Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee

SPECIAL PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE FEBRUARY 17, 2010 A special meeting of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee was held on Wednesday, February 17, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Chairman Ben Clemons presided. Members of the Committee present: Alderman Kathy Vitale, Vice Chair Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Paul M. Chasse, Jr. Members Not in Attendance: Alderman Richard P. Flynn Also in Attendance: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Chairman Clemons The purpose of the meeting tonight is just to conduct interviews, which we could not do the other evening because of other matters that took some time. I will call forward the Mayor if you want to come forward. INTERVIEWS Airport Authority Richard A. Moushegian (New Appointment) Term to Expire: August 31, 2014 Cable Television Advisory Board George Allen (New Appointment) Term to Expire: January 1, 2013 Mayor Lozeau Thank you Mr. Chairman. I appreciate you having a special meeting to take up these appointments. This evening I am pleased to introduce you to Mr. George Allen who has expressed an interested in being on the CTAB committee. He had written into the office as many do for a volunteer opportunity. He came in, and we discussed the role of CTAB and what he has to offer in that role. I think you will see from his resume that he has extensive background in all kinds of computer and software programs and operating systems many of which I have no idea what they mean. Although when you look at some of the new technologies that CTAB is going to start talking about I think that Mr. Allen would be a welcome addition. He, like all of my candidates tonight are people that I believe are professional, objective, have no conflict, and are able to serve the city in the capacity and the time required. Chairman Clemons Mr. Allen do you have anything you wish to add? Special Personnel – 2/17/10 Page 2 George Allen Good evening. It is nice to meet you all. I appreciate the support of the Mayor. I moved to Nashua in about ’97 so I have been in this community about 13 years. When I filled out the volunteer form I tried to think what are my qualifications for being on CTAB. I am certainly a cable television customer through all of their services; high speed internet, phone, and television. I am also a regular watcher of the Channel 16 programming. I have two children in the high school and another in the middle school. I am interested in the programming that is also offered on Channel 99 to keep an idea of what is coming in the educational domain. Also I know that the public television efforts are coming. I am interested in jumping in and seeing what I can learn and make a contribution. Chairman Clemons Thank you very much. We certainly appreciate at least I can appreciate your software background. It is quite extensive. I think that kind of work can only help. What is it that you do or what have you done in the past? George Allen My title presently is a database administrator, but I have done lots of software engineering disciplines, technical support and development. I am a New York State native, a graduate of the SUNY system, but I have never been a Yankees fan if that is any consideration. I have a good long running background in software engineering. Chairman Clemons Thank you. Are there any members of the committee with questions? Thank you for coming this evening. Patricia A. Casey (New Appointment) Term to Expire: January 1, 2013 Mayor Lozeau I am happy to introduce you tonight to Tricia Casey. Tricia came about a year ago to talk to be about being on CTAB, and at that time we didn’t have any available spots. She was very interested in getting involved in the community, and as you can see by her resume, she clearly understands volunteerism and has I think a real knack for understanding how things work together and how people might respond to a discussion surrounding issues that benefit the community. That is probably the best way to say that. One of the things that I have talked to members about with CTAB is that we are looking at public television and other things. Often times when people call and want to be involved with CTAB they are calling because they are unhappy with their cable bill. I walk through with them that is not a good fit. When Trish and I talked about it, it was almost a year ago that she has waited for the opportunity to be able to take on this task. Chairman Clemons Would you like to introduce yourself and a few comments? Special Personnel – 2/17/10 Page 3 Patricia A. Casey Certainly. Thank you. I am excited to be here this evening. I do, as Mayor Lozeau mentioned, have an interest in public service. I do quite a bit of volunteering as a board member with the Girl Scouts and locally at my son’s school. The fact of the matter is that servicing your own community is where you see the biggest impact I think. The interesting this is when the Cable Television Advisory Board opportunity came up, I had never heard of it. When you think of local cable television you think of okay where do I go to find out if there is a delay in my trash pickup this week. I think there could be more and people need a little education and P.R. on this one. Maybe we can do a little bit of good while we are at it. I am looking forward to service. Chairman Clemons Thank you. Are there any members with questions? Alderman Deane I have a simple question. Are you still unhappy with your cable bill? Mayor Lozeau It wasn’t her. Patricia A. Casey Only my husband does. I have no problems with my cable bill. Alderman Deane I voted against the contract. I thought it was too lengthy at ten years. In the past, and you did raise a good point, we had a situation set up where organizations could send in and items could be posted of upcoming events, which kind of seem to have gone away like if football programs were having sign ups, similar to what Channel 13 does. We had done that for a while and they should probably look at doing that. I think it is a good community service instead of looking at the weather. I think Mr. Barker played a role in that as well. It was real easy. It was nothing more than just one card off of I believe it was a Microsoft program where you could just make it at your house and e-mail it to him and they could just load it on. If you were the only one you got a lot of exposure, but I think other organizations in the community might have an interest in doing that. When we did look into it there were certain criteria that had to be met. You had to be a non-profit which was number one. You couldn’t post any for profit on that channel. Why the Cable Television Advisory Board? Patricia A. Casey When I was actually asked to come in and speak I didn’t have a particular committee in mind. I wanted to know what openings were there, but also where help was most needed. I don’t have any real experience with the city, and at the time I had worked with Comcast on some public leadership conference. They had known that I was interested in kind of doing a little bit more in the city, and they said you know who you should talk to is the Mayor. They have this board. Find out more about it. They Special Personnel – 2/17/10 Page 4 pointed me in that direction and it just sounded interesting. I had never even heard of it. I actually believe in doing things that you have never done before rather than staying in your comfort zone. Alderman Deane Who are you currently employed with? Patricia A. Casey The New Hampshire Audubon. Alderman Deane My employer just became a member of the Audubon. Patricia A. Casey Who is your employer? Alderman Deane The Nashua Country Club. Patricia A. Casey Excellent. Alderman Deane Thank you very much. Patricia A. Casey Thank you. Alderman Pressly I am the new Liaison to the cable board, and I attended my first meeting last week. It is really an exciting time. I look forward to serving with both of you George and Patricia. Your timing is perfect because they are doing so many new things. It will be fun to be involved at this stage. If you haven’t, when you leave today if you step in the room just around the corner you can see they are probably filming this very meeting. Have you stopped in there? Patricia A. Casey We passed by and I heard them talking about filming. I made sure to brush my hair. My kids are going to see this. You know I am going to tell them. Mayor Lozeau And tonight of course is the night with the new cameras. Special Personnel – 2/17/10 Page 5 Patricia A. Casey Oh great. Mayor Lozeau You will look better. Alderman Pressly One of the Aldermen stepped in and said where is the makeup room. If you have a minute, after the meeting you can stop in there and that will be your first initiation. Patricia A. Casey Great. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman if I could, I would like to speak a little bit to Alderman Deane’s point about some of the old things they would like to see again. When Mr. Poehnert and others got involved with getting the new studio set up, a lot of their initiatives kind of went on the back burner. One of them is a community calendar that they came in and showed me where they will actually go out in the community and do things like film the librarian talking about what is going on at the library this weekend. They will go to different city departments and other events that make sense for the community to know about and so there will be something on there. It all kind of got on the back burner when they focused all of their energies on the studio and the new cameras here and in the auditorium. But I think you are exactly right Alderman Pressly that it is going to be an interesting time to be on the committee. Chairman Clemons Are there any further questions or comments? I would just say I admire your spirit of wanting to go in head first, and I think that is always a good thing. I wish you well. Patricia A. Casey Thank you very much. Child Care Advisory Commission Sarah Ward (New Appointment) Term to Expire: October 13, 2011 Mayor Lozeau Thank you Mr. Chairman. Sarah contacted my office having worked a little bit with the Child Care Advisory Commission. Sarah is currently employed at St. Joseph’s Hospital and has seen the benefits of some of the programs that the child care commission offers. In addition, has a child in child care so sees a lot of the benefits there. She has worked with many of the members on the commission and is very excited to serve. She has lived in the community about 10 years. I am pleased to offer her for your consideration tonight. Special Personnel – 2/17/10 Page 6 Chairman Clemons Sarah would you like to say a few words? Sarah Ward Thanks for having me tonight. I am Sarah Ward. I have lived in the city a little over 10 years now with my husband. We have a 5 year old son. He is currently in the child care system in Nashua. We love the city. We have always been involved with the city at some level. It hasn’t been as much while raising my son, but I am at a point now where I feel like I have the time to commit to a program like this and help out. Chairman Clemons Are there any questions or comments from the committee? Alderman Vitale I am the Liaison to this committee. Have you had a chance, I know we just started our new term, but have you had a chance to go to any of the meetings yet? Sarah Ward I haven’t been to any of the meetings yet. Alderman Vitale Which members are you familiar with? Sarah Ward I am familiar with Beth and Chris Lister. Alderman Vitale Very good. I look forward to seeing you there. Chairman Clemons Are there further questions or comments? I would just like to say Sarah thank you for coming this evening and volunteering in Nashua. It is always a good thing to see people coming forward and offering their services. Thank you. Conservation Commission Cynthia Overby (New Appointment) Term to Expire: December 31, 2011 Mayor Lozeau This evening I am again happy to introduce you to another nominee, Cynthia Overby. I met Cynthia in her position as an alternate to the Planning Board. After lengthy discussions with her, determined that Special Personnel – 2/17/10 Page 7 the Conservation Commission could benefit from her being a full member. She had been on the Conservation Commission 5 or 6 years ago, and interestingly enough some of the items that they were talking about then are coming to fruition now. I think based on so many changes on that committee, that she would be a welcome addition that would be able to hit the ground running and would be very familiar with the projects that are there. I offer her for your consideration tonight, and I would tell you that I know that her work ethic is solid, I know that she was a dedicated member to the Planning Board as an alternate coming to a significant amount of meetings, did her homework, and I know that she will bring that same look to the Conservation Commission. Chairman Clemons Cynthia would you like to say a few words? Cynthia Overby Thank you for having me here tonight. I appreciate the Mayor’s confidence in me. I was on a sub- committee, Land Conservation, not necessarily the Conservation Commission. I look forward to filling the need in the Conservation Commission. Chairman Clemons Are there any questions? Alderman Chasse I would like to know, are you going to stay on the city planning board? Cynthia Overby No sir. Alderman Chasse Or are you going to resign? Are you still on? Cynthia Overby I am up for re-appointment so I am going to be moving, as the Mayor suggested, to the Conservation Commission. Alderman Chasse Providing we put you in there. Cynthia Overby Yes. Special Personnel – 2/17/10 Page 8 Alderman Chasse Thank you. Alderman Deane Do you have an interest in staying on the planning board? Cynthia Overby I did relay an interest/desire to stay on the planning board. I will take the Mayor’s direction and freely and willingly go to the Conservation Commission if you will have me. Alderman Deane Thank you. Alderman Vitale May I ask the Mayor a question? Chairman Clemons Sure. Alderman Vitale How are we on the Planning Board currently? Mayor Lozeau We have a new member coming in. We have an alternate who just resigned recently. I am hopeful that one of the other alternates will step up and take that position. But, I think we are fine. Alderman Vitale We have how many full members and open positions for full members? Mayor Lozeau Currently we have 1 open position for a member and 1 open position for an alternate, 2. Alderman Vitale Okay. Thank you. Chairman Clemons I would just again say thank you Cynthia for your past service to the city and your continuing service. Thank you for coming this evening. Special Personnel – 2/17/10 Page 9 Cynthia Overby Thank you very much. It is my pleasure to serve the city. COMMUNICATIONS – None PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT - None APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO RECOMMEND THE CONFIRMATION OF THE MAYOR’S APPOINTMENTS FOR THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS: TO THE BUILDING CODE BOARD OF APPEALS THE RE-APPOINTMENT OF GEORGE FALLET FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE MARCH 31, 2012, TO THE CABLE TELEVISION ADVISORY BOARD THE APPOINTMENT OF GEORGE ALLEN AND PATRICIA CASEY FOR TERMS TO EXPIRE JANUARY 1, 2013, TO THE CHILD CARE ADVISORY COMMISSION THE RE-APPOINTMENT OF MARIA DONATI AND DOROTHY RODRIGUEZ FOR TERMS TO EXPIRE OCTOBER 13, 2012, AND THE APPOINTMENT OF SARAH WARD FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE OCTOBER 13, 2011, TO THE CONSERVATION COMMISSION THE RE-APPOINTMENT OF RICHARD GILLESPIE FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2012, AND THE APPOINTMENT OF CYNTHIA OVERBY, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2011; AND TO THE HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION THE RE-APPOINTMENT OF WILLIAM HOOLEY AS AN ALTERNATE MEMBER FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE SEPTEMBER 30, 2012 MOTION CARRIED DISCUSSION - None ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 7:20 p.m. Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Committee Clerk