Aldermen, Board of

A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Monday, January 10, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. President Brian S. McCarthy presided; Deputy City Clerk Patricia Piecuch recorded. Prayer was offered by Deputy City Clerk Patricia Piecuch; Alderman Sheehan led in the Pledge to the Flag. The roll call was taken with 13 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Aldermen Tabacsko and Craffey were not in attendance. President McCarthy Alderman Tabacsko is away on business travel. Tonight we have a public hearing on R-10-83, Creating a Special Revenue Fund for Events at Holman Stadium. In keeping with our practice, I will turn the Chair over to Alderman Deane the Chairman of the Budget Review Committee to conduct the public hearing. PUBLIC HEARING R-10-83 CREATING A SPECIAL REVENUE FUND FOR EVENTS AT HOLMAN STADIUM Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane, Chair of the Budget Review Committee, conducted the following public hearing: MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE THAT THE RULES BE SO FAR SUSPENDED AS TO ALLOW FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF A COMMUNICATION RECEIVED AFTER THE AGENDA WAS PREPARED MOTION CARRIED From: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Re: Resolution 10-83 Creating a Special Revenue Fund for Events at Holman Stadium MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE MOTION CARRIED As provided for in NRO 5-28, a presentation on R-10-27 was given by Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane. Chairman Deane As you can see in her memo, the Mayor states she is unable to be here. She provides the explanation: "My intention in bringing this legislation forward is to provide a source of funds that can be utilized to generate and leverage other dollars as we grow Holman Stadium into a venue that can be self-sustaining. Special revenue funds are authorized in certain circumstances under RSA 47: 1- b and are limited to municipal activities funded primarily through user fees. Examples given by the statute are municipal airports and solid waste facilities. Another example is the sewer user fee. Revenue from a specific source (users) is placed in the fund to be spent for specific purposes (the program or service for which the users are paying). Surpluses in the fund do not lapse to the general fund. Expenditures have to be specifically appropriated and the fund can be rescinded. There is no authority to cap this kind of fund. The idea behind these kinds of funds is that they would be either self-supporting, or need some additional funding from the city. There is no intention that this would be a significant revenue generator to the city, so the revenue generated would always be used to pay for the related expenses." That is her explanation of it. I think basically what we are getting, from my discussions with the Mayor today, is we're getting a check for $22,000 up front from the collegiate baseball team that is going in there, and I think the Park Department has some plans down the road to use that as seed money for other events; if they have to pay a deposit on a performer or a deposit on whatever they are going to have, they are going to use that money, and then tickets sold, the money is going to go back into this fund to be utilized. Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/10/11 Page 2 We did talk about a cap, and my discussions with her when we looked at it there was no explanation on the analysis given by the Legal Department and that a cap wasn't allowed. Expendable trust funds we can put a cap on as we have done with pensions and welfare and the snow account and things like that. Does anyone have any questions on the explanation? Testimony in Favor James Quinlan, 39 Congress Street I believe that the City should move forward with doing events at Holman Stadium however you want to set up the events. The City's Park & Recreation Department has spent the last two years developing a very comprehensive plan to do concerts, whatever the case may be, revenue generators to bring money into the city, large money into the city, based on the safest possible revenue streams necessary to bring events into the city that would generate not only revenues that would be generated by ticket sales, but generated by concession sales, merchandise sales, front-end and back-end sales. I believe having events at the stadium is actually beneficial to the city in the short run and in the long run especially because they have done a lot of work planning each of these events as well as ensuring that the events are not only insured by the events are insured against anything that goes wrong; any potential liabilities, any potential problems that could occur have already been taken into consideration. Every event has been considered to be demographically, social graphically, each event has been considered very, very carefully as to what the act would be that would come into the city, whether or not the act would actually sell in the city, whether or not the act itself has actually drawn people to the areas, and whether the act is a good act, based on very, very difficult, very good statistical numbers. I think the city is losing an opportunity down the road at least, if they don't consider doing events especially in a facility of that size where you can draw a large amount of people, which you have already done previously years ago; I believe back 15 years ago or 16 years ago, somewhere in that general vicinity because I remember I personally saw Willie Nelson, I think it was Willie Nelson. I think that the city would benefit greatly by doing events in the actual Holman Stadium itself. They have done a lot of work and they have prepared very well for it. Testimony in Opposition - None Testimony in Favor - None Testimony in Opposition - None Alderman Deane declared the public hearing closed at 7:09 p.m. ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE THAT THE JANUARY 10, 2011 SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared adjourned at 7:09 p.m. Attest: Patricia Piecuch, Deputy City Clerk  MAyOR MEMORANDUM ozeau o tion 10-83. Creating a Special Revenue Fundfor Events at Holman Stadium ary 10,2011 As you know, I am unable to be atthis evening's meeting because I am in Plaistow attending a Board.• of S.electl11ell.• 1l1e~tillg .• regCll"clingibl~§hllCl's . pr()pos~dacqllisition of.Pennichuck Corporation..•••~. appreciat~¥ollryonsicl~ration.oftheabove referenqed res 0 llltion and my comments regarding the same. Expenditures have to be sp~cifically appropriated and the fund can be rescinded. There is no authority to cap this kind. of fund. The idea behind these kinds of funds is that they would be either self-supporting, orneed some additional funding from the city. There is no intention that this would be a significant revenue generator to the city, so the revenue generated would always be used to pay for the related expenses. I very much appreciate your consideration and hope for a positive recommendation from the committee. Thank you. 229 Main Street· PO Box 2019 . Nashua, NH 03061-2019 603.589.3260 . fax 603.594.3450 . NashuaMayor(f.&NashuaNH.goY