Aldermen, Board of

A special meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Thursday, January 17, 2013, 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 Tabacsko led in the Pledge to the Flag. The roll call was taken with 11 members of the Board of Aldermen present; Alderman Pressly, Alderman Caron, Alderman Sheehan, Alderman Vitale were not in attendance. President McCarthy I’d like to note that Alderman Caron is not feeling well; Alderman Sheehan had a previous commitment that was made before this meeting was scheduled; Alderman Vitale is working and will join us later; and, Alderman Pressly called to indicate that she was not available to attend this evening. R-12-87 AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY TREASURER TO ISSUE BONDS NOT TO EXCEED THE AMOUNT OF TWO MILLION FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHT THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($2,408,900) FOR UPGRADING THE SCHOOL ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM President McCarthy As provided for in NRO 5-28, a presentation is required on the content of R-12-87 by one of the sponsors. Who would like to address that? Alderman Deane? Alderman Deane Thank you, Mr. President. This has to do with the district wide access control project that was presented to the aldermanic Budget Review Committee on the 7th of July, 2009. How access control began, Nashua Police Department conducted security checks of high schools between October of 2001 and January 2002. Nashua Police Department security concerns or recommendations were generally the same for all schools. They included the following concerns: exterior doors are popped or completely open; kitchen doors left open or unlocked; portable classrooms unlocked; visitor identification checked on a discriminatory basis; main entrances in many schools are not located near the main office or on the same floor as the main offices. How access control began continued in response of 2002 Nashua Police Department report. The Nashua School District implemented procedural changes including a heightened level of visitor screening and locking of all doors except primary entrances and egress points, main entrances, delivery areas and such. Install keypads at doors used for recess. Additional physical security measures were not implemented due to cost. The Nashua School District approached the Board of Aldermen in May of 2007 for funding. A total of $554,016.10 for security upgrades to its school. These proposed upgrades included the addition of exterior cameras, DVRs, main entrance buzzer system, and a card swipe system. The District request was not approved based on the fact that an adequately secure system was not proposed by the District. The Budget Committee and the Board of Aldermen recommended that the School District hire a consultant to analyze the District's security needs rather than rely on an internal assessment. In 2007, the District published an RFP for a security consultant to conduct an initial threat assessment of all schools to develop recommendations and cost estimates of improvements based on three levels of security and to draft an RFP for installation of a district wide access control system. In the fall of Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 2 2007, the Board of Education awarded the RFP to WL Bliss Associates, Inc. WL Bliss profiles as follows: Mr. Bliss has over 40 years experience in the design and implementation of security and safety systems. Mr. Enright has had a distinguished career of 30 years in federal law enforcement. Mr. Enright retired from the United States Secret Service after serving in both investigative and protective assignments including leadership positions of the Presidential Protected Division and the USSS Headquarters and Field Office Assignments. Mr. Enright is recognized for expertise in terrorism, corporate, and school security programs. WL Bliss Associates conducted a security assessment of all school buildings between 20 November, 2007, through 18 January, 2008. Their draft report was provided to school administration in February of 2008. In its presentation to the Board of Education in July of 2008, WL Bliss Associates stated that the Nashua School District is presently in an extremely vulnerable situation regarding the ability for individual school buildings to protect their population from trespass of unstable visitors and armed intruders. For all 18 school buildings, WL Bliss Associates found 4 areas of concern that require enhancement to bring each building to the level of security recommended. The 4 areas of concern are: main entrance access visitor control, building perimeter security, locking classrooms, lock down capability, and communications. Based on their assessment of the 4 areas, Bliss developed 3 levels of security. Level One security was recommended for the elementary schools and middle schools. Level Two was recommended for the high schools. They did not find level 3 to be an appropriate level at this time. Level One Security: 1) main entrance and kitchen access control, locked doors, proximity card readers, intercom, camera, buzzers, buzzer screening; 2) classroom locks - rekey classroom doors to allow locking by teachers. 3) perimeter security - CCTV install a minimum of 8 camera views on the school perimeter, provide monitoring at the Nashua Police Department, perimeter door alarms, alarm all exterior doors and install proximity card readers; portable classrooms - install new keypads; technology integration - integrate cameras and alarms for monitoring at admin. or security office; 4) communications - purchase additional portable radios to allow minimum communication coverage throughout the building. Level Two Security is as follows: Level Two provides Level One enhancement plus the following: 1) main kitchen entrance access control security station with security personnel, monitor alarms, cameras, and screen visitors; 2) classroom locks - all classrooms fitted with columbine locks; 3) perimeter security - CCTV expand coverage to most parking lots, most entrance, exit doors, and blind spots; portable classrooms - monitored alarms with exit devices, close street access, expand CCTV coverage, integrate cameras and alarms for monitoring at admin. or security office, interior CCTV fixed view cameras and corridors, high risk areas for monitoring in emergency response; 4) communication designated school wing representative assigned radios. Level Three provides Level One and Level Two enhancement plus the following: 1) separate security office, vehicle ramming barriers and screening, classroom lock same as Level Two; 2) perimeter security - CCTV expand outside coverage to all entrance, exits, utility pan, tilt, zoom units to increase coverage; 3) portable classroom - install fencing around the portable classrooms to close off from the parking lot and street areas; technology integration - integrate cameras and alarms for monitoring and admin. for security office; interior - CCTV utilize pan, tilt, zoom cameras for increased coverage; 4) assign portable radios to each teacher. Why wasn't Level Three viable? The consultant advised the School District isn't it environment at this time where Level Three is not necessary. With the use of metal detectors comes astronomical costs of purchasing multiple units, additional personnel to run them, and a logistical nightmare in the case of the high schools in getting thousands of students through the detectors in the morning with a short Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 3 window onto classroom time. Parts of Level Three security are already implemented in our high schools such as separate security offices both interior and exterior pan, tilt, zoom cameras. The RFP drafted the following Board of Education's concurrence of threat levels of access control security at each of our schools as recommended by WL Bliss Associates. An RFP was drafted in the fall of 2008. Concurrently, members of Plant Operation Management visited a number of vendors or received presentations to become familiar with a typical access control systems. It became apparent that there were two approaches to access control systems primarily browser based and resident based systems. The RFP was issued on the 23rd of January 2009 as a full and open competition with bids due back by 6 March 2009. Eleven bids were received ranging from $1.7 to $2.9 million. These prices did not include spare parts or maintenance agreements. In Addendum #3 was issued to the four lowest bidders in regards to the price on 1 April 2009 with a bid deadline of 17 April 2009. Surveillance Specialties SURV was then recommended to the Board of Education to be awarded to contract in the sum of $1,924,598.63 pending aldermen funding approval as they were deemed to be the most responsible bidder. This cost did not include spare parts and maintenance agreements. The Board of Education awarded to SURV. What is in the $2.1 million? $1,765,590.78 is the base price. The additional $159,007.85 includes the cost of spare parts and maintenance for 5 years. The $180,000 is to replace doors that are in need of replacement before access control components can be installed. There was also a 5 percent contingency. What do we get for the money? A fully integrated access control system for District's 20 buildings, all exterior doors alarmed and monitored. All doors will be locked, buzz in intercom/cameras system added to main entrance at elementary and middle schools. Kitchen access doors, loading docks will have buzzer intercom camera systems. All classrooms will have locking capability, 28 interior cameras added, 79 exterior cameras added, replacement of aged alarm equipment including wiring, motion detectors, and keypads, 59 panic switches added, 123 district doors will have proximity card readers, visitor management system added to all schools, reconstruction of high school security offices. The system. The access control system we are proposing is made by S2 Security based out of Framingham, Massachusetts. The S2 Access Control System is a full featured credential based access control application running on a network compliance platform. The system is operated from a common web browser requiring no software installation and no client software fees. All devices are network connected and can be accessed with no software other than a common web browser because it runs on an S2 netbox, no PC server is required. The systems core is comprised of an S2 enterprise system. The preliminary platform for a security and monitor and controls S2 system is based on an imbedded technology. Each nod functions independently in each school communicating information with the enterprise server at the South High School. Monitoring of the system can be done from any computer with an internet connection. This means Nashua Police Department, Nashua Fire Rescue, school administration, Plant Operations, and allow monitoring personnel can view all the systems remotely if need be without having system software installed on their computers. Thus system maintenance lower associated costs. Updates are delivered on line and completed in a single operation rather than updating every computer individually that utilizes the system. As to installations in other communities, they've been in Laconia, New Hampshire School District; Boston College High School in Boston, MA; Acton Safety Complex in Acton, MA. In speaking with the communities, they had nothing but praise for the S2 system. That Mr. President is what was Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 4 presented on the 7th of July 2009 and I am well aware of the fact that things have changed. That was somewhere where I wanted to start. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Is there anyone who would like to speak to the Board regarding R-12-87 please come forward and give your name, address, and our testimony. I will take first testimony in favor of R-12-87. TESTIMONY IN FAVOR Jeff Glenner I live at 32B Courtland Street. We shouldn't even be here tonight. This should have already been in place in 2009 but it got vetoed. You guys voted 12 to 1 to put it through and it got vetoed. For some reason, that wasn't overridden and I have no idea why. I hope tonight each and every one of you now that we're short 4 aldermen; it makes it a little bit more difficult. I hope that you all make your decisions for yourselves, for the ward you represent, and for the City and NOT for one person because that's what they want. As a law student, I deal with briefing cases all day. What we look for is the issue. The issue here isn't should we put the security system in. Everybody on this Board wants it. Everybody on the School Board wants it. Everybody in the City wants it. The issue is where is the money going to come from? There is very little money set up left in the capital reserve account for the school Department. If everything that's in there goes through, including this which is gone up since the dollar value that's set aside in the capital reserve it goes, it has gone up, we're going to end up in the red in that reserve account and nobody wants that to happen. The bigger issue is this is a public safety issue. This governing body sitting right here in front of me is responsible for the public safety of this City and not the School Board. There is no reason why the money should be coming from that department. It should be coming from right here. To bond this is a very small investment in the safety of the children in the School Department, the teachers, the volunteers, paraprofessionals, the principals, the custodians, and everybody that's inside that building. You guys are responsible for the safety of those buildings and the people in it. They're residents. They voted for you. Maybe the children didn't because they're not old enough but their parents did. They're putting their stock into you guys. They put you in these seats to make the right decisions. When it goes around tonight during the roll call vote, which I certainly hope that is because I as a citizen want to know which of you is supporting this and which is not on the record. Chairman McCarthy I should make it clear that the Board is not going to vote on this this evening. What will happen is a meeting of the Budget Committee and the 7 members of the Budget Committee will vote on a recommendation to send back to the full Board. Jeff Glenner Fair enough. As far as some of those concerns that have come up that I've heard, I do agree with you. President McCarthy as far as needing a plan to put in place, it isn't just the system that goes in. We do certainly need a plan. That I think is the least of the worries with this. That is a simple thing that can be done in a 2 day summit with all of the people involved - the Police Chief, the Fire Chief, Mayor, Superintendent, Principals, and so forth. That's an easy fix. I do agree with that. We need to put that in. This does need to be put in and I hope the citizens, I hope the Board, I hope everybody supports that this comes where it should come from the folks sitting right here in front. I appreciate Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 5 the opportunity. I thank Alderman Deane and Alderman Donchess for bringing this forward. I hope that those that are listed as sponsors are still sponsors when this is all said and done. Obviously we need to find a couple more. Thank you. Dan Richardson I live at 70 Berkley Street in Nashua. I want to speak in favor of this. This is something, again, as the other gentleman mentioned is long overdue. Back in 2007, the school had come to us. I was on the Board at the time and at the Budget Committee. They had a bucket of parts - some cameras, some card readers, things without a plan to put them in place without any kind of structure to it, without any kind of concept of operations. It was pretty apparent that it wasn't going to work too well. Of course they were disappointed when we absolutely turned them down. It was a very good vote to turn them down. What it did with our recommendation going back they actually got a consultant and came up with a very good plan. That plan unfortunately was vetoed by the Mayor. That was unbelievable but at the time I sort of understand. There was a big snafu with some bad budgeting action by the school system. They lost control of their budget and that was apparently the fix that was considered. However, this is something that should have bonded. It should not have really been considered part of the budget. It should have been bonded. These are long lived assets. These are going to live in the school system for a long, long time. Of course in the future it will evolve. This is the kind of thing that needs to be bonded. It shouldn't come out of the annual budget. From reading about it, it seems like they've got a good plan. It's essentially the same plan and I look forward to everybody supporting in the future. It looks very good from the number of endorsers listed that it has a very good chance of passing. I appreciate everybody who's in favor of this. Thank you. Sandra Zeihm I live at 147 Chestnut Street. Most of you know I'm on the Board of Education. I didn't come tonight prepared to make a speech. I'm not much of speech giver. I would just ask you that this not be a political decision. That this be based on our children's best interests. I have to say that too often our children are put in the back of the line and they should be at the front of the lines. I am for you all to make that balance when you make the decision. One of the things that concern me the most is that currently 80 percent of our classrooms don't have locks. So if somebody did shoot through the window and that one classroom is obviously at peril but all of the others might be able to do something. First thing they'd have to do is go out in the hall to get to a safe...they couldn't lock down. So they have to go out into the hall which is in dangers way to me. The idea that we don't even have lock and keys in our schools to me it was crazy even just because of the fact that the teachers can't leave their supplies there. If there's no lock and key, you can't even - to my view anyway - you can't even leave your personal belongings there like the books and things that they have for the kids. I'd just employ you all to think about the kids and do what's best. Thank you. Kimberly Muise Kimberly Muise, 32 Courtland Street. I'm also a member of the Nashua Board of Education. First of all I'd like to thank you for even addressing this issue. This is something that I think was brought to forefront on a negative note but it could turn into a very positive note for the City of Nashua. The decision isn't whether we're going to put the access control system in. I'm going to think that in our right mind we're all going in agreement of that. The issue is where are we going to get the money to do it. Back on December 6th, the Board of Education was presented a plan for the capital reserve which is currently at $4.3 million. That plan included the following: repairing the tennis courts at Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 6 Pennichuck, repairing the school tracks which are a safety hazard as they are right now, the security access system, and the district telephones. What I'm wondering is if it's chosen that we take the security access system out of the capital reserve, which one of these should we not do? Should we continue to let children run on the high school tracks that are unsafe? Should we not have our school buildings be able to communicate with each because the district telephones are in bad shape? Should we not repair the tennis courts at Pennichuck which if we don't repair them, we have to do something because they're a safety hazard to be left they way they are? That's where I am as a Board member with the Board of Education. These were all approved by the way as far as exploration, getting bids, and so forth. Then the security access system was at $1.5 million. Now we've decided, and I believe in good judgment, to add the columbine locks and the access systems at the door. So brought to us the other evening, it's now at $2.3 million. There is not enough in the capital reserve of $4.3 million. The project really needs to be bonded in its entirety. I understand that that's what the capital reserve is for. It's for big projects but we can't drain it. The other night the Board was told that at the current spending level of our capital budget at $600,000 it would take 37 years to complete the current list of projects. The problem when you have a system that works that way and it takes that long to make repairs on your buildings is you run the risk of things failing. If we have no capital reserve to go against if something fails, should we not send children to that building? We don't know what could fail. It could be a boiler system. It could be a roof. If we have some money in the capital reserve, at least we know we could get children in that building pretty quickly. I don't think the wisest decision is to drain that account. I think the wisest decision is to bond the $2.4 million, move ahead with the security access system which we all are in agreement. We saw the public's outcry the other night. It needs to be done. Our citizens need to be protected. Our children need to be protected. Keep some money in the capital reserve for these buildings that are in bad need of repair knowing that there's going to be some projects coming down the line that need to be bonded also. That's what happens when you deal with 20 school building all of which have some years on them. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Ms. Muise do you have the numbers for those other projects as to what the totals were? Kimberly Muise Yes I do. Chairman McCarthy Could you...Is there anyone else to speak in favor? Fred Teeboom Fred Teeboom, 24 Cheyenne. This is a public hearing. So this is a meeting for the public not a public comment period. So I'll take a few minutes here. First of all let me say that I worked back in 2009 on the selection panel for the school board. I worked for a number of weeks with Shawn Smith and Chris Lessard who's our security guy. It was a difficult procurement because I think there was 13 bidders and 1 bidder was a clear buy in. The low bidder but totally unqualified. It was a difficult system because it's a complicated system. We accomplished it with the spare parts and all of that came in at $2.2 million. It came before this Board and was funded through the capital improvements program in the school department. It came before this Board and the Board approved it 12 to 1. Then the deficit wasn't covered in the school department through the totally underfunded teachers' contract had just been renewed. It was $13 million all of a sudden to fund it. The Mayor took care of it in the budget the following years. Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 7 The Mayor two days before the 10 days were up, because she had 10 days to veto, came out with the veto message. The mistake I think she made and the mistake I definitely made being one of the main sponsors was (inaudible) if the capital improvements at the time could not cover this job because what the School Board did then is they took some money out of capital improvements and transferred into the school operating fund and used the capital improvements money to pay for the deficit in the school budget. That's why it didn't get funded through the school capital improvements. What we should have done and didn't do is come back, look at the Mayor's veto, take it back to the Budget Committee, and come back with what Alderman Donchess and Alderman Deane have done, and moved to bring it back to the Board to be funded through a City bond. It does not affect the school budget at all. It's a City budget item and not the school budget item. We failed to do so. I think it was a giant mistake. I blame myself for not thinking it through clearly. This is really, as one speaker spoke earlier, this is not an education issue. It's a building issue. It's a security issue. It is no different than building a building and making sure it's built correctly. So bonding it to the City is totally appropriate. We could have overridden the veto and gone on with it even though only 12 voted in favor if they changed their mind, and the veto was not overridden. The comment has been made and it has been made again several times by Alderman McCarthy that the system that was proposed was not really a system. It was pieces. Let me assure you it was not pieces. As Alderman Deane read earlier, the pieces had come in at 2007. Myself and at that time Alderman Richardson both have some military security background heavily opposed the $551,000. That's why the School Board went back. That's why the hired nobody on the list. That's why they hired Mr. Enright and that's when they came up with the really good system. A statement also made Alderman McCarthy that he didn't think there was a plan and procedure in mind. Well I have the very same report that Alderman Deane was reading from earlier which is July 1, 2009. Mr. Enright who you mentioned is a security service official retired. I met him. He's a very spirited individual. It says in this report that he was tasked with creating a policy and procedures manual in regards to access control within the Nashua school buildings. The policy and procedure manuals were to include identification, building door access control, school exterior parameters, school dismissals, after school activities, access control program in administration, and communications. Mind you this system is very sophisticated system, a centralized control. We're not here to review the design of the system but some of the aldermen have mentioned Alderman Deane. When you know what the system looks like, you can provide a procedures manual. That's what Mr. Enright was hired to do and did at the same time the system was proposed. To say this was not a system was incorrect. To say there was no policy in plan procedure in place was totally incorrect. I went to the school meeting last week which was attended by a huge number of people. More than I've seen in a long time. It is worthwhile to repeat what Alderman Deane just mentioned from this report is the key reason for this system. The key reason for the $2.21 million. In this presentation to the Board of Education on July 2008 WL Bliss Associates stated that the Nashua School District is presently in an extremely vulnerable situation regarding the ability for individual school buildings to protect the population. Pathetic. From trespass of unstable visitors and armed intruders. Superintendent Conrad talked about how you'd come up with plans and procedures. You can have all the plans and procedures in the world and don't mean a thing if you have an armed intruder coming in things happen instantaneously. You can have substations, squad cars running around, communications; you can have source officers in some part of the building. An intruder comes in and starts shooting, it's near instantaneous. You must have a good access control system in place backed up by policy and procedures. We had designed and was about to procure a fully secured, a fully networked automated system that connected 18 buildings - school buildings, administration building, and an operation maintenance building and it was turned down. Well it's back. Apparently as I understand it the $2.4 million is really $2.21 million plus some inflation. So the system is there Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 8 but 3 1/2 years have passed and we're still as vulnerable now as we were in 2009. Maybe even more so. So it has to happen. The new system is now proposed has what the old system in the previous 2009 but didn't have the columbine locks. Now I looked at the columbine locks and I don't think they're adequate. The columbine locks are full mechanical and the School Department is considering getting locks that are keyed on both sides. Keyed on both sides because they want to make sure the teachers can lock with a key. I think it ought to be the columbine lock, a different version, that you can push the button on. You push the button and it's locked. You don't need to find the key or look for a key from the inside. You can always open it from the outside. The reason they want to go for a key from the inside is if the teacher is in the classroom, the kids can lock the teacher out. Well the teacher finds the administrator and the key that fits the outside they open the door. It's still worrying about kids locking the teacher out, by all means put an automated PIN reader on the door. The columbine locks are not cheap. They're about $250 a piece. The PIN reader adds some extra and you push a PIN ID. Even if the kid locks you out from the inside, you can open the door from the outside with the PIN. The teacher can and you don't have to go find the lock. The reason I think it's important not to have a key for the inside is you got a quick speed. You don't sit and fumble inside and say where is that key. They're going to lose the key from the inside. You push the bottom and the doors lock. Open it up, I just boom the handle and the door opens up. It's like a bathroom door but it opens up by itself and it's a very solid lock of course. That's one issue I have with the columbine locks. The columbine locks are locks like that are absolutely necessary. I think that and was recommended by one School Board member Mosher look at shatterproof glass. It turns out, Shawn Smith told me about this, I'm not on the panel now. I have nothing to do with procurement. There is a film you can apply to the windows and it is a security film that just prevents any glass from shattering no matter what you throw at it. It's slightly a more expensive film that actually prevents bullets from going through. I don't know if these bullets are just for 22 handguns, or 222 AR15 assault weapons. Whatever it is, you put this film on the window, the window shatters, you can't get through the window. You have to protect the doors. You have to protect ultimately the windows. That stuff costs $2.58 a square foot. You should consider putting that in certainly on the front doors of the high schools, front doors of the elementary schools. Some of these schools are so unprotected. Unbelievable. You go to Broad Street School, do you know what the protection at Broad Street School is, there's this little hand drawn sign that says go upstairs and register in the office. There's no door downstairs. There's not protection. There's nobody there. It's just unbelievable. So columbine locks ought to be maybe add a PIN reader, take a look at the shatter proof glass. None all of this has to be done at once but it has to be phased in. Ultimately you can add facial recognition but it's more expensive. I don't think you need it right away. I think you ought to start looking at the diametric badges. Pretty simple because the problem with the badge is if I make a badge and I take his badge and I am Mike. How do you know I'm not him? Biometric badge, of course, identifies with the feature or characteristic of your body. Your physical presence and they're not that expensive and it could be that there's a lot of added security. Let the students carry them, the business carry them, or perhaps the teacher carry them. These have to be looked at. These would be enhancements on $2.1 million system of $2.4 million. Ultimately I recommend that you borrow $3 million and that you allow the School District to some flexibility of what they want to get, and have security from the system 3 1/2 years ago. I also think it ought to be dedicated and wanted to serve system who bid the first system. It's the same system. It's an automated standardized system. It's a network standardized interface. You can add to that system. You don't throw the system away you add features. That's the whole key requirement. I understand the Board wants to reprocure. They could actually hand the thing to (inaudible). SERV went through the whole bid process and won the job. If you go back to the same Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 9 system, those 3 1/2 years later, you hold the price, hold the terms and conditions, you ought to get that award. Thank you very much for listening to me. Tom Vaughan My name is Tom Vaughan. I'm at 6 Kevin Road in Nashua. I'm also on the School Board. I think that you've had some really good commentary tonight and I agree with almost everything that's been said. This has been in my experience one of those points at which unfortunately are rare but really engaging points at which the School Board and the Board of Aldermen were really in agreement more or less about what needed to be done at least in the broad aspects in 2007 back then. The process that got us there was really a very open process. It is as described there was something like a $500,000 request for just some more monitors that came in and people said well why are you just putting more monitors. There was a design process that lead to the consultant, it lead to a good system design. Maybe not a perfect but a good system design. There it stood in 2007. But we're back here now and we have an opportunity to continue that going forward. I hope that we will. I think this bonding is for several reasons a really good step forward. We have price estimates for the system as it was. Unfortunately that's some years ago. So there are two things change usually cost and always technology. We've already found with the work that we're doing on the front entrances that the exact parts that we thought we would get originally have analogs now that are better, slightly more expensive but more functional and integrate better. I think we'll find the same that happens in other pieces of the system. We've also found based on unfortunately the learning we've done with hearing people and with what has happened in the most recent school shooting that the columbine locks which originally we thought would be an extravagance for the elementary and middle schools are now something that we want to look seriously at. The currently value I have as of yesterday or earlier today is about $2.47 million for the system. I suspect that it may go a little higher. It may go a little lower. Basically we don't know at this point because we haven't had a chance to go back and redo the costing based on today's prices, the technology refreshed, to talk with the consultant to assess some of the things that have been suggested to us in the security forum that we had. For instance, the bullet proof additions to the glass and other things that came up. We're trying to do this in a methodical way not to just react and put everything in that everyone suggests but to go back and talk with the consultants we have to figure out what is the best expenditure of our money and what is the most efficient way. You are obviously the people that know the most efficient way to spend the money. I do not know whether bonding or how much bonding we should use, how much we should take out of the capital reserve now. I think you're probably the experts on this. I do know as Ms. Muise said that we will be stripped, we'll be stretched very, very thin if we try and do this out of the capital reserve. We originally tried to do it that way, we wanted to do it that way because we didn't want to add extra bonding, extra long-term expense. What I think having the opportunity to not do it all out of the capital reserve account would give us a chance to move more swiftly and more surely forward to get a system rather than trying to working or spend most of our time save ten cents here and ten cents there. I hope that you'll look at this. I hope you'll consider it. I know that you will consider it honestly, openly and realistically because you did it the last time. I thank you very much. Chairman McCarthy Mr. Vaughan the door lock work that's being done now is being paid for out of the school budget's deferred maintenance line item. Is that correct? How much is being spent from there on those items? Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 10 Tom Vaughan The figure I have is on the columbine locks is about $480,000. Chairman McCarthy And that is not to come out of the bond. Tom Vaughan I must say that, I'll say it again just for emphasis, we're trying to move very quickly on the front doors and the columbine locks. So we got an estimate of what it would take and we found some money that we could use and we went with it. Chairman McCarthy Yeah I'm just trying to figure out how much that is. Tom Vaughan The reason I mentioned that is because we're hoping that we can replenish those funds from somewhere else and I don't know where that somewhere else would be. Chairman McCarthy Well is there other work that will be done in this year if those funds are replenished? Tom Vaughan Yes there is I believe. I will emphasize for you that this is more detailed. We need to have more detailed conversation than I'm able to provide for you tonight. Chairman McCarthy Is there somebody from administration here that can address those things? Tom Vaughan There's not and I think that at this point in time we don't have all the information that we need for that detailed conversation. So we can give you the information we have. It is to a degree evolving in real time. We won't be able to have tonight that detailed conversation that I think you would like Alderman McCarthy. We're going to do the best we can. We did e-mail you the newest version of the figures I gave you. Sandra Zeihm Can I just add something to what he just said? It's my understanding that they have already ordered the cameras but the locks they are getting bids on even as we speak. Both of those are supposed to go in this year thought before the end of the school year. Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 11 Chairman McCarthy Which means they're being funded from somewhere other than this bond because we can't enter into a contract without funding for it. Sandra Zeihm You have the administration's estimate on all of the costs on the document that Mrs. Muise gave you. Tom Vaughan The document that Ms. Muise gave you is slightly out of date. There is a newer version which we e- mailed you. The last one you have is the more accurate one. Alderman Deane Is that the document that ends with the negative $892,235 in red letters? Chairman McCarthy Yes it is. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor of R-12-87? Pam Jordan Good evening. My name is Pamela Jordan and I live at 13 Ashland Street. I am the parent of a second grader at Charlotte Ave. School and my husband, daughter and I moved here in 2011. So I don't know much about the history of Nashua or even pertaining to this issue other than what I have read in the newspapers. So I have had a bit of an education tonight. I appreciate that so far. So what I've heard, and I believe that I'm speaking as kind of an average Charlotte Ave. School parent and I also have a PhD in Political Science but I focus on the national and international levels. I know very little about local government and the funding of bonds. Having learned a lot tonight so far, it seems to be reasonable to support a bond of this kind based on the history of the funding mechanism for schools. I also found the argument about seeing the buildings as not only a part of the education system, which of course is a public good according to Americans right but it's also a part of our City that we need to protect. We need to protect our children, our teachers, our administrators, our buildings. So I find that to be a very strong argument. I also find to be a strong argument the idea that by supporting this now, we are taking direct action, we're doing it responsibly as citizens who care about our budget at this time, and also that we care about our national reputation whether it's in Money Magazine or whether it's simply about people wanting to move here to New Hampshire at this time. We can say very proudly that we pass this bond and we're going to protect our buildings, we're going to protect our students, we're going to protect our children. The very assets that we value the most here in Nashua, our future. I think all of these things matter to us - our children, our buildings, the safety of our citizens, and their reputation as a small City that has and over the past few years gotten into Money Magazine, and got the recognition of being a really good town to live in. That's why my husband and I moved here because we wanted our daughter to have a safe place to go to school. I appreciate your taking this very seriously now. Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 12 I have a question for all of you and it has to do with federal funding. I read on the website of the Homeland Security Agency about some federal funding opportunities. I'm wondering how practical they might be in addition to the bond that you're talking about. Say if you support a bond for $2.4 million is there a way to get additional funding through Department of Homeland Security? There's a grant program. Of course there's the Department of Education funding, Department of Justice funding, although I think that over the past year or so those funds have been decreased unfortunately. In any case, I'm interested in hearing about any other additional funds that could come say from the federal government to offset the costs of the access control system that we need to put in place. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor? If not, I'll ask for testimony in opposition to R-12- 87. If there's no testimony in opposition, I'll call one more time for... TESTIMONY IN OPPOSITION Neil Claffey I think it's pretty obvious that speaking against this creates the perception that somehow someone is against going... My name is Neil Claffey. I live at 32 Deerhaven Drive in Nashua. I want to start by saying that I'm a teacher in this district. I've been teaching here since 1989. I teach at Nashua High School South. We moved here in 2002. We moved here a few years after Columbine. My students went to Charlotte Avenue. At no time did I worry about their safety at their school. One of my sons currently attends Nashua North. At NO time do I fear for his life in that school. I almost left when I came in. I met Mr. Deane - Mr. Deane I know your commitment to the people of this City, to the children of this City. I understand how you must have been personally touched by what happened in Connecticut given the fact that 18 from New Town was here this summer. I can never completely empathize with how you're feeling. Again as a teacher in this City, I never, ever think about the unspeakable terror that happened there. I've heard a lot of statistics and most of those deal with money. Most of those deal with finances. I've heard mention of closer to half a million dollars spent on columbine locks. I would like the Board to consider whether these locks would prevent the unspeakable before school because at our school the doors are wide open at more than one entrance until 7:20 a.m. After school at 2:03 p.m., the doors open wide and if the unspeakable is going to happen, I would say that that is a far greater likelihood of happening at that time not during the school day. I would ask the Board to consider this. Today a 7 year old in New York brought a loaded pistol into school in his book bag. I would ask the School Board to consider whether this $2.4 million would prevent a child at Charlotte Avenue from bringing a gun into school with an ID? I heard mention of an expert of veteran of law enforcement who considers Nashua's schools to be unsafe and in need of repair. I will tell you that just today I had a conversation with a gentleman who happened to be working in our school with 30 years experience in law enforcement at the State level working for the Attorney General of New Hampshire. I will tell you that this gentleman, like me, feels that this is a kneejerk reaction which in no way will prevent the unspeakable. Yes our schools might be safer but I had hoped that he would join me tonight. I would encourage the Board to speak with him. It sounds as if you have testimony support from someone with expertise in this field. I will tell you that I have someone else who feels - cause his opinion is antithetical to the opinion that you've presented tonight. Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 13 I'm probably not familiar with bond issues and I imagine that bond issues are rarely used for staffing in the district. I will tell you that at my high school they've eliminated one counselor. I will tell you that my high school, our counselors are now serving more children. I will tell you that in our school counselors have never been busier. I thought about reciting the statistics on the number of children who were victims of the unspeakable per year. Rather than do that, I will tell you that if you look at the statistics and mind you I'm not talking about dollars and cents. I think it's a tragedy that tonight's conversation has focused on dollars and cents rather than statistics on child safety. I will tell you that a child between the ages of 10 and 14 is 3 times more likely to die from suicide than he is from violence in school. I will tell you that a child ages 15 to 19 is 2,003 times more likely to die from suicide than he or she is in school. The expert I spoke with today talked about the need for investment in human assets. If you have one school psychologist for 2,000 students, you're going to have problems. The most violent episode that I could recall at our high schools involved a student who decided to use a 3-hole punch to bash the head of a substitute teacher. The threats to our school do not come from without, they come from within. We have a generation of students who need help. In New Hampshire alone, the most recent numbers I can get, the federal Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau reported that there are 13,000 children in New Hampshire alone - 13,444 who are victims of maltreatment whether it's neglect or abuse. Those children need help. That's 5 percent of the children. That's not .000036 percent of children. Nationally 3,500 adolescents try suicide daily. It's not easy to get up here and say I'm opposed to school safety. If somebody wanted to do the unspeakable at my school, they could do it quite easily. I go to middle schools in this City on a weekly basis. One of them has a buzzer system. I tell them who I am. I tell them where I'm going. The buzzer opens, I go into school. Put an armed guard at the doors. Put metal detectors at the doors. To be honest, this is creating an illusion of safety. TESTIMONY IN FAVOR Dan Richardson Dan Richardson, 70 Berkley Street. I'd like to have another bite of the apple. I applaud the prior speaker for getting up and talking about the negative aspects that he perceives. I agree with him. It would be very easy for somebody to come with a backpack, a child to come with a backpack with some kind of a weapon in it. It's happened before and when I went into school did that. As far as having children with mental problems or psychological problems, they were there when I was a young boy. In junior high school, a teacher Mr. Yusolack got into a fight with a boy who was well known for having trouble. The boy cold cocked him and Mr. Yusolack's glass eye popped out. It was one of those things it exemplifies a situation that you can have. He is absolutely right. That's one of the things you're going to have to take care of. When we get a secure system in place, we're going to have to have concept of operations. You're going to have to have access control policies. You're going to have to deal with the issue of having public meetings in the schools and how to control access during that time. Somebody could put something in the school during non business hours, during non school hours. There's a lot of things to take care of but you need to get the system in place too. I myself I'm a big believer in the Second Amendment. I sometimes carry my firearm if need be. I would certainly like to have armed police officers at the school, at every school, because that's the fastest response you can have with expert response. That's kind of an expensive proposition to have armed officers at the school for that specific purpose. No doubt it would serve more than on interest too. The officer could obviously collect information about what's going on in the school as they certainly do. We have officers called School Resource Officers presently at the high schools. That's a good thing. This is a good step. This is a wise step. It's proactive and if in the future situation arises where it shows it's inadequate, Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 14 we'll have to address it at that time. Having the physical barriers, the physical security in place that's proven in military installations is a good thing at this point in time. Thank you very much. Sandra Zeihm May I have another bite of the apple? The night we had the public hearing, I figures to myself if we put one resource officer at every school, it would cost us approximately $1 million a year. I don't think we have $1 million a year. We're lucky to have the resource officers that we have. I was certain around $40,000 and maybe that wasn't accurate. I didn't even figure in the 40 percent for benefits. I think it's pretty accurate to be honest with you. Have we been lax? Is this a wakeup call for us? Absolutely it's a wakeup call. That's the good that can come from this if we take it as a wakeup call and we go back and correct some of the weaknesses that we have. I believe the District is doing that. Mr. Conrad has been diligently trying to look at every school. Each school is different. Some of our schools, our high schools are new buildings. So our high schools have more security than our elementary schools which date back. I'm sure a lot of you who have been around for a long time know that the older schools are in much weaker condition. Some of them are not where your cameras are effective. If you have to walk up the stairs and take a left hand turn before you can get to the secretary's office, well guess what, the cameras ought to know if that...so we have to restation everything. We have to rethink everything. To be honest with you, this money only a beginning. We need to do a tiered plan just as we have been doing with technology. You can't do everything in one fell swoop and most especially not in this economy. I think for us not to start planning and not to start using a little analytical analysis to determine what are the things we can do especially those that are done with minimum cost. Not to do them in my view is...what he was saying about mental health do we need to strengthen that, yes. That's not within my purview. This is within my purview. To be honest with you, I wouldn't want to go to bed tonight not thinking that I gave it my best shot. I think serving on the School Board my responsibility is to do the best I can for those kids. I think this would be for their best. Thank you for your time. Jeff Glenner I'm sorry to extend this but the gentleman who spoke against made some very good points. The basic point of which is that you cannot adequately secure the schools against all intruders of all types. We know that. We all know that. What we're trying to do is to provide a reasonable level of security that will provide more safety for our students. This is security and focusing on security, procedures, and monitors. This is not what we would like to be doing. This is not what we'd like to be spending money on. There's a whole lot of other things that I think are important to our students but safety is critical to our students because there's one difference between the statistics about suicide, car accidents, or this and the other. We require children to be at our schools. We don't require them to do certain other things. We require them to be at the schools so we are obligated to provide a level of safety as high and as reasonably as we can. Again, I hope that you will give this consideration. I hope that you will use your best judgment and I know you will. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Is there anyone else wishing to speak in favor of R-12-87? Fred Teeboom I just wanted to add two things. First of all there's a balance which I mentioned at the School Board meeting. The Constitution of New Hampshire Article 280 has a stronger arms rights provision than the Second Amendment of the federal Constitution. It says, "All persons have the right to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves, their families, their property, and the State." Everybody thinks Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 15 arms means guns. Arms can be all kinds of things. It could be knives and in the field it could be tanks. These were designed to protect against out of control government. So you can't prevent people for bearing arms. The previous speaker who said you can't prevent against somebody that takes a gun into the school. Yes you can. You can have a metal detector. Expensive proposition. No one is saying that you put a metal protector immediately. The cost of these things are coming down. Maybe you should have some in the high schools ultimately. There are facial recognition technology is really picking up not because of schools but because of safety and airplanes. You can't put a columbine lock in an open concept school like Main Dunstable. Why do we have open concept schools, that goes back to some other failed social experiment back in the 70s. I remember you had to be in a commune. Well today is different. You can certainly protect the doors. You can certainly protect the glass. In an airplane today (inaudible) pilot for a commercial pilot it's not the guard sitting in the back as a passenger. He can't act fast enough. There's no protection in an airplane by far the best. The metal security door between the passengers and the cockpit. Remember the olden days you could take a little tour, take your kid over to the cockpit and show him the cockpit. Well the airplane was an automatic flag, well those days are gone. You can't open that door. The door is locked, nobody can open it, and it's a metal door. There's probably a camera on the inside. That protects. Does that protect from some crazy nut to go in and pull the emergency door? No. It's to protect against terrorist who are trying to fly an airplane into a building yes. That's what we're talking about the schools. It's doesn't protect everything but it protects against a major threat. It can enhance the system as proposed. That's the beauty of it. You can enhance the service because it has its own network. Its own fiber optics. I propose a $3 million bond. The School Department spends $150 million a year. The City budget is around $250 million a year. We're talking about a bond that I think - although I think that (inaudible) talks about a few hundred thousand dollars. I think its low but its a few hundred thousand dollars a year. I'm not sure you can get a 2 percent bond. The City gets a 4 percent bond. It's small money. Like the man said the unspeakable. The unspeakable if somebody walked into and it's wide open and shooting somebody. That's an unspeakable. Who's going to stand around and see that happen? A $3 million bond, hell thing of the waste that happens in this chamber. We go out and buy properties for $4 million, $5 million and bond it. Then we don't know what to do what the property. It's like in the landfill opposite the landfill. This was a good investment in 2009 and with all that's happened since, Columbine was a motivator then. Sandy Hook is the motivator today. It's a great investment today. Thank you. Jeff Glenner Just kind of rebutting the gentleman that left that's a teacher that goes to school every day and feels safe. I, too, feel that the schools are safe. We send a child to South everyday and to Elm Street and wouldn't if they weren't safe. They can be safer. They can be upgraded. I feel safe going to my bank every day. There's security system there. Would I if there wasn't? Probably not. The security system isn't just to prevent the unthinkable because nothing can prevent the unthinkable. The most secured building in the world is the Pentagon and that was compromised. Nothing is going to prevent a major catastrophe. It will act as a deterrent as well. I think that's important to note. If we didn't have security systems in our banks and some of the secure areas, court houses, even City Hall it would be a much easier target. People would attack those buildings and walk in and rob banks. Look at it not necessarily just to prevent an act, look at it as a deterrent to increase the safety of the schools, increase the safety of the children, and everybody that's in that building whether it's a parent visiting or what have you as they spoke earlier. Realize that this does fall within this chamber and not to the School Board. Spec. Bd. of Aldermen - 01/17/13 Page 16 Take few minutes and read the opening prayer that was mentioned earlier and actually read the words and think about it when you're making your vote. It kind of comes into play. It is your responsibility to make this work. Thank you. Chairman McCarthy Is there any further testimony in favor of R-12-87? I'll ask one more time for testimony in opposition to R-12-87? There being none, I will call the public hearing closed at 8:15 p.m. ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY THAT THE JANUARY 17, 2013 SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared adjourned at 8:15 p.m. Attest: Patricia Piecuch, Deputy City Clerk  ? '« Muise, Kimberly From: Kim Muise <sarah992@comcast.net> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 4:01 PM To: Muise, Kimberly Subject: Fwd: Capital reserve money Kim Muise Email - sarah992@comcast.net Begin forwarded message: From: Kim Muise <sarah992@comcast.net> Date: January 6,2013,12:18:23 PM EST To: Jim Donchess <jim@dntpc.com>. "ddeane05@aol.com" <ddeane05@aol.com> Subject: Capital reserve money Good Morning, I wanted to give you the figures with the paperwork in front of me (always better than my memory). On January 2nd Admin gave us a security project update • the original downsized project approved by the board in the fall was for 1,570,000. Now they are asking for 2,265,996 projected with columbine locks for 480,644 and main entrances for 93,011. The board approved sending the locks and main entrances to bid and start work immediately taking the money from deferred maintenance for the short term. I made a point to say this expense would be reclassified from the bond if approved and Hallowell said yes. Here is my issue - the capital reserve has 4.3 million. The capital plan dated December 6 presented to the board and approved stated the following projects : Tennis courts - 200,000 School tracks - 1,345 million Security access system - 1,570 District telephones - 950,000 Totaling-4,065,581 Now they are saying the phones will only be 600K so we are at 3,765,581 but they are raising the security up 696,000K. In my book 4.3 million less 3.765 is 535,000 so where is the 161,000 they will go over (696-535)? I think they are cutting it way too close, draining the reserve with nothing left for emergencies. Or they will lower a project scope and cut corners only to hurt us later. I strongly support the bonding. Kim l  Putide influì"Y« 'Ir* School Capital Reserve as of 1/17/13 $3,694,765 Potential Uses: HS and MS Track repairs $1,020,000 Track Alternate Bid $269,000 Tennis Courts repair at PMS $225,000 Total Track Estimate $1,514,000 Phone systems 14 schools $600,000 Total Phone Estimate $600,000 Access Control System Secure Front entrances $107,000 Columbine Locks $480,000 Remainder of School security system $1,886,000 total Security System Estimate $2,473,000 School capital Reserve Balance ($892,235) Track costs are estimtes based on initial design work. Architects currently working on final cost projections and then RFP will be prepared which will define final cost. Work continuing with Bill Bliss and Nashua Police and Fire to finalize remaining scope of work. The front entrance amount ($107K) has been awarded. The Columbine lock work has been bid with a Jan 25th response date.  1 1 fteeuri^«! Special Projects balance # $291,865