Budget Review Committee

BUDGET REVIEW COMMITTEE MAY 26, 2011 A meeting of the Budget Review Committee was held Thursday, May 26, 2011 at 7:04 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane, Chair presided. Members of Committee present: Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson, Vice Chair (7:11 p.m.) Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox (7:18 p.m.) Alderman Diane Sheehan (7:10 p.m.) Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Members not in Attendance: Alderman Richard P. Flynn Also in Attendance: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Alderman Clemons Mr. Chairman, Alderman Sheehan let me know that she was running a bit late, but intended to be here. Chairman Deane Thank you. Alderman Cox is running a bit late. He had some sort of appointment that went a little longer than he thought it was going to. I haven’t heard from Alderman Cookson, but I think he is going to be here as well. If one of you folks will sit in to help us make a quorum. Alderman McCarthy That would be Alderman Clemons. Alderman McCarthy I was going to suggest it may make sense for the committee to elect a temporary clerk given that Alderman Flynn is not likely to be here through the duration of the process. Chairman Deane I was going to probably do that at a later date. There is really not much clerking to do right now. Alderman McCarthy I was at mixed emotions over whether doing it while most of the likely suspects aren’t here to object. Chairman Deane That is a nice idea, but I ruffle enough feathers without doing something like that. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 2 Alderman McCarthy It might make sense to do it when they are here though. Chairman Deane The Mayor is here, the police department is here. There were a couple of Commissioners that were going to run a little late so I told them 7:30 p.m. we would start the police department review, although the public library is here, if the Director of the Public Library…it says libraries… Jennifer Hinderer, Library Director There is only one. Chairman Deane We will have to make that change. If you would like to introduce yourself? DEPARTMENTAL REVIEWS Public Libraries Public Libraries (575) Jennifer Hinderer I’m unfortunately here by myself. My Assistant Director has been out sick this week and the Chair of my board is a golf pro and was scheduled to work this evening, and I suspect he is still out on the course somewhere, but he should be joining us shortly. Mayor Lozeau Technically she has two trustees here. Jennifer Hinderer That is true. Mayor Lozeau So you are not alone. I don’t usually stay for the library but… Chairman Deane I hope the fellow on the golf course is on the course and not in the woods. Jennifer Hinderer I hope so too. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 3 Chairman Deane The public library revenue starts on page 54. The revenue stream is not that large. It is showing a 9% reduction. Jennifer Hinderer If I could comment on that. Chairman Deane Please do. Jennifer Hinderer You will see 706, the sale of History of Nashua Books that is incorrectly on that sheet. Those revenues actually get deposited to a trust fund, a 975 account. Revenues for the sale of that book to date this year are $1,397, but that gets reflected in a different spot so you will see for the upcoming fiscal year we have no estimate of revenue for this particular revenue account. Chairman Deane So the 706 does not belong in there. Jennifer Hinderer Right. Chairman Deane Thank you for that. Does anyone have any questions of the revenues of the library? Being none, we can go to your general appropriations, which are on page 180 in our book. Would you like to walk us through some of the changes that you are proposing? Jennifer Hinderer I would like to address how I got to the 3% reduction. There are some decreases and some increases. I will just step through, and stop me if you have questions. The major reduction in my budget is in the salaries, a total of $76,510. That represents one full-time assistant librarian, one part-time security guard, and two part-time pages, which are high school students that do shelving for us. The full-time assistant library, that position is in our outreach department and that cut is actually not entirely driven by the 3% reduction, but addresses an unsustainable business model so our outreach program will be changing from delivery by van to individual homes and nursing homes to a books by mail system instead, which is very successful in a number of library systems across the country including big ones like New York and San Francisco. You will see there are some increases related to that later on in the budget. Chairman Deane Let the record reflect that Alderman Sheehan has arrived. Alderman Sheehan we are on page 180. We did discuss the revenues briefly. There was just one change with a book that was being sold that didn’t Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 4 belong in there to begin with. It was placed in the wrong area of the budget. We are currently discussing the 11991 adjustment payroll reductions. So the full-time assistant, what was the total salary no that? Jennifer Hinderer It is $41,827 is her salary. Chairman Deane And the balance of that is made up by the… Jennifer Hinderer Two pages and one part-time security guard. Chairman Deane Let the record reflect that Alderman Cookson has arrived. We are on page 180, and discussing the 11991 payroll reduction. Will this be part of the R-11-115 Mayor? Mayor Lozeau It will be. The CBA as introduced by resolution includes a provision that returns funds that the library has prioritized how those funds will be spent. The two pages will be restored. Sunday hours – there will be more Sundays able to be utilized, and then an amount of just under $5,000 goes back to books and media. Should that CBA pass and the companion legislation pass, those are how those funds will be used. Chairman Deane So the library outreach vehicle what happens to that? Jennifer Hinderer We will keep that and continue to maintain that and we will use that as much as possible for local travel for staff to meetings and local conferences and trainings, and hopefully that will cut down on our mileage budget somewhat. The trustees were interested in keeping the vehicle at least for now. Chairman Deane I am sure you are familiar with the history of the huge bookmobile we used to have. Jennifer Hinderer Yes. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 5 Chairman Deane And then the huge bookmobile went down to the van, now the van is being kept for other purposes, the position is being eliminated, and you are finding another way to do the outreach program. Jennifer Hinderer Just to give a little bit of reference, on our analysis, it was costing about $18 per visit to patron to deliver materials. With the books by mail model we are estimating it will be closer to $6 per delivery just in the postage. A number of those patrons will actually be eligible for free postage if they have a visual disability or are blind. We will still be delivering library materials to home-bound patrons just in a more efficient and cost-effective and sustainable way. Chairman Deane How many folks utilize this service? Do you know offhand? Jennifer Hinderer We have 294 customers currently. Thirty or forty of those at least are teachers and daycares and preschools. A number of them are residents in assisted living facilities that may be able to come to the library or they may qualify for the mail delivery. Chairman Deane Did anyone have any questions of the director in this area on these changes in the positions? Alderman Clemons You said there was a part-time security guard that was eliminated. What was that person’s role and how is eliminating that position going to affect the library? Jennifer Hinderer That person worked 4 evenings a week and Saturdays, and we have another full-time security guard who worked 4 daytime days during the week, four day shifts, one evening, and Sundays. The model that we are establishing instead is our full-time security guard will shift to an evening shift so Monday through Thursday he will be working in the evenings, Fridays the library will be closing at 5:30 p.m. instead of 9:00 p.m., our full-time security guard will work Saturdays, and then Sundays when he is available at the overtime rate as established in the contract. Alderman Clemons Okay. I guess my only other question is what kind of affect is that going to have on the library? Having two people seems to me to sound like a better idea. Is that going to affect any of the purposes of what a security guard does over there? Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 6 Jennifer Hinderer I think that my senior staff and I have a good plan for accommodating the tasks that our daytime security guard does between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. The way the previous library administration had that job structured is our security guards did a number of housekeeping tasks and emptied the book drops, and things that other people on staff can do. The critical hours for security to be there are in the afternoons when schools get out, around supper time, and in the evenings when it is time to close. I think we have a good workflow worked out so I think we can accommodate this. Alderman Clemons Okay. Thank you. Chairman Deane Are there any other questions? Alderman Sheehan If you are closing Fridays are you going to be doing the Cabaret Cinema at a different day or time? Jennifer Hinderer Bruce has picked a different weeknight for that, and I apologize I can’t tell you off the top of my head when that will happen. Alderman Sheehan Okay. I just didn’t want to see it go. I know it is a very popular… Jennifer Hinderer Neither do we. Friday nights are really, besides people checking out DVDs and the Cinema Cabaret is not a busy night for us. We are the only library in New Hampshire that currently is open on Friday nights so it seemed like the least painful cut for our patrons. Alderman Sheehan Thank you. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Where does the Chandler Building show up with respect to the library and the budget? Is there any oversight for the Chandler Building at this point? Jennifer Hinderer The only oversight of the Chandler Building is our maintenance staff visits it approximately weekly to check on it. I approve the expenses and go to visit to make sure it is still standing. We have a realtor in there frequently showing it and keeps an eye on the building for us, but it is essentially closed and vacant. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 7 Alderman Cookson So maintenance would be the only line item within your current budget that is affected by… Jennifer Hinderer Precisely. The other expenses, I’m sorry to clarify Alderman Cookson, are paid for out of the Chandler Trust and the Locke Trust. Alderman Cookson Thank you very much. Chairman Deane Let the record reflect that Alderman Cox has arrived. Alderman Cox we are on page 180. We just ended up getting an overview of the 11991 payroll adjustment reductions. Alderman Cox Thank you Mr. Chairman. Alderman Sheehan Should that building sell, will that go back into your own and will we look at restoration of some of these cuts at that point? Jennifer Hinderer Should the building sell, those funds are dedicated to the renovation of the east wing of the library, which is the last remaining undeveloped territory. It is where the biographies currently live and a lot of storage. The trustees worked out an agreement with the heirs to the Chandler Trust that upon the sale of the building that we would restore that area and it will be named for Mabel Chandler and have some architectural details in keeping with the building. Alderman Sheehan Thank you. Chairman Deane Are there any other questions in this area? Alderman Cox, I hate to do this to you, but can you go over the plan of the $76,510 reduction just one more time for Alderman Cox just so he is… Jennifer Hinderer Sure. So to achieve that $76,510 reduction, I took one step, which was to reorganize the way we do our outreach service so instead of delivery by van to people’s homes and nursing homes and schools, we will have a books by mail service available for homebound patrons. The other reductions in there is one part- Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 8 time security guard, and that will lead to the library being closed a little earlier on Fridays, and two of my part-time pages positions are also included in that reduction. Alderman Cox Thank you. Chairman Deane But then if the R-11-115 is passed and the contract is approved, the positions, other than the full-time assistant, the other positions will be… Jennifer Hinderer The two pages would be restored, not the part-time security guard. Chairman Deane Thank you. Are there any other questions in this area? Are there any other parts of the budget you would like to walk us through that you have made reductions in other than your 11 line? Jennifer Hinderer There are some other small reductions; $10,063 in our books and media line and we will make up that difference. The Trustees have committed to using trust funds to make up that difference. I would like to draw, I think in the increases line, the big increase you will see is in our postage line, and forgive me I forget the number. That was increased from $4,000; it is the 43 line, to $13,408. That looks alarming. That is the postage cost that we anticipate for the books by mail program. The other increase that looks a little bit unusual this year is in the 64 line for computer expenses. In previous years the library’s computer purchases those costs were transferred and became CERF cost, but in speaking with the Mayor and the CFO we are not using that procedure this year so those expenses are staying in the library budget. I reduced that number from $20,000 to $15,000. The City IT Department already helps us with selecting and purchasing items and they also have agreed to help us with equipment and funds as necessary. Those are, for me, the high points. Unless people have questions those are the major reductions or increases. Alderman Cookson You may have mentioned this already prior to my arrival this evening, but what was the cost associated with the outreach program, the delivery of those books or media to the different facilities? Jennifer Hinderer The figure that I quoted was $17.99 per visit so bear with me while I pull out my spreadsheet and that was not including overhead. That included the salary for the full-time librarian, some material funds, maintenance for the vehicle, and office supplies for the outreach office. We have cut that, and my estimate, and it is a brand new program for us so we are not sure what the participation will be like, is that the cost will be more like $6 per delivery in postage costs and staff time. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 9 Alderman Cookson So the increase of $7,000 equates to a new cost of $6 per delivery? Jennifer Hinderer Right. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Chairman Deane But there was also the reduction of $41,827 from that position. Alderman Cookson Exactly. Jennifer Hinderer Right. Chairman Deane Does anyone else have any questions of the library director? Alderman Cookson Thank you. I know in the recent past you have a tutoring online program. Jennifer Hinderer Yes. Alderman Cookson How is that going, and what is the status of it as far as the license and the renewal? Jennifer Hinderer Thank you for asking that. It is incredibly popular. At the cost of $22,000 we are able to fund around 2,800 sessions for this year and students have used virtually all of them. That cost was not included in this budget. The Trustees have agreed to work with me to find other funding outside of city funds, and we are also hopefully going to be submitting an RFP for that with the understanding that as far as we know there is only one other company in the country that provides that same service, but we are hoping to get a little more competitive pricing. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 10 Alderman Cookson Thank you. Chairman Deane Any other questions of the library director? Is your schedule open next Wednesday evening? I was looking at our budget schedule is pretty crammed, and what I was going to do is try to schedule a meeting immediately following the Finance Committee. There are five items on that agenda. The only thing that would be on the agenda would be the collective bargaining agreement. Would you be able to attend that? Jennifer Hinderer Is that June 1st? Chairman Deane Wednesday night. Jennifer Hinderer Yes that is fine. I will be available. Chairman Deane I would like to do that and just have that one item immediately following Finance and I will contact Steve Bennett in the legal office and let him know, because we have a 30 day window to work within so I wanted to just take that one item up. We will see you next Wednesday night then. Thank you very much. Jennifer Hinderer Thank you very much. Chairman Deane Next is Department 531. Public Safety Police Department (531) Law Enforcement Training (6200) Chairman Deane How are you Chief? Donald Conley, Chief of Police Doing well, thank you. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 11 Chairman Deane Did you have any forward before we get started? Normally somebody says something. Donald Conley I would like to defer to Police Commissioner Thomas Pappas if I may. Chairman Deane Absolutely. Donald Conley Thank you. Thomas Pappas, Commissioner, Board of Police Commissioners Thank you Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I would describe our budget as both a challenging and aggressive budget. It reflects a number of things not the least of which is the financial; circumstances facing the City, and that was certainly taken into account in coming up with the budget. Initially the process that we typically go through is to look at what we think is the department needs and start the budget on that process and then go from there. That started, as you might imagine, higher than the current budget. We initially proposed a budget as indicated in your package and if you haven’t had a chance to review the package, I know you have a lot of things you are receiving, but I encourage you to do so because there is a lot of information in the package not only about the department but the way the department operates and how we are affected by other agencies. As you will see in the cover letter, we initially proposed a budget that was higher than what is before you. But then we recognized that we are part of the whole and we dug deep and came in at -3%. I, as I said, I describe that as both challenging and aggressive because we will be challenged to provide the same level of service, but we think we can and we think the department will work hard to do so. We are confident management will put in place things to provide the same level of service as the City is accustomed to receiving. But I need to say that certainly the police department and its costs are dependent on some factors that are beyond its control. I am not telling you anything you don’t know. The number of calls for service remains high and the types of crimes certainly affects what happens during the year in the police budget. If you have one homicide a year it makes a difference as if you have unfortunately more that one homicide a year. If you have one call out of SR Team, the SWAT team, that is one level of expense, if you have 3 or 4 or 5 calls out to the SR Team, that is another level of expense. Large crowd disturbances, political events; we are coming into the primary season, those can be expensive. There are a number of things beyond the departments’ control that the department will try its best to manage and they are constantly looking at costs, particularly overtime costs, and looking and devising new ways to manage overtime costs, but there are just some things beyond the department’s control that just no amount of management or planning can take into account. If any one of these kinds of events spikes, that could be a problem. We hope not and hope not based on history, but I think people need to recognize that. Hopefully the trend will stay as it has and we will be okay, but that is a trend that we can’t control. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 12 I think the department has done a very good job in managing, controlling, and bringing down its overtime costs. I think that is attributable to really two things; first full compliment has made a big difference. Having the full compliment of officers has made a substantial difference in reducing overtime because you just have simply more bodies that you can use on straight time. When you are open 3 shifts a day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year you just need so many positions filled to provide the service. The second thing I think is management. Management has consistently looked at overtime and the use of overtime and has changed the way the department has operated in a number of areas, and I think that has had a significant impact on overtime as well. I think the combination of those two things has made a difference. You can see it in the trend of the numbers, and we hope that will continue to have a difference. There is also one other item in this budget that you probably should be aware of, and that is there have been a larger than usual number of retirements this year and most recently, and I suspect that perhaps some other departments may be experiencing that as well. That will take us a bit of time to get back up to full compliment because it takes some time to recruit people, send then through the background checks and the processes, and even after you get to the point where you can hire them, they still need to go to the academy and be trained and so forth. With the number of recent retirements, there is going to be a little bit of a lag in getting back up to full compliment. The department will work hard to do so, but that will have some impact. It has a little bit of impact on this budget and hopefully it won’t have an impact going forward. But if suddenly we get another rash of retirements obviously that will have an impact. Hopefully we won’t. Those are some of the things that you should be aware of going forward. Finally, I think what I would like to also say is one of the things the department in the four years I have been on this commission has consistently looked at is the way that crime and the way that we combat crime is evolving. As both a fairly good size city for the State of New Hampshire but also sort of a sandwich city between some of the Massachusetts cities and Manchester to the north of us, crime continues to evolve or at least criminal activity continues to evolve, and the department needs to continue to evolve in order to provide the level of service and provide safety. One area where you will see in the packet there is a fair amount on data collection, data analysis, and then acting upon that. That is going to be more and more important going forward in order to first collect good data in the field, get that data into software, and the hands of crime analysis so they can work with it and make it useful and then get it back out into the field so that we can solve crimes and stay ahead of it. It was important in cracking a number of burglaries, it was important in cracking that chop shop that was occurring here, it was important in helping some of the graffiti. It is going to get more important going forward. Keeping up with that is going to be critical. Going forward I think that there is going to certainly be a need to maintain and frankly increase the level of capacity ability electronically in the data field. I say that as a preview to saying that certainly given the circumstances we are in today, this as I first described as sort of both a challenging and aggressive budget, we feel comfortable that certainly the department will work very hard to make this work, but candidly I don’t think it is sustainable long term. But this is a year to year budget and the year budget in front of you. Going forward, there are going to be some needs that in order to continue to maintain the services that the City is used to, accustomed to, and I think deserves, we need to stay ahead not only in terms of manpower but in terms of capabilities or we will simply fall behind, and we don’t want to do that. I don’t foresee doing that, I just feel obligated to not only tell you what is in front of you today, but to give you some sense of what to you are looking at down the road. With that, I am happy to answer any questions. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 13 Alderman Clemons Mr. Chairman I think we overlooked the fact, probably because we are not used to this new process, but I think we might have skipped the public comment period. Chairman Deane We did. Is there anyone here that would like to give public comment? Matthew Plante, 17 Roby Street I can wait until this session is done. Chairman Deane Are you sure? Matthew Plante Yes sir. Chairman Deane Okay. Thank you. Revenues start on page 40. Karen do you want to just give us an overview of this? Karen Smith, Business Manager Sure. Revenues are pretty straightforward from last year. Projections didn’t change too much. It is straightforward as far as the $108,550 going to $114,600. I really don’t have anything prepared to speak to on it. Are there any questions that want to be addressed on the revenues? Chairman Deane Does anyone have any questions in this revenue area at all? Alderman Cookson Thank you. I would just ask about the Fire Alarm System Fines being increased from $16,000 to $20,000. Why would we see an increase in alarm system fines? Karen Smith It is just a projection based on the alarm system fines that have come in this year. We’re basing it on our revenues that have come in. The percentage that had come in at the time the budget was prepared; we look to next year probably being about the same as all of the forecast, nothing more. Alderman Cookson Are those both commercial as well as residential? Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 14 Karen Smith Yes. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Chairman Deane That technology has changed so much especially with all of the motion detectors, those things are always so sensitive that…and sometimes they just go off for no reason at all. Alderman Cookson Is that what the fine is, if they have to… Chairman Deane I guess you get a couple of graces and then if it is a persistent problem then they… Alderman Cookson …if you have to respond? Karen Smith Yes. The ordinance is that every year a person receives four free activations if it goes off, and then after that there is a $25 fine. We also have an individual in our department that works on a receivables who is very current at making contact with not just this but also our outside details, all of our receivables, and they are very much up to date so that helps with the fact that the receivables are in and collected. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Karen Smith You are welcome. Alderman Clemons What is criminal registration fees? Karen Smith That is a newer fee that is imposed. That is the detective bureau. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 15 Donald Conley We believe it is the sexual offender registrations. Alderman Clemons Kind of alarming that it is going up to $3,000 for that. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing or if it reflects just the fact that more of those folks are registered or if it reflects that more of them are moving into the City. Donald Conley I think it reflects a steady number of people who…we are fairly consistent with the number, it is usually between 140-150 registered offenders so I think that number stays the same. I don’t know if it was increased, that would account for the spike, but I know that is approximately the number of people that we have. Alderman Clemons Okay. Thank you. Chairman Deane Are there any other questions in the revenues? Being none, we will go to page 102, which are the appropriations. My question in the 11 area is how much money has been transferred out of the 11 lines? Karen Smith We have moved $300,000 to the overtime account. That would be for the year, forecasting through June. That is to cover the overtime account. Chairman Deane Do you happen to know what the burn rate is, how much of that has been expended? Karen Smith We only have the month of June left, and I forecasted to have the full amount, the $300,000, should cover us through June, through and including June. Chairman Deane You don’t know what the actuals are to date? What has been spent in that? Karen Smith You wanted to know if I look at the budget report, where we are? Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 16 Chairman Deane Yes. Karen Smith Sure I have that. Chairman Deane This budget report goes back to March. I was wondering if you had a fresher number. Karen Smith As of May 31st I was due for a transfer, I was $15,000 over, I was due for a transfer. The transfer had not gone through yet, the $300,000. At the end of May I was just over $15,000 in the overtime account. Chairman Deane What was your total year to date? Karen Smith $1,224,976. That would be May 13th. Chairman Deane Thank you. Alderman Clemons Following that same track, where did that $300,000 come from? Was it vacancies or retirements or things like that? How did that get transferred out of the regular time to the overtime? Karen Smith We had vacancies the first 6 months of the year so we were able to use, from attrition, the surplus. Alderman Clemons Okay. Alderman Sheehan I’m not seeing parking enforcement either for 11 or for revenues. Karen Smith Parking enforcement is paid out of the 312 account. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 17 Alderman Sheehan Thank you. Chairman Deane That is funded through the revenues it generates through the work that it does. The freeing up of the $300,000 was bringing in staff after retirements that were being paid less or how did that work? Karen Smith It could be a combination of the fact that there were retirements, but July 1 and any time period until June 30th we were not at full compliment so during that time period there are vacancies, and then yes you do have that in grade difference when you have a vacancy and the first year difference from a Master Patrolman there is a rate of pay difference or any rank above Master Patrolman. I have noted also if you have a chance to look in the book and read the cover letter that on this projected budget I have already taken into account, so when I am preparing this budget for FY12 I went back and revisited, I believe it was about $86,000 that I removed because of the time when I started preparing the budget in January any significant changes, I went ahead and looked at it again and was able to reduce for some of our Captain level that left and any of the Master Patrolmen so the budget that you have for FY12 would have positions based on the rank of first year officer for those vacancies. Not only did I take into account that, but I also put them in at their projected date of hire, which would be potentially 5 in August because the academy, I definitely wouldn’t be able to put them in for July. The academy wouldn’t be until August. Additionally, our next recruiting wouldn’t be until December so 4-5 we had another person leave, so we are up to 10, definitely in the budget I have put in for the 4 would be December. That gives you a feel for the savings we had this year. At the time of budget preparation last year I didn’t have that information and was not able to do that. This year with a combination of the timing of the preparation of the budget and the timing of the people leaving, I was able to do that. I have never had that opportunity to actually go back into the budget and do it at the time of budget preparation. The number that my budget came in at, the $1.4 million is lower than I usually come in, by taking another look at the budget and revamping the numbers as close as possible at budget preparation time. Chairman Deane Thank you. Alderman Clemons Again, following that train of thought there, so what you are saying is that there is not going to be another $300,000 to transfer over next year should the overtime line go? Karen Smith I can’t answer that because I don’t know what is going to happen with attrition. I have taken care of the ones that I’m aware of at this point. I do have another line item in here for $100,000 attrition because there will be additional retirements, I would assume. Again, I don’t know, but it is not unusual, but I have the normal attrition that I always budget for, $100,000, is still in there. Now I mentioned that we have 10 names. When I prepared the budget I prepared for 9 that I knew of. We already have one more name. That is going towards that $100,000 that I have already budgeted for so I am already starting on my Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 18 number that I need. I would hopefully feel comfortable I will need the $100,000. That I am not concerned about, but I can’t answer that because I don’t have a crystal ball just like I don’t have a crystal ball to know what we are going to have for crime and the amount of money that I will be spending on overtime. Alderman Clemons Okay. Then if I look at the overtime line, 13, we went from last year budgeted $1.135 million and now the Mayor put in a $659,000 cut to that to bring it down to just over $700,000 for overtime. How is the department going to manage that? Donald Conley For the past year overtime has been an absolute priority for us, putting aside obviously second to crime solving and so forth and taking care of the City day in and day out, but for myself and my staff it has been an absolute priority. When I say that I mean we discuss it daily, we review the prior 24 hours, and every dime that is spent in OT we analyze. Every slip that is submitted for OT requires a number of signatures so we would all be on the same page if you will. What we have done is this; we have gone in to our legal bureau and witness fees are quite expensive for us and it is just the nature of the business, you have District Court, Federal Court, Superior Court South, Superior Court North, ALS hearings, motor vehicle department and so forth so that is expensive. What we try to do and we emphasize to that staff that they need to negotiate pleas and pre-negotiate cases so that is an absolute priority. That means that if I have 3 or 4 officers that are supposed to go to court on Thursday and if we have a group of people that are working hard to pre-negotiate that case, there is an agreement, and it takes the cooperation of the courts, and thus far we have it, that means that plea will go through on Thursday, that is 5 witness fees that I don’t pay. That is a minimum of 20 hours of overtime there. You couple that with hundreds and hundreds of cases so that is one way that we have been able to decrease and we are going to continue to look at that on a monthly basis. The other piece is the coverage. Coverage is very expensive and as Karen has said and I say it often. I am tired of saying it myself but I have to say it, we do run 24 hours a day 7 days a week and we have essential positions. That means I don’t have the luxury of saying you will pick up the job tomorrow. Knowing that and knowing that it was the patrol sergeant coverage that would spike from time to time during the summer months and during the holidays, we, the Deputy Chiefs and myself and my staff, we decided to look at every sergeant position in the police department and see if we could manage some of those positions through patrol officers or even perhaps civilians. I didn’t create new sergeant positions, but I transferred those two sergeant positions from internal whether it be, I think it was a services bureau position and a professional standards position and I put them into the patrol mix. Now you have got two more available on regular time. We are starting to see a pretty good savings. Recently with the turnover we have had in the past month, I’ve got two additional bureaus within the department; I am going to put a little pressure on a captain to see if he can come up with, and I’m not telling you I am going to do it, but we are studying to see if I can take additional supervisory positions and get them back into that patrol mix, which will help, and therefore create less overtime by having more people available. There are a couple of good examples there. We also there was a time when if you were scheduled to get off duty at 3:00 p.m. and at 2:30 p.m. a burglary may have come in, a theft of a bicycle or anything, an accident, non-injury, we would require that officer to stay and finish that report, and if he is staying after 3:00 p.m. that is overtime. Now what we do is we analyze that particular call and are you going on your Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 19 days off, are you coming back tomorrow – well first we ask why didn’t you do it on your duty time and there better be a good reason as to why it wasn’t done, and if they have that reason then they are not staying beyond 3:00 p.m. or 11:00 p.m. or 7:00 a.m. and they will pick it up the following day. Now that may sound rather simplistic, but like today I’ve got 60 police officers that are working today. I have 60 officers that are on duty. Those are people half of which are wearing this uniform that I am wearing and the others are detectives. When you look at that every single day 24 hours a day that number can be significant. Those are some of the ways in which we have managed that way. We’ve got a few other things that we are looking administratively I think that will help us. But it is going to be difficult. I have had a conversation with the Superintendent of Schools, Mark Conrad; because he inquired we currently have 5 school resource officers so that is 5 officers taken out of the mix for that patrol coverage. We all understand and appreciate, certainly the commission does and I do and my staff, of the importance of having the 5 in there. Is it possible that during the course of this fiscal year I might go down to 4, it is possible. It may go down to 3, it is possible, but it won’t be for the whole year. I may have to pull them out for a month and cover. Those 5 in all likelihood during the school breaks; summer and so forth, vacations, will be put back into the patrol mix, cover for that period of time, and then they will be withdrawn. We have our POP unit. I think everybody should be aware of the success of that unit, and I truly don’t want to dismantle that and I certainly won’t, but from time to time during the course of let’s say 2 or 3 days, if they have to go back into the patrol mix I think that could possible happen. That will depend upon, as Ms. Smith said, we don’t know, and as the Commissioner said, I don’t know how many robberies we are going to have, first degree assaults, and homicides. If anything, I think we have worked hard in the past year and a half to put procedures in place where we can at least make a good faith effort at controlling it. I guarantee you that if for some reason we could not, we will certainly back it up with solid documentation and we will be able to explain the reasons why. I’m going to be optimistic. I really believe that we can move forward and continue to provide the city with the police service that is expected from us, and I think we will be able to continue with that through this fiscal year, but it certainly is going to be a challenge. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman. Alderman Clemons I would yield to the Mayor. Mayor Lozeau Thank you Alderman Clemons. This is just a good opportunity to point something out to the committee. You will notice that, if you look at those two lines that you mentioned, I actually didn’t make the cut in overtime this year, it was a decision that was made by the Commissioners where those cuts would occur. This year because of the challenges and because I thought it was important that everybody in the public actually understand where cuts were going to be made. In years past when I had to do that I agreed with the different divisions to demonstrate those cuts on the Mayor adjusted line with their assurance that it wouldn’t be transferred, this year with the challenge being the way it was, I’m very pleased that all of the divisions worked with me to make those decisions themselves and to bring their budget in to the best of their ability with the best assumptions they could make. You will see that throughout the budget. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 20 There is only one exception to that and when we get to that line in the budget, when that time comes, I will point it out to you. But other than that, everybody has done that. And the one that is different is actually a positive not a negative. I just wanted to take the opportunity to point that out and to thank the Commissioners and the Chief and Mrs. Smith for all of the effort that they put in to making that happen. Thank you for the courtesy. Alderman Clemons Thank you. Donald Conley Excuse me, there is one other point I would like to make, and it goes to your other question sir. The other part of this is training. Training is very expensive and training is an area that is very very important in my world. Policemen have to go out there, they have to protect themselves, protect the public, and they absolutely have to do it right. Good training means fewer lawsuits and less tax money going that way. But we really overhauled our training department if you will and we tried to coordinate as much training on duty now as we possibly can, and we are very very selective now on the types of training to really ensure that type of training is germane to where the officer is in his particular career at the present time. If we can continue to think on those lines and do the best we can to ensure that if, like July is a high vacation month, then we will decrease training for that particular month. October isn’t so we may increase training there. I think that too will show some pretty good results there. Alderman Clemons Thank you. I just find it ironic though…I appreciate everything that you are doing. I think it is great that the department is looking at ways to cut back on costs. I think that is something that is commendable for anyone to do that. But I have to say that I find it ironic that the cut that was made last year was $340,000 to the overtime line and $300,000 has been transferred or is anticipated to be transferred over before the end of the year. With as much as you are doing and will continue to do, I find it difficult to believe that you are going to achieve $701,000. Now I hope that it happens and I think it is a great goal. If we can do it that would be great and there will be egg on my face, but I think that is a lot to ask. I think that is a lot to ask especially because of the business that you are in. We expect a high level of service in this city, we get a high level of service, but it comes at a cost. We have to pay people to be able to do the job that they are out there to do. I have a question about something that you brought up Chief, which was I would like you to explain a little bit better the concept of how you work overtime if say something happens at the end of a shift. I know you mentioned that briefly when you were talking. How does that work and how does that affect service to citizens? If something happens at 2:30 p.m. and a person is supposed to be done their shift at 3:00 p.m. for example? Donald Conley Certainly when you manage, if you are a patrol sergeant and if a particular call comes in you need to prioritize that type of call so if it is an emergency such as an automobile accident with injury then the officer stays and two officers might have to stay, if two are needed. There was a time when maybe they would have used two, we may use one now. And I am not at all talking about sacrificing safety to either the public or to an officer that is not in the mix here. I made that very clear to the officers and to the civilians alike. We are not looking to do that. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 21 But a serious crime requires us and we are mandated to do certain things and you need people to do it. That would be something where there would be no questions asked we would absolutely hold people over and have to follow through with an investigation depending upon the type of investigation. Regardless of what it is, I still think you can make better business decisions. If it only takes one person, truly takes one, then use one, and if it takes 2 or 3 then use 2 or 3. We would certainly look at each and every case and make a determination as to whether or not we would need…then if you know you are going to hold someone over for after 3:00 p.m. then can you get someone in earlier, can you relieve that officer with someone else that is on duty, so that is an option too. What we are trying to do is get people to think differently instead of same old same old, which was good, but it was expensive. When we are faced with this challenge I am just trying to come up with creative ways and not decrease training perse or public safety I assure you. It just won’t happen. If it is a case involving, I hate to use the word routine, but if you don’t have a suspect, it is not an emergency, you are on duty tomorrow, and there is no need for you to stay after hours. If there is an arrest made, the person might need to go to court, the bail commissioner might need that information, he may be arraigned, and we will need that arrest report the following day. If he doesn’t make bail then that arrest report will have to be done and he or she will have to stay. Alderman Clemons Okay. Thomas Pappas Let me add one other thing from the Commission’s perspective. There are a couple of different categories. One as the Chief mentioned is certain mandatory things that have to be done. I think there is also a difference between good police work and management of resources. I think the Chief is addressing management of resources that you may be able to do things either differently or at a different time or different personnel to help in overtime, but one area I don’t think that you will see and certainly the Commission doesn’t expect to see is any decrease in good police work, and I will give you a very good example. Last year at some point there was a break-in at Crosby’s Bakery, dear to a lot of people’s hearts. The officer that was in the area saw someone suspicious and it was right near the end of their shift. Now that officer could have looked and said you know 10 minutes, 15 minutes, my shift is done, I’m heading back to exit 5 and calling it a night, but he using good police tactics and instincts knew that something was up, stayed, and in fact observed the suspect go right into Crosby’s and come out and he didn’t come out with a handful of donuts. He made the arrest, and that was somebody who was not a first time criminal is my recollection and someone we certainly want off the streets of Nashua. That kind of use of overtime is the kind of overtime we want people to do because that provides good service and that is good police work and I don’t think that is going to be sacrificed in trying to bring the overtime down. I don’t think, and certainly from the Commission’s perspective, let me reinforce that, we don’t want to see a decrease in good police work in service to the community. We want to continue that level, but we want to work on things that aren’t going to affect that kind of police work. Donald Conley Just to comment on Commissioner Pappas, that call was made by Sergeant Denis Linehan to continue. It was Friday night and it was about 5 minutes to 11:00 p.m. and that cost us $1,500 in overtime, but it was well worth $1,500. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 22 Alderman Clemons Sure. William Barry, Commissioner, Board of Police Commissioners I would like to make a comment to Alderman Clemons’ question on how we’re going to reduce our overtime by $700,000. Since I have been on the Commission for 6 years, we have returned a surplus to the City every year, and I think this year if things go well in the next month we anticipate I believe $150,000 will be coming back in. I think the first year I was on this commission we returned almost $750,000 so that is where the savings is coming. You can’t anticipate we are bringing a surplus back to you every year and we are targeting to get very close to that level funding. Alderman Clemons I just want to make one further comment, and that is that I appreciate what the department does, and I don’t for a minute doubt that it will perform as well as it always has, which is top notch, but this kind of cut is just something that I can’t support. In my opinion, it is too big of a cut, there are too many questions that are out there as far as how it is going to be managed, and there is a lot of grey area. I just would rather see us spend the money and if it gets returned at the end of the year then that is the price that we pay to have a safe city. That is my opinion and that is how I am going to look at this moving forward. Alderman McCarthy I wanted to go back to the parking enforcement account for a minute. Can you describe exactly what gets paid for out of that account? Karen Smith Anything that is involve with the parking whether it be their vehicles, uniforms, the ticket control items that they have, salaries, everything to fund, they are self-funded I guess you could say. Alderman McCarthy Is that just for the parking enforcement officers or does that cover other expenses related to parking enforcement in the rest of the … Karen Smith There is some overtime for parking also in there. I haven’t looked at that account in a while, but yes. Alderman Sheehan Thank you. Two things; one will touch on I think what Alderman McCarthy was just touching on. Somebody brought up POP and I just wanted to comment first on the really good job that they have been doing. One of the crime watches they usually go through some statistics about what has been happening in the region and in one month there was a big rash of burglaries and because of that POP was brought in and they did catch who was doing it and rather quickly, inside of a month. That kind of attention and service and paying attention to the statistics and the information and who is in the neighborhood, that I think really does make a big difference. I applaud the efforts for that. I think I dropped a note thanking on that, Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 23 but there have been a few instances of that with the pawn shops and the stores selling stuff off Craig’s list that are stolen. That focus I think is key and will help to make it a lot harder to do business in Nashua. The economic climate right now makes it very difficult for most businesses except for the businesses you guys address. Your business goes up when the others go down and it is kind of an inverse balance. One of the things we have been talking about with the downtown redo is changing parking fines in particular. If that were to change, would you be able to only use that for parking or could that perhaps fund some of the things that have been removed if the revenues were increased on that? Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman if I could, the State law dictates that, it is not up to the police or the City. Alderman Sheehan So for parking tickets, which stay and fund that department, can only fund that particular department? Mayor Lozeau They can only fund things related to parking maintenance, running of the parking, that type of thing. It can’t be used to replace other City dollars specifically tied. Similar to the discussion that we were having about the increase in fees wanting to be targeted to just downtown. Alderman Sheehan Yes. Okay. Chairman Deane That was the difference between the special revenue fund, regardless of when it is established, it can only be utilized for what it was established for. The special revenue account, the difference between the two… Mayor Lozeau There is a difference between the two. The account can be used. But this is dictated by State law. Chairman Deane Right. Alderman Cox Thank you Mr. Chairman. Going back to the overtime for a minute, I just want to reinforce, I know Alderman Clemons feels very concerned, but I don’t think the Commissioners would submit this number if they felt very confident because that is the type of police department we have that our public safety would not be compromised at all. It would still be in great shape. My question is, because it just happened yesterday, I know you talked about a crystal ball, but Vice President Biden being in town and the tremendous coverage it takes to have that occur, how does that affect whether it be overtime or just your payroll budget line as a whole? Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 24 Donald Conley I don’t have the numbers for the Vice Presidential visit, but it is expensive. When the President came to the City last year I think we paid approximately $20,000 in overtime for a day, for an afternoon, which is very expensive, but he is the President of the United States and he is going to come to Nashua and he is going to leave Nashua smiling. That is our priority… Alderman Cox In the predetermined transportation… Donald Conley That’s right. I don’t have that, however, we have, and I will thank the Office of the Mayor for this and also our CFO, we had a number of candidates that came into the City I think it was maybe last November or December and there is a difference between coming in and campaigning and coming in as the Vice President. In fact I think it was the Vice President last time that came in, and he wasn’t coming in for the overall good of the community he was coming in for certain candidates and so we were told let’s look into this, and Karen did a nice job and actually got several thousand dollars reimbursed in that overtime account. And again that goes back to not looking to do the same old same old, we listen to people, we take their advice, and we do whatever we have to do to try to show some improvement here. But that is an expensive visit certainly. Alderman Cox And I say that this being the year before the election year, we are going to have a lot of visits. I know he was here for a fundraiser, I don’t know if… Donald Conley He doesn’t get quite the coverage that the President gets, but nonetheless. Alderman Cox The coverage was pretty impressive. Alderman Sheehan] It was. Donald Conley It has to be. Thomas Pappas I think if the Vice President or somebody comes in for a specific campaign, and that happened before, then we submitted the bill to the campaign, and we have gotten some money for that. There is a difference between, even though it was a hearty function, but it wasn’t a specific campaign, but if you come in for a very specific candidate and for a specific function then that is one thing as opposed to coming in as your Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 25 official capacity particularly if you are in an election year. The election is coming up, and the Chief is right we submitted a few of those bills and we will look in the future to see if there is a distinction to be drawn. Alderman Cox Excellent. Thank you. Alderman Wilshire Thank you. I would like to commend the Commission and the department for bringing in a budget like this. I certainly echo some of the concerns that Alderman Clemons has. Certainly like you said, I mean Alderman Cox says you were pretty confident coming in with this budget, but there is no crystal ball out there. There is no crystal ball telling us that they won’t be back before us if we have some major crime going on in the City so I hope that doesn’t happen. I want to commend you on the great job you did putting this budget together. I know it is aggressive as you said Commissioner Pappas. I have the utmost confidence in this department. I feel safe living in this city as everyone should, and we want everyone to continue to feel that way, and we do have the best police department in the State that is for sure and probably in New England. I commend you all for the hard work you have done. This is a good budget and hopefully you are not back looking for more money based on major crimes going on. Thank you. Donald Conley Thank you for the comments. Alderman Cookson Thank you. I had a question about the school resource officers. I know that you mentioned if there were holidays and vacations within the school year that the officers would be welcomed back into the department to take on other tasks and responsibilities that they would normally do when they are not a school resource officer. Is that correct? Donald Conley Yes. Alderman Cookson During summer vacation or when school is not in session, do we have school resource officers during summer school or are they part of the force over the summer months? Donald Conley It depends. We try to accommodate the school department. If they wanted an SRO there for summer session I am sure we would have one there. It has been standard practice since we implemented those assignments, and it is germane to that particular day or time period as to where the needs of the department may be. The last summer we need a person in our evidence area. We log in, we have 90,000 pieces of evidence, and that is a lot of work taking care of that. We went through an audit so during the summer months we assigned an SRO to that. We did have two I think that were certified on the motorcycle so we turned them in to compliment our traffic unit. Then we have I think Officer Forgione was assigned to assist PAL because initially and for years we had two officers assigned to PAL and that is another step that Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 26 we have taken to increase our patrol coverage. We removed one officer from PAL, we ran with one, Karen Becotte, very very successful. Unfortunately she is retired as of Monday or Tuesday, but we will replace her with one officer not two. We kind of augment them as we need them. Alderman Cookson So it is your management of those school resource officers that determines whether they are in the school system or whether they are taking on responsibilities within the police department? Donald Conley Yes. But those assignments are permanent assignments. We don’t do that or haven’t done thus far…when school is in that is their job. Alderman Cookson Understood. Donald Conley Okay. Alderman Cookson Does the school department contribute anything toward the school resource officers? Donald Conley No. Alderman Cookson So you handle the payroll and benefits, etc. It is your responsibility and the school does not contribute? Donald Conley That is correct. Alderman Cookson Alright. Thank you very much. Chairman Deane What is your total reduction from last year’s adjusted and approved to this year’s? If I take the $17,966,915 and subtract the $17,157,163 I come up with $842,752. Is that right $842,000? Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 27 Karen Smith You have to back out the $210,000 for vehicles that was removed into the CERF account and that is why you can’t look at the percentage on this report, the 4.5% on the report. The admin system just couldn’t accommodate removing that so that is why it is showing a higher percentage or 4.5% should actually be 3%. Chairman Deane Okay. Last year was the first year of the CERF transfer right wasn’t it? Mayor Lozeau Yes. Pulled it out. Chairman Deane So you are minus the $210,000… Karen Smith $210,200 technically. Chairman Deane Okay. Does anyone else have any questions in this 11, 12, or 13… Alderman Cox Just a brief question. I was remiss not asking earlier, Commissioner Pappas mentioned that a large reason to help us achieve the number last year was being at full compliment. Are we at full compliment right now? Thomas Pappas No. I think we are 10 down from full compliment right now. Karen Smith July 2, excuse me. Thomas Pappas July 1. Karen Smith We are at 9 right now. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 28 Thomas Pappas We will be 10 come July 1. Chairman Deane Are those patrolmen or are those just a mix of different positions? Thomas Pappas It is a mix, but we have had 3 captains retire, a deputy chief retire all within the last couple of months. Chairman Deane We got a position on that from the retirements throughout the City; we got that notification from our CFO. Thomas Pappas And then further down. Alderman Cox Thank you very much. Alderman Clemons We’re funding full compliment though in this budget? Thomas Pappas Yes. Alderman Clemons Okay. Karen Smith No. Donald Conley Our authorized strength is 179, we’re funding 177. Actually we have never received funding for the 179. Alderman Clemons You are right it has consistently been 177. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 29 Donald Conley Consistently that is correct. We have funded that that is correct. Chairman Deane Anyone turn the page here from…most of the discussion has been around the payroll lines. Does anyone have any questions from…I think we covered 13 that is where the overtime ends. Does anyone have any questions on these couple of pages down to the 46 account? How is the heating system working over there? Every time I go by there I see J Lawrence Hall’s truck in the parking lot. Are you still having problems? Karen Smith Actually we are doing very well. We are doing much better this year than other years. Chairman Deane Did they get rid of that hot water tank that they were heating a room with and put… Karen Smith We have the same system when it has to have air and heat combination. Chairman Deane Put a hot water tank in to heat water to heat an area and the hot water tank runs full blast all the time and they don’t last long. Alderman Cookson I had a question about the clothing. I just wanted to be reminded how the reimbursement was for the clothing that your officers receive. Do they submit a receipt or is there a stipend associated with the work clothing? Donald Conley There are a few open P.O.s. I know Alec’s Shoe Store is one. But they have to submit requests other than at an open P.O. for reimbursement. We get an itemized list of the purchase and we have standard operating procedure documented as to what they can purchase and what they cannot. It is monitored by both staff and Karen Smith’s personnel to make sure that it is consistent. Alderman Cookson Thank you. On medical supplies, it is a small item between $2,000 and $4,000 annually, but do we as a City, in the purchasing of those medical supplies, are we able to consolidate or focus in a single purchasing department the police requests and maybe get a better deal on the items that might be purchased? Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 30 Mayor Lozeau Thank you Mr. Chairman. I know where you are going with that Alderman Cookson. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Mayor Lozeau As I told you this year the way that we developed the budget we worked collectively as a cabinet and items such as central purchasing and things like that to do it a little bit differently is earmarked for something we are going to pay attention to once we wrap this budget up. We are not going to wait until next year. Those are one of those things that you can’t just implement immediately, and we think with ERP we may have better luck doing some of that. Where we can do it we have been doing it. In this instance, we have not done that. But they do work with Purchasing and Mr. Gabriel is able sometimes to piggyback things on other orders. Alderman Cookson I would be surprised with the medical supplies that may be purchased by the police department that they wouldn’t also potentially be purchased by our public health department. Mayor Lozeau Some are yes. Alderman Cookson Anywhere we can see some savings…I think we will probably be looking at that a lot more stringent in the next year. I had one other question. The repair of your fire extinguishers, is that something that is sent out or is that something that we work with our Nashua Fire & Rescue? Karen Smith No it is not with Nashua Fire & Rescue, it is a service. Alderman Cookson Does Nashua Fire & Rescue provide that service or do they do repairs on their equipment? Karen Smith We are not involved at all with Nashua Fire & Rescue. Chairman Deane It is a contract that is required by law, by the fire department in fact, you have your quarterly sprinkler inspections and you have a yearly fire extinguisher inspection, and normally probably what the department has done is they have got into probably a contract situation… Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 31 Karen Smith Right. Chairman Deane …where they come in and go through and … Karen Smith I really don’t know that the Fire Department… Chairman Deane The deficiencies are always reported to the fire department. They don’t send the whole report over. I could never understand why the companies don’t have to do that. If you pass with flying colors nobody knows about it. Alderman Cookson But Nashua Fire & Rescue does not repair their own fire extinguishers and they …. Chairman Deane Nope. Alderman Cookson …also send out? Chairman Deane Yes. It is a specialty type of service. It depends on the age of the cylinder, on the nozzle; it depends on a lot of things. If they are really old they have to swap them out by law. I forget what the life expectancy is, but they have to change them out. Alderman Cookson My last comment was about prisoner meals. I’m assuming that we are still not going to Dunkin Donuts and getting special orders for our prisoners, we are going to Sam’s or Cosco’s and buying little juice boxes. Karen Smith Same process. Donald Conley Juice boxes and an energy bar, not too much of an energy bar, but… Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 32 Alderman Cookson Fantastic. A low energy bar. Thank you. Chairman Deane If we turn the page to 107 that is the 47-72 lines. Does anyone have any questions in this area? Being none, if we turn the page again to page 108… Alderman Clemons I’m sorry. I’m not sure if this is the appropriate place so I am going to ask and if not you can tell me so, but I know that the motor vehicles went into the CERF account, but I didn’t know if this was, since the police department is here, if this is the appropriate time to ask I had a particular question about that. Chairman Deane Feel free. Alderman Clemons What is the status with the vehicle replacement? What type of vehicles are they going to use to replace the existing Crown Vics? Did Ford extend that or are you going with something different? Donald Conley We are in our last phase of purchasing Crown Vics. We currently have a Dodge Charger, which we purchased I think it was last year. It is assigned to a traffic unit and we are developing some pretty good data on that. I know the New Hampshire State Police is pretty much using that exclusively for a patrol tactical vehicle. Ford has come out with a new police package, the new Taurus, but so has Chevrolet. I think we are still in the process of examining the new vehicles, the new prototypes. Unfortunately the Crown Vic was such a big vehicle if you will, the two prototypes that are coming out are smaller, and so the problem of having to when you cannibalize a cruiser you take the Visibars off, we should be able to use those, some of the other emergency equipment, but the back seat, that we utilize the screens and so forth, we may have some difficulty using those from one vehicle to the other, but we can possibly sell those. That is what we are doing. Alderman Clemons Okay. Thank you. Chairman Deane I think we were told at one point in time that the fit-up for a vehicle was like $10,000, which includes the light bar, the back seat, all of those components. Some of the other discussion we had was when the Crown Vic went away we were going to end up incurring some costs of some of those components that wouldn’t fit into another vehicle. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 33 Donald Conley Correct. Chairman Deane I was speaking earlier about the new Chevrolet that came out that the Los Angeles Police Department is using, that is quite a vehicle. It has all of the bells and whistles. It is unbelievable. I watched that thing, that guy went out in it, the officer just about operates from the inside, he can queue the screen in the middle, but I have heard some comments about it in some earlier discussions, but it is a very powerful automobile. Donald Conley They are very nice and young policemen love to have the best out there. Chairman Deane They pull a car over and there is a camera on the front that takes the data off the license plate, it goes through the computer, and it puts it right up on the screen. There is no laptop sitting there. I guess there were a lot of injuries over there, but that is usually where you see the crazy police chases in that Los Angeles freeways and the outside of there. Are there any questions on page 108, which brings us down through the motor vehicle repairs, building, grounds, and maintenance, other equipment maintenance, travel? Same with page 109 as well, are there further questions? Alderman Cookson I just had one general question. We had Chief Assessor Marino in the other evening talking about GIS and the services that were provided and the flyovers and the oblique picture views. Could you comment on the importance of GIS and how you use that application for your services that you provide? Donald Conley I know that it is used by both our patrol bureau and the criminal bureau and our narcotics and intelligence unit. That technology is very helpful because obviously it gives you a clear picture of where you want to go if you are executing a high risk search warrant. Very important because you don’t really have to rely upon memory or have to do a number of drive bys trying to figure out is it on Tolles Street, is it on the Daniel Webster Highway and you get an instant picture of what you are going to have to deal with and the environment you are going to find yourself in. It is very important too from a patrol perspective, not so much investigative, but in locations and change of scenery and change of locations for patrol officers that are out there. That technology is very very important. Alderman Cookson Are there still restrictions on the amount of data that can be transmitted to the patrol cars? Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 34 Donald Conley I don’t know. I can’t comment on restrictions. I would have to have Dawn Reeby here. I do know in your book there is a chapter as to what she can do, and it absolutely amazes me. All of the ruggedized laptops are updated quite frequently, whenever an officer comes within a certain amount of feet of the police department itself all of that data is them reloaded onto that laptop if you will. It is unbelievable as to what they have today as to what we didn’t have ten years ago. All of that is very very helpful. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Chairman Deane Are there any other questions of this department’s operating budget? Being none, thank your very much for coming. Donald Conley You are welcome. Alderman Cox Thank you very much for the book too. I know a lot of work went into that. Donald Conley Thank you. PUBLIC COMMENT Chairman Deane Sir if you would like to come up we will go through your public comment. Sorry for the oversight. I apologize. Matthew Plante, 17 Roby Street No harm done. I have an experience that I had with the police department that I wanted to share that kind of ties all of this together. Beautiful day like this, end of last summer, it was a perfect day, ran out to the cleaners to have some pants hemmed, gone for an hour, I come back and much to my surprise I wasn’t alone in the house. I work from home, and I wasn’t alone in the house, kind of a scary feeling. At that point you think about what you are going to do, do you confront this person or chase him or call the police. Having the confidence I had in the police lead me to the decision to call them. That went really well. They are talking about having a full staff, full compliment and having enough people, and it was really nice to call there and speak with someone who was calm and listened and transmitted the information, while listening to me transmitted the information to dispatch to get people where they needed to be to get to the Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 35 area, to get a lot of resources to the area right now, while this person was running away from the house to get there. The professionalism, the speed, the resources they got after that quickly and the follow up. It was just totally impressive, and I just I was shocked when it happened. It is a scary feeling to have someone in your house and I am happy that I made the right decision. I could have gotten a gun, I could have gotten a bat, and it might not have turned out as well for anyone involved. They got the resources after it right away and managed him real well and it turned out very positively. I just wanted to impress upon you how good it feels to be able to pick up the phone and know that there are people there who are well staffed and well trained and well educated knowing what they are doing to handle a situation like that. It was nice to be a citizen of Nashua at that point. Someone said it earlier that is the best department around. I think there are none better. Very impressive. I would encourage your to support whatever they are doing. They have it figured out. Chairman Deane Thank you. COMMUNICATIONS - None UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None NEW BUSINESS - None TABLED IN COMMITTEE R-10-66 Endorser: Alderman Diane Sheehan RELATIVE TO THE TRANSFER OF $92,000 FROM ACCOUNT 591-86005 “FY2011 GENERAL CONTINGENCY” INTO ACCOUNT 577-11 “CODE ENFORCEMENT, PAYROLL – FULL TIME” R-11-114 Endorser: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau RELATIVE TO THE ADOPTION OF FISCAL YEAR 2012 PROPOSED BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF NASHUA GENERAL, ENTERPRISE, AND SPECIAL REVENUE FUNDS R-11-115 Endorsers:Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy Alderman Kathryn D. Vitale Alderman Richard LaRose Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox AGREEMENT TO TRANSFER FUNDS BACK TO DEPARTMENTS BASED ON HEALTH CARE CONCESSIONS Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 36 O-10-23 Endorser: Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly ESTABLISHING AN OMBUDSMAN FOR THE CITY OF NASHUA AND AUTHORIZING THE TRANSFER OF $60,000 FROM ACCOUNT 591-86005 “FY2011 GENERAL CONTINGENCY” INTO ACCOUNT 501-53 “MAYOR’S OFFICE – PROFESSIONAL SERVICES” GENERAL DISCUSSION Alderman Clemons I just want to thank the department for their presentation tonight and for answering all of the questions. I also want to say that I too agree that this is one of the best departments in New England. You should all be proud. There are a lot of hard working individuals that play into it day and day. My neighbor’s house was broken into recently too and the response by the police department was good. It is those kinds of things that reassure you that we are in a safe community despite these things happening. They happen everywhere, but the difference is the Nashua Police Department and just knowing that you are there as opposed to if I lived somewhere else, I think gives me all of the confidence in the world and makes me proud of the city that we live in. Again, thank you for all that you do. PUBLIC COMMENT - None REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN Chairman Deane I just had one update I wanted to give everybody. I spoke with Superintendent Conrad in the school district. Their review is on the 6th of June. Alderman Cox has two pieces of legislation, R-11-112 and R-11-113, and I asked him about the timeline on that. What I proposed to him was setting those two pieces on the agenda for that night because they were going to be here, so Mr. Donovan wouldn’t be making another trip. Mr. Conrad said that would be fine. He had concerns with wanting to have that passed because there is some sort of urgency associated with the end of the fiscal year and the spending cap limitations. What I am going to do is we will have the meeting and then I will ask, I believe our meeting is on the 24th of that month, so I am going to ask Sue depending on the length of the meeting, if we can at least peal out the excerpt of that portion of the committee meeting and bring it in as a report so that the legislation could be acted upon so we follow our past practice. Normally we don’t move legislation until the minutes have been reviewed. That is what is going to happen. That will save them a trip over here. Alderman Cox Thank you Mr. Chairman. Chairman Deane You are welcome. He was happy with that. Budget Review – 05/26/11 Page 37 ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN WILSHIRE TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 8:36 p.m. Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane Chairman, Budget Review Committee