Aldermen, Board of

The Organizational Meeting of the Board of Aldermen for 2014-2015 was held Sunday, January 5, 2014, at 1:00 p.m. following the termination of the Inauguration Exercises for the 107th City Government in the Nashua High School North Auditorium. City Clerk Paul R. Bergeron called the Assembly to order. The roll call was taken with 15 members of the Board of Aldermen present. Her Honor Donnalee Lozeau and Corporation Counsel Stephen M. Bennett were also in attendance. City Clerk Bergeron entertained nominations for President of the Board of Aldermen for 2014- 2015. ALDERMAN SIEGEL NOMINATED ALDERMAN-AT-LARGE DAVID W. DEANE ALDERMAN SHEEHAN NOMINATED ALDERMAN-AT-LARGE LORI WILSHIRE MOTION BY ALDERMAN MORIARTY THAT NOMINATIONS BE CLOSED MOTION CARRIED Alderman Sheehan Point of order. There’s been a lot of discussion about the committee assignments. Perhaps the President-Elect would like to speak to that before people cast their votes because I know that’s been the main concern of those of us who didn’t get our first. Alderman Deane Point of information. You have to speak into the microphone. City Clerk Bergeron Thank you, alderman. It’s true. If you have any conversations we should go up to the microphone and speak but if I may repeat or rephrase your comments. You’re asking if the candidates could talk about committee assignments prior to the votes being cast. That would be an order of business which the Board of Aldermen would have to establish. Therefore, if you would like that to be a motion, we can take a vote on whether or not allow that to occur. It would not be a ruling of the Chair. It would have to be an order of the rules for the members of the Board of Aldermen. Do you wish to make such a motion? Alderman Sheehan Yes. MOTION BY ALDERMAN SHEEHAN TO ALLOW THE CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD TO OFFER COMMENTS ABOUT COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS Division Taken MOTION CARRIED BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 2 Alderman Deane My name is David Deane and I reside at 56 Manchester Street, Nashua, NH. I spent quite a bit of time going through the committee assignments and I was well aware of the fact that some people were not going to be happy, some people were. I have been asked to change things. I thought the approach I used was balanced. I did go back and speak to others who had served in the presidential and vice presidential capacities who were told that they had no part in some of the committee assignments. I always look at it like this - if you are unhappy with it then your recourse is to vote against it. I respect whatever the will of the Board is. If the Board wants to go in another direction with the committee assignments, they can choose to do so. I have been accused of quite a few things over the last few days, none of which are true. It was rather offensive and inflammatory and I was kind of saddened by some of it. As General Attorney Foster said, we can all agree to disagree, but I was not going to take part in some of the e- mailing that went on. I do thank people for sending along their opinions and I respect them. We all have a vote. I know some people aren’t happy with the way things went. You change it if you care to do so. You can use any matrix you want and you can always get the desired outcome by using whatever matrix and algorithms you put into place. I looked at leadership positions as part of the benefit whether it was a Chair or Vice Chair, I looked at some seniority, I looked at some of the preferences, it wasn’t all done on preference and I thought things worked out fairly well. Obviously, some people aren’t happy with the committee assignments. I did leave a part of the memo that I sent out with the assignments did state that if you were not happy with the assignments, to please feel free to call me. Alderman Brown was the only one that reached out to me. I didn’t hear from anyone else via a phone call. Then I started get e- mails yesterday and things of that nature and I did not want to engage in that fashion. So, the options are to vote against what was presented or support it. That’s up to the Board and that’s my position. Alderman Wilshire I didn’t expect to be in this situation today. We had voted at our caucus to support Alderman Deane as President of the Board. I was certainly interested – after I saw the committee assignments, I was pleased with my committee assignments and when I looked at them and saw people with maybe less than they would have liked but I would have hoped they would have reached out to Alderman Deane to try to talk about it. I know Alderman Brown did but there are some other members who are unhappy that didn’t. I would like to see us take a few steps to change a few of those committee assignments before we take a vote on who becomes the new President of the Board, if that’s in order. Alderman Brown With all due respect to President Elect Deane, I must admit that I was very surprised when I saw my committee assignments because I was not given my first, third, or fourth choice. Through the Right-to-Know Law, I did get a list of all the preferences from the group and I was very surprised to see that there were four members that did not get their first choice and three of the four members were woman. Then, I looked at the other assignments and I noticed that everyone on the Board did get three committee assignments except for three women. It has been a tradition of the Board that we would honor first choices as much as we could and then second and so forth, and certainly not show any gender bias. I do apologize that you would take offense with me bringing up that issue but I felt that it was very necessary for us to discuss this and I would be reluctant to vote for you as a president unless you can either allow us to BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 3 postpone the vote on our committee assignments and perhaps consider some other alternatives. I know that Alderman McCarthy and Alderman Chasse have offered other ways to look at the assignments and both of those did honor our first choice. I ask that you would re- consider and perhaps allow us to postpone this vote so that we can come up with assignments that I believe are more equitable and in the best interest of the Board and for the City of Nashua. Alderman Chasse Welcome to the New Year, we already have problems. Last night it took me one hour to do the committee’s. I put the names in an excel spreadsheet, I put the numbers that you guys presented Alderman Deane and then I hid the names, shuffled it up, colored all of the number ones, and I came out with a very equitable committee assignments. I did not know the names until I brought the names back through. Everyone got their number one’s with my scenario. When it came to Vice Chairs, I used seniority, when it came to committee assignments, the three people with the most seniority on the Board have only two committees, the rest of us have three. The only one individual, and I spoke with him, was Alderman Soucy, ended up with number five and that was the lowest number – he had to go over the Budget Committee. He said he didn’t have a problem with that. That number five was lower than the other people. So, Alderman Deane, I think you ought to seriously look at this because you want to try to make everybody happy, it’s going to be a tough two years if we have individuals on this Board that are not happy and I don’t want to lose rest of my hair unless I take it off on my own. So, let’s do something and let’s all work together. Alderman McCarthy I do want to correct one thing that is an error by me that has been propagated which is there are only two women who got bad choices. Alderman Caron’s were not correctly represented in the first analysis that I did and I did send out a correction to that yesterday. I do know want to th say that on December 20 , I had sent a request to Alderman Deane to discuss the committee assignments and on December 29th, I received an e-mail from him that said he had no desire to do that and frankly, Alderman Deane, that’s why I didn’t bother to contact you about the assignments because I knew it would fall on deaf ears. I brought some concerns up, Alderman Chasse stepped up to the plate and came up with an alternate solution based on concerns that had been raised by committee some of the members of the Board and frankly, this is the way the Board is supposed to work. When there are issues, people should step up and propose solutions and I applaud Alderman Chasse for having done that. Just before we walked in here, when I watched Alderman Moriarty walk over to Alderman Deane, crumble up that sheet and drop it in his hand, I think I witnessed the greatest act of disrespect between members of this Board that I have seen in twenty years. I am very concerned with where we will go in the next couple of years. I don’t want to see us undo the caucus results in general because I think it is a bad precedent. I do think the committee assignments need to be re-visited and I would like to hear about how we are going to do that. Alderman Siegel First of all, I do respect Alderman Chasse’s attempt to smooth the waters since the e-mails were somewhat inflammatory. I have a personal problem with this whole idea of starting off with the Right-to-Know Law request rather than a phone call. I believe a hand shake is helpful and much more useful than a shotgun. Hopefully, going forward, we can start, whatever the BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 4 assumptions may be, and I understand Alderman McCarthy, you may have assumed that you might not have gotten the information but I think it would be useful in the future to just make that attempt. Then, if there is a problem, we can address it at that point with whatever means we are required to do. I’d also like to address Alderman Brown’s statement about gender bias or bias in general. I’d like to broaden that. There is nobody in the Executive Branch, in the police, in the fire, or around this horseshoe right now that has ever demonstrated any gender bias or bias that I can understand. I may disagree vehemently with several members of the Board on occasion and maybe not, but I believe they will be speaking based on their beliefs and not based on not based on any biases. To drag that out here is completely inappropriate. With all due respect, we will agree to disagree on that particular matter. As far as the committee assignments, once again, I applaud Alderman Chasse. I understand that it might be reasonable for some people to object. Alderman McCarthy, you had the opportunity to stay on as the Board’s President and you decided not to. The Board President traditional makes those assignments. Had you stood for Board President and won that election, you would be in this position – perhaps some people would also be complaining, perhaps not. It’s hard to say. I believe Alderman Wilshire has been eminently graceful about this entire process. She stood for Board President and apparently, doesn’t seem to have a problem with the assignments as currently drafted. I would say that in all of this, in all of the e-mails that were propagated, the one thing that struck me, separate from Alderman Chasse’s, which seemed to be merely an attempt to smooth the waters constructively, was a focus on individuals desires. We are elected by the voters. We represent the voters and I believe that Alderman Deane put together the committee assignments with the best interests of the citizens of Nashua in mind. Others may not necessarily agree with the way things were shuffled around, but if you can find a materially beneficially change, or find something materially wrong with what’s gone on, I would urge you not only to identify that, but to say which committee members need to be swapped because there’s a better committee member. I also understand seniority clearly should be a precedent. You would never want a freshman representative as a committee Chair. There’s a lot to be said for experience but there’s a lot to be said for the experience outside of the Board of Alderman. I believe that some of the talents that are being brought to the table by the existing and the new Board members would best serve the citizens of the city that elected us. In closing, I would propose that we accept the original proposal by Alderman Deane as written, unless somebody can provide me with information which clearly states how something different would be beneficial to the city and not to individuals. Alderman Sheehan I want to point out that an e-mail was not responded to until the 29th. I had also e-mailed and requested that we get the committee assignments when we traditionally get them. I often, being so busy during the day, do my communication via writing. Also, in times where you want to keep a record of it which is why I did send an e-mail to Alderman Deane expressing my displeasure and not copying in the whole group so that it wouldn’t be a group discussion. I would like to disagree with the remark that nobody reached out – I did reach out and made my opinion known. I would also like to state, for the record, the Alderman Wilshire has been portrayed as not having an issue and she would like to have committee leadership re-visited. I think that Alderman Siegel brought up an excellent point which is what is a really good reason why the committee assignments should be re-visited? I’ll give you one – we have all stood for election, we all campaigned on certain priorities. We listed those priorities in our committee preferences. The voters elected us based on what we said we wanted to accomplish and to not honor the requests of the citizens who elected us, when we ran a certain priorities, I think is a disservice to the city and the direction that the voters wanted us to take. Additionally, if you are BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 5 going to have something that is driving the planning and economics of the city, it might be important to have people with a business background as well as business experience. Some of the members are not even from an industry that might have some experience, some knowledge, or valuable input. I do think that many new talents are brought to the table and those talents need to be considered and put where they would be of a best use. I would like to see these re-visited and I don’t agree with some of the characterization that’s been going on because the facts don’t agree with that. With all due respect to Alderman Deane, I think this is an opportunity to show the fair leadership that you have demanded from others over the past years that I have been on this Board. I think this is a good opportunity to show people that we can collaborate in the best interest of the city. City Clerk Bergeron Would either of the candidates care to make any closing statements? Alderman Wilshire Certainly, I would be very happy to serve as your Board president. However, I would prefer that Alderman Deane take a look at awarding some of the alderman that made near number one picks, that didn’t get them, more of a priority. I am going to have to vote for myself unless Alderman Deane gets up here and tells me he is going to do that. Alderman Deane I don’t look at things for my own self gain. I got involved in politics back in 1998 when a lady on this Board was being bullied by Public Works Commissioners. I had no idea you got paid, I had no idea where the Waste Water Treatment Plant was. I knew where the Parks and Recreation Department was because of my involvement with children and programs within the community. It’s obvious that some people don’t like me and I understand that. I know there are people who want to create discourse and that aren’t happy with the committee assignments and I knew that going in. I knew when we had the caucus that Friday night and in my past terms on the Board, about the outright vindictiveness by those who were elected to lead the Board of Alderman. They have absolutely buried people – I didn’t do that. I didn’t do that – I tried to do what I thought was right. It had nothing to do with who voted for who - so you can take that out of your minds. I tried to do what I thought was best for the city, what I thought was a direction that we wanted to go in. Not necessarily prioritizing everyone’s number one and number two. I didn’t even look at a lot of that stuff. I looked at committees, I looked at different structure, I looked at interest and it’s all boiled down to people wanting their number ones. I know there’s a conflict between an Alderman-at-Large and a Ward Alderman and I look at the presentation that was given where now he’s totally taken out of a Chairman of Committee. Why is that? Now we are going to have that person upset. I purposefully left myself out of chairing anything so that nobody could point a finger at me. I only filled myself in in different areas because I had to look at people’s work schedules, people’s availabilities, and days they were not around. Some people were assigned to certain committees because the majority of the other people couldn’t do it. I work during the day – a term ago, I took myself off of Public Works because the meetings moved to 2:30pm and I couldn’t make that time. If the majority of the Board is that unhappy, and it appears that way, we will change the committee assignments. BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 6 Alderman Wilshire Can we work with the President Elect and Vice President Elect to do that together? Alderman Deane I want to do it right now. I don’t want to leave here until it’s done. Alderman Chasse I am not on a power trip. I am not going to give up the Chairmanship of my committee just so you can give it to one of the Alderman-at-Large that is looking for power. Alderman Deane I looked at the job you did Alderman Chasse in Personnel and there’s a lot of things I looked at and a lot of the ways that people operated and I thought – Human Affairs for instance, why would you not want to appoint somebody the Chairman of Human Affairs who has that wealth of knowledge plus a networking of all the different organizations within a community. That’s what I thought was right for the city. That’s why I did it. Alderman Wilshire ran against me during the caucus, was I vindictive about her committee assignments? Absolutely not. I gave her everything she asked for so to paint me as a really evil person really bothers me. That’s what was done, I’m sorry. You don’t send stuff out like that – you just don’t send stuff out like that - accusatory and inflammatory comments are just out of line. I was not going to engage in that. That’s why my response was simple – thank you for your memo and that’s how I left it. This is what Ms. Lovering sent to everybody. The Budget Review Committee, Alderman Chasse has me as Chairman, Jim Donchess, Rick Dowd, Pam Brown, Ken Siegel, Dave Schoneman, and Michael Soucy. Alderman Chasse Alderman Wilshire says she would prefer having Budget instead of Finance. Alderman Soucy could go to Finance if that’s agreeable to him. Alderman Deane We need three Ward Aldermen and three Aldermen-at-Large. Alderman Donchess I want everyone to be happy and I have seen a lot of these appointments, both as an alderman and when I served as mayor. I can remember I ran for president in the term of 1979. We went twenty three ballots. One guy was supposedly not to be seated. I had his seat. I had his vote. There was a recount and he was told that he could not vote even though I had his votes. We went twenty three ballots and then we had to suspend it for a couple of weeks. In the interim two weeks, some influential people got involved and I lost a couple of votes. On the twenty fourth ballot, I lost. My reward for that was to be Chairman of the Printing & Stationery Committee. In that situation, I just did not complain. We never even met because there were never any amendments to the stationery that were required. So, I almost became the president BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 7 but my reward was Siberia. That’s that the way it went. I do want people to be happy. Personally, if you reviewed my form, yes, I got the preferences but I didn’t even request to be a committee Chair. Not that I wasn’t honored that Alderman Deane asked me to be so but I don’t consider these appointments all that important. We know that anybody can go to any committee and argue anything that the committee votes except for Finance are not binding. My experience is the last two years is that people that are not even on the committee show up and are quite influential in the debate. Sometimes the committee members don’t participate that much and so in a way; they are less influential than the people around the committee. I am willing to trade with people. I care about issues but whether I am a back bencher or note, I don’t really care. I was not a Chair or Vice Chair this term, and I pursued what I wanted and I very happy with my assignments and I was very happy with the way many of the issues came out. Alderman McCarthy gave me my preferences but he didn’t make me a committee Chair – that’s fine. I am on budget, if someone wants….I mean in one thing I notice, in looking at the preference forms, some people put number seven for budget. They wanted that to be last. The problem with that is that is by far the greatest commitment. You have to be there at 10:00pm night after night and it is difficult and grueling. What does that say to me, well, they don’t really want to do that kind of work. Maybe they are interested in other issues. Am I dying to do that again? I do consider that the most important committee but it’s tough. I put it as number two, only because I had served on it before and I know something about the budget. If someone else wants that position, I would be glad to trade with anyone on various committees. The other thing is the Joint Special Committee; I put it down as third only because I had been on the committee but if anyone wants that, I would be glad to give that up. Even the Infrastructure Chair…I don’t think this is a good start. If people want to and it would help things – if my positions were changed, I am satisfied with that. I wish someone would propose a specific change that involves me and I will probably agree to it. I emphasize that you can go to any committee, you don’t technically get to vote but you still have influence. My two thoughts which are conflicting is that I don’t like the fact that people are making such an issue over the committee assignments but on the other hand, I want people to be happy. If there is anyone who wants to change with any of the assignments I have, I will certainly consider it and probably agree to it. I proposed one or two specific changes to Alderman McCarthy which didn’t quite work out but I will consider anything with respect to my own assignments if it will make the group happier. Alderman Sheehan I know there was a suggestion that there is an issue if Alderman Soucy gets changed and we need an At-Large. I do note that Alderman McCarthy has two committees and that finance is his third choice. I don’t really know if he wants to serve in that capacity but I know it was at the top and it would not put him in an unduly number of committees. City Clerk Bergeron I might suggest as the wielder of the invisible gavel that the item of business right now is the election of the President of the Board however; the aldermen have expressed a desire to see if they can come to some resolution about how the committees are going to be formed. I think that trying to deal with all seven committees at once might be rather cumbersome and if it’s the group’s wishes to try to resolve the committee structure now, perhaps it might be better to address them one committee at a time. I will leave that to the alderman to decide. BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 8 Alderman Deane Is there a motion to go out of order for committee assignments by the President of the Board of Aldermen? MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO GO OUT OF ORDER FOR COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS MOTION CARRIED ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane Does everyone have a copy with what Alderman Chasse had presented? Does anyone have a problem with the Budget Committee? Alderman Chasse Alderman Wilshire stated that she preferred Budget over Finance and we need three Alderman- at-Large to cover the criteria. Alderman Deane Budget Committee – proposed: Alderman Deane, Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Dowd, Alderman Brown, Alderman Siegel, Alderman Schoneman, and Alderman Soucy. Finance Committee – proposed: Alderman Deane, Alderman Chasse, Alderman Moriarty, Alderman Brown, Alderman Siegel, and Alderman Donchess. That’s six plus the mayor is seven. You don’t have to worry, I have been talking to Alderman Dowd about reducing that committee down to eight people and we can do that. Corporation Counsel has told us is that the state RSA reads equal numbers of each Board. So, if we had four B.O.E. members and four aldermen then we wouldn’t be paying all of these people that come in to give presentations in the middle of the summer. They’d show up and we wouldn’t have a quorum and they’d have to leave. We will reduce that committee from eighteen down to eight. Alderman Dowd was very receptive to that idea. The plan was to appoint the nine B.O.E. members and the nine aldermen and then when it comes time to start to bring that number to a more realistic area, then I think we will approach different people to see if they would like to stay or go. Alderman Dowd feels that he has an overwhelming amount of people that would like to go. PEDC: Alderman McCarthy, Chairman; Diane Sheehan, Vice Chair; Alderman Melizza-Golja, Alderman Moriarty, and Alderman McGuinness. Alderman Siegel Just to let you know, I had a desire to be on P.E.D.C. I discussed it in advance and it wasn’t going to happen based on other people’s desires so I just backed off because filling out the form didn’t particularly matter. I think you’d be hard pressed to argue that I wouldn’t have the experience to be on P.E.D.C. because I have more business experience and success pretty BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 9 much than anyone on the Board. It’s not being egotistical; it’s just based on experience. That didn’t happen. Inaudible remarks from unidentified Alderman Alderman Siegel That’s what I wrote down. I could have written down seven, if I had known we were going to go through the narcissism matrix, I probably would have changed everything around and then it would have been even different. It’s irrelevant. Alderman McCarthy That last remark was simply inflammatory and unnecessary. City Clerk Bergeron I concur. Let’s get back to the committees and frankly, it doesn’t matter which list people are looking at as long as Alderman Deane names the people that are going to be on that committee. Alderman Deane Are there any proposed changes for PEDC? Alderman McCarthy, Alderman Sheehan, Alderman Melizza-Golja, Alderman Moriarty, and Alderman McGuinness. Alderman Moriarty I would recommend that you make Brian McCarthy the Chairman of the Budget Review Committee, and putting Dave Schoneman on P.E.D.C. instead. Alderman Deane We conquered budget, we conquered finance, and now we are on P.E.D.C. Alderman Moriarty I recommend that you make Alderman Moriarty the Chair. Alderman Deane Alderman Moriarty would like to be Chair. Are there any concerns with that? Chairman McCarthy is fine with that. Alderman Deane Human Affairs: Alderman Wilshire is the Chair, Alderman Sheehan, Alderman Melizza-Golja, Alderman Caron, and Alderman Brown. I believe I had originally appointed Alderman Sheehan as the Vice Chair. This is the committee that has all of the ladies on it that I was accused of gender bias. I am so sorry. BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 10 Alderman Chasse That was one of my mistakes because Alderman Sheehan should have been Vice Chair of Human Affairs and Alderman Melizza-Golja should have been Vice Chair of P.E.D.C. Alderman Deane So, you in turn, also kept Alderman Wilshire, Alderman Sheehan, Alderman Melizza-Golja, Alderman Caron, and Alderman Brown on Human Affairs. Aldermen Brown With all due respect, I would like to sincerely apologize to you and other members of the Board if you took my comments as offensive. I did say in the memo that clearly it was simply that we all have blind spots and I did not berate you and I did not call you evil so I would just appreciate it if we could just be civil without any other comments about narcissism. Please except my humble apology, I was simply expressing my opinion which I believe you had certainly welcomed. Let’s move forward and be respectful. I have the utmost respect for you, David and I would simply like us all to work together. Alderman Deane Infrastructure: Alderman Donchess, Chairman, Alderman Sheehan, Vice Chair, Alderman Dowd, Alderman McGuinness, Alderman Schonenman. Alderman Siegel I was originally assigned to Infrastructure. All I would like to say is that I believe the city is better served with me on the Infrastructure Committee than on Personnel although I do respect Alderman Chasse’s leadership. Part of the reason I accepted the appointment to Infrastructure was both because of experience but I believe I have the time to do it and based on my experience, some of those meetings tend to be rather lengthly. Alderman Deane Is there anybody that is willing to switch with Alderman Siegel? Alderman Chasse Can I make a suggestion? How about we go right through the whole thing and then if someone wants to change a committee they can go canvas another alderman. Alderman Deane No, absolutely not, never. Alderman Siegel has an interest in serving on the Infrastructure Committee outside of Personnel. BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 11 Alderman Siegel Apparently, there are no takers. I am very happy to rescind to my request in the interest of getting through this. Alderman Deane Personnel and Administrative Affairs Alderman Chasse, Chairman; Alderman Caron, Vice Chair; Alderman McGuinness, Alderman Siegel, and Alderman Soucy. Joint Special School Building Committee: Alderman McCarthy, Alderman Chasse, Alderman Donchess, Alderman Melizza-Golja, Alderman Moriarty, Alderman Caron, Alderman Dowd, Alderman Schoneman, and Alderman Soucy. Those who are appointed to the Planning and Economic Development go the N.R.P.C. Alderman McCarthy I would ask that I be removed from the Merrimack Valley Water District because it doesn’t meet often, but when it does meet, it is on the same Thursday as the Joint Special School Building Committee and due to the careful way in which the Charter was crafted, the Nashua representative has to be there for them to hold a meeting. If someone else would like to do that, I would be more than happy to relinquish it so that we will have representation at that Board. Alderman Deane Alderman Wilshire said she is willing to step up. City Clerk Bergeron Are there any other points about the special liaisons? Alderman Donchess Thank for you for making me part of the Nashua Regional Planning Commission but I often have conflicts with some of those meetings. I know that Alderman Sheehan and Alderman Melizza-Golja may be interested in that. So, if either of them want to take over, I would be willing to…. Alderman Deane I think what we have to do by ordinance it’s the Chairman of those two different committees. Moriarty would change to McCarthy. You’ll remain the same. I’m sorry, Moriarty would remain, Jim Donchess I guess you have to contact the Vice Chair of Infrastructure which is Alderman Sheehan. That’s something you too can take up among yourselves. BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 12 Alderman Donchess Alright, I didn’t know this was by ordinance. I’ll deal with Alderman Sheehan on that. City Clerk Bergeron Are there any other Liaison Committee assignment questions or issues? City Clerk Bergeron We have addressed the potential committee assignments. The question now before the Board is the Election of the President for the Board. Alderman Wilshire I would like to at this point remove my name from consideration for the Board President. VOTE ON ELECTION OF ALDERMAN-AT-LARGE DAVID W. DEANE TO THE PRESIDENCY OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN FOR 2014-2015 BY VOICE VOTE MOTION CARRIED City Clerk Bergeron declared Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane President of the Board of Aldermen for 2014-2015. Oath of Office administered by Corporation Counsel. City Clerk Bergeron stepped down and President Deane presided. President Deane called for nominations for Vice President of the Board of Aldermen for 2014- 2015. ALDERMAN WILSHIRE NOMINATED ALDERMAN-AT-LARGE BRIAN S. McCARTHY FOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN FOR 2014-2015 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE THAT NOMINATIONS BE CLOSED MOTION CARRIED VOTE ON ELECTION OF ALDERMAN-AT-LARGE BRIAN S. MCCARTHY TO THE VICE PRESIDENCY OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN FOR 2014-2015 BY VOICE VOTE MOTION CARRIED President Deane declared Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy duly elected Vice President of the Board of Aldermen for 2014-2015. Oath of Office administered by City Clerk Bergeron President Deane called on the City Clerk to distribute the envelopes containing the numbers for the drawing of the seating in the Aldermanic Chamber. BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 13 Alderman Deane We had a request that a placard be made that says “Alderwoman” instead of “Alderman.” Are there any other ladies on the Board at this time that would like their placard changed from “Alderman” to “Alderwoman?” Alderman Melizzi-Golja Go ahead and change mine. Alderman Deane So that makes two, and Alderman Caron wants her middle initial. Seat #1 - Reserved for Vice President Seat #15 - Reserved for President Seating was drawn in the following manner: Seat # 2 Alderman Dowd Seat # 3 Alderman Schoneman Seat # 4 Alderman Caron Seat # 5 Alderman Chasse Seat # 6 Alderman McGuinness Seat # 7 Alderman Sheehan Seat # 8 Alderman Soucy Seat # 9 Alderman Donchess Seat # 10 Alderman Moriarty Seat # 11 Alderman Siegel Seat # 12 Alderman Melizzi-Golja Seat # 13 Alderman Brown Seat # 14 Alderman Wilshire ALDERMAN WILSHIRE MOVED THAT THE COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS AS DISCUSSED AND AMENDED EARLIER BE ACCEPTED BY VOICE VOTE MOTION CARRIED REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN Alderman Deane I really didn’t bring any prepared remarks but there are a few things I’d like to see us accomplish this term. I’ve spoken with Alderman Dowd. I have an interest in seeing how the rest of everybody else is doing that we approve funding for. I’ve asked Alderman Dowd to speak with the Board of Education. I think we should be meeting every three or four months with the Board of Ed to see how things are going over here. I’m going to ask Alderman Wilshire, and I’m sure she’ll do it, to speak with the Police Chief. I think we ought to be bringing them in the same way. It’s a big department. I think it’s good to keep track of what’s going on, not necessarily dictate any terms of how they run their operations but just to see how things are going through the fiscal year so we don’t end up with any surprises. I looked at the fire department and that’s a smoothly run organization but I still wouldn’t mind having Chief BOA - Organizational - 01/05/14 Page 14 Morrissey come in. I want to look at their long-term plan. I think we should be looking at their long-term plan and what they are doing with their facilities and their vehicles and everything else. Then we have public works which is probably one of the largest nuts other than the school district that absolutely has a daily affect on all of us within the community. The most important parts of the daily operations are distributed by the Public Works Department between wastewater, solid waste, the folks that are out taking care of the streets and sidewalks, the park and recreation programs and things of that nature. Perhaps Director Fauteux could pop in once in awhile when asked to give us an update. I think that would be helpful as well. I want to see us move forward and get some things accomplished. I want to thank everyone for their participation. REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN Alderman Schoneman I’m looking forward to working with everyone. Alderman Caron David, I had no problem with committee assignments but I do want to say I think that you stood up with the requests that came through from some of your fellow aldermen and their concerns. It shows that you’re going to be a good leader and you’re going to work hard. As Attorney General Foster said, we can disagree but we have to work together. Compromise is always a good thing, and I thank you so we can move forward. Now my 88-year-old mother needs to have lunch. Alderwoman Brown I would like to thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart and to commend you for showing your leadership to us. I’d like to invite everyone to give President Deane a hand of applause. Alderman McCarthy Alderman Deane, I really do want to thank you for the work that you did here today and for your willingness to serve. I look forward to working with you to make Nashua a better place to live. Thank you. ADJOURNMENT ALDERMAN WILSHIRE MOVED FOR ADJOURNMENT OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF JANUARY 5, 2014 MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared adjourned at 1:55 p.m. by President Deane. Attest: Paul R. Bergeron, City Clerk