Human Affairs Committee

HUMAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MAY 3, 2010 A meeting of the Human Affairs Committee was held Monday, May 3, 2010 at 6:26 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Chairman Lori Wilshire presided. Members of the Committee present: Alderman Richard LaRose, Vice Chair Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Members not in Attendance: Alderman Diane Sheehan Also in Attendance: Carrie Schena, Urban Programs Manager Linda LaFleur, Office of Economic Development Thomas Galligani, Economic Development Director Chairman Wilshire We have a quorum. Alderman Sheehan will be joining us soon. Unidentified Female Speaker And Alderman Pressly. Chairman Wilshire Thank you Alderman Pressly. Also with us is Carrie Schena Urban Programs Manager, Linda LaFleur from Office of Economic Development. And Tom Galligani, the Economic Development Director. Thank you for being here, we are going to go over the ah resolution for the CDBG and HOME funds and then maybe some questions so if you don’t mind sticking around for a few minutes. Okay, thank you. COMMUNICATIONS – None UNFINISHED BUSINESS - None NEW BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS Chairman Wilshire R-10-22 Authorizing the Mayor to apply for the Community Development Block Grant and Home Investment Partnerships Grant fiscal year 2011. Human Affairs – 05/03/10 Page 2 R-10-22 Endorsers:Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Richard LaRose Alderman Michael J. Tabacsko Alderman Jeffrey T. Cox Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO APPLY FOR THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT AND HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIPS GRANT, FISCAL YEAR 2011 Alderman Clemons I will make a motion to ah recommend final passage of R-10-22. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Alderman Clemons Yes. I have a question. I wasn’t quite sure and maybe I didn’t read the emails closely enough. I’m sure that’s probably what it is. Ah. Where the extra money came from out of that went into contingency. Cause originally when we had come forward, I don’t believe contingency was at $85,000.00. So. . . Chairman Wilshire It wasn’t. I believe um, we had program income of $35,000.00 that’s money that um, people who take out loans or get loans from the city when they sell their property have to pay some of that money back and we get money from Clocktower we get a fee, I think its $20,000.00 is that right? Unidentified Female Speaker I’m not sure that becomes part of our CDBG repayment um the $35,000 was estimated basically for the loans that are paid back through the housing improvement program. Chairman Wilshire Okay, so that’s all that is? Unidentified Female Speaker That estimate that’s all that includes and we had just inadvertently not included in the original session. Alderman Clemons Okay, um and if I remember correctly. There was another portion that we had a question on as to I Human Affairs – 05/03/10 Page 3 don’t remember which one it was um, where there was a question of $30,000.00 maybe available and I think that was under . . . Chairman Wilshire It was under number 3 housing program. Housing rehabilitation operation and I did have a conversation with Director Hirsch about that. They expect to have possibly have $24,000.00 left at the end of the year. And Alderman Sheehan was interested reducing this line item by that amount. However, when I talked to Director Hirsch the reason they have that money um is because they have someone that’s out on leave. And um they are not sure you he could come back and if the money is cut from that line item you know how do we pay him. Um and so I told her you know we’d leave it in there you know if that’s the committee’s will and um if it doesn’t get spent it gets rolled over into contingency. Alderman Clemons It does. Chairman Wilshire Hmm hmm. Alderman Clemons Okay. Chairman Wilshire Further discussion? Alderman Clemons I ah one of the things that I want to look at to possibly entertain as a motion is an amendment to well a couple of amendments to ah the final resolution and ah the first one would be umm I’m trying to look. Number 5, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua. They had originally come in and asked for $50,000.00 to complete their project. And at that time the contingency I believe when we first discussed this was down to $40,000 in committee, well we’re double that. We are over double that now and so I would move to add from contingency so line number 20, to line number 5, $7,482.00 to make the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua have $50,000.00 and that’s my motion. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO REDUCE LINE 20 BY $7,482.00 AND ADD THAT TO LINE 5 FOR THE BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF GREATER NASHUA MAKING THAT $50,000.00. ON THE QUESTION Chairman Wilshire Discussion on that Motion? Seeing none, all those in favor say “I” opposed, motion carries. MOTION CARRIED Human Affairs – 05/03/10 Page 4 Alderman Clemons Thank you. I have a further motion and this is to ah line number 19 which was the City of Nashua Office of the Mayor and Board of Alderman and this was the discretionary funds for strategic planning efforts. Originally, I had said that said that um my own argument was to cut this from twenty to $10,000.00 and um a lot of the reason why I felt that way was number one, we needed money in our contingency line we need a lot of dollars in our contingency line, but two was that um I thought this would be a good trial but I think that with the amount of money that we have left over um I think we should fully fund the request as it came in ahh from from the Mayor. That will allow us, if we do that , that will allow us to have fully funded all of the requests that we decided were worth while. And I think that that is something to be proud of. I think that is a good accomplishment. And that will leave us with contingency which is $67,000.00 which potentially as ah Alderman Wilshire has stated could even added $24,000.00 at the end of the year. That’s a higher contingency that I’ve seen since I’ve been sitting on the Board of Alderman. I don’t know about the other Alderman that have been here longer than me but in the last two years I can say that this, that’s a higher contingency amount um, that we’ve ever seen. Ah, so my motion is to move from contingency $10,000.00 to line number 19 City of Nashua Office of the Mayor and Board of Alderman. MOTION IS TO REDUCE CONTINGENCY BY $10,000.00 AND ADD IT TO LINE 19 CITY OF NASHUA OFFICE OF MAYOR AND BOARD OF ALDERMAN DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING EFFORTS THROUGHOUT THE FISCAL YEAR ON THE QUESTION Chairman Wilshire You’ve heard the motion, discussion on that motion? You guys are really let off the hook here tonight. I don’t know. Um, I don’t know, I guess that’s you know it has to come back before the board for approval. I had some reservations at funding it at twenty initially um not knowing what it was we were going to be funding so I had some reservations with that. But the fact that it has to come back and be approved before any of this money is spent I guess, I can live with that. So I’m going support that motion. Further discussion on that? Chairman Wilshire All those in favor say “I” , opposed Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED Chairman Wilshire Anything further? Okay, wow this was short and sweet. Thank you. So the Motion before us is to recommend final passage of R-10-22 as Amended. Further discussion on that? Human Affairs – 05/03/10 Page 5 Seeing none. All those in favor say “I” opposed seeing none, Motion carries MOTION CARRIED Chairman Wilshire Thank you all very much. Thank you for being here. Sorry we put you through so much trouble tonight. Laughter. Okay, wow. That was nice. NEW BUSINESS – ORDINANCES – None PUBLIC COMMENT -None GENERAL DISCUSSION Alderman Clemons Thank you. Ah I would just like to note that I think the um the different comments that we heard from the ah public hearing are interesting and um the only thing that I would says is that ah I would encourage those groups that do have concerns to use the ah public input process these next thirty days and get those ah concerns out there and ah and hopefully they will we ah we can address them when the final plan comes before the Board. Because I think it’s important that the groups feel that they are not how they feel are not being represented in this final plan that that that get addressed and so I would encourage ah a lot of participation in these next 30 days. Chairman Wilshire I know a lot of people who did get up to speak had every intent in doing just that. Making sure that um the conversations they had during the planning sessions. And I kind of agreed with some it, um because I was there for it. So, um I kind of agree with it. Part of the problem was that we got everything so late you know there wasn’t a lot of time to review this, you know and and to even for the public, I mean it went of the website on a week ago, and the links got moved around a little bit and people had a hard time you know getting it downloaded and such but um, I did encourage people to make sure they wrote their comments and sent them into the Urban Programs Manager, to make sure they are included um in the plan before its final version. Further discussion? Seeing none. . Alderman Larose Alderman Larose I would just say that I think this was a better process that we’ve had in previous years. Um you know, we went through this very easily I guess is the word but we were meticulous in what were doing and you know I think we ended up with a good product, even though we have a fairly high contingency and I don’t see, I think that that is a good thing for for going into the next fiscal year because you never know what’s going to happen. One of the things that helped us I think this year, is we didn’t have any any amounts of monies that were pre programmed into this year, so we’ve only have one form this year to next year and so I think um, I think we are starting to get a handle on Human Affairs – 05/03/10 Page 6 some of the things that have to be done. I know some people would love to see us give more to the service sector but the fact is 15% is what is allowed for us to give to the non-profits. So we are doing the maximum there so we are not short changing them either. Chairman Wilshire I agree with the multi-year funding. I think those for awhile they really got out of hand there were five or six multi-year projects and when it came time to fund the resolution the following year there was no money. I mean it was already all divvied up into multi year projects. So I While I do support them I think them I think the project we’ve put in for multi year this year its important its going to leverage like over 2 million dollars into the community for twelve units of affordable housing and so to me that’s a good investment it leverages a lot more money and its in the communities best interest so I do support that. I agree that having to many of those is just its not do able. Alderman Larose The other thing with these multi-year things is I think especially this year we were a little more um I don’t know what the word is but we more or less demanded some figures than we have in the past and it wasn’t just well this is what I think I need. And so I think I need and so I think I think if we are careful and we are judicious with whoever comes in looking for these multi year things, we need to see that they have a very good plan versus. I think I need this or its an ambiguous request that its for maintenance. Chairman Wilshire Yeah, and neighborhood housing services came in with a plan. You know and they said this is how much we are going to leverage. I think it was 2.7 million . . .you know they had it written and they knew exactly what they were doing and how much money they were going to leverage and how many units they were getting, I mean really the really had done their homework and well deserving of the multi year commitment. Alderman Larose I think I think a couple of us are able to go and look at this to report back to the committee you know knew that you know we thought it was a good project. Chairman Wilshire There are a lot of good projects in this resolution. I am pleased with how it turned out. Further discussion? ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN LAROSE TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared adjourned at 6:40 p.m. Alderman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Committee Clerk