Aldermen, Board of

A regular meeting of the Board of Aldermen was held Tuesday, January 26, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. President Brian S. McCarthy presided; City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch recorded. Prayer was offered by City Clerk Patricia D. Piecuch; Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson led in the Pledge to the Flag. The roll call was taken with 15 members of the Board of Aldermen present Mayor James W. Donchess and Corporation Counsel Stephen M. Bennett were also present. REMARKS BY THE MAYOR Mayor Donchess First I wanted to point out the report we put on your desk regarding what we are calling the Opioid Task Force meeting that we held last week. We called together people from prevention, treatment, recovery, and law enforcement and we’ve given you a list of the people who attended in order to try to improve communications a health crisis in our community. The meeting went very well. I think we did identify communication gaps that exist. We talked about additional things that we can do in the city. I think that people are working so hard in their various areas that often they don’t meet each other and have an opportunity to talk with each other. Specifically I think we can do more with the outreach effort of working with the Nashua Prevention Coalition. Also, trying to stimulate the greater availability of treatment beds in our region and recovery support for people who have emerged from treatment after 28 or 90 days or even longer and need support in their daily lives as time goes on. In any event, it is a very important issue and I wrote this up for you so you could get a sense, if you wish to read it, what the kind of things that were discussed and just let you know that I think it went well and we will be holding future meetings. Number two is that we’ve gone through five Ward input meetings in Wards 9, 1, 6, 7 and 4 in that order. I’ve only fallen once going into the meetings and so only one torn pair of pants so far. I think things are going very well. We’ve had a number of members of the Board who have come. Alderman McCarthy and Alderman Wilshire have been to all of them. Alderman O’Brien has been to nearly all of them and the Ward Alderman have come from each of the Wards where we’ve held the meeting. A lot of people have come and they have given us some very positive input and very interesting thoughts about what their hopes are and what they think is important to the city as well as some neighborhood problems that we want to try to address going forward. We have the Ward 3 meeting tomorrow night, the Ward 5 meeting on Thursday and then subsequent Wards 8 and 2. I hope anyone who can attend will and I think you will learn something. Finally I wanted to update you on the building we purchased on Burke Street. Of course we want to move forward with that project as soon as we can. I asked the Director of Public Works, Lisa Fauteux to put together a group of people to define the project for us and so Alderman Deane and Paul Bergeron from the Board of Public Works are working with Lisa and some other staff members to define the project and will begin with making a recommendation to this Board, to the Finance Committee regarding what architect should be chosen to proceed with that project. There was an issue that came up this past week or so regarding the building. As you probably know the building that we acquired includes a very large garage along with a 50,000 square foot office building. At this point while we are waiting to decide exactly how to proceed and what to do to renovate this facility, the office building is heated and sprinkered but the main garage is not. The issue came up if the garage should be heated and sprinklered and the information we came up with was first of all that we can increase the insurance on the entire facility to $12 million which gives us good coverage. We bought it for $4.2 million. In addition the cost of heating the garage so that we could sprinkler it would be $100,000 in addition to regular utility cost between now and the spring and furthermore the heating system is not very good at this point so that if we were to sprinkler it the pipes might freeze causing water damage and thirdly if there were a fire Board of Aldermen – 1/26/16 Page 2 in the garage area it’s not that vulnerable to fire; if there were a fire we would probably have a partial loss and we could recover that through insurance. The joint decision that we made involving the people that I mentioned and the Risk Manager and a couple of other people was that the best course was to simply leave the garage as it is and up the insurance and not spend $100,000. In any event I think we are getting a good start on that project and I think we can accomplish a number of things by undertaking it which we have discussed before and I’m sure we will discuss again but I wanted to update you on what had happened. With that, Mr. President, I will conclude. RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR Alderman McCarthy I will comment that while I have tried to make all of the Ward meetings, I will not unfortunately be able to make the one for Ward 5 which is the Ward I live in, of course, because it conflicts with the JSSBC meeting. Alderman Lopez I’d like to make a comment on the task force for the opioid epidemic. I’m really glad that you are taking the initiative to really move this forward and address such an important need in our city and I’m also impressed with the inclusion of somebody who is experiencing or working their way through a recovery program through one of the stakeholders that you are looking for the task force. I think that will give you some real insight into the current state of recovery services and act as a necessary party to the table. I’m just curious if you have thought of coordinating with the drug court program to identify somebody who might be able to do that who is going through that at this time? Mayor Donchess I don’t know if we put on our list that the drug court was there represented by one of the attorney’s. Maybe it’s not on the list but yes, that’s a good avenue we want to use. I would just say for those who want to learn more, because I learned quite a bit by watching it, there is a HBO documentary out called Heroin Cape Cod USA and it’s about heroin addiction on Cape Cod and the focus of it is a series of interviews with families and mostly younger people who are addicted to heroin and it’s very chilling. It’s filmed over about six months and there are people who have overdosed and died and one woman disappeared. It gives you some insight as to what we are really up against. It’s a very worthwhile learning experience. RECOGNITION PERIOD – None READING MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE THAT THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETINGS OF JANUARY 10, 2016, AND JANUARY 12, 2016, BE ACCEPTED, PLACED ON FILE AND THE READINGS SUSPENDED MOTION CARRIED COMMUNICATIONS MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE THAT THE RULES BE SO FAR SUSPENDED AS TO ALLOW FOR THE READING OF A COMMUNICATION RECEIVED AFTER THE AGENDA WAS PREPARED BY TITLE ONLY MOTION CARRIED Board of Aldermen – 1/26/16 Page 3 From: Brian S. McCarthy, President, Board of Aldermen Re: Liaisons Appointments to the Nashua City Planning Board MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND THAT THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN WAIVE THE PROVISIONS OF NRO 5-9 B(4)(G), AND CONCUR WITH THE PRESIDENT’S APPOINTMENT OF ALDERMAN MCGUINNESS AS PRIMARY AND ALDERMAN LOPEZ AS ALTERNATE MEMBERS OF THE NASHUA CITY PLANNING BOARD MOTION CARRIED PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT RELATIVE TO ITEMS EXPECTED TO BE ACTED UPON THIS EVENING - None PETITIONS – None NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND ELECTIONS Appointments by the Mayor The following appointment by the mayor was read into the record: Business & Industrial Development Authority Lydia J. Foley (New Appointment) Term to Expire: September 13, 2017 2 Bruce Street Nashua, NH 03064 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT THE APPOINTMENT SA READ AND REFER IT TO THE PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MOTION CARRIED REPORTS OF COMMITTEE Finance Committee............................................................................. 01/20/16 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the January 20, 2016 Finance Committee accepted and placed on file. Substandard Living Conditions Special Committee ............................. 01/19/16 There being no objection, President McCarthy declared the report of the January 19, 2016 Substandard Living Conditions Special Committee accepted and placed on file. WRITTEN REPORTS FROM LIAISONS - None CONFIRMATION OF MAYOR'S APPOINTMENTS - None UNFINISHED BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS – None UNFINISHED BUSINESS – ORDINANCES – None Board of Aldermen – 1/26/16 Page 4 NEW BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS R-16-001 Endorser: Alderman Benjamin M. Clemons Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy ESTABLISHING AN EXPENDABLE TRUST FUND FOR APPROPRIATIONS FOR DOWNTOWN IMPROVEMENTS AND TRANSFERRING UP TO $170,439.20 INTO THE EXPENDABLE TRUST FUND Given its first reading; assigned to the BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE by President McCarthy R-16-002 Endorser: Alderman Richard A. Dowd Alderman Benjamin M. Clemons Alderwoman Maryann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Thomas Lopez APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF A COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE NASHUA BOARD OF EDUCATION AND THE NASHUA TEACHERS’ UNION, LOCAL 1044, AFT, AFL-CIO, UNIT B PARA-EDUCATORS FROM JULY 1, 2015, THROUGH JUNE 30, 2017, AND AUTHORIZING RELATED TRANSFERS Given its first reading; assigned to the BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE by President McCarthy R-16-003 Endorsers: Alderman Richard A. Dowd Alderman Benjamin M. Clemons Alderwoman Maryann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Thomas Lopez APPROVING THE COST ITEMS OF A COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE NASHUA BOARD OF EDUCATION AND THE NASHUA TEACHERS’ UNION, LOCAL 1044, AFT, AFL-CIO, UNIT D, FOOD SERVICE WORKERS FROM SEPTEMBER 1, 2015, THROUGH AUGUST 31, 2018 Given its first reading; assigned to the BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE by President McCarthy R-16-004 Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess Alderman Richard A. Dowd Alderwoman Maryann Melizzi-Golja Alderman June M. Caron Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr. RELATIVE TO THE APPROPRIATION OF $9,282 FROM ACCOUNT #107-51 “CITY CLERK – SALARIES & WAGES” INTO NEW ACCOUNT #107-71 “CITY CLERK – EQUIPMENT” FOR THE PURCHASE OF A COLOR LASER PRINTER Given its first reading; assigned to the BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE by President McCarthy R-16-005 Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderwoman Maryann Melizzi-Golja Alderman June M. Caron Alderman Benjamin M. Clemons Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr. Alderman Thomas Lopez RELATIVE TO THE ACCEPTANCE AND APPROPRIATION OF $25,000 FROM THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, DEPARTMENT OF SAFETY “STATE HOMELAND SECURITY GRANT PROGRAM” INTO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT GRANT ACTIVITY “2015 HOMELAND SECURITY GRANT PROGRAM” Given its first reading; assigned to the HUMAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE by President McCarthy Board of Aldermen – 1/26/16 Page 5 R-16-006 Endorser: Mayor Jim Donchess Alderman Richard A. Dowd Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr. RELATIVE TO THE TRANSFER OF $200,000 FROM DEPARTMENT 194 “CONTINGENCY”, ACCOUNT #70100 “GENERAL CONTINGENCY” INTO VARIOUS ACCOUNTS FOR RETIREMENT AND UTILITY COSTS Given its first reading; assigned to the BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE by President McCarthy NEW BUSINESS – ORDINANCES – None PERIOD FOR GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT Ms. Mary Elizabeth Carroll, 9 ½ Chandler Street I’d like to talk about the environment. I was here last year. There was a chemical spill in November of 2013 and I reported it to four or five people but they didn’t do anything. I’ve been in the hospital six times because of this in the last two years. I went to my mother’s again in 2015 and her chairs were contaminated in her kitchen and I got an electric shock. There were three houses in Lowell that were pretty bad with the airborne chemicals. I am going to go to the Lowell Board of Health and report it when I find out where it is. I went to the Marblehead Board of Health in January because my mother’s clothes at Christmas were really bad. I thought I was going into cardiac arrest; I doubled up in pain and had an itchy contamination feeling. I saw the chemicals on my mother’s jacket; six pieces on her arm and six on her back. I told her and she didn’t believe me because she couldn’t feel it. It is an allergy like the bed bugs. Body lice is an allergy too and my whole family thinks I’m crazy over that. People have a right to know what is in their skin. The environmental health lady in Nashua is keeping her mouth shut and that’s not right. The President of the United States told us all about the Ebola Virus because he cares. It’s winter now so we can’t see anything now but in April I want some help. Mr. Bernie Cody, 22 Greenley Street I have a question on R-15-001. What exactly are they going to improve downtown? President McCarthy We can’t really respond to questions during the public comment period but I’m sure Alderman Clemons would be willing to respond during Remarks by Members of the Board. Mr. Cody When is the city going to start cleaning sidewalks when it snows? It’s not being done because on East Hollis Street, they are not clean at all. People in electric wheelchairs have to ride on the street. REMARKS BY THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN Alderman Wilshire The Nashua Police Department has been notified by the U.S. Department of Justice that the drug forfeiture funds that they have been receiving have been put on hold. Apparently it’s to balance the federal budget. I reached out to the delegation; Ayotte, Shaheen and Kuster to see what information they could give us because it’s big money for the Nashua Police Department. It funds their narcotics unit and in a time when we are having such an opioid crisis. There were 350 deaths in New Hampshire last year so it’s not a good time to cut money. If you are interested in this please feel free to reach out to your delegation. Board of Aldermen – 1/26/16 Page 6 Alderman Clemons I just want to remind everyone to vote on February 9th for whoever might become our next President. In regards to the gentleman who had a question regarding the legislation, R-16-001; that intends to create a trust fund for monies that have already been designated for downtown so all it does is move money that has already been allocated for improvements for downtown into a designated account. Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja Signs Café on February 17th; their topic is going to be Opioids and Addiction. They have two speakers at a minimum and there is a presentation and then a question and answer. President McCarthy I would encourage everyone to go out and vote on the 9th and as a result of that the next meeting of this Board will be on the 10th. I would remind members of the public, because I’ve received three calls in the last couple of days, that there is no Windows Technical Department that will call you about problems with your computer. It is a scam. Alderman Lopez I wanted to remind the Board of Aldermen that tomorrow is the Homeless Connect Event at Harbor Homes from 11:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. It’s an opportunity for the public to meet support or non-profit organizations. A lot of the work has been done by Bob Mack from the Health Department and I wanted to recognize him for that leadership. If there is anybody in the public who is in that situation or needs help with that you are definitely welcome to come as well. There should be haircuts, lunch and a lot of organizations that are ready to help you. Committee announcements: Alderman Dowd This Thursday is the JSSB and CPC starting at 6:30 p.m. with the organizational meeting with the five members of the Board of Education as well. Budget will be on Thursday, February 18th and following that we will have Budget meetings on the fourth Monday of every month for now. Alderman Clemons Personnel & Administrative Affairs Committee will be on Monday, February 1st at 7:00 p.m. here in the Chamber and moving forward we will have those meetings monthly on the first Monday of every month as needed. Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja Planning and Economic Development Committee will be meeting on Tuesday, February 2nd at 7:00 p.m. and we will continue meeting on the first and third Tuesday’s of the month unless there is no business at that time. Alderman Wilshire Human Affairs will meet here at 7:00 p.m. on February 8th. Board of Aldermen – 1/26/16 Page 7 Alderman Dowd The two union contracts that are on here; I would ask that the members on the Budget Review Committee to review those and if you have any questions to please send them to me and I’ll get the answers from the school department and forward them on to all of the Aldermen. It would be real helpful to have reviewed the two packages and have your questions answered beforehand so we can have a shortened discussion when we discuss it at the Budget meeting. Alderman Siegel The Substandard Living Conditions Committee will meet next on February 11th. We’ve reached out to the landlords of some of the properties that we have talked to and we will see what happens, hopefully we will get some responses and see what they have to say. ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE THAT THE JANUARY 26, 2016, MEETING OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN BE ADJOURNED MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared adjourned at 7:59 p.m. Attest: Patricia D. Piecuch, City Clerk