Mayor and she checks out their absences or if they are active on the committee so basically it is just a formality. When nobody shows up at the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee and there is nobody to interview …we do have one of these where his term would be expired before we have another Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee meeting. Alderman Pressly Thank you Mr. President. This governing body has just gone through a really extensive discussion that has been in closed session, which is now open regarding Pennichuck and we had discussed at length appointments and re-appointments, and how important it was to have a thorough process. I am just thinking I hope this isn’t going to be the case with Pennichuck because we talked about this at length and the concern of future bodies trying to push things through prematurely. For me it is strictly a philosophical…a little time doesn’t hurt at all, it is part of government. Thank you. Alderman Clemons My only response to that is that if there is a question of any one of these re-appointment then now is the time when an Alderman should speak, and I will be more than happy to have them come before the committee, although it is not customary that we do that with re-appointments. Alderman Pressly It is not a matter of those of us around the horseshoe here wanting to speak up, it is a matter of giving it time. It has just been announced now, it is on the web, people in the public have a chance to look at it. I am not as concerned about this board, but the public. Any time you cut short the process you run the risk of general participation by citizens to be left out. Alderman Deane I concur with Alderman Pressly. It seems like this board is starting to forego a lot of the formalities that we once had within our committees, and I am not going to support any more changes, and this is contrary to the process. If there is an issue with time associated with an appointment then the appointments should be made earlier. Alderman Pressly Thank you. I just have one more thought on this; we are a single chamber body here and one of the advantages that they have at the State House and in Congress is that you have two chambers and each chamber discusses it so if you cut it short in one of the chambers you have plenty of time for it to cross over to the other. Without having this we are the only body that it comes before, and that is the whole purpose of taking time, letting the issue get out there, and there is no harm done in doing it the way we have done it traditionally. It has worked and I don’t see any reason to shortchange the public on this. Thank you. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 5 Alderman Flynn I am going to vote in favor of this because I don’t see any harm in doing this. I think the last meeting we suspended the rules to move forward with some kind of request to the State that they prioritize the railroad on their list of projects for the ten year plan. It is customary for us to use sensible positions to suspend the rules. It is not like we have never done it, we did it at the last meeting, and this is certainly well within what we normally do in terms of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee. I am going to vote in favor of it. Alderman Pressly Thank you. I think your comment is directed at me so I would like to respond to that. The reason we suspended the rules last time was that was on a Tuesday and the Rail Authority was meeting on that Friday. In order for it to be accomplished there was a deadline and that was the reason given. I don’t see any deadline with this. Alderman Flynn I wasn’t referring to a deadline I was referring to just using good sensible positions to suspend the rules. President McCarthy Is there any further discussion? MOTION CARRIED Division Taken 7/6 President McCarthy declared Alan Sewell and Tony O’Malley duly appointed to the 14 Court St. Commission for terms to expire January 23, 2013 and January 23, 2014 respectively, Arthur Olsson and Dennis Schneider to the Auditorium Commission for terms to expire December 31, 2013, Frank Anderson to the BPW Retirement System Trustees for a term to expire December 31, 2013, and Elizabeth Foemmel to the Historic District Commission for a term to expire September 30, 2013. Alderman Deane Did we not need a motion to suspend the rules? President McCarthy No. Alderman Deane Why not? President McCarthy Because the appointments are placed in front of us, it is not a piece of legislation that requires a first and second reading. After they are placed in front of us normally, for new appointments, we would move to refer them to the committee. A motion to simply approve them is equally in order at that point. Alderman Deane Thank you. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 6 President McCarthy The Finance Committee report has, as I understand it, been amended to reflect some corrections brought up by Alderman Cookson and the remarks that were made by Alderman Clemons. REPORTS OF COMMITTEE Finance Committee ............................................................................ 12/15/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the December 15, 2010 Finance Committee accepted and placed on file as amended. Committee on Infrastructure .............................................................. 12/08/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the December 8, 2010 Committee on Infrastructure accepted and placed on file. Joint Special School Building Committee .......................................... 09/02/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the September 2, 2010 Joint Special School Building Committee accepted and placed on file. Joint Special School Building Committee .......................................... 11/09/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the November 9, 2010 Joint Special School Building Committee accepted and placed on file. Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee....................................... 12/09/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the December 9, 2010 Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee accepted and placed on file. Planning & Economic Development Committee ................................ 12/07/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the December 7, 2010 Planning & Economic Development Committee accepted and placed on file. Planning & Economic Development Committee ................................ 12/14/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the December 14, 2010 Planning & Economic Development Committee accepted and placed on file. Alderman Cookson Thank you Mr. President. For the Planning & Economic Development Committee meeting of the 7th of December I believe that was the presentation that was upstairs in the City Hall auditorium. There were several portions of those minutes that were inaudible, and I am curious if the video recording of that same evening was available and referenced prior to indicating that the tape was inaudible. President McCarthy I will refer that question to our Legislative Assistant. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 7 Sue Lovering It was. We could not understand through the DVR so we requested through the PEG Manager to copy the video and he did it twice at the normal range and then as high as possible. Alderman Cookson Thank you. It is unfortunate because it was a very good meeting. President McCarthy I think we have tried to make people use microphones, but it is not… Alderman Cookson I think next time we will know better how to conduct a meeting on the 3rd floor. School Construction Projects Committee .......................................... 09/02/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the September 2, 2010 School Construction Projects Committee accepted and placed on file. School Construction Projects Committee .......................................... 10/14/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the October 14, 2010 School Construction Projects Committee accepted and placed on file. School Construction Projects Committee .......................................... 11/04/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the November 4, 2010 School Construction Projects Committee accepted and placed on file. WRITTEN REPORTS FROM LIAISONS Board of Public Works........................................................................ 12/13/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the liaison report of the December 13, 2010 Board of Public Works accepted and placed on file. Board of Police Commissioners Revised Report ................................ 10/20/10 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the revised liaison report of the October 20, 2010 Board of Police Commissioners accepted and placed on file. Alderman Cookson Mr. President just a point of clarification on the Board of Police Commissioners Revised Report, I am assuming that it is the new bolded portion of the copy. Alderman Vitale Yes. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 8 Alderman Cookson Thank you. CONFIRMATION OF MAYOR'S APPOINTMENTS Airport Authority MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO CONFIRM BY VOICE VOTE THE REAPPOINTMENT OF MICHAEL ROSENBLUM, 47 BERKELEY STREET, NASHUA, TO THE AIRPORT AUTHORITY FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE AUGUST 31, 2015 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Pressly Thank you. I think it is wonderful that this reappointment has had the honor to come here tonight to be sworn in. I think it is great, we will be happy to do that, and I am happy to vote for it. It is rather unfortunate that the ones that we just approved have not had the same honor to take the time to come here and to be sworn in. I think it is a part of government that is ceremonial and I think it is important. I am delighted that he is here. Thank you. President McCarthy I would comment that in the 18 years I have been on the board the number of people who show up to be sworn in for reappointments is probably less than 5% of those who are reappointed. Alderman Pressly And I think that is wonderful that we have the chance to compliment those that do take the time. I think it is an indication of seriousness. Thank you. President McCarthy You have all heard the motion, is there further discussion? MOTION CARRIED President McCarthy declared Michael Rosenblum duly appointed to the Airport Authority for a term to expire August 31, 2015. Oath of Office administered by Corporation Counsel. Child Care Advisory Commission MOTION BY ALDERMAN VITALE TO CONFIRM BY VOICE VOTE THE REAPPOINTMENT OF BETH TODGHAM, 14 ALICE DRIVE, NASHUA, TO THE CHILD CARE ADVISORY COMMISSION FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE OCTOBER 13, 2013 MOTION CARRIED President McCarthy declared Beth Todgham duly appointed to the Child Care Advisory Commission for a term to expire October 13, 2013. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 9 Nashua Housing Authority MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO CONFIRM BY VOICE VOTE THE REAPPOINTMENT OF THOMAS MONAHAN, 28 SWART TERRACE, NASHUA, TO THE NASHUA HOUSING AUTHORITY FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE OCTOBER 14, 2015 MOTION CARRIED President McCarthy declared Thomas Monahan duly appointed to the Nashua Housing Authority for a term to expire October 14, 2015. Review and Comment Commission MOTION BY ALDERMAN VITALE TO CONFIRM BY VOICE VOTE THE APPOINTMENT OF COREY GENEST, 4 MARIE AVENUE, NASHUA, TO THE REVIEW AND COMMENT COMMISSION FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 1, 2013 MOTION CARRIED President McCarthy declared Corey Genest duly appointed to the Review and Comment Commission for a term to expire December 1, 2013 Oath of Office administered by Corporation Counsel. UNFINISHED BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS R-10-80 Endorsers: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox Alderman Diane Sheehan Alderman Richard P. Flynn Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO ENTER INTO A “CONCESSION AGREEMENT” WITH NASHUA COLLEGIATE BASEBALL, INC. OF THE FUTURES COLLEGIATE BASEBALL LEAGUE Given its second reading; MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-10-80 MOTION CARRIED Resolution R-10-80 declared duly adopted. UNFINISHED BUSINESS – ORDINANCES - None NEW BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS R-10-83 Endorser: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau CREATING A SPECIAL REVENUE FUND FOR EVENTS AT HOLMAN STADIUM Given its first reading; Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 10 MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO ACCEPT THE FIRST READING OF R-10-83, ASSIGN IT TO THE BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE AND THAT A PUBLIC HEARING BE SCHEDULED FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 2011 AT 7:00 PM IN THE ALDERMANIC CHAMBER MOTION CARRIED R-10-84 Endorser: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Alderman Kathy Vitale Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman Richard LaRose Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS IN THE AMOUNT OF $63,125 OBTAINED FROM THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE INTO SPECIAL REVENUE ACCOUNT 331-6285 “2011 VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN GRANT PROGRAM” AND TO AUTHORIZE THE TRANSFER OF $39,056 FROM ACCOUNT 590-23531 “PRIOR YEAR ESCROWS- POLICE” INTO SAID SPECIAL REVENUE ACCOUNT Given its first reading; assigned to the HUMAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE by President McCarthy NEW BUSINESS – ORDINANCES O-10-47 Endorsers: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox UPDATING THE LIST OF TRAFFIC SIGNAL LOCATIONS AND DELETING RELATED STOP SIGNS Given its first reading; assigned to the COMMITTEE ON INFRASTRUCTURE by President McCarthy O-10-48 Endorsers: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko ESTABLISHING A NO-PARKING ZONE ON BOTH SIDES OF DEPOT ROAD FROM THE HOLLIS TOWN LINE SOUTH 670 FEET TO THE DEAD END Given its first reading; assigned to the COMMITTEE ON INFRASTRUCTURE by President McCarthy PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT James Cutter, 86 Palm Street To the Board of Aldermen, building permit facts do not need interpretation, no one needs an attorney to make out a building permit application, and the applicant does not approve the building permit. Then who is at fault when there is a property line error that shows one making out the application is taking more land in the plot plan than is in the deed? I blame the building inspector. RSA 676:11 Building Permits Required, states in part “shall submit the plans to the building inspector for the building inspector’s examination and approval” a fact avoided by the City. When the boundary line in the 1950 building permit plot plan for 88 Palm Street did not agree with the Deed; 1) it should not have been approved by the building inspector, 2) the Assessor’s Office who also checks building permits for changes to the Deed should have caught it and notified the building inspector who would have voided the permit until corrected. Of the 6 attorneys I and a friend have spoken to only 1 could give the definition of cartilage, not confusing it with adverse possession, which is protected by the U.S. and New Hampshire Constitutions and probably all of you in this Chamber never heard of it until I spoke before you. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 11 If Leo Caron the owner of 88 Palm Street in 1950 had known about cartilage, you would not have submitted the plot plan he put on the building permit application because the taking of a 3’ wide strip of 86 Palm Street driveway and clothesline is trespassing. In our own neighborhood there are a number of properties with boundary lines that do not agree with their deed. Ours measured 30’ 3” from the north side of our house to our property line, our deed has 30’. The Gilbertson property is 50’ 8” on Palm Street, the deed has 51’. The property line between 21 and 23 Buck Street going the same distance in from Buck Street has, according to the tax maps, 55’ for 21 and 58.2’ for 23 Buck. Therefore, it is easy to see why the Gilbertson’s not knowing about cartilage fully believed the building permits approved by the City had correct boundary lines and they have always owned our land. They were not at fault because of RSA 623:3 Effect of Ignorance or Mistake, a fact avoided by the City. Now I would like Alderman McCarthy to read the letter from the City Attorney explaining how it can be a civil when it is a public matter between the City and us. Also I would like a copy of that letter since I could not hear his low voice the last time he addressed me. Thank you. President McCarthy I have not yet received any letter from the City Attorney. REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN Alderman Flynn In the minutes that have been released now for Pennichuck there were two meetings that I thought were especially valuable to me, they are mentioned in this summary list from the City Attorney as the meeting of July 21, 2010 and the meeting of July 27, 2010. At both of those meetings we had handouts that were given out to the Board of Aldermen and they are referred to repeatedly throughout each of those minutes, by the way it is like 42 pages of transcribed minutes over the internet, but the handouts maybe we didn’t follow the practice of adopting documents that were handed out at the beginning of the meeting so maybe they never became part of the official record, but the documents that were handed out to us, we had this book that was given to us for the July 21st meeting. When you go through the minutes of that meeting, I thought it was a very beneficial meeting for me and probably for most Aldermen and we refer very specifically to a lot of things in this booklet, but the booklet is not part of the minutes of the meeting. The same thing is true for the meeting of July 27th. I don’t think that is anything that we meant to redact; we just never accepted it into our minutes. There are 3 or 4 pages from that, which were handed out to us, and like I say it seems to be very much public knowledge, but without that attached to it, it is of less value to the public I think without those attachments there. I would request that perhaps you and the Mayor could consider how we could get those introduced. Maybe you could ask the City Attorney to review it to be sure that we don’t have some individual particular area that we wanted to redact at this time, but like I say it is very, very heavily referred to. That was kind of the subject of those two meetings, those handouts. I think it would be much more valuable to the public if we could find some way to review those and get them on to the city website. President McCarthy I will have the staff take a look at that and see if we can get the right versions of those. Alderman Flynn I think this is the last meeting before the new year so I would like to wish the Mayor and her family from my family a Happy New Year and to my colleagues on the board as well as the residents of Ward 7 and certainly all of the citizens of Nashua. Happy New Year to all. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 12 As I am a lifelong resident of the City of Nashua, most of us all have some French roots in our background so I just wanted to let the Ward Alderman from Ward 2 know that I too can pronounce bonne et heureuse année. Alderman LaRose It is a good job from an Irishman. Alderman Flynn Pretty good ha? We all have French in us. Alderman Wilshire I too would like to wish everyone of my colleagues, my family, and the citizens of Nashua a Happy New Year. Alderman Melizzi-Golja I would like to echo the Mayor’s thank you to all of the volunteers in the city who provide both their time and talents to serve on their boards, commissions, and authorities. As I look over the people who were appointed or reappointed this evening I know that they put a lot of time and effort into what they do, and it is truly appreciated by all of us. Again, to echo the New Years greetings and best wishes for 2011 to all in the city. Thank you. Alderman LaRose Thank you. First I did not vote to appoint all of those reappointments this evening. I feel strongly as Alderman Pressly and Alderman Deane and others that we should go through a process and I think that we lose something if we start eliminating the processes that we have. I think that all of the nominations were actually very good people that have done a real good job for the City of Nashua and it is not because I don’t think they didn’t do a good job I didn’t vote because I believe it should have gone through the process. I want to wish everyone here and the citizens of Nashua a Happy New Year, bonne et heureuse année. Thank you. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Just to clarify, I hope it is understood by the board and the public that my objection is not to the individuals. I know most of the people for reappointment and I know them personally and they are great, great applicants. I think tonight’s meeting is really a great example of what this group talked about in non- public session about appointments. I know I fought long and hard to have term limits because I feel real strongly it is very easy just to slip people through and I am sort of amused that some of the people around this horseshoe that were opposed to term limits because we always send it to our committees to review and we will be very careful. That has not been the case tonight. I think the two processes that are interesting are the cemetery boards, which is a different way of appointments where the suggestion comes from the board itself, and as you can tell we don’t look at it at all. That is not to say that Mr. Andrade is not a wonderful candidate, but the whole point that we just went through with Pennichuck was how do we select the Pennichuck board, and I feel tonight is a perfect example of what we talked about. Most of you said oh we are so careful on this Board of Aldermen, we are going to take out time, and I hope everybody take a long, hard look at what we have done tonight because we have had the two examples where the nomination come from the board itself and where you have a reappointment and the promise from all of you was whenever we have a reappointment we will send it to the committee for comment and review, and we did not do that. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 13 I am not sure if my Spanish is good enough to follow my tradition, but Próspero Año Nuevo. I have great high hopes for the next year and I hope we accomplish a lot. Thank you. Alderman Deane As we all know Alderman Pressly the majority rules. My concern is not only with what the majority ruled on earlier this evening this board seems to be giving up an awful lot of what used to be. That is all. It is kind of troubling to me, but the majority rules. I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year in the community, and I won’t try to outdo you, you or the Irishman across the hallway there. Alderman Craffey Thank you. I too voted against the measure. I happen to agree with the Alderman from Ward 2 and with Alderman Pressly that we shouldn’t be shortcutting anything. I wish my fellow board members Happy New Year, the people in Ward 4, and the City of Nashua Happy New Year and those serving our country far away Happy New Year. I also would like to thank the people who showed up at the Ward 4 Informational meeting last Monday night in the snowstorm. It was really appreciated and informal. Thank you. Alderman Clemons Well I would just like to say as the Chairman of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee, that the action that we took tonight in reappointing the appointment by the Mayor was shortening up a process, and I am going to basically so the public understand I am going to tell you what happens 9 times out of 10, actually almost every single time; what happens is the Mayor makes the appointments, they come to us here as reappointments, typically the Chairman of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee makes the motion to refer it to that committee, the committee is usually either that same week or it could be up to two weeks away from that meeting depending on what meeting those appointments come to, what then happens is the committee convenes and because they are reappointments those folks are not asked to come to the committee so the committee reads the appointments, makes a motion to recommend the confirmation of these appointments, then what happens is it goes back to the next Board of Aldermen meeting where we make the recommendation to appoint these folks. That is the process. We’re circumventing a bunch of steps in there because it doesn’t make sense to go through that process. Now I have been on the board for 3 years and I have never seen a reappointment where the public has come to speak out against that person, I have never seen an e-mail to that affect. There was one instance that I can remember where another Alderman asked for a reappointment to come before the committee and that person came before the committee and we did an interview. Other than that, never seen it happen. I opened it up to any Alderman this evening that if they wanted any one of the appointments that were in there to come to the committee to say so, and no one wanted those folks to come to our committee to interview them. I think that is because the Mayor does an excellent job with her appointments. These are folks that are dedicated to their committees, they are dedicated to the jobs that they are doing, and frankly I trust her judgment in that. I also want to make a comment on something that was said about the Pennichuck meetings, which was referring to term limits. Now I will point out for the record that I was against term limits for board members of the Pennichuck. Now not to diminish these folks on these committees and the jobs that they do, but none of these are paid appointments and comparing these folks and the volunteer hours that they do to the professionals that we are going to have on the Pennichuck board who are going to be paid somewhere between $16,000 and $20,000 a year maybe by us to be on that board I think is unfair to both. I’m only Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 14 going to say that I think you have to look at every situation on its own, every single situation has to be looked at as what am I doing, am I doing the right thing here, and tonight we did the right thing by circumventing the process because the process doesn’t do anything for anyone except pass along names to the committee to be passed back here. If you want to change the process I would be more than happy to look into that, but as long as this process remains that way I am going to recommend that we do this every time there are reappointments. Thank you. Alderman Pressly Thank you Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask a question of the Alderman. Did I understand you correctly Alderman Clemons that if any one of us wanted to ask that they come before you…is that correct? Alderman Clemons Correct. President McCarthy That was what Alderman Clemons stated at the time the motion was made. Alderman Pressly Okay then I will ask that all of the candidates for reappointment be invited to come to the meetings for the interviews, all of them. I think it is an honor to have these appointments, they are all great candidates, and I think it is important that they come there. Thank you. President McCarthy I will simply comment that I have been on this board for 17 years… Alderman Pressly Maybe too long. President McCarthy …the process… Alderman Sheehan Wow. Alderman Clemons Wow. President McCarthy Alderman Pressly I do not in fact appreciate that. I have stood for election in this community seven times and seven times the people have said it is not too long, and that will happen when they decide it and not when you do. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 15 Moving on to my point, I have never seen reappointments where there were comments made at the meeting other than those where someone had asked and believe me I was the first person to do this in recent times with appointments to the Planning Board and the Zoning Board, where I said I want to question those people and I am not sure that I am supporting reappointing them. Those people came to the meetings of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee and were asked questions about their performance on those boards. Other than that I have never seen us take issue with reappointments that we didn’t know about in advance so the process of asking whether they need to be referred to the committee is one that I think is working just fine. I think having a blanket policy of insisting that someone come out and spend another evening here sitting through a two hour meeting of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee so that when their name comes up they can not be asked any questions and realize that what they get for their service to this community is another wasted evening, I think does them an absolute disservice, and that is why I would hope that we don’t implement that policy. Alderman Pressly Thank you Mr. President. First I would like to say I certainly appreciate your years of service and I appreciate the history that you bring to the board, but I would like to comment that this is not the first time where I have made a comment on principle where you have put down my comment based on what has always been done in the past. I think we need to deal in the present, and the reason I bring this up that I feel so strongly about the Pennichuck issue and the strongest argument that other people made was that we always, always, thoroughly look at the candidates all the time. I just think it is really interesting tonight it didn’t happen that way. My issue with you Mr. President is that I appreciate your history, but it seems like as the President you sort of have the last word on many comments because you are the President and it is often that you put down the person that has made a comment or a statement because of the way it has always been done in the past… President McCarthy I didn’t… Alderman Pressly …I appreciate history very much, but I think we need to work in the present. President McCarthy …I actually did not intend to put down anything. I understand your point, and I will point out that when I came on this board, which was after you served on it, was when we started interviewing reappointments at the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee when there were requests to do it. What I am pointing out is that an unintended consequence of the process you just asked for is that we will invite a great many people to spend another evening in this Chamber for no purpose because they won’t be asked questions when their name comes up, and I am simply asking that you be sensitive to that side affect of your request when we do this. If that is the will of the board that we want to invite every reappointment to show up for an interview then I’m fine with that if that is what, as was pointed out before, if the majority of this board wants to do as the process far be it from me to say anything else. I am simply pointing out that we get a great number of people to volunteer to do work on these boards and commissions and that we shouldn’t treat them as if that was not valued and as if their time was not valuable. If there are questions to ask them by all means let’s ask them. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 16 Alderman Pressly Thank you Mr. President. I appreciate your point of view and I hope you appreciate mine, which is one of public participation. I think by saying nobody shows up, we have many public hearings where nobody shows up, but we have those public hearings because the opportunity is there. I just think the State of New Hampshire and this City is based on volunteerism. I think we hold the national records for percentage of people who volunteer to serve in the communities. I just think we need to honor them and let them come in and I don’t see any harm in asking them. But I will stop my debate. I think the group has spoken. You have the majority and I will accept that. Alderman Clemons I think there are a number of solutions that we can come up with to help expedite the process as well as take into consideration the concerns of Aldermen Pressly, Deane, and the others this evening. I will be working on a tentative plan that I think is going to work out pretty well to get these appointments sped up but also leave enough time for the Aldermen or members of the public to submit any comments or questions that they may have. I will get those to us by the next full Board of Aldermen meeting. Alderman Deane Pardon me Mr. President I would like to make another comment and it has absolutely nothing to do with the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee. I think we as a board and a community would be remiss for not thanking the work done by the Public Works Department on this snowstorm and windstorm and everything else that we had. There were a lot of long hours and quite a bit of snow. I think they should be thanked for the fine job that they did. The roads were cleared even with this drifting and everything else. There were a lot of hours, and I think we should thank them for their service. Thank you. President McCarthy I want to wish a Happy Birthday to Alderman Vitale tomorrow and to Alderman Deane the day after tomorrow. We have discussed a couple of times the fact that there are people who currently have liaison assignments that they can’t fulfill because of the times the various boards meet. I will send out an e-mail to remind you, but if members of the board have those problems please let me know. I want to try to get those arranged at the beginning of the year so that we will have all of the liaison positions staffed correctly. If you can’t fulfill them, even if you have told me before, please tell me again so I will know which ones we need to adjust and we will come up with some appointments for those. After our last meeting a question came up about the meetings that we unsealed. Alderman Deane had asked did we not have any meetings in 2005. I thought about that after the meeting and I actually went off and did some research. We certainly had at least one, and I am not sure I understand exactly why we didn’t find…I know why we didn’t find it when we unsealed the minutes, I do not know what happened to the minutes of that meeting. Alderman Deane you may recall in 2005 we had a meeting of the Pennichuck Special Water Committee at which I related discussions I had had with Mr. Correll regarding a proposal they brought forth to allow us to purchase some of the assets of the corporation namely the pipe in the City of Nashua. My reaction to him at the end of that was basically what I thought they wanted us to do was to buy their depreciated pipe, pay off the taxes that were due on the accelerated depreciation, and then lease it back to them so that they could depreciate it one more time before the Public Utilities Commission in the rate, which I didn’t think was a particularly good idea. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 17 I think that was the substance of the meeting. What happened was we did not in fact seal the minutes of that non-public session at the end of the session. I believe that the motion was made to seal them and it failed. Where the minutes went after that I truly do not know, but that meeting was not sealed and that is why we didn’t discover it in the tapes of the sealed meetings. I looked through the website to see if I could find it back then and I did find there is a misfiled report of another committee in the meetings of the Pennichuck Special Water Committee, but I could not find the minutes of that one so perhaps our Legislative Assistant can try to find that with more vigor than I did. That may well have been the only meeting that we had in early 2005 at least because there seemed to be little point in pursuing that with Pennichuck after the content of that discussion so I think we waited for the Public Utilities Commission proceedings after that point. I just wanted to point out that I think we did have, I know we had one in the spring of 2005 at some point and that was the general content of that meeting. Alderman Deane That is posted on the website. President McCarthy That one is? Alderman Deane As a meeting yes on ’05. I went and looked. President McCarthy Okay. I could not find that one I didn’t think. Alderman Deane I went and looked the night when we left here and I found that. I just thought we had met more than once in 2005. Was that not the year that they were running all of those commercials in the Telegraph about people that were running for election and things like that? I know we met more than once in 2005. I remember discussing some of that. We discussed it publicly, but I remember meeting more than once in 2005 on Pennichuck. I don’t know if we have paper agendas that are archived over at 14 Court Street or…does Sue know that? Do we have all of that stuff at Court Street? Sue Lovering I have been there, no. Alderman Deane What happened to everything? President McCarthy I think Sue has been through most everything we had looking for stuff from that timeframe. Bd. of Aldermen – 12/28/10 Page 18 Alderman Deane 2005? I might have it under my desk. I have a lot of stuff at home. I will take a look too. But if there were meetings held and minutes were sealed and never printed…that was back in the day of the cassette tapes wasn’t it, when we used the cassettes? President McCarthy Yes. Alderman Deane I remember I think I was the Clerk of the committee at that time and we had received a lot of old cassettes from Kathy Hersh I think old Planning Board, we had a whole big full of them. Thank you. Committee announcements: Alderman Deane Tomorrow evening’s Budget Review Committee meeting has been cancelled. I have some unforeseen issues I have to deal with tomorrow. It will be rescheduled I believe we figured on the 10th of January. I don’t really plan on taking up the legislation that was here tonight. There is a public hearing, I don’t know what the sense of urgency is with it, but we have other things on the agenda. Thank you. President McCarthy Are there any other committee announcements? Is there a motion? ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE THAT THE DECEMBER 28, 2010 MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared adjourned at 8:30 p.m. Attest: Paul R. Bergeron, City Clerk