Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee

PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE AUGUST 12, 2010 A meeting of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee was held on Thursday, August 12, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Chairman Ben Clemons presided. Members of the Committee present: Alderman Kathy Vitale, Vice Chair (7:10 p.m.) Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Paul M. Chasse, Jr. Alderman Richard P. Flynn Members Not in Attendance: Also in Attendance: Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman Diane Sheehan Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson COMMUNICATIONS From: Diane Sheehan, Ward 3 Alderman Re: Decibel Table MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE MOTION CARRIED PERIOD FOR PUBLIC COMMENT - None APPLICATION TO LICENSE HAWKER'S, PEDDLER'S, ITINERANT VENDOR'S LICENSE - None APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR Chairman Clemons On the new appointments, the Mayor has asked that we hold the new appointments and the alternate to full member. Business and Industrial Development Authority H. John Stabile (Reappointment) Term to Expire: September 13, 2013 48 Lutheran Drive Nashua, NH 03063 Zoning Board of Adjustment Jonathan Currier (Reappointment) Term to Expire September 11, 2013 6 New Searles Road Nashua, NH 03062 Gerard A. Reppucci (Reappointment) Term to Expire September 11, 2013 17 Badger Street, Unit 1 Nashua, NH 03060 Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 2 Ryan Williams Term to Expire September 11, 2012 (Moving from Alternate to Full Member) 19 Courtland Street Nashua, NH 03061 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO RECOMMEND THE CONFIRMATION OF THE REAPPOINTMENT OF H. JOHN STABILE TO THE BUSINESS AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE SEPTEMBER 13, 2013, THE REAPPOINTMENT OF JONATHAN CURRIER TO THE ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE SEPTEMBER 11, 2013, THE REAPPOINTMENT OF GERARD A. REPPUCCI TO THE ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE SEPTEMBER 11, 2013, AND RYAN WILLIAMS AS A FULL MEMBER TO THE ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE SEPTEMBER 11,2012 MOTION CARRIED Conservation Commission Michael T. Gallagher (New Appointment) Term to Expire: December 31,2013 9 Old Coach Road Nashua, NH 03062 Ethnic Awareness Committee Dr. Johny Perez (New Appointment) Term to Expire: December 31, 2013 PO Box 681 Nashua, NH 03061 Nashua Planning Board Dan Kelly Alternate (New Appointment) I Term to Expire: March 31, 2013 9 Lilac Court Nashua, NH 03062 Thomas Yurovchak (New Appointment) Term to Expire: March 31,2013 7 Wild Rose Drive Nashua, NH 03063 MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO TABLE THE APPOINTMENT OF MICHAEL T. GALLAGHER TO THE CONSERVATION COMMISSION, THE APPOINTMENT OF DR. JOHNY PEREZ TO THE ETHNIC AWARENESS COMMITTEE, THE APPOINTMENT OF DAN KELLY AS AN ALTERNATE TO THE NASHUA PLANNING BOARD, AND THE APPOINTMENT OF THOMAS YUROVCHAK TO THE NASHUA PLANNING BOARD UNTIL THE SEPTEMBER 9,2010 PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MEETING MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS - None NEW BUSINESS - RESOLUTIONS - None Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 3 NEW BUSINESS - ORDINANCES MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO GO OUT OF THE REGULAR ORDER OF BUSINESS AND TABLE 0-10-27,0-10-28, AND 0-10-29 MOTION CARRIED 1\ 0-10-27 Endorser: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane REGARDING THE USE OF AMPLIFICATION DEVICES AT THE GREELEY PARK BANDSHELL 0-10-28 Endorser: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane AMENDING THE SOLID WASTE ORDINANCES TO REQUIRE COLLECTION ITEMS TO BE PLACED WITHIN A PROPERTY OWNERS' LOT LINE FRONTAGE AND REMOVING THE PROVISION REGARDING LANDFILL SECURITY 0-10-29 Endorser: Alderman Diane Sheehan PERMITTING AMPLIFIED SOUND IN GREELEY PARK WITH A DECIBEL LEVEL LIMITATION 0-10-23 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'\, MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Alderman Pressly Thank you very much. I would like to tell you a little bit about this program and hope that eventually you will table it as did the Budget Committee. It is a concept that might take a little while to comprehend. It is probably a word that many of you have never heard of, and the word is Ombudsman. The reason I happen to know about it, the origin is it is a Swedish word, and I lived in Sweden in Stockholm over 30 years ago for 2 and % years so that is why I am more familiar with it. It is an ancient word that really started in Sweden and in Scandinavia and it was to ensure that they always had a representative of the people to communicate directly with the powers that be, In those days it was a King or a Queen and today they have governing bodies. It has gone on to mean various things to various people, but it is used throughout the world in corporations, by newspapers; the Telegraph didn't call it an Ombudsman, but they had a representative that was totally independent of their structure that was able to contact the authorities and discuss issues that nobody else had the courage to talk about. It is something that is used in municipalities. One of the reasons that it was tabled at the Budget Committe~ was that it came up that this would also be a really great idea for the school system. Aldermen Cox and Melizzi-Golja agreed they would communicate with the school department. None of us really knew how this would work; if they would want to have a separate one, if we should have a combined one, or just how this would work. But it is an idea that I think they felt was Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 4 open for discussion. Some of the concerns; one was raised by Alderman Flynn in that he felt it was expanding government. In many ways it is, but it really isn't because this person purposely is totally independent from government. They are independent because that is the whole purpose of this. The purpose is that it is really pretty naive to think that the average citizen is comfortable picking up the phone and calling the Mayor or calling their Alderman, and there might be an issue that is sort of festering with them and it might be something that is bothering a lot of people. What this does is it encourages people/citizens to contact this one individual who will look into their issue. They would have authorities that a lot of people do not have, that we as Aldermen do not have, to go in and talk directly to almost investigate a department to see if there might be ways for improvement. One of the objections was raised by Alderman Wilshire in that she felt that was what she was doing; that she handles constituent complaints. I am sure she does and I think most everyone here certainly does or refers it to someone who can. That would be the case with an Ombudsman also in that if it were a simple task to be solved they would turn it over to someone else to look into. I hope you will keep it open until the Budget Review Committee has a meeting and the group that said they would look how the school issue receives input. I had a conversation with Mr. Hallowell some time ago and he said he was interested. I don't know if the school board would be or not. It is a program that has been very successful in many places. They come up with really good ideas. The reason I know this is I served as an Ombudsman when my former Husband was in the military. I was a Wives Ombudsman for Admiral Zumwalt when we lived in Spain. It was really fascinating how if the person who were to take the job really reaches out to people and says come and talk to me on how you feel about things. We were able to implement a lot of good changes that the powers that be, in this case it was the United States Navy, would have no way of knowing what was really happening. I would be happy to try to answer any questions you have at this stage. Chairman Clemons I would note the arrival of Aldermen Sheehan and Vitale. Alderman Chasse A question to Alderman Pressly through the Chair. Is this going to be a citizen? I know what an Ombudsman is. I have been involved in that in the past. Is this going to be a citizen, someone on this board? Alderman Pressly It would be someone totally independent from government, absolutely, and that is the whole purpose of it; someone that has no vested interest, they would work strictly as a consultant, and that would have to be worked out. That would be part of this to determine - it might take a while to find someone with the qualifications. Those are parts of it that need to be worked out. But I have felt in my lifetime that it was such an interesting and good idea, it does nothing but benefit any structure to have somebody totally free from any conflict, they have no vested interest at all, so they are free to be as objective as anyone can be. Alderman Chasse And you put a price tag of $60,000. Is that per year? Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 5 Alderman Pressly When I turned this over to Legal, it took them quite a while to devise this. What Dory told me is it took them a while to research it. She also indicated the legal entity for the State of New Hampshire has an Ombudsman. We just tossed that out as a beginning price. I would imagine with a consultant that would be negotiable, and it might be based on the amount of time. Not knowing up front how long it would take, it would depend on how actively this individual sought ideas. A lot of those things will have to be worked out. What we could do is perhaps put no more than on a price until we find out a little bit more about it and see what sort of applicants we would get for it. As you can tell from reading it, it would have to be handled really primarily through the Mayor's Office, and I would hope she would be happy to have the position. Alderman Chasse Like I say I know what this individual does. It is like you have them in a company where they can go to the CFO, the CEO, and they can ask questions for the other employees, can't be reprimanded or anything. You can't touch them. Do you really see this person working continuously or just when certain things come up? So this person probably could go the whole year without having any problems and not have to do anything. Alderman Pressly That could happen. That is why I think it would have to be on an as needed basis. That would have to be something that would be worked out as we move along. I would think if the school is interested there is more of a chance ... again I am open to ideas for it. I think the concept is something really useful and valuable and I think we would be smart as a municipality to try to use the idea. Alderman Chasse I am not against it, but I think maybe an hourly rate would make more sense than a set salary. If he/she works many hours you pay him/her for the hours, but if he/she doesn't do any work at all during the course of the year they shouldn't get paid. Alderman Pressly That would be negotiated. May I ask a question of Alderman Chasse? With you having experience with this type of thing, did you find it to be appropriate and useful? Alderman Chasse Yes I did. At the previous place I worked in Manchester was like an insurance company. I was the office manager so it would not be right for me to go into the CFO because they could make my life miserable being the office manager if they didn't like what I was saying. We had one of these individuals who would go talk freely for the employees as there was no union involved. She could not be reprimanded or anything. Alderman Pressly That is nice feedback, thank you. Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 6 Chairman Clemons I certainly can understand this being very helpful in a corporation or a place where someone's livelihood is at stake; in other words your salary as Alderman Chasse had said or your employment. I can see it being something as you have alluded to its origins back when there was a King; you don't want to make the King angry. In this day and age I look at what we do here at the board level and the position the Mayor has, Citizens Services Director, and there are all of us here who are elected by the people to do this sort of thing. I guess I am kind of struggling with where the need would be. I feel when we are elected we take that oath to be beholding to the voters. If that happens and we do our job, then that should be satisfaction in and of itself for the voters because we are responding to their requests, we are getting the answers for them or Patty Rogers is through the Mayor's Office or anyone of our public servants that works in any of the departments; City Clerk or building department wherever it may be. I guess I am trying to find out is where do you see this coming into play Alderman Pressly? Alderman Pressly Thank you. It in no way reflects on Aldermen or the Mayor's Office because I think they function well. Any question that would come to an Ombudsman might very often be referred to the Ward Alderman, etc. I will tell you very honestly what motivated me to even look at things like this is what happened at the school department where you had a situation where we fOllnd ourselves in tough straights and we have found out after the fact that maybe if there had been someone who could have reported some things that were going on maybe we could have caught some of the errors before they blew up in our face with a $3 million and $6 million deficit. If I knew where the areas would surface we wouldn't need it. Maybe we are part of the problem. Maybe an Ombudsman could come in and make a suggestion for the Board of Aldermen that we haven't seen that would help us serve better. It is one of those things if you knew what the problems were you wouldn't sponsor something like this. I think the idea of a fee for the hours served makes sense and that would have to be worked out. But also finding the right person that knows a lot about process and appropriate government issues, and has no ties. Let's face it we do have ties to the city. Although I think we all feel we are objective, it is impossible for anybody who is part of the system to be completely and totally objective. Chairman Clemons I find it hard that any person could be so objective that they wouldn't have any special interests at all. We are the Board of Aldermen and we are paying this person to do the job they are doing. They are going to be beholden to us in a sense. There is always someone to be beholden to. Unless you are the United State Supreme Court Justice or the President of the United States there is always someone to be beholden to in my opinion. I honestly feel this is something where really if we are going to go down this road I think there need to be clear cases presented as to vv,here this is going to help the community. I understand your point that you wouldn't have brought this forward if you knew that, and I get that, but I guess perhaps past practices in other cities that may have this, how it has worked out there and that sort of thing is what I would be looking for. Alderman Pressly I do have some examples of that. I wasn't able to make copies for everyone. Some communities have it Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 7 have a narrow purpose, which is something we could do too, but I think if you like the idea we might want to start with it being open and see if there is an area. I would also like, if you don't mind, after some discussion, if you would table it and see how the school department feels about it. I don't know how we work as two different bodies; if they have to vote on this or we have to request it and they respond. I don't know how that works, but I think it would be nice to start out with one person to serve the entire city. It could very well be that after this functions for a couple of months or half a year to a year that there is one specific area that would be served better than others where we could hone it down. Alderman Sheehan Thank you. My question goes to who the Ombudsman would be serving. Is it for the constituents or city employees or both? Alderman Pressly The case that Alderman Chasse used it appears as though it was to serve the employees, but again it is supposed to be an independent representative of the people. Employees are people too. It may very well be that it would start out in a general format and then become apparent that a certain group of people or an issue needs more representation. Employees are citizens too. Starting out I would think we would keep it open ended and try it out. But again, I would like to wait and see what the school department has to say, see if they like the idea. Alderman Vitale You might have mentioned this right before I walked in, but the reason that the Budget Review Committee tabled this I can't recall from the minutes. Chairman Clemons I believe that Alderman Pressly said that it was to look into wHether or not the school department would be open to this idea as well. Alderman Pressly Alderman Cox said that he would speak to Mr. Hallowell and also Alderman Melizzi-Golja having served on the school board really liked the idea and thought it would be extremely useful there. We were thinking if it stays on the table for a while, maybe put a team of people together; couple from this board and the school board to sort of hash out the idea. It is not time sensitive in any way. It is something that can certainly stay on the table until we have more information and input from various people. Alderman Vitale Just listening to the discussion, I do think that it needs to be given some more thought and for people to come up with a more definite plan on how it would work, who it would serve, who would be in charge of it. The money right now is said to be into the budget of the Mayor's office. Alderman Chasse mentioned an hourly wage versus the total amount. It will probably have to be a combination of the two where you have not to exceed a total amount in one year, but on an hourly wage as a starting point. I do think it is something that could use a lot more discussion and to have the meat of the legislation pinpointed. Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 8 Alderman Chasse I concur. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO TABLE 0-10-23 MOTION CARRIED Chairman Clemons Alderman Pressly do you have any additional information on mO-10-19? Alderman Pressly Yes I do. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO TAKE FROM THE TABLE 0-10-19 MOTION CARRIED 0-10-19 Endorser: Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly RELATIVE TO RESUMES OF DIVISION DIRECTORS AND DEPARTMENT HEADS ON THE CITY OF NASHUA'S WEBSITE Alderman Pressly Thank you Mr. Chairman. The question came up at the last meeting what was the legal opinion. Again, I will read it to you since it was in an e-mail format. This is from Dory Clarke and says: "There is no New Hampshire case law on point regarding release under the Right to Know Laws of resumes in general or personal references specifically. When there is no New Hampshire case law available on a particular Right to Know Law question, we review how Federal Courts have handled the same issue under the Federal Freedom of Information Act as that Act contains much of the same language and considerations as the Right to Know law. Federal case law supports the release of resumes and/or job applications of successful candidates as the public has an interest in the competence of people that are employed by the government and in the governmenfs adherence to regulations governing hiring. Further, the disclosure of the job application or resume would not constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy as their identity as a government employee is known and the information furnished is not derogatory. It is information that an applicant would want to bring to the attention of a perspective employer." Then it references case law. It says: "However, federal courts have upheld the redaction of the following information from job applications and/or resumes; dates of birth, home addresses, telephone numbers, social security numbers, and personal references. New Hampshire law supports the release of home addresses, but the rest of the list would apply. The successful candidate has a significant privacy interest in the information redacted and withheld, and there is no overriding public interest in that information. Disclosure of those particular pieces of information would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." Now I did go on and we did clarify the references. What they have decided is that the name of the reference that the applicant fills out is fine, is okay. It is any response that they give, in other words if an applicant says you can contact my former employer, John Doe, that is okay, but if John Doe sends a letter regarding the applicant and it goes into the personnel file, that part is non-public. They did take a further reading that every part of the application that a person fills out about themselves that they expect will be reviewed and known, everything except their phone numbers, their social security number, is in fact a public record. Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 9 I would like to just sort of speak to public records because I think one of the hardest things for me to really comprehend when I first held public office was that every piece of paper, every document in this building and that we handle is open to public scrutiny. The only things that are not are personnel files or any records or papers that have been declared confidential, which basically means our documents should be an open book. The other question that was raised by Alderman Chasse was what about Dave Fredette. Well two days after that meeting I bumped into Dave Fredette and asked him how he would feel about having something on the web site and he said that would be fine; I have a resume, a bio; any of those would be fine. It is usually a document that the person themselves have in fact created, it tells their work experience and anything else that they have knowingly and willingly put forth as something they are happy to let the world know. Alderman Chasse I will reiterate what I said the last time; I have no problem with bios. If you put a bio out there saying I am Paul Chasse, I live here I am a Nashua native, etc. I have no problem with that. Putting my resume out there I would feel uncomfortable. I do feel uncomfortable having my resume out there because if someone looked at my resume and said wow this guy has had a lot of jobs and he only started working when he was like 36. My previous life; my first job is not on my resume so someone would look at that and say he must have been a loafer for all of those years. I just don't feel comfortable having my resume out there because if you look I have a lot of jobs and a lot of it was not due to myself it was takeovers, buyouts, places that closed in the City of Nashua where I worked, and it looks like I have a three page resume and that is not many years. I just don't feel comfortable having my resume out there. A bio I accept but not a resume. Even if it is a public document, if you want to see it go down and get it on a need to know basis. Those are my feelings. Chairman Clemons I have to agree with Alderman Chasse. I will add to that as well. What I don't want to see is these resumes being put on the Internet and Manchester has an opening for a City Clerk or an I.T. Director and it is one click away for them to say wow this guy is really good and then they come and start recruiting from our city and start taking our best of the best. Now it is one thing if our division directors know about the job opening and want to go up there and another thing if they take the initiative to drive down to Nashua and get that person's resume or interview them themselves. But to make it so easy that all they have to do is go on our web site and click on there and say this is who I want, I don't think that is a good thing to do even though it is a public record. If they want that public record then make them do the work; come down to City Hall and get it. That is how I feel. Alderman Sheehan Thank you. I have a few questions for Alderman Pressly and a couple of comments. In somebody's office a resume is stored in the personnel records so someone, may eventually decide that these are personnel files and not falling under the Right to Know. That aside,l have the same concern with headhunters pointing and clicking their way through. I know if you can come down and sign out for it, it is okay. It is perhaps not as easy. We are not thinking through everybody this would affect such as the Chief of Police having all of his information, Code Enforcement who has to go and get people, the head of the social worker department. One of the people at Nashua Children's Home was shot by a parent who was upset that his child was taken. We are making it a lot easier for people who are already vulnerable because of the work that they are doing for our city to be able to cyber track them, and I think if you have to come down and fill out a form you are less likely to do that. I lot' of people get very brave hiding behind the Internet with the cloak of anonymity. We have all read the comments in the paper people write who would never write that if they had to write their name on Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 10 it. It severely worries me, and I think the only way I would support doing a full on resume if is the elected officials had to do it as well because we are responsible for $240 million a year. If they have the right to know what our division directors' qualifications are they have the right to know what ours are as well. I don't have a problem putting mine up, but my point is do they really need it. I think a lot of the people that would have to put it up maybe would think twice about wanting to be the Police Chief of Nashua. There is a reason why a lot of times our police officers don't live in our city. Code Enforcement, Welfare, people who shut down restaurants or take vendor licenses or do things that sometimes people aren't real happy with. If their resume lists how many children they have or where they go to school or went to school - I just think that it puts a lot of information that if someone wants to they can come and sign a piece of paper that says they need it, but a bio isn't a bad idea. I think if we have had a bad hire or people that weren't qualified, we knew about it in other ways. I think that is a different issue and hopefully a thing of the past; if someone wasn't qualified because they was cronyism, but their resume looked good, regardless I don't think anyone would have picked up on it. I don't understand the net value that we are going to get from having it available on the Internet. If it is available to know and you come down and fill out a piece of paper that I am probably comfortable with, but unless we all had to put ours up I don't think it is a fair place to put people who already put themselves in harms way by serving our city. Chairman Clemons To that I will just say that as far as the elected officials go, I don't have a problem putting up a bio or anything like that, but this job and the Mayor's job and anyone on the Fire Commission, School Board, whatever it is not like we submitted resumes to the voters. We submitted campaign flyers on what our positions were and that sort of thing. We certainly didn't say I work here and I worked there. We may have mentioned it, but it certainly was not a resume and it certainly holds no bearing as to what we do here in this Chamber. I don't necessarily agree with that, but I will say that I do find if the opinion by the legal department is that, according to federal case law, this is public information then as far as Larm concerned if someone wants to come down and take the time to get that information then they can do that, and that can be our policy, that is fine. I don't think it needs to be written in the ordinances and I don't think it needs to be put on the Internet. I would be perfectly willing to take Dory's opinion and place it on file somewhere and have that be policy without it being written anywhere. I think that is really what we ought to consider. Alderman Cookson Thank you. Just to comment on the Ward 3 Alderman's statement about cyber tracking and so forth, I understood from Alderman Pressly's statement that certain information would be redacted including home address, social security, phone numbers, etc. I don't believe that there would be a lot of information available in a resume format that would be of concern or address the concern the Ward 3 Alderman stated with regard to tracking, a disgruntled person following someone else. I think if this Board of Aldermen decides that this is something that we would do, then I think it would be very positive to identify exactly which information would or would not be available as far as biography, demographic or address and things like that. The other comment was with respect to having our own bios up and available on line, and I believe that at least the Aldermen prior to this most present board all had bios on line. I am not sure if the new Aldermen do or not. I know that in the past the administrative office in the back has asked for bios. My bio includes a home address, a phone number. I am not sure what it is that we are trying to protect. Another comment that I would have is that headhunters are certainly something that we ,s'hould be concerned about, but I will tell you that Personnel- 8/12/10 Page 11 anybody who is interested in City Clerk Bergeron already knows City Clerk Bergeron's credentials. Anybody who is interested in I.T.Manager John Barker already knows I.T. Manager John Barker's credentials. They know the person already if they are looking for that type of person. I am sort of indifferent on this. I can see both sides of the coin; I can see why we would like to protect the information and make it not so readily available, but at the same time I don't think we have anything to hide. think we have very talented employees. We have very talented directors and they should not ashamed by making any information that they choose to make public public. Alderman Vitale I know exactly where Alderman Cookson is coming from being there are positives and negatives. I think all of our department heads and out directors, under the Right to Know Law, their information is available. I think this might be one of those times that having legislation to address such is maybe not necessary since everybody does have the ability to come in and get the information. Do we need to have a piece of legislation that is in effect somewhat redundant? You always hear not to over-legislate, and this might be one of those areas where it is not a necessity. I don't think it is because our division heads, directors, and even ourselves are necessarily ashamed of. If you are ashamed of it, it will come to public light at some point anyway. If it is for the purpose of hiring, that is going to be looked at in the hiring process. You might have someone slip through, it is not followed up in the correct way, but you are hoping that those people doing the hiring are looking over that resume and all of the qualifications on that resume. The purpose of using a resume is not really what I see in this piece of legislation. It is available to everybody. Before the actual hiring process it is not going to be available because many times people go out to be hired and they don't want their current employer to know. It is going to be in the file after the fact. It is not going to help us before the fact is my feeling unless you are on that hiring team. What is the exact purpose and the meaning of it being available after the fact and before the fact? Alderman Sheehan I just have a clarification question for Alderman Pressly. I understood you to say that in New Hampshire addresses were public. Did I misunderstand that? I thought bios were okay and I still do. My understanding was that you said that addresses are public. Alderman Pressly That is the way I read it also that the State of New Hampshire had declared that. I would just like to sort of clear up two things. Whatever would be on the Internet would be whatever the candidate wanted to tell you about himself/herself. One of the reasons I did this again was in response to what happened at the school department; by the time I did get the resumes and looked at them all I could think of was if these had been published or if the school board had even looked at them maybe we would not be in the trouble that we are in. Chairman Clemons But the trouble with that argument though is that according to the federal law that you read or the interpretation, it is not a public document until after the person is hired anyway. Alderman Pressly That is correct, however, there are situations - recently the school department when they were interviewing for the new Superintendent, they put I think the four final candidates' resumes out. It was a bit of an irony Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 12 .because I was seeking the resumes of the two prevailing candidates that had just left and they were denying me that while they were simultaneously putting all of the resumes on line. I can certainly understand the opposition point of view. I was looking really for transparency. As far as the school situation, I think the two people that were given the credit or the responsibility for the deficit, I think if they had looked at their own resumes they probably would have changed them and fixed them up. I was just shocked and stunned and have shown them to many of you. The resumes were just a huge surprise. All I could think of was if those had been known publicly at the time we might have saved a $6 million deficit had we been able to look at that and say wait a minute this is not what we are about. Chairman Clemons We can agree to disagree, but the only thing I will say to that is that the school board saw those when they were hiring the two folks that you were talking about. They had to of. They had to of asked for some kind of credentials in order to hire these two folks, and I know that both of them had already been working in the city anyway so they had a history of working. I'm not quite sure that would have made any difference at all. Alderman Cookson I was just going to provide a similar comment as Alderman Pressly's with respect to the school department publishing the four resumes in their most recent hiring of the Superintendent. I thought it was a fantastic process to put the resumes out, make them available to the public-at-Iarge so that they would rest assure that we were going to hire one competent Superintendent for the city. I think it alleviated a lot of fears. All four had tremendous credentials. I compliment the school district for publishing those four resumes. I think that possibility in the hiring process is maybe a practice that we should consider as well that when we have an opportunity for a new public works director, when we have an opportunity for a new whatever position that is within city government, maybe that is when we make the resumes available to the public. Alderman Chasse I just want to reiterate we are not a human resource department. I work for human resource, but we are not a human resource department. If they put the directors up there, they put anybody, if they are hiring for a new position we have no say on who they hire. The Mayor picks who she wants, the school board picks who they want, and Mr. Hottel and Mr. Mealey both came up through the ranks. Were they qualified maybe not, but they were promoted by the school board. We can make as much noise as we want in this Chamber right here and we have no sayan what they do over there. They are elected officials that is their responsibility not ours. Thank you. Alderman Vitale I would agree with Alderman Chasse there. They were hired under the process. For what Alderman Cookson said before about putting the resumes out, I think that it worked for that instance. I don't know if that would work for every instance because there will still be a situation where only one person gets the job and there might be other people that are applying for that job that might not want anybody to know it. Somebody gets decided on and nobody where they work currently is any wiser that they may have been in a hiring decision making process. They can go back to their job and move on there without their current employer being worried that now they are going to leave at any minute and treating them different on that job. Maybe it worked maybe they had agreement with the four people there. I don't know how it came about that they were able to do that, but I don't know again that we can be the ones that say at that point they have to do it if they are not currently hired and under city employment. Personnel- 8/12/10 Page 13 Whether we want to talk about at some future point, I don't think it is part of this legislation, the processes that our departments go through in the hiring process; the checklist that every department handles a checklist the same; somebody is actually checking each of their references that someone is actually going to make sure they went to school at a certain spot, that we make sure the processes are equal throughout the city. I can see us looking at something like that, but that actual resume part is available to everybody that wants to walk in and ask for the information. I think it is always good that we have to give out our addresses for some of the positions, but most of us don't care we put it on our own stuff ourselves. Alderman Pressly I would just like to say I appreciate your even considering this. The effort was transparency. I am glad that I did this only because it now is very clear that resumes are public records and maybe someplace on the city website that should be stated as a public policy that resumes of city employees are public record and are available upon request - something like that. That might be the thing that would take care of it. If you would consider an amendment to that affect that would be great. That has been I think the most important thing that has come of my going down this path trying to figure out how did this happen and how do we stop it from happening in the future. If you would like to do that and have an amendment I would be happy to work on that. It is up to you folks. I am glad I have done this only because we now know that any City Hall employee whatever they have filled out on the application is open for public scrutiny. Chairman Clemons Now that we have had all of this discussion, I actually don't think we have a motion on the floor. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE MOTION BY ALDERMAN FLYNN TO TABLE UNTIL THE NEXT MEETING MOTION CARRIED Alderman Chasse By the next Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee meeting you mean Tuesday night? Chairman Clemons The next regular meeting. Alderman Chasse Thank you. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO TAKE FROM THE TABLE 0-10-20 MOTION CARRIED 0-10-20 Endorser: Alderman Diane Sheehan REGARDING RESOLUTIONS TO APPROVE COST ITEMS OF A COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN FLYNN TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 14 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Sheehan I can talk a little about why I did this. In my previous job, I did a lot with contracts and people used to always say 46 pages oh my what is that and I would say that is every oh my we have ever run into; any time something has happened we have had to adjust going forward, we have learned from the mistake, and we have clarified it so that going forward we know what will happen. Going back to Alderman Pressly's remark, some of her legislation has also been spurred by some things that have happened recently in the city, and this for me is something that was standard business practice; any time there was a contract change regardless of what it spoke to, it was redlined so that you would know. You,would have a clean copy and a redlined copy so information would jump out at you if it was changed. Nothing is ever changed by accident, but you may not pick up on a small word changing from day rate to per diem. Sounds the same, but when you see a line through it, it spurs you to stop and think about what the impact was. As a Board member here if something came up that wasn't like that, it would be my intention to send it back anyway, but what that will do is simply delay and cause more time to elapse that doesn't need to happen if things are done in the way they are done in private industry, which is to send it in redlined the first time. I think just for efficiencies and being able to do our homework and come to our meetings prepared with our questions, it makes good business sense to make it practice to request that on the initial viewing of something so that we get a real clear understanding of what the changes are and maybe we can understand why and see trends as to what we are trying to do. Even though we only approve the bottom line, it might help us to kind of set tones for what we would like to see coming by how we respond to these things. That was my intention. If anybody has questions I would be happy to answer them, Chairman Clemons I would just like to state for the record that is exactly why I co-sponsored this with you. It is a good practice. It is something that we need. We do an awful lot of these contracts, and knowing what the changes are is very important. I could not agree more with that. Alderman Flynn I think this is a nice piece of legislation. We work in a tough atmosphere when contracts come forward to us. We only have 30 days from the time of the first reading to the time that we vote on it as a full board. We are really pressed for time. There is no real system. All of the contracts that are submitted to us are just a little bit different and sometimes they might have a redlined version and sometimes they just have something attached to them that talks about what the changes are. Myself I thought that the teachers' contract, the severance change ,in the last contract where the average teacher's change - the wording was never really properly discussed. I don't recall any discussion frankly on that change that allowed the severance packages to change from a $20,000 average to a $33,000 average. Even in the costing sheet it isn't very clear that is what is going on. I think this idea of having the two pages side by side as you have said very clearly an opportunity to wonder why was that change put in as every change has a reason no matter how small the language is. Then again we really need to focus on what the cost items are in the contracts. That teachers' contract must have been an 80 pius page contract; pretty overwhelming I think to try to get into every little bit of detail. This is an excellent idea to have us have this. I am certainly fully in favor of this. Alderman Vitale I would have to concur with what has been said. If we just go on our own resolutions and ordinances that we write and how often we have an amended version and we say can you please tell us the difference between Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 15 one and the other, it only goes to point out when it comes to contracts that we have no part in writing, that it would be very helpful and efficient for us to see those changes right off the bat. Chairman Clemons Is there further discussion? The motion is to recommend final passage. MOTION CARRIED MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO TAKE FROM THE TABLE 0-10-21 MOTION CARRIED 0-10-21 Endorser: Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson RELATIVE TO THE DEFINITION, ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF AN ALDERMANIC LIAISON MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Alderman Cookson Thank you Mr. Chairman. On your desks this evening I would like to begin by saying there are three pieces of information. These were sent to the committee as attachments to an e-mail that you received yesterday. If someone could make a motion to accept and place on file? MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS THAT THE RULES BE SO FAR SUSPENDED AS TO ALLOW FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF THREE COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED AFTER THE AGENDA WAS PREPARED MOTION CARRIED From: Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson Re: 0-10-21 - Meeting Frequency MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE MOTION CARRIED From: Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson Re: 0-10-21 - Two Month View of Board, Committee and Group Meeting Dates MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE MOTION CARRIED From: Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson Re: 0-10-21 - Sample Report MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEMONS TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE MOTION CARRIED Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 16 Alderman Cookson What I would like to do is explain to you briefly, for those of you who may not have had an opportunity to read the e-mail that I sent yesterday and to the public, the legislation is relative to the definition, roles, and responsibilities of an Aldermanic Liaison. It has been my experience over the last four years, eight months that many people take on that role of Liaison with different expectations. Some people either don't know what the responsibilities are or it wasn't explained to them or they believe, again, that by watching a meeting they have fulfilled their obligation as a Liaison. I believe and I have suggested to you in the communication I sent, that a Liaison has the role of maintaining a two-way dialogue between two bodies. In this case, our Board of Aldermen Liaison represents the Board of Aldermen, but they are a Liaison to a board, committee, or group. It could be the Board of Education, the Board of Public Works, the Historic District Commission, Cable Television Advisory Board, and we have close to 30 boards, commissions, or groups that we have a Liaison to on the Board of Aldermen. That is illustrated on the first page that was accepted and placed on file this evening. That identifies each one of those boards, committees, or groups. It identifies the frequency at which they meet. It also identifies the Liaison and their alternate. As I was saying, I think it is important to have a two-way dialogue a communication to happen back and forth for us to better understand, to have a mutual understanding of what concerns are being raised what issues are being discussed. I believe that it would certainly help us with more information to make better educated decisions here on the Board of Aldermen if anything were to come back before us. For example, I would point out maybe the BID Advisory Committee, this Business Improvement District that has been meeting for a significant amount of time are interested in promoting a downtown improvement area. I think in the very near future we might possibly see some legislation come before us to accept the recommendations of this committee whenever that might be, but I think if we were to receive regular communications along the way and be able to convey back to the Liaison what our concerns or thoughts might be about this improvement district, when the legislation comes before us the conversation might be that much more expedient. That is just one example and it goes to the Board of Education, Fire Commissioners, maybe some things that we are concerned about in both of those, etc. That is what this legislation is attempting to do; it is attempting to define a Liaison, those expectations of a Liaison, and some of the minimum responsibilities that we would expect of that Liaison or alternate including attendance in person, if you are not able to attend a meeting as the Liaison that you reach out to the alternate. I know that in my personal experience the committees that I have been a Liaison to or an alternate liaison to very rarely has the Liaison reached out and communicated to me to say that he or she might be not available for that meeting, and, therefore, there is no representation at that board, group, or committee. There were two other documents that were accepted this evening. I know that this first document is very lengthy. It might be difficult to really truly comprehend how often these committees are meeting so what I have attempted to do is illustrate in a calendar format a sample September and October what those meetings might be, how many meetings take place, coupled with our Board of Aldermen meetings. Then the final communication or file that I sent was a sample report that mimics the crime watch meetings very closely; those reports that we receive from Mr. Ed Lecius talking about what the issues are in a particular committee or group, what are some of the concerns that were raised that might need to be addressed by the Board of Aldermen and then visa versa because it is a two-way dialogue, an opportunity for the Board of Aldermen to respond or speak with the Liaison or alternate to say this -is what we would like to have you take back to that board, group, or committee and raise from the Board of Aldermen perspective. That is the. It defines a Liaison, it identifies a minimum set of responsibilities; attending in person, if you are not able to attend in person contact the alternate, provide a written report, and then finally the Liaison, unless otherwise noted by resolutions, statute, or ordinance, not be a voting member. Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 17 Alderman Chasse As you can see I am on the Conway Ice Rink Commission. I never had a problem with attending their meetings. All of a sudden the makeup of the committee is individuals who are all board or trustees to the hos'pital and other places like that. The Liaison from the Board of Aldermen is a voting member of that committee because if they didn't have him voting they would not be able to have a meeting because of conflicts of interest. It happens many times where they cannot vote on certain things. I think there is one that is on the Boys Club, St. Joe's, and a few others so any money that was allocated to those needs they have to recuse themselves from voting. It happens quite a bit. You are saying on that not having the Alderman being able to vote is like shooting yourself in the foot. Alderman Cookson If I could respond to that particular comment, the proposed language says unless otherwise stated by statute, ordinance or resolution that a Liaison will be non-voting. It does not restrict a Liaison from being a voting member if it is in the resolution, ordinance, or statute in the creation of that committee, group, or board. It is perfectly fine for an Aldermanic Liaison to be a voting member, but it has to be in any board or committee that is created from this point forward if this language is adopted, that language would have to be written into the resolution saying the Aldermanic Liaison will be a voting member. It doesn't restrict you at all. Alderman Chasse 1 don't know if there is a resolution, ordinance, or statute that governs that board. I am not aware of any. I think it was just a bunch of people that got together and said okay here is the Board of Directors for the Conway Arena and this is ... 1 don't know maybe someone can enlighten me does it fall under a resolution prior to ... Alderman Cookson Any board, committee, or group was created by a resolution. Alderman Sheehan I am wondering since I never signed up to be a Liaison to any of these, how can you force me to go and take notes other than maybe I won't get re-elected. It is just a devil's advocate question because on one of them I am very very active and on one of them I am trying to be but they meet at a time where I can't and there is no head of it so I can't even get in touch with them. Three nights a month I am at crime watch meetings and then I have two other community groups that I am meeting with, and I am asked to be on the board of something else. It just seems like it is forcing something on an elected official that maybe they didn't even sign up or want to be or conflicts with their job. I am just confused. I see you don't have any. I would love to give you Continuum of Care because I just can't. I can't go and I submitted such to Brian. I do work very actively in the ones that I am on. I don't give a report every month though on what happened on the Historic Commission. I don't give a written report. 1 go to NRPC. I am not even an alternate, but I go to that because it affects my ward. I am wondering if this is falling into the over-legislating area. I want to get a lot of these things done, but my plate is full. Alderman Cookson Could I respond to that quickly? Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 18 Chairman Clemons Quickly yes. Alderman Cookson Thank you. The Ward 3 Alderman made a statement that she is on several and her plate is full. This was a decision that the leadership of the Board of Aldermen made. It was President McCarthy who assigned each one of us to a Liaison role based on our input. We had the opportunity to provide President McCarthy with a list of committees that we would be interested in being a Liaison to. It was the leadership of the board that assigned each one of these. I was assigned, you were assigned. I gave a rank order of 28 committees that I would be interested in being a Liaison to and this is what I was assigned and this is what you were assigned. I can't speak to why certain individuals might be given more. I don't know what the reasoning was behind that. We can certainly ask President McCarthy. Alderman Sheehan And I don't mean to sound like I don't want to help any of these groups, I do, I do a lot, and that is my problem I am doing a lot so it is sometimes hard to add more to the mix. Alderman Cookson And that is a fair concern. I would say in some cases if you are not able to attend that the alternate might be available. Alderman Sheehan And I am good at doing that. Barbara can attest. Sometimes she just likes to go anyway in addition. Alderman Vitale At some point, each of these committees was set up by ordinance or resolution so at some point it was deemed that each of these were an important thing for us to have a Liaison to. Until one of us who happens to serve on that says you know what there is really no need for us to be there, then we have to continue on that path. Each of those groups we know that someone should be there, we should know what is going on, and there is a purpose behind that. Whether we know what it is or not it might be good for us at the beginning if any of our new sessions to tell why somebody is appointed to each of those boards, committees, etc. That might be something that should be done for each of us; it could probably be done now if someone doesn't know. ~ For the sample that was given; who is in attendance, key points, questions, concerns, and the little questionnaire, for some of the boards having this to fill out might be good. In other cases, I think simply stapling on a copy of the minutes would suffice because it covers everything in there; it gives you who was in attendance and any other information. If something is brought up and it is covered in the minutes - that there were questions or concerns and someone addresses the person on the Board of Aldermen and says can you look into that for us and come back it is going to be covered in the minutes. If it is not covered in the minutes and it triggers something in that Alderman's mind this is something that I could maybe ask or help this group with and it could be done by resolution or a simple procedure that is brought to someone's attention within a group, then it could be so noted. I think a lot of times just attaching the minutes so they are available for us to look at. Personnel- 8/12/10 Page 19 Is it the intent of this piece of legislation to have copies go to each of the Aldermen or is this something that you would look to possibly file one copy so when something comes up for future legislation that we can go in and have access to one copy? I think the amount of paperwork generated from 30 committees to be distributed to each of us when we have quite a bit of information just from our own board meetings, I would see it as something that there should only be one copy of those made or set up in a certain electronic file form that you could easily sort and they are all put electronically somewhere where you could open up everything from the Child Care Commission minutes and they are all kept in one place and you can simply open a file in that way. Otherwise I do think quite a bit of paperwork would be generated depending on look at the Planning Board for example, some of their meetings go from 7:00 p.m. to midnight or past, and their minutes are hundreds of pages long so we don't all want a copy of them I am sure. I would like to have that addressed. Alderman Cookson Let me try to answer those questions. First like I said this was a sample report that was very similar to what Mr. Ed Lecius provides us for each one of his neighborhood crime watch meetings. The idea of stapling a 70 page minutes to a report I think sort of defeats the purpose. This was intended to be a sample for your consideration to streamline the process of identifying some of the salient points that happened during the course of a meeting. I put down 5 as a generic number. There might be 1 point or 2 points. I don't know what that is, but the idea is to, in a single place, capture a salient point that should be known to another board or committee, in this case being the Board of Aldermen. I don't necessarily agree that stapling a 70 page set of minutes or 60 pages to this would replace what this is intended to do. The other part of this legislation that I forgot to mention was the addition in our order of business during a regular Board of Aldermen meeting, and that was to accept and place on file submissions for these reports. Now as is indicated, more easily visible on the calendar view, you will see that there aren't many meetings that take place. By accepting these reports during a Board of Aldermen meeting we will not be accepting 30 at one time. You will see between two Board of Aldermen meetings if we take September for example, between now th and September 15 , which is our next meeting, you would have at most maybe 7 reports. I don't know if we accept them at each Board of Aldermen meeting, if we give them a span of 30 days to submit a report, but most of these meetings with the exception of BID are happening on a monthly basis. It is not an extra burden to think that we would be able to come up with a salient point to share with the Board of Aldermen to have possibly a reaction to. One of the things that I liked about what you said was it might proactively result in a solution whether it be legislative or otherwise, but it allows us to be proactive in the solution. Chairman Clemons I would just like to chime in my point of view. I'm actually reading the legislation itself and I'm going through under C the responsibilities of the Liaison. The first one for example; the Liaison or the alternate shall attend meetings of the board in person. Well as we all know sometimes that isn't possible. That is why we had 3 people teleconference the other night at the meeting. Alderman Cookson Absolutely. Chairman Clemons In addition to that, most of these meetings are held during the day. I know for myself in the last term it was very hard for me to get to - I was on the Ethnic Awareness Committee, and it was very hard for me to get to Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 20 those meetings. However, I told the Chairman if there is something that comes up that involves the Board let me know. I would get minutes of the meetings. I was kept involved and there was really nothing that ever really came up that needed to be addressed here at the Board. With that in mind I am looking down at the rest of these and I just don't think that this is something that we need to legislate in this fashion. I think certainly the first two; A and B, defining the definition of a Liaison and their primary role are good goals to establish. I think those are what you are supposed to be doing. But I think as far as legislating what it is that we need to do is not something that I can agree with. Every person works a little bit differently. A report like the sample given probably isn't going to work very well actually for the Board of Education and it probably wouldn't work well for the Planning Board or the Zoning Board or a large board like that because most of the - for example if it is during budget season everything they are talking about affects the Board of Aldermen because it is going to have to come before us. What are we going to write in the report there that the entire budget meeting is going to affect us once it gets to the Mayor and over to us? The other thing is I feel as an elected official for certain boards and certain things that are going on, it is my responsibility to know what is going on. Yes we have a Liaison and if I can't attend a meeting and I have a concern then I can go to that Liaison and say I have this concern about such and such could you please convey that to the board. In my view, that is what the responsibility of a Liaison is; for us to have someone so that when we can't go to these meetings or in the absence of going to the meetings at least be able to contact the leadership of these groups to be able to say Alderman so and so has this concern and would like this addressed. Then for that person to come back to that Alderman or group of Aldermen and address whatever that concern is once it has been discussed at whatever committee that is. I think having us have a report each month is way over the top. I just can't support it. Alderman Cookson May I respond to that please? Chairman Clemons ;.:.. I am going to let Alderman Vitale go because I know she has been waiting and then Alderman Pressly and we will get back to you. Alderman Cookson But it is a direct response to your comment Mr. Chairman. Chairman Clemons Alderman Cookson. Alderman Cookson Thank you. I absolutely agree with you; sometimes you are not able to attend a meeting and in your instance you expressed the Ethnic Awareness Committee was a meeting that you had difficulty attending, but you developed a relationship. A minimum expectation should be that you attend. If you are not able to attend the relationship that you developed allowed for two way dialogue to take place. It allowed for the leadership of the Ethnic Awareness Committee to express salient points to you, which you could at that point if appropriate bring to the Board of Aldermen, and it also allowed in your later example if you had a question about something that was going on provided the Liaison as a point person to go to to ask that question. If I had a question about Ethnic Awareness of what they were doing in the committee I could certainly come to you. That is the role of Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 21 the Liaison. A Liaison is not a one way direction it is two way dialogue going back and forth between the board, group, or committee that they are assigned as a Liaison to and the Board of Aldermen. Chairman Clemons I agree with that. Alderman Cookson If you believe in that definition of a Liaison then identifying minimum responsibilities for them would be they are expected to attend in person, but there is no attendance requirement, there is no attendance policy attached to this similar to what we did for the Board of Aldermen last term. It simply says as a minimum expectation we would like you to be at the committee, board, or group meeting. I know that there are some Liaisons that watch their liaison assignment on television. Please tell me how that benefits our perspective as a Board of Aldermen when they are not able to address that because they watch it on television rather than be there in person. Chairman Clemons In regard to that, I think it depends on what they are the Liaison to and J think it also depends on what the particular board is discussing on the evening in question. Alderman Cookson So like I said the minimum expectation is that you should attend in person so that the two way dialogue can take place. Chairman Clemons I don't necessarily agree that is necessary. I don't feel in today's digital age with e-mail, cell phones, and everything else, I don't think that is necessary. I will agree to disagree. Alderman Cookson If a Liaison is not at a committee meeting how could our perspective be communicated if it is a vital part of that conversation that evening? It can't be. It is after the fact if they don't attend in person. Chairman Clemons If there was something that was addressed to us and that was very important, it would be the responsibility of the Liaison to communicate that with the committee. How that is done I feel should be up to the Liaison. I feel that is what their elected responsibility is. I do not think we need to legislate everything that they do. Alderman Vitale Again, our list of 30 that we have right here were each established for a reason at some point in time, all different points in time depending on which board, committee, or group you are looking at. It might be reasonable for us to go back and look why a Liaison was named to each of these in the original legislation. To be honest, other than sort of remembering the Conway Ice Rink when that was set up, most of these I am not that familiar with and have not seen the reason a Liaison was appointed in the first place. It could be that if we just looked over the list and saw the original reason a Liaison was named for each of these committees and Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 22 actually what has come out of that liaison position, it might be that we don't have a liaison anymore and instead have those committees report if they need our help on something just like any other department in the city would do. It might be that we want somebody probably on the Planning Board, but again the Planning Board we have someone that is a Liaison, they are a voting member on the committee. Right now we each get a copy of the Planning Board agenda that says our ward on it if there is something pertaining to our ward so you have the opportunity to attend. You assume that there might be, for example the last Planning Board meeting that I went and spoke at for constituents in Ward 1, there is a piece of legislation I am going to draft that pertains to something that was addressed at that Planning Board meeting. Alderman LaRose who is the Liaison maybe wouldn't think of it in those terms because he doesn't represent the constituents that were involved. Although he would have that ability I don't think he would really think of it in those terms because the constituents aren't reporting to him on what their concerns are. He is a voting member and it is probably a conflict of interest for him to take that Liaison position and come back and draft legislation all the time when he is going to be a voting member. I don't know because I don't know how the original appointment was set up. I would really like to go back and maybe have the maker of the legislation present us in some format the reason for each of them. Then go back and maybe instead of doing a report as such, we could have a place on our agenda specifically for that; here are the meetings that took place since we last met, from the meetings that you attended is there anything that should be discussed with the whole group that pertains to our responsibilities on the Board of Aldermen. Maybe not as formal as this. I don't know how everybody else feels, but I think it might become overwhelming depending on the number of committees you have, but I think it could be presented verbally. If there is an instance where you know you will be bringing legislation forward, that you start reaching out to everybody and relaying in the committee I am Liaison to I have a piece of legislation that I think would be good to draft, is brought forward in that way. Or in the Child Care Commission they just had Touch-a-Truck, which as a Liaison I knew about, but I happened to not be able to attend the last meeting, and even though Alderman Cox was waiting for me to mention the event, I forgot to mention it at the meeting even though I had it written down. It didn't get mentioned. It is something that it is nice for each of us to know. Sometimes on things like that we get a formal invitation, sometimes it is informal, sometimes we mention to our constituents and the viewing public there is something going on. I would like to know the reason why the Liaisons were assigned before I vote on how we would actually bring that information forward to the rest of the Board of Aldermen; does it need to be as formal as this or if it could be simply a place on our agenda for the Board of Aldermen that we talk specifically about our liaison positions to the different boards and committees we are appointed to. Alderman Pressly Thank you Mr. Chairman. Alderman Vitale many of the suggestions you have just put forth are what I have been thinking of also. I really appreciate this and the layout and the charts. Thank you very much. I have been very confuse just what the Liaisons do and I think each one is extremely different, and I think that is what you were saying. If we could go back, maybe the staff could help with this or somebody - it may take quite a bit to sort of define what each group does, what the expectations of the Liaison are, and if it is by law that we have a Liaison or by choice. I think there is a combination. I think the Broad Street Parkway is a committee of the Mayor and it is a non-public session so some of these are quite different from others. Then you go down at the end ... Alderman Cookson That would be the only exception to all of these. You are correct. Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 23 Alderman Pressly That needs to be pointed out. Then you go down to the Planning Board - Dick LaRose is a key player on that Planning Board. Our representative often times creates the quorum. I think there is such a variety of what these groups do that it would really be nice as Alderman Vitale has said to give a little history of it, what the expectations are, and I think her idea of having a time at the Full Board like we have a time for committee reports, maybe to have a time for Liaison reports. I know the one I serve onis the Cable Television Advisory Board (CTAB) and there was one time during the comment period would say something because what they were doing was sort of exciting, and it turned out the Mayor thought it was too and she mentioned it in her remarks. There are going to be times where the group you have been attending is doing something really exciting - it might be one or two sentences. I really welcome this. I'm also thinking that maybe we should mention to the President of the Board that now that we have all been working on this we might think about doing some shuffling. Like Alderman Sheehan has said there is just no way she can attend given the time of this, and maybe we should have an opportunity where we could ask to have some changes; those who would like to serve on something else or ... and a lot of this is just an education. It really is an opportunity for each of us. The one I signed up for was CTAB because I knew nothing about that so I am trying to learn. It is a learning experience. Maybe some of these should be rotated. I would like to also mention one of the frustrations that I know Alderman Cookson, I, and others have had we have been asking for reports for some of these and we have been unable to get them. That has been very very frustrating and I don't know what the answer to that is. I notice there is one individual that probably that person alone has as much work to do as all the rest of us put together, and I think it is really important that we shuffle things around occasionally. Chairman Clemons When you say reports, what do you mean by reports? Something like the sample Alderman Cookson gave us tonight? What do you mean by reports? All of these have minutes; all of these meetings have minutes. Alderman Pressly Well except the one that does not, and that is the one - well it was a story in the newspaper; we have been asking repeatedly to have an update on the Broad Street Parkway and we have been promised an update 5 months in a row and have not gotten them. I am having to write a letter in response to the letter to the editor. It is a problem if the Liaison for whatever reason - there are two different issues here that I am on a committee where we have asked repeatedly could you tell us what is going on and the answer has been next time, next time, or wait and we will get it to you at a later date. Chairman Clemons Let me ask you this, are these public meetings? Chairman Clemons One is and one is not. There are a couple of these that I am going to start going to. We did just sort of inadvertently find out - went to the Board of Public Works and they were discussing things that I thought we should have been discussing. I even spoke to them and said I am going to start attending your meetings because I am learning more here than what I can learn at my meetings. The other one is the BID Committee. Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 24 I would like to know what they are doing and they meet every week so I am going to start going to these meetings. Chairman Clemons But both of those boards have minutes and those minutes are posted. Alderman Pressly The BID Committee has minutes? Chairman Clemons Yes they do. They are a public body. Alderman Pressly Where are they posted? Chairman Clemons I don't know where they are posted, but I can tell you that you can find them and that they are absolutely 100 % under the Right to Know Law - they all have minutes. Alderman Pressly That is not true of the Broad Street Parkway. That is the biggest project going on in the city these days and that has been the issue. Chairman Clemons And that committee has met without taking minutes? Is that what you are saying? Alderman Pressly That is correct. Chairman Clemons I was unaware of that. I can agree to legislation, as I said before, that defines A and B; the definition of the Liaison and the primary role because I think that is important. But I don't think that we ought to be legislating the tasks that each Liaison does. Alderman Pressly But I do think you do have to indicate that the Planning Board - it is really important that we have someone there. They actually have training for our representative and they do fulfill a very important role - if they don't have a quorum to make a decision it really cripples the functioning. I think in some place it should say that the Planning Board member is a vital player on that board. Personnel- 8/12/10 Page 25 Chairman Clemons But they are though. All of these committees I think are important in their own way. To have a representative there is an important thing. The Planning Board is probably the most important one on here only because our member votes on it. The weight of those votes carries citywide and are very important. I think that our Liaison does a wonderful job .... Alderman Pressly He does. He has done it for years and he is wonderful. Chairman Clemons I think it is one of the things that when you take on that particular job you have to know that is what you are getting into, which is why I am no longer the alternate of the Planning Board because I couldn't make it and it was a problem because Alderman LaRose was ill and I couldn't make the meetings either. So yes there was a problem in the last session. That is one of the things that we have to deal with as a Board. I don't think it is anything that can be legislated though. It is something that you have to work out outside of the confines of the City Charter and laws and that sort of thing. As far as defining a primary role and the definition I have no problem with that. I also have no problem with setting aside a time when we can discuss it, if the need be, at the regular Board of Aldermen meetings. Although we probably can do that in the comment period at the end. Alderman Sheehan Committee announcements comes up at the end of the meeting before general discussion so wouldn't that be when it would be appropriate? Chairman Clemons Either that or general discussion. Alderman Sheehan I just think we are covered. Alderman Chasse A request was made for job descriptions for the Liaison to each one of these individual things, and I hope that maybe you will follow up with Sue maybe or whoever it is to get that because the Liaison to one committee is definitely different than another; is it a voting member or not a voting member. Until we get that ... MOTION BY MEMBER CHASSE TO TABLE 0-10-21 MOTION CARRIED DISCUSSION Alderman Cookson I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to speak about 0-10-21 and for the feedback. We will certainly Personnel - 8/12/10 Page 26 go and look for that information that would help. I think I would like to reiterate that this was just a proposal. Rather than saying I don't like this, this doesn't work for that, I would accept constructive criticism and say I would prefer or I think this might work better. Chairman Clemons Okay. And I think we can certainly agree this is a discussion that could be very helpful to everyone. I actually will follow up with - I think we are going to have to follow up with Legal because some of these committees were created by ordinance, some of them are in the Charter, some of them may have been created by a past or current Mayor. I will follow up with the Legal Department as to the origins of some of these. Some of them may just have been created by the President of the Board at one point because we should have a representative to the School Board for example. I will look into getting that information. This won't be on the next meeting it will be on the agenda for the September meeting. Alderman Cookson It will be at your regularly scheduled meeting? Chairman Clemons Yes. ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 8:45 p.m. Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Committee Clerk  8USPENS:ON OF RULES 0-10-21 - Relative to the Definition, Roles and Responsibilities of an Aldermanic Liaison- M f •F Board, Committee, or Group Frequency Liaison Alternate 1. BID Advisory weekly on Fridays Cox Tabacsko Board of Education 2nd and Last Monday of the month Cox Craffey Board of Fire Commissioners 1st Monday of every month Tabacsko Vitale Board of Health Every 4th Wednesday Melizzi-Golja Wilshire Board of Police Commissioners 3rd Wednesday of the month Wilshire Vitale BPW Pension 3rd Tuesday of every month Flynn Vitale Broad Street Parkway Monthly Cox Craffey Board of Public Works every other Monday Deane Craffey Business Industrial Development 3rd Friday of every month McCarthy Authority 10.CTAB 2nd Friday of every month Pressly 11. CERF meets when needed, usually 3 times a year McCarthy 12. Capital Improvements every Monday in January and sometimes McCarthy Flynn February 13. Child Care Advisory Commission Vitale Sheehan 14. Continuum of Care Sheehan Melizzi-Golja 15. Conservation Commission Craffey Vitale 16. Conway Ice Rink Commission meet as needed Chasse McCarthy 17. 14 Court St Commission They had been meeting on the 2nd and 4th Clemons Tabacsko Friday of every month - now meet as necessary 18. Ethnic Awareness Committee 3rd Thursday of every month, except July and Melizzi-Golja Vitale August 19. Historic District Commission 4th Monday of every month Sheehan Pressly O. Nashua Housing Authority 3rd Friday of every month Wilshire Sheehan 1. Hunt Building Board of Trustees 1st Tuesday of every month Sept - June LaRose Melizzi-Golja 2. Library Trustees 1st Tuesday of every month McCarthy 3. Nashua Green Team 3rd Thursday of every month Cox Cookson 4. NRPC 3rd Wednesday of the. month Tabacsko LaRose, Cox Cookson 5. Planning Board 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month LaRose Craffey 6. Review & Comment Commission meets as needed January to March Vitale Wilshire 7. Transit Advisory Committee 2nd Tuesday every other month Craffey Clemons 8. Merrimack Valley Water District As needed McCarthy Craffey 9. Pennichuck Special Water Committee As needed McCarthy Pressly Tabacsko Cookson Cox O. Strategic Planning Committee As needed Tabacsko (C) Cox Deane Page 1 0-10-21 -- Relative to the Definition, Roles and Responsibilities of an Aldermanic Liaison - Two Month View of board, committee and group meeting dates Page 1 SUSPENSiON OF Sun Man Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 4 NCPB BID 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Fire Comm BSP BID Hunt Building CTAB Library Trustees 14 Ct St 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 BGE Transit Advisory BOA Ethnic Awareness BID BPW Police Comm Green Team BIDA NRPC NCPB Housing Authority 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 BPW Pension Board of Health BID 14 Ct St 26 27 28 29 30 BOE BOA Historic District 2010 0-10-21 -- Relative to the Definition, Roles and Responsibilities of an Aldermanic Liaison - Two Month View of board, committee and group meeting dates Page 2 OctoBer Sun Man Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 BID 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Fire Comm BSP NCPB BID Hunt Building CTAB Library Trustees 14 Ct St 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 BOE BOA Police Comm BID BIDA Housing Authority 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 BPW Pension NRPC Ethnic Awareness BID Green Team 14 Ct St NCPB 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 BOE BOA Board of Health BID Historic District 31 2010  SAMPLE Special Liaison Committee: Board of Education Submitted by: Aldermen Jeffrey Cox and Arthur Craffey (Alt) Meetings covered by this submission Date Committee 9/13/2010 9/27/2010 Cox Craffey, Jr. (Alt) Dowd Haas Hallowell Kelley Mosher Murotake Ryder Vaughan Ziehm Student Representative Key Points to be shared with Board of Aldermen: 1 2 3 4 5 Questions or concerns raised by the Board or Committee to be addressed to the Board of Aldermen. <. 1 2 3 4 5 Questions or concerns raised by the Board of Aldermen, or any of its members, to be addressed to the Board or Committee. 1 2 3 4 5