Finance Committee

REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE NOVEMBER 2, 2011 A meeting of the Finance Committee was held on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Mayor Donnalee Lozeau presided. Members of the Committee present: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane, Vice Chair Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Paul M. Chasse, Jr. Alderman Kathy Vitale Members not in Attendance: Also in Attendance: PUBLIC COMMENT - None COMMUNICATIONS From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Purchase of Mid-Size Unmarked Police Vehicle Requested by Nashua Police Department (Value: $24,155) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AUTHORIZE THE PURCHASE THROUGH NH STATE CONTRACT #8000859 WITH MACMULKIN CHEVROLET IN THE AMOUNT OF $24,155. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN ACCOUNT NUMBER 599-68045-9859 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane I had a question on the Dodge that we bought. That was a prototype. Mayor Lozeau It was. Alderman Deane And we’re going to now bring the Chevrolet Caprice in for consideration as a replacement of the Crown Vics? Mayor Lozeau Exactly and then they are looking at the Ford Interceptors, they are just not ready yet. Alderman Deane I thought the Dodge was the Interceptor. Mayor Lozeau No I think the Ford is the Interceptor, the Charger is the Dodge, and the Caprice is the Chevy. Finance – 11/02/11 Page 2 Alderman Deane Dodge Charger, Ford Interceptor. Mayor Lozeau Right and Chevy Caprice. So they are hoping to have an Interceptor soon, but they won’t have as much testing time with it. Alderman Deane What is the date of the next series of replacements? Mayor Lozeau November/early December the decision for the new cruisers will be made, and then in January/February the order will go out, and then the expectation will be that they will be in not long after that; some time in the spring. We’ve budgeted through CERF for ten (10) marked and six (6) unmarked in the 2012 cycle… Alderman Deane Yeah, but it is going out to bid in December? Mayor Lozeau November/December. Alderman Deane November/December; once the police commission and the folks over there decide what vehicle they are going to go with? Mayor Lozeau Right. I think they want to make sure that they have a chance to take a look at the Interceptor. Alderman Deane Now if the fit-up components aren’t adequate for the change in vehicles, what do we have funded to replace all of that? Mayor Lozeau Well we will have to look at that when the time comes. The new light bars shouldn’t be a problem with any of the vehicles. Some of the other components could be a problem, but the rumor that is out there apparently in the car world is that the Ford Interceptor will be able to handle the equipment. But that is not a fact in evidence for certain. That has been some of the discussion that has been being had. Alderman Deane But the Chevy and the Dodge won’t? Mayor Lozeau Correct. We don’t know that for certain. Finance – 11/02/11 Page 3 Alderman Deane Well I hope we don’t find one of the vehicles far superior to a Ford and decide not to get it because there is an issue with having to outfit the vehicles with the cages and the seats and all of that other stuff because down the road, from a maintenance standpoint…it will be interesting when they bring it in to see what happens. Mayor Lozeau Right. Alderman Deane Will we be getting somewhat of a report on their findings of the three vehicles once they do an assessment on them? Mayor Lozeau I would anticipate if we don’t get a report we will certainly hear from them when they come in and make their recommendation about it. Alderman Deane Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Is there further discussion on this item? Alderman Chasse Just a comment; I don’t have a question any more Mr. Gabriel took care of it and put it right into the memo. Mayor Lozeau Good. MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Award for Legislative Services (Value: $14,000) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND RENEW THE CONTRACT WITH DAVID ALUKONIS IN THE AMOUNT OF $14,000. SOURCE OF FUNDING IS ACCOUNT NUMBER 501-53 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Pressly Thank you. I meant to bring the report. I know you just sent out a report on that, which is wonderful. How do you go about deciding…do you have the staff review all …there are thousands, I assume there are still thousands, how do you go about making a decision. I’m assuming you put a team together to watch out for them. Finance – 11/02/11 Page 4 Mayor Lozeau The way that it works is Mr. Alukonis pulls together a list of all of the filed bills, he sends it out to all of the cabinet members, they share it with their staff, they go through and narrow the list down to things that we’re interested in. Typically we’re looking I think probably our highest has been about 300 pieces of legislation. Then we narrow it down from there. It is a constant monitoring; some things we just keep an eye on, some things we speak in opposition of, some things we speak in favor of, some of those things are driven by discussions here on the board; for instance rail when a position was taken. Some things I go up and testify on, some things I don’t, some things we send letters, some things we work with our delegation on. We send newsletters out to the delegation about different things that are important and why. City Clerk gets very involved in different things. It really just depends on what it is that is out there. The schools get very involved. We try to have 2-3 meetings in the course of a session with the delegation to talk about things. I talk to other communities, other Mayors. I think we have had some pretty good luck with it. The delegation is very happy to know what is on our mind and they like having somebody around that they can reach out to right away and get answers. Sometimes I get called in the middle of a floor debate; they track me down and ask a question. It has been very fruitful. Alderman Pressly Okay. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Alderman Deane This strictly covers the administration’s position on legislation. Mayor Lozeau Correct. Alderman Deane It has nothing to do with the Board of Alderman so… Mayor Lozeau Well actually… Alderman Deane …let me finish before you chime in. There are different pieces of legislation up there that I or Alderman Clemons or Alderman Chasse or Alderman Pressly might have a different position on than you do. But you’re up there with this asset lobbying either for or against something that we may take issue with it as a board. That is the one issue that I have with this whole thing. I think it is good to have somebody in place, but when you look through the tasks and the scope of services, it is strictly Mayor and City staff. Mayor Lozeau Actually Alderman Deane I understand the point that you are trying to make, but this board when they take action as a board and it relates to legislation, that information is provided to our delegation… Finance – 11/02/11 Page 5 Alderman Deane There is legislation up at the State level that has absolutely nothing to do with actions we take here on different things. Mayor Lozeau Absolutely. That wasn’t my… Alderman Deane Somebody could file a bill that states that they want Nashua to have purple license plates or something and you are like we don’t want to have that. It is things like that, but there is a lot of legislation up there, I can’t understand some of it. But it just seems like the positions that are brought up there or that are distributed to the delegation are from the administration and not from this board. Mayor Lozeau Unless this board takes action. Alderman Deane Let’s take the very minute pile; the rail. This board took action on that. Can you think of anything else in the last two years? Mayor Lozeau Actually there was one other thing; I’m trying to remember what it was. Alderman Clemons There were four things. Mayor Lozeau Were there? Alderman Pressly Toll booths. Mayor Lozeau Toll booths. Alderman Deane Toll booths, the rail… Alderman Clemons The Evergreen Clause and school funding. Alderman Deane Four items in 2 years, out of how much legislation, 1,000 pieces a year? Finance – 11/02/11 Page 6 Mayor Lozeau Over 1,000 pieces, but we don’t take positions on all of them. I think what is important is that I feel that I am doing things in the City’s best interest. Individual Alderman may feel differently about different pieces of legislation, but if this board takes action, as a board, which is what represents this board, then that information is provided to our delegation, and I think that is how it should be. Alderman Deane So if you didn’t agree with the actions taken by the board legislatively, and the legislation is up in Concord and the Board was pro the legislation up in Concord and you were against it, you would be up there testifying against the legislation that this board voted… Mayor Lozeau I might be it depends on what it is. Alderman Deane That is where I had a… Mayor Lozeau I don’t give up my opinion based on the board’s action, but I don’t think we have been opposed in any of the ones that have been mentioned. The Board of Aldermen has to take a position and act as a group not as individuals. Now I can remember Alderman Teeboom going up on different pieces of legislation he was interested in and he always made it very clear that he was not there on behalf of the Board of Aldermen, but he was an Alderman, and this was his position. Alderman Deane I’ve been up there in the same manner. Mayor Lozeau Exactly. All I’m saying is I think there is room for all of us to share our opinion with the delegation and provide as much information as we can so that when they make decisions to vote on things…when I was a legislator I had members of the Board of Aldermen that would talk to me about different pieces of legislation. When Alderman Pressly was a Senator I think you were serving as an Alderman at the same time so you were wearing multiple hats, and I’m sure you heard from your colleagues here, and you made decisions based on all of the information. That is what we try to do. One of the most important things that Mr. Alukonis does is he makes sure that there is a mechanism for information to get back and forth to people. For instance, if the City Clerk is up and he is going to testify on a committee, the Nashua legislators know that the City Clerk from Nashua is at the State House that day, will be testifying before a certain committee at a certain time. That is to me a very important thing. It is a courtesy. It used to bother me a great deal when I was in leadership and I would see the Mayor walk down the hall or something; I would be like wonder why they are here. I think that it is important and it has gone a long way I think to having us work more cohesively. Is there further discussion on this item? MOTION CARRIED Finance – 11/02/11 Page 7 From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Legal Counsel for Abatement Appeal Amendment #1 (Value: $50,000) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AUTHORIZE AMENDMENT #1 TO THE CONTRACT WITH GARDNER, FULTON & WAUGH FOR A NET CHANGE IN THE AMOUNT OF $50,000. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN ACCOUNT NUMBER 595-22025-9900 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Pressly Thank you. Madam Mayor are you at liberty to give us an update a little bit more than what is in the briefing here? Mayor Lozeau Not really. It is probably not in our best interest to do that. Alderman Pressly Okay. That is fine. I would just like to comment; I’m interested in the law firms that you are dealing with. I think that shows some good ideas. Bernie Waugh I presume that from the… Mayor Lozeau It is. Alderman Pressly And is that Paul Hodes? Mayor Lozeau It’s actually not… Alderman Pressly It’s not, okay. Mayor Lozeau …and that attorney pronounces his name Hodess not Hodes. I thought the same thing the first time, but it is not. Alderman Pressly Okay. Well I know Bernie Waugh is very very experience… Mayor Lozeau A good municipal attorney, right. Alderman Pressly …from the Municipal Association. Finance – 11/02/11 Page 8 Mayor Lozeau We are having very good luck with them. Alderman Pressly Good. Alderman Deane Why is the lead attorney no longer available? Mayor Lozeau The lead attorney actually hasn’t been available. Originally the firm that we typically work with is Gardner and Fulton. They have done a lot of work on this for us and they continue to do some, but they couldn’t take on the whole entire case so that is when we hired the second law firm. That attorney is providing information to the law firm that is handling the case at a minimum amount, which is actually helping us keep the cost of the firm down a bit and then we have the forensic auditor that is working with us. Alderman Deane So the costs associated with the services from one firm to the other is what? Mayor Lozeau Well if you look at everything that we’ve authorized including what we’re authorizing tonight, it is about a total of $255,000, and to date we’ve spent about $29,000 altogether. Alderman Deane My question was if this law firm turns and asks this attorney Fulton for assistance, is there a separate charge for that? Mayor Lozeau There is a separate charge for it, but it is something that we’ve already accounted for. We’re running it as three separate items. We have funds approved for Attorney Fulton, we have funds approved for Hage Hodes, and we have funds approved for the forensic auditor. They are each individual dollar amounts. Alderman Deane And what are those dollar amounts? Mayor Lozeau It is not to exceed $180,000 for Hage Hodes, $15,000 for Attorney Fulton… Alderman Deane How much has been expended out of the Fulton $15,000? Mayor Lozeau Fourteen thousand seven hundred. Finance – 11/02/11 Page 9 Alderman Deane So we have $300 available to have her supply information. Mayor Lozeau Which is why this is before you tonight… Alderman Deane So there is another $50,000 for this lady to assist if need be? Mayor Lozeau This attorney, yes. Alderman Deane If need be. Mayor Lozeau If need be. We won’t spend it if we don’t have to. Then the forensic auditor for $10,000. This is to get us all the way through court. Alderman Deane What do we stand to gain here financially? Mayor Lozeau A significant amount. It is about $600,000 a year starting from 2009. Alderman Chasse I thought I saw $500,000 someplace. Mayor Lozeau Dartmouth has a third property so they are going to hit that higher amount when their new property comes on line. If you look at all of the dollars…and they are paid up; 2009 is paid, 2010 is paid, half the year 2011 is paid. We anticipate November will be paid. It is actually what we stand to lose if we don’t win. Alderman Pressly When you said that this should be sufficient funds throughout the court system, I’m assuming they will appear up to the Supreme Court. Mayor Lozeau And that is not enough money to go to the Supreme. Alderman Pressly So that is what I need to know, this will get through … Finance – 11/02/11 Page 10 Mayor Lozeau Should get through Superior Court, and it could have some available for the Supreme Court if we have to do the appeal, but I didn’t want to give anybody the false impression if that is not the case. Alderman Pressly Okay so depending on what they do and if we prevail. What if they prevail, will we go on to the Supreme Court? Mayor Lozeau We will have to determine that based on whatever the decision is of the Superior Court and if we think we have a good case to pursue it. It is certainly precedent setting, and so we have to be very careful about what we do here. Alderman Pressly Okay. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Alderman Deane Does St. Joseph’s Hospital pay property taxes? Mayor Lozeau They do. Alderman Deane And Southern New Hampshire Medical Center does not. Mayor Lozeau No they do. They just all pay a different amount. What we’re in dispute about is the additional amount that the Assessor believes should be paid by Southern New Hampshire and by Dartmouth. The additional amount levied on St. Joseph’s was not in dispute. Alderman Pressly So they, the two hospitals then, Dartmouth Hitchcock and Southern New Hampshire, they have joined forced and have one lawyer who represents the two of them… Mayor Lozeau No I’m not certain that I can tell you that they have joined forces… Alderman Pressly …is it sort of like a, it is not like a class action? Finance – 11/02/11 Page 11 Mayor Lozeau …but they are making the same argument. No it is not a… Alderman Pressly Okay so they are represented separately. Mayor Lozeau They may be, they may have a single attorney, I can’t recall. But what I do know is they are making the same argument. Alderman Pressly But it is one case. It is not like two separate cases. Mayor Lozeau We are treating it like a single case. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Alderman Deane So they’re argument is they have made vast improvements to the facilities and the value has not changed. Mayor Lozeau I’m not at liberty to get into that discussion. Alderman Deane Well that is what the Assessor’s Office does right, don’t they assess property? Mayor Lozeau It is not just about the value change, it is also about other things that weren’t typically, from their perspective, assessed before so physicians and other ancillary services… Alderman Pressly Oh that’s right, yeah, that is important. Mayor Lozeau …but I really don’t want to put anything on the record that could cause a problem for what we are trying to do. I would hesitate to get too deep into it. Is there further discussion? MOTION CARRIED Finance – 11/02/11 Page 12 From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Award for Shady Lane Landfill Air Quality and Landfill Gas Testing Requested by Solid Waste Dept (Value: $14,627) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND, CONTINGENT UPON FINAL APPROVAL BY THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN, AWARD THE CONTRACT TO ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE SERVICES IN THE AMOUNT OF $58,508. SOURCE OF FUNDING IS ACCOUNT NUMBER 801-53080-8001-8100 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Pressly I was really interested in reading this to understand where the sampling and testing is taking place. Is this the one that just has the New Searles School, there is another one that has the… Mayor Lozeau This is just the Four Hills Land Fill and the New Searles School… Alderman Pressly Okay and there are… Mayor Lozeau …and this is just the air quality… Alderman Pressly …I guess it is the next one that has the four… Mayor Lozeau The next one is water and ground water and… Alderman Pressly Okay. Mayor Lozeau …it’s all of the landfills. Alderman Pressly Okay. I assume they give you reports. Do we ever get to see those? Mayor Lozeau You can see them any time you would like… Alderman Pressly Okay. Finance – 11/02/11 Page 13 Mayor Lozeau …they are filed with the State quarterly. Alderman Pressly But they do notify you if the… Mayor Lozeau There is a problem… Alderman Pressly …if the results are dangerous and what to do about it? Mayor Lozeau They do. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Is there further discussion on this item? MOTION CARRIED From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Contract Award for Groundwater Testing (Value $22,384) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND, CONTINGENT UPON FINAL APPROVAL BY THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN, AWARD THE CONTRACT TO ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE SERVICES IN THE AMOUNT OF $89,536. FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE IN ACCOUNT NUMBER 801-53 ON THE QUESTION Mayor Lozeau This is the one that does the groundwater at five different locations. It is the same sort of thing. Alderman Pressly Thank you. I know that there are private property owners that also have this testing. Do they have to take care of that themselves or does the DES come in and do that for them? Mayor Lozeau I think any private property owners that have issues like we do with these landfills would be under the same regulations that we have. Finance – 11/02/11 Page 14 Alderman Pressly In talking with Brad Hill at Goodales Bicycle, the day I stopped in there, he was saying that they had just been around and testing all of that land, and I guess they do it regularly. Mayor Lozeau They have monitoring wells yes. Everybody is responsible for it. I should mention, in this memo, fourth paragraph down midway where the sentence begins “ECS was the lowest qualified bidder”, those two sentences in the fourth paragraph actually belong in the memo that we just passed. Alderman Pressly Oh it’s in the first one, okay. Mayor Lozeau Right. I just thought I would call your attention to that. Alderman Deane Is this contract award outside of this fiscal year? Mayor Lozeau It will be. This will be for this fiscal year and up to three years, one year options. Alderman Deane And the prior contract was the same way? Mayor Lozeau Same yes. So it will come before the board. Alderman Deane I heard the motion. The approval of the extension is done by whom, the Finance Committee? If we wish to extend this outside, say we want this firm next year…you stated that this has a three year extension… Mayor Lozeau Three year options, three one year options. Alderman Deane So who exercises those one year options? Mayor Lozeau That will be either the Public Works Director or the Board of Public Works. It won’t come before this board again. That is why it is going to come now to the board. Alderman Deane That is wrong, absolutely wrong. Finance – 11/02/11 Page 15 Alderman Pressly The question I had in talking with Brad Hill about his situation; I don’t think he paid for it, I think the State came in to test. How come the City has to pay if this is a requirement of the testing by the State and Federal Government, and they come around and they test and let you know? So why does the City have to pay where a private person would not? Mayor Lozeau Well I can’t tell you specifically whether Mr. Hill does or doesn’t pay for it. For us, what I can tell you is it is our landfill so we are the ones that have contaminated the sites, and therefore we are responsible for the testing. Alderman Pressly Okay. Mayor Lozeau In Mr. Hill’s case, he purchased the site that had issues so potentially they take care of that. I don’t know that to be the case, that they pay for it or who pays for it… Alderman Pressly That would be certainly…that would be one distinction between the two. Mayor Lozeau Exactly. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Is there further discussion on this item? Alderman Deane This committee should not be circumvented by extensions that are approved by others, period. It is just another avenue of loss of oversight. Mayor Lozeau Actually in this instance Alderman Deane a bit efficient; so what this committee has before it tonight, and this is not the only time that this committee has ever looked at multi-year contracts, we have a qualified bidder providing a service that we’ve had no problems with. This bidder is doing their work, and rather than come here every year to say yes the same people are doing it, yes we gave them a contract with a one year extension, yes we haven’t had problems, yes we should vote for it again, instead of doing that everybody’s eyes are wide open right now for the costs associated here with them maintaining this price and saying unless there is a problem, and it gives termination rights in here, that this is going to go forward, that we know for the next four years potentially this is the provider of our testing for ground water and air quality at these sites. There is nothing wrong with doing that as long as we know that is what we are doing here. Finance – 11/02/11 Page 16 Alderman Deane I still have the floor. Alderman Pressly Oh I’m sorry. Mayor Lozeau I didn’t know you had the floor, I thought I had the floor, but certainly Alderman Deane. Alderman Deane That is fine Mayor. I think I have stated my point. You continually, continually do this stuff, and I think it is wrong. This board should stand up and say you know what we meet; we come in, so what if it comes in every year. Are problems reported to us when things go terribly wrong? Mayor Lozeau They are. Alderman Deane They are? Mayor Lozeau And you know they are. Alderman Deane How did we do with the parking garages? Mayor Lozeau What is that supposed to mean how did we do with the parking garages? Alderman Deane Were there problems with the parking garages? We approved those contracts for all of those repairs. Mayor Lozeau The repairs are still being completed. Alderman Deane And you are aware of the issues over there; unlicensed folks doing work and things of that nature… Mayor Lozeau I don’t believe… Finance – 11/02/11 Page 17 Alderman Deane …audio inaudible … getting shut down and…that is why things should come back to us… Mayor Lozeau Alderman Deane… Alderman Deane …we’re elected for oversight. That is our job as an elected official. Mayor Lozeau That is all of our jobs Alderman Deane. Not just this board, it is my job as well. It is our staff’s job as well. And I have to tell you sometimes it gets a little old to have conviction by innuendo. Acting like something is going wrong, that I always do these things. I am doing my job. There is a lot to be done. There are efficiencies that we can meet. We should not expect efficiencies from our staff only and not our elected officials…. Alderman Deane Well you know Mayor… Mayor Lozeau This board will make a decision and we will see where we go from there. Alderman Pressly What would it take to come back to this committee… Mayor Lozeau Don’t vote for the motion. Alderman Pressly …I mean if there were…I’m sorry? Mayor Lozeau Don’t vote for the motion. Alderman Pressly No, what I mean is the assumption is it will be the same contractor for three years. So if there is a change; let’s say they want to charge more, would that bring it back to this committee? Mayor Lozeau Yes. Alderman Pressly And how much of a change would trigger that to happen? Finance – 11/02/11 Page 18 Mayor Lozeau Well anything of $10,000 or greater would trigger it. Alderman Pressly Okay. But what if it were just $5,000 more? Mayor Lozeau Well I think the first thing that would to my mind if something like that happened would be I would ask why a company gave us a price that we agreed to a multi-year contract on and they are coming back and changing that dollar amount… Alderman Pressly Well I assume that. Mayor Lozeau …right so depending on what that is, we would deal with it. There are a couple of things that would trigger it coming back here; one would be a year from now the staff determines that there is a problem or I determine that there is a problem, which I would do in conjunction with the staff, and they say we don’t want them to be the provider anymore we want to terminate the contract, we want a new provider. That would send it back here. Alderman Pressly Okay. Mayor Lozeau If there is a dollar change, frankly as I said… Alderman Pressly Or consultant change. Mayor Lozeau Right, any of those kinds of things would trigger it back here. Alderman Pressly That would trigger it. Mayor Lozeau This is a pretty routine thing. We have been testing at our sites for a very long time. I actually had suggested it because we come back annually, and I said why don’t we just bring it in, get it done, and move forward. Alderman Pressly Where are these records kept if anyone wanted to… Finance – 11/02/11 Page 19 Mayor Lozeau We have them both in-house so at the landfill and DES has them. Actually I think they post them on their website. Alderman Pressly Okay. Is there anybody that monitors it besides…DES monitors it. Who in the City reads those and studies them? Mayor Lozeau We have a staff person, Kerry Converse that is responsible for these at the landfill. He reads what the samples are. We have had times over the years where we have missed a deadline or we have had something pending and had to work with DES on different things, and those things get discussed, but we do keep an eye on them, and some of these reports are frequently shared with some of the abutters who are very interested in what those monitoring reports say like… Alderman Pressly Okay. Mayor Lozeau …Jenson’s will look at them consistently and… Alderman Pressly Okay. And I’m maybe going back to the previous one, but I do know friends that live near the landfill and I know they have had problems, but this doesn’t cover that necessarily. Mayor Lozeau No, it won’t cover like an odor problem unless the odor is a violation. Just because we are finally getting excited about having resolved some of the odor problems at the landfill and we were down to I think 3 or 4 calls in the last couple of years. We put in new piping and we are having more odor problems at the landfill as of late because of that and so we are looking at that right now. So there is the air quality that you and I want to live with versus the air quality that could really hurt you and violate our permit. Alderman Pressly So these tests have nothing to do with that? Mayor Lozeau No. Alderman Pressly Okay. Mayor Lozeau Further discussion on this item? MOTION CARRIED Finance – 11/02/11 Page 20 From: Robert Gabriel, Purchasing Manager Re: Sludge Dewatering Project Amendment #1 (Value: $99,900) MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT, PLACE ON FILE AND AUTHORIZE AMENDMENT #1 TO THE CONTRACT WITH WRIGHT-PIERCE FOR A NET CHANGE IN THE AMOUNT OF $99,000. SOURCE OF FUNDING IS ACCOUNT NUMBER 792-53030-3797 ON THE QUESTION Mayor Lozeau This is to look at the grit system that was done in 1972 and then upgraded in 1985. Some of the new technologies will allow us to do a better job in this before it goes into the dewatering system. Because we had this company on board that had completed the design already it made sense to reach out to them to have them design this as well. So that is what is before you is this component. Alderman Pressly Before the meeting Alderman Deane was kind enough to explain to some of us what this was all about. I don’t know if it is worth explaining to the people at home that are watching, but I would sort of like to know where it is. I presume it is over connected to everything else at the… Mayor Lozeau It is at the waste water treatment plant. The items that our citizens send along end up over at our treatment facility. There are different processes that go through different phases and the goal is to take as much water out of it as possible so that the sludge is as dry as possible when we truck it offsite. There are different technologies now where they remove the, well before I talk about the technologies, the current system is grit is removed before it is dewatered and now there are technologies that will allow the grit removal to be done in a better manner. Alderman Pressly Okay. Further question; I notice some of the monies to be spent for a workshop for the City personnel. Is that something…I have to assume that as you have a turnover in personnel that you are going to carry on with that after the first time you do it. Mayor Lozeau Our staff is very well trained in the systems over there. I imagine that will stay. Alderman Vitale We’re eligible for a 20% State aid grant. Have we received that money already? Mayor Lozeau We are hoping. The state has two possibilities; they have the State aid grants and then they have the State revolving funds. Some of the projects that we have have qualified for one or the other of those and some have been suspended on the State level. We are relatively certain that this may not be one of the projects picked for the State revolving fund. Alderman Vitale Even though it is eligible? Finance – 11/02/11 Page 21 Mayor Lozeau Exactly. Alderman Vitale Okay. Alderman Chasse I’m just wondering why this wasn’t put in the original bid. Mayor Lozeau Because at the time there was no expectation that we would really change the system used for removing the grit until the design was complete and it was made aware to the engineers that there was another system out there that we might want to look at. Alderman Chasse So in other words they built it and now they are going to sit down with the key personnel from the City and say okay now we are going to say how we are going to make a plan of when to change the pumps or change this and keep the equipment up and running? Mayor Lozeau No… Alderman Chasse Kind of sounds backwards to me a little bit Mayor Lozeau …although the systems work together there are two different systems. Alderman Chasse I’m very well aware of that. Mayor Lozeau Okay. So we hired this company to do the design for the dewatering that did not include the grit. But now that there is other equipment that will do a better job let’s just say, we wanted the grit system to be designed to be able to work differently with the dewatering system. This company has been asked to do that. Alderman Chasse So it didn’t go out for another bid you just… Mayor Lozeau It didn’t because we knew that we had the company that would do it and it wouldn’t go out to bid anyway it would go out for an RFP. Because this company is doing the work we thought there were economies of scale there, and that is why we asked them to do it. So the next step we will have it go out for bid in the winter and we anticipate spring construction. Finance – 11/02/11 Page 22 Then we anticipate this company that is doing the design work will be asked to be contracting with us to do the oversight of the system design much like you would an architect to make sure that it is built to the specs they have designed. That will be further down the line. Alderman Chasse Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. Further discussion on this? MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None NEW BUSINESS - None DISCUSSION Alderman Clemons Thank you. I know this is kind of a little off topic, but since you are here, I have a question about if you could just give us an update on what is going on with the storm and that kind of thing and how our new emergency management person is working out, and what the benefits are I guess of that. I’m curious to see if there is a significant difference that we can tell versus the ’08 ice storm versus this storm, that kind of thing, and also to get an update of where we are at. Mayor Lozeau Well, we are down to 50 streets that are impacted. We are down to 1 traffic signal, which happens to be in Alderman Chasse’s ward at Almont and Lund. While you know we started at a high of 30, 140 streets, 190 wires down, it has been quite a storm. I think what most people are finally becoming aware of is that the way the trees have fallen and the weight, when it pulls down the lines it also will snap poles, which is not something that we’ve seen pretty typically. Outside of the police station the pole was snapped. We had police, waste water, two fire systems stations, three pump houses all on generator power; streets, garage, a lot of things like that. Although it doesn’t feel like it to some of our residents, we are certainly making huge progress. As I was saying, we are down to about 50 streets, schools are not open again tomorrow because of the assessment around some of the walking routes have provided that that is not passable. We have FEMA coming in tomorrow for a look. The Emergency Management Director will be taking them around. What has happened from this storm different than the ’08 ice storm is I’m not in my office at 6:00 a.m. handling calls from residents where we do have somebody that that is all they are doing. Police, fire, they are engaged in the emergency operation center, which has been open since Sunday. The Emergency Management Director has been able to coordinate things, and actually the maps that we’re able to produce that he is working with with GIS, has made a huge impact on how PSNH can do its work. Every day we give them a map in the morning, midday we update that map, and at the end of the day we give them the new map for any of the crews they bring in at night. We’ve been able to do multiple maps. We have a map that shows all of the locations of wires down and trees, trees down without wires, trees with wires. It is actually easier for us to map that out than it is for Public Service because they can’t necessarily tell where the power is out. Yesterday we were able to put together a map that they could use this morning to overlay you know the routes that we made for our snowplow sidewalks to schools, we overlaid that map with where the wires Finance – 11/02/11 Page 23 were down and trees, and so we were able to send out some priorities in certain areas. When we get those areas done, that also will take care of those homes in that area. The maps on the website, the updates that have been happening; to have somebody that is on this and that is all they are doing and what they are responsible for, has had a huge impact on everyone. Collectively, the staff has actually gone out of their way to make it clear to me that it has been a huge success. The shelter folks have a person to talk to that they know that they can reach 24/7. It has really been pretty remarkable. Alderman Clemons Great. Thank you. Alderman Chasse Just a couple of little things; I happened to go into one of the stores in my ward and gee the Ward Alderman is not answering his phone. Well folks I was in the same boat as you, I had no phone, I had no heat, but I do have a good little story to tell you. Bishop Guertin was a disaster area, looked like a bomb went off there. They had a pole that was snapped in half, there was another pole down in the middle, they had the transformer on the back. I got there about 11:00 a.m. after leaving Patty Roger’s office and they just happened to have a crew there. Well the two gentlemen that were heading the crews are both retirees from Public Service. They came out of retirement to head these crews. There are people out there. They are bringing in the crews. One guy is in Hollis and said look I’m working on your trees here, your problems here, and he said and I’m going to be a week. He said I live in Hollis it is going to be at least a week before I even get my heat back. The other guy happens to be a resident of my ward, and he said I was retired, they gave me a phone call, they couldn’t get in touch. They couldn’t call him. He said they came to my house and knocked on my door and said hey we need you. So they were out there. So then I got to talking to the gentlemen who are going to be working on the poles. I commend everybody. These guys, two crews came in from Ohio, drove 30 hours straight and went right to work. To me that is pretty risky, you have been in the trucks for 30 hours and now you are going out there. I asked one of the guys what is the lead time or roughly what do you think. He said 8 o’clock tonight, maybe 10:00 o’clock. I said great I can live with that. Well he lied to me. They got it done by 7:00 p.m. I tell you those guys were out there and they looked like; bloodshot eyes and everything, and they did a fine job. I was up and running at 7:00 o’clock Monday evening. I commend all of the guys that are out there. I know they are still bringing in crews. I heard on the news tonight crews from Indiana were coming in and somebody was coming up from Virginia or something and they said they were just passing lines and lines of trucks coming into New England to take care of this problem. Mayor Lozeau South central New Hampshire has been hit the hardest, and Nashua really is in the center of it. The different transmission lines; I was speaking to the PUC Commissioner tonight about it, we’ve lost huge transmission lines so it is not just that they can go out and put the wires up. I know that is not a lot of solace to some of the people. Alderman Chasse One more very important thing; just because you don’t have power and maybe they are working in your area and the power is heading out to the rest of the people in your residency, make sure you call into City Hall if you don’t have power because you might be a lone problem. Maybe there is something wrong with your electricity straight to your house. That is the flip side of the coin. Make sure you call City Hall and let them know that you still don’t have power especially if you see the other people on your street with the lights Finance – 11/02/11 Page 24 on because now you’ve got an isolated problem and they need to know that. I believe Patty Rogers is the one to call. Mayor Lozeau You can call Patty… Alderman Chasse And her number is? Mayor Lozeau Call 589-3260, anybody in the office will help. That is a good… Alderman Chasse And patience is a virtue. Mayor Lozeau That is a good point Alderman Chasse because actually what we have found to be a problem is people assume that Public Service knows. They assume that somebody in their neighborhood called and they haven’t. We had at least half a dozen areas that I can tell you that our office called in when we found out people had not called. That is really important and that is one of the reminders that I sent out to the Aldermen with the 800 number and things to call because everybody assumes somebody did and nobody is the anybody who does, and that is a problem. You want to get them while they are out there. Alderman Pressly I would like to pick up on the comment that you just made that patience is a virtue. I’ve heard people say that there has just been a real attitude of cooperation and people have been very kind. There have been long lines at the gas stations and at restaurants, and people have been patient, they have kept a sense of humor. I think not only were the service people extraordinary, I think the citizens as a whole responded really admirably. Mayor Lozeau I agree. People, I think they are trying. Alderman Deane I did take advantage of looking at the City’s website and the Google Earth. There was one placard with trees and another one with wires, and as I zoomed in because I travel down Taylor Street, there was no report of anything down there except on 52 on the other end, but from the corner of Fairway up to Massachusetts Drive, lines and poles absolutely decimated, all of the telephone poles are on the ground. I did call Public Service and I did talk to a lady and I did give her some directions on where the poles were. I couldn’t get the pole numbers because the poles were laying on the numbers on the side of the road. The other thing that really concerned me, and I would commend Mr. Conrad, as much of an inconvenience as it is, there should be no school in the city and none of these kids should have to walk anywhere near any of this stuff until it is cleaned up. As I told Mr. Coronis at Jeannotte’s Market tonight there are plenty of nice days in June that the kids can attend school. I know they are not going to like it, but when you go and you see this stuff like down on Massachusetts Ave., there is a bus stop there, there are wires all over the place, there are huge limbs hanging in the wires. I wouldn’t want my kid standing up there. There is absolutely no sense to anybody’s kids standing up there. I think Mr. Conrad made the right call. As you had alluded to Finance – 11/02/11 Page 25 earlier about the walking routes to school, you get up to the north end up into Berkeley Street, I don’t know if you have gone down there, but those beautiful Maples that line Berkeley Street are gone. They are just destroyed. It is unbelievable the damage. And I did tell the lady at Public Service that I thought that they were doing an admirable job for what happened here, and for getting power back on. A lot of people that don’t have it are probably not happy with that comment, but I’ve done my part; I’ve run extension cords out of my house and jumped out furnaces and got power for people’s refrigerators in my neighborhood, and cut down the amount of power I’m using at my house. They don’t anticipate this sort of catastrophic type of scenario to happen. In ’08 they didn’t have the transformers then they put all of these large breakers in now that pop so they didn’t blow the transformers off the poles and they’ve obviously paid dividends, but to have this amount of heavy wet snow come in and fall on top of tree limbs with leafs it was catastrophic. The damage is just unbelievable especially when you go up into that north end of town. Some of those trees are over 100 years old and a lot of them are probably going to have to come down. I think they did a good job. I think the City has done a great job cleaning up and dealing with the…at my place of employment I had the fire department come down because the alarm system was going off, and when I talked to the fellows on the truck they told me it was their 367th call of the day, of the day. They couldn’t come and put a pole box back in service for two days. I said well we will be here so if there is a fire we will pull the box, but I mean it was pretty amazing the amount of work what they and the police department have done and public works and everybody. I think the City’s employees reacted really well to the issue. People kept saying to me well why can’t the City get the power back on. I’m like we buy the power from Public Service just like you do; we don’t own the trees in people’s yards. Public Service has been, I know they have been aggressively pruning. I know that for a fact because I see them our pruning everything. That is another thing that I’m going to do down the road Mayor; I came down Robinson Road on Sunday. They are pruning trees, they have two people out there flagging with no signs, no nothing, and dropping limbs into…it was unbelievable. I think we require flagmen in the City to have a sign. They have posted where they were working. They had no stop or slow sign. There were two ladies out there, and it was starting to get dark, standing there with their hands up, and one of them almost got hit by a car. I stopped and I said you should be having signs that say stop or slow and then communicate with your comrade down the other end. She looked at me like I had two heads, but I don’t think people should be allowed to work on the City streets in that manner. Mayor Lozeau They’re not. If you come across that it would be great if you called our office so we can make Public Works aware of it so they could go out and respond. Alderman Deane So on a Sunday afternoon at like 4:30 p.m. who am I supposed to call? Mayor Lozeau Me. Alderman Deane Call you? Mayor Lozeau Really I mean if you don’t have an option because … Finance – 11/02/11 Page 26 Alderman Deane It is just dangerous… Mayor Lozeau Right. Alderman Deane …it is dangerous for the people that are flagging, but I don’t know why they… Mayor Lozeau And on a Sunday the police could respond and provide paddles if they don’t have them. But we require that. Alderman Deane Thank you. Mayor Lozeau You are welcome. It is true, the staff has been amazing. The EOC has been operational, the Riverside offices for Public Works had no power and that building has no generator so they were working out of the EOC coordinating their staff. I.T. has been just unbelievable trying to get everybody into their desktops from whatever remote location that they have to work from. The coordination has been remarkable. The Superintendent has been at the EOC with us. I modified my schedule for the different things that I had to do, but still tried to do some of the events that I had committed to, and one of them was the groundbreaking at the airport on Monday. A citizen called about 9:30 p.m. at home and was very angry yelling at my husband, and I was at the shelter, and he said I don’t know why she is doing a groundbreaking at the airport, she should be out there with Public Service getting our power on, and I’m thinking gees are you strapping me into a bucket truck? One of the things that occurred from going to the airport was former Mayor Davidson, Chairman of the Airport Authority, made arrangements for me to go up in a helicopter and take a look at the City. It was my first helicopter ride. I was a little green for a little while, but I invited the Superintendent of Streets and the Superintendent of Schools to come with me so they really could have an opportunity to see what we were dealing with. The Street Superintendent brought the City map, showed the areas that he knew he had issues, got a chance to go in and take a look and see where the PSNH trucks were. It was really pretty remarkable because you are only 1,000 feet up so you are seeing, and that was pretty amazing. And then of course today even though we are not done we are still trying to get our arms around what is left, and we have a great handle on it. But what happens at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon, the Harbor Ave. projects hits a high pressure gas mane. You can still kind of smell the gas in here a little bit. The Emergency Management Director he was one of the ones besides the fire department, he gets the call, he is coordinating getting buses down there and do evacuations, and I thought boy you know this guy trial by fire. He has been here a couple of months and he has had a hurricane, an October snow storm, a gas evacuation. By the time winter comes he is certainly going to be battle work and ready. Everybody has done a great job. We are very fortunate. Is there any further discussion? Finance – 11/02/11 Page 27 Alderman Pressly I hesitate to bring this up. It is on a lighter note. I hope everybody had their opportunity to speak to the storm, but on the lighter note, looking out my window, the chimney of the Millyard survived just fine. I sent out and possibly you did not get it Madam Mayor because you have been busy doing other things, but Alan Manoian sent in an interesting letter to the Editor, which may provide a really good solution to the struggle that we’re having on what to do with the chimney. I hope this will be considered. Mayor Lozeau Everything is considered. I saw his letter to the Editor, the staff has seen it, and we’ve had discussion about it. All of those things are on the table. They were aware of the information that he provided about the differential in height as we have worked with the historic people. Alderman Pressly So I think you can satisfy the historical wish that it be accurate if you go back to 1881, and it is a lower height and it should…I think it might be the compromise that we have been looking for. Mayor Lozeau Whatever is going to work, I think I’ve made it very clear Alderman Pressly that my goal is to try to save that chimney. Alderman Pressly If we restore it to its very first original size and shape, it can probably be done and come closer to meeting the standards today for the requirements of safety. Mayor Lozeau Okay. Is there further discussion? WARRANT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO APPROVE WARRANT #8 IN THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF $15,368,920.49 OF WHICH $4,490,556.85 ARE ACCOUNTS PAYABLE, $5,388,777.36 ARE PAYROLL AMOUNTS, $82,031.89 ARE PREPAY AMOUNTS AND $5,407,554.39 ARE WIRE TRANSFERS ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane I didn’t have an opportunity to review the Warrant either electronically or have any time this week to get in here so I will not be voting in favor of passing this motion. Thank you. Mayor Lozeau Is there further discussion? MOTION CARRIED PUBLIC COMMENT - None Finance – 11/02/11 Page 28 ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The Finance Committee meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Committee Clerk