Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee

PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE January 23, 2012 A meeting of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee was held on Monday, January 23, 2012, at 7:02 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Chairman Paul M. Chasse, Jr. presided. Members of the Committee present: Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr., Vice Chair Alderman Kathy Vitale Alderman Diane Sheehan (7:08 p.m.) Alderman June M. Caron Members Not in Attendance: Also in Attendance: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Lieutenant Mike Moushegian, Nashua Police Department ELECTION OF COMMITTEE CLERK Chairman Chasse called for nominations for Committee Clerk ALDERMAN VITALE NOMINATED ALDERMAN CARON MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY TO CLOSE THE NOMINATIONS MOTION CARRIED ALDERMAN CARON ELECTED AS COMMITTEE CLERK FOR THE 2012-2013 TERM PUBLIC COMMENT Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman I believe Mr. Gallagher raised his hand for public comment. Chairman Chasse Mr. Gallagher did you want public comment? Michael Gallagher Yes, unless you want to do the appointments first because I am here to speak to the ordinance. Chairman Chasse Sure, we will take it all at the same time. We will take care of the interviews right now. Michael Gallagher Thank you. Mayor Lozeau Thank you Mr. Chairman. Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 2 INTERVIEWS Conservation Commission Suzanne Harvey (Moving from Alternate to Full Member) Term to Expire: December 31, 2012 Mayor Lozeau Thank you Mr. Chairman. This evening I am pleased to return with Suzanne Harvey. I should excuse my voice tonight. If you are lucky it will run out before the meeting is over. It wasn’t that long ago that I came to the committee with Suzanne Harvey to offer her for the committee’s consideration to serve in an alternate position on the Conservation Commission. I am back this evening to move her to a full committee position on the Conservation Commission. I think the committee will find that she has been a very active alternate member attending all of the meetings. There might be one in there that, maybe not, but overall as an alternate very active. It is something that she has a passion for. When she served in the Legislature, she was very interested and engaged in all things that related to conservation. I think she has been a strong member, and I am honored to present her tonight for your consideration for a full membership on the Conservation Commission. Chairman Chasse Mrs. Harvey would you like to take the floor? Suzanne Harvey Thank you. Thank you for hearing me, and I just want to say that when we did have a resignation on the Commission I took a couple of weeks to think about whether I wanted to be a full Commission member. Like the Mayor said, I have attended almost every meeting, I go on the site walks whenever I can, and I try to be fully engaged as I can. Nashua is important to me and the conservation land that we hold is important to me. I finally decided yes I did want to be a full commissioner and sent the Mayor a letter to that affect. I just hope you will take that into consideration that this is not something I take lightly, I really take it very seriously, and would like to take this responsibility. Thank you. Chairman Chasse Thank you. I would open the floor up to any committee members. Any questions? Alderman Vitale I don’t have any questions, but thank you very much for looking to be appointed. I know you have done a good job. Thank you. Chairman Chasse Anybody else? Alderman Wilshire Thank you. I would just like to echo what Alderman Vitale said. I would like to thank you for stepping up and for being involved. I know that you are fully committed to anything you take on. Thank you for that. Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 3 Suzanne Harvey Thank you. Alderman Craffey Thank you. I know she is moving from an alternate to full. Is she replacing somebody? Mayor Lozeau Mr. Frasca resigned. Alderman Craffey He will be missed. Mayor Lozeau He will. Alderman Craffey He will be missed. Thank you. Chairman Chasse Let the record show that Alderman Sheehan is now present. Alderman Sheehan did you have any…you just walked in and I’m putting you on the spot here. Alderman Sheehan That is okay. I am coming from a HDC meeting, which just got out. I am very familiar with Suzanne Harvey and I support her becoming a full member. Chairman Chasse We want to thank you for serving the City. We will take the vote in a few minutes. Suzanne Harvey Thank you very much. Historic District Commission Christopher J. Barrett, Alternate (New Appointment) Term to Expire: January 31, 2015 Mayor Lozeau Thank you Mr. Chairman. It is my privilege to introduce the committee to Mr. Christopher Barrett who happens to live within the Historic District. Mr. Barrett, if you’ve had the chance to take a look at his resume, that would go with a lot of different things, but one of the things that he is very interested in are things historic. He has offered, over the last few years to me that he would be willing to volunteer in some capacity. I had suggested Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 4 to him, as I do to most people that offer, to please take a look at what is out there and tell me what you would be interested in and what you could devote your time to and be an active participant in. He came back and told me that Historic District would be something that he is very interested in. I can tell you that my experience having worked with Mr. Barrett from time to time on different things, he is very dedicated, does his homework, and I know that if he tells me that he can be there and be an active participant that we will be able to count on him to do so. I am happy to offer him for your consideration this evening. Thank you. Chairman Chasse Mr. Barrett? Christopher Barrett Thank you Mayor for the opportunity. I would like very much to get involved with the Historic District. I live right outside it, since it is only 1 house in, which is good I guess. I am very interested in historic preservation. I grew up in an old 1840s colonial house, part of the underground railroad in upstate New York, and all of my life I have always been involved in history and preservation and doing things right. I would very much like to get involved with the City in this regard. I appreciate the opportunity. Chairman Chasse Thank you. Committee members? Anybody have any questions? Alderman Sheehan We are looking at a mixed use in our Historic District with a lot of business, and there has been some talk about the mill area becoming a historic district as well. Can you tell me how you feel about how commercial properties play into the historic district? Christopher Barrett I think you have to consider the aspect of the commercial property, the businesses going into it. I think it is something that you really have to get involved with the whole commission, you can’t just make a decision individually, but I think you have to take everything from direct perspective. You cannot easily just deny things because it might be a commercial business. I think it is important to maintain the character of the areas that are affected, whichever they are. There are so many different neighborhoods or different types of neighborhoods in the Historic District that I think each has to be kind of taken individually, very well thought out before a decision can be made. Alderman Sheehan Thank you. Alderman Vitale I know that historic means different things to different people. Could you just maybe define what does it mean when you say historic district? Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 5 Christopher Barrett For the Historic District of Nashua, I think it is important to maintain the origins of the City and how the industrial revolution really built this city, and you have to take all of those things into consideration and preserve them so for future generations it would be easy to tell the story of how Nashua was built, how we grew, how it changed, where it is today, and preserve those things. I think that is very important. Alderman Vitale Thank you. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman I think it is also good that he knew that he didn’t live in the Historic District by one house. I forget Concord Street and how …audio inaudible … Alderman Wilshire I think Mr. Barrett will be an asset to that commission, and I welcome and thank you very much. Christopher Barrett Thank you. Chairman Chasse Thank you for your willingness to serve. Christopher Barrett Thank you. It is my pleasure. COMMUNICATIONS - None APPLICATION TO LICENSE HAWKER'S, PEDDLER'S, ITINERANT VENDOR'S LICENSE - None APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY TO RECOMMEND THE CONFIRMATION OF THE FOLLOWING APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR: TO THE CONSERVATION COMMISSION: SUZANNE HARVEY FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE: DECEMBER 31, 2012, TO THE HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION: CHRISTOPHER J. BARRETT, ALTERNATE, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE: JANUARY 31, 2015, AND TO THE MINE FALLS PARK ADVISORY COMMITTEE: SHERMAN SEWELL, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE: DECEMBER 11, 2014 MOTION CARRIED Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 6 APPOINTMENTS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY TO RECOMMEND THE CONFIRMATION OF THE FOLLOWING APPOINTMENTS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN: TO THE AUDITORIUM COMMISSION JOHN J. MCALLISTER AND ANTHONY V. O’MALLEY, JR. FOR TERMS TO EXPIRE: DECEMBER 31, 2014, TO THE HUNT LEGACY TRUSTEES: ARTHUR OLSSON, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE: DECEMBER 31, 2013, AND TO THE IRA F. HARRIS LECTURE TRUSTEES: JUDITH CUDHEA, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2013 MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None NEW BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS – None NEW BUSINESS – ORDINANCES O-12-01 Endorsers:Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson Alderman Arthur T. Craffey, Jr. Alderman Kathy Vitale Alderman Diane Sheehan Alderman June M. Caron Alderman-at-Large Jim Donchess Alderman Paul M. Chasse, Jr. Alderman Richard A. Dowd Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy UPDATING THE ORDINANCES REGARDING PAWNBROKERS AND SECONDHAND DEALERS MOTION BY ALDERMAN VITALE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Alderman Wilshire Thank you. I was asked by Lieutenant Mike Moushegian from the Nashua Police Department to put in this ordinance to tighten up the pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers ordinance here in the city. I would like to ask Lt. Moushegian to join us please. Chairman Chasse I’m going to ask Mr. Gallagher also to come up. This way here we will talk about it then we will vote. We will ask you to leave the horseshoe and we will vote after. Just have a seat anywhere please. I think we will start with Lt. Moushegian. Michael Moushegian Thank you. I don’t know how you want to proceed. Would you like me to give an overview of the ordinance? Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 7 Chairman Chasse That would be great. Michael Moushegian I think over the past year or two the Nashua Police Department has reviewed the existing pawn and secondhand dealer license in its current form or the ordinance that regulates the license. In that time, we have identified some areas where we think we can improve upon the ordinance. In my work, I work as a Detective and we routinely review the transaction records that are supplied to the Police Department by the pawn and secondhand dealers in the community, and through that review we often times can identify either patterns of stolen property, patterns that identify certain people in the community who are involved in possible criminal activity, and ultimately through that information we are able to sometimes link stolen property to victims that reported crimes. It is really a valuable process for the Police Department in identifying stolen property and hopefully returning that stolen property to the rightful owners. There are several key areas that we found that we believe we can improve upon the existing ordinance. Specifically, we’re looking to standardize the format in which the different pawn and secondhand dealer businesses provide those transaction records to the Nashua Police Department. The reality is most of them do a pretty good job and most of them do provide us with the information we are looking for. It is really getting everybody to comply with the format that we are looking for, which is the challenge for the Police Department. The new ordinance as it is written would hopefully create a baseline or standard that everybody can follow. That is one of the key provisions within this new proposal. Secondly, it is kind of the electronic age, and the Nashua Police Department would like to receive these records in an electronic format. Just to give you an idea of why that is important to us, currently we receive a lot of the transaction records in hard copy. They are mailed to the Police Department or they are dropped off at the Police Department, and then we have to handle those paper documents, which in and of itself is not a big issue, but what we would like to do is provide all of this information through a central regional database or a data collection program. We work with the Lowell Police Department and the City of Nashua, I know Hudson…I will probably forget a few, but there are a few other local agencies who provide all of these transaction records to the Lowell Police Department, and then we are able to access all of the transaction records in all of these communities so we can determine if a stolen item was pawned in Lowell or if there is a heavy hitter in Lowell who is pawning stuff in Nashua. If we were able to receive these records in electronic format, then it would facilitate our ability to provide these records to the Lowell Police Department and it would speed up the process and make it easier for the Police Department then to investigate some of these crimes. Again, I can tell you I’m going to say probably a little less than half, but maybe close to half of the businesses already provide us with an electronic format of the transaction records. Additionally, the new proposal would specifically identify commodity metals as regulated property. Technically it should be regulated at this point, but we do find some resistance in trying to enforce obtaining transaction records for things such as copper. Copper theft has really been on the rise over the last couple of years. Maybe you have seen it in the newspaper. I don’t know what the value of copper is, but it is worth ripping it out of abandoned houses, it is worth steeling say schools with copper wire from let’s say one of the utilities and then this copper is then taken to a scrap metal dealer and sold for whatever the commodity price is. I kind of wish I had looked it up before I came here, but whatever it is, it is worthwhile. Just antidotally I can tell you that we have investigated a number of these related thefts, and I have learned that some of the people who engage in this can make $100 or $150 a night by going out and steeling copper pipes and copper wires. We added language in the proposal to specifically address what we call commodity metals. Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 8 Some of the other metals, it may be interesting to you to know, Palladium, Rhodium, probably forgetting a couple of other metals; they are actually found in catalytic converters of cars. We have had occasions where some of the new dealerships in Nashua have had SUV vehicles had their catalytic converters stolen out of them while they are sitting out in the lot, and it makes sense for somebody to do that because there are a lot of valuable metals in that car component, and of course it is a huge cost to the auto industry then to have to replace those parts. We’re hoping by the addition of adding the definition of commodity metals to the ordinance it will again help us to regulate those transactions. Finally, we’re looking for a 30 day hold period on all sales. What that means is, I can tell you currently we have a 14 day hold period, but a lot of these businesses, we think of them as pawn businesses, but the reality is they are really secondhand dealers. I just had this conversation with somebody the other day, I don’t know if anyone has seen the TV show Pawn Stars; it is kind of a fun show to watch. One of the first questions that the pawn dealer will ask is what do you want to do, do you want to pawn this or do you want to sell it. Ninety nine percent of the people say well I want to sell it. The reality is that the businesses here in Nashua, the vast majority of the business is actually in purchasing property. It is not in providing a loan while holding the property. Currently as the ordinance is written, if they were to purchase let’s say a watch, they are only required to hold that piece of property for 14 days and again just antidotally I can give you an example where we had a person come in and report that a large amount of their jewelry had been stolen, and the detective did an excellent job and ultimately identified that the jewelry was pawned or sold at a business here in Nashua, but the detective only learned that information 21 days after that business had purchased the stolen property. By the time we got to the business the jewelry had already been melted down or the jewels had already been taken out of it and the jewelry was gone. Fourteen days is a really really tight timeframe for us to work with. By the time that we get the report and by the time that the transaction records have been put into the database and we are able to access the information, 14 days goes by in a heartbeat. I had talked to Lori about this, but I would like to see it more than 30 days, but I think 30 days is something the Police Department can work with. What that would mean is that if somebody were to pawn or I should say sell a piece of property the business would be required to hold that piece of property as exists, unaltered; you can’t melt it down, you can’t pry the jewels out of the bracelet or whatever, for a period of 30 days. That would be of great value to the Police Department. There are other minor I guess changes as it relates to the application process; the background check on the business itself, but I think I touched on all of the major points. I don’t know if anybody had any questions on any of those. Chairman Chasse Are you all set? You all done? Michael Moushegian I could go on. I could give you an example of what an ideal transaction record looks like; I can provide you the basic format of a transaction record we are looking for. What can I do for you all? Chairman Chasse Let’s go to the questions. Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 9 Alderman Sheehan Thank you. I agree with the 30 days. I just had an instance right before Christmas where someone thought their rings had gone missing; they had taken them off and misplaced them in the house, and I suggested checking pawn shops and sure enough they had been stolen by somebody with permission in the house. They got them back. Luckily it was within the 14 days, but they didn’t even think they were stolen so I think there is a real value with that. If we are going to go electronically is there any vision of making that available for people to look through so that they could access it online and see if a piece was showing up in a pawnshop? One of the things is just trying to find out how many pawn shops are there in Nashua, how many places buy this stuff. She went to quite a few before she found it. Would there be any ability to add that feature where someone could go through and look for their piece? Michael Moushegian I don’t know the answer to that. I can tell you right now as it stands we work with the Lowell Police Department and they have a program called Docstar, which enables the police departments to run a check based on a certain timeframe or a certain name of a suspect who would pawn the property, and we can query the information in several different ways, but there is limited access to that. I don’t know if that would eventually become open to the public. Quite honestly that would be outside of my control. I agree with you that would be a great aid to the Police Department if everybody was able to, when they make a report say you know I’m a victim of this and by the way my property is over here. Going forward I would like to see something like that. Alderman Sheehan When I have sold stuff that I inherited or just stuff that I don’t like and I have too much, they offer to pop the stones on the spot; I could keep the stones and they would buy the gold. Would that ability stop? Michael Moushegian That is a great question. I would say no it wouldn’t stop because you are selling the gold you are not selling the jewels. I think as the proposal is written right now I don’t think it would affect that sort of transaction that you are describing. Alderman Sheehan Okay. Alderman Vitale In writing up the changes, is there any pushback from businesses within the City at all? Most businesses are already doing what is beneficial to the department. Michael Moushegian I would say this, and I spoke briefly with Mike a few minutes back; I didn’t go out and solicit input from the industry itself. I can tell you that we have a regular relationship with the industry, we routinely have contact with them, we routinely review the transaction records and when we see what appears to be non-compliance we will go out and address it. I think we have a good working relationship with the industry as it exists. Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 10 I would also say that the recommended changes that we are requesting, most of the industry is already doing it. It is really to get everybody I guess within the whole to make sure everybody complies. The one exception to that would again be the 30 day hold period. I think that is an enhancement of the existing regulation. I would expect that most of the industry wouldn’t want that, but I think it is a balance. I think from the perspective of law enforcement it is law enforcement’s belief that the benefits of that certainly outweigh the costs. Alderman Caron Can you tell me if the 30 day wait period is common for other big cities like Lowell or Manchester? Michael Moushegian I can tell you that most of those locations do have a hold period and I can kind of give you some examples. Alderman Caron While you are looking for that, do you think that maybe the pushback from the businesses would be because they can’t turn around, the turn around is going to be longer, that 30 days where they won’t be able to sell that particular item? Michael Moushegian I would anticipate that. If I had a shop I wouldn’t want to have to be holding for any period of time, I would want to be able to sell it the next day if I could. I certainly am cognizant of the fact that as a business they would want that. I’m coming at it from a different perspective. I want to advocate for the potential victims, I want to do what we can to encourage the business but at the same time protect the victims. I think the 30 day hold period is a reasonable combination. I don’t have the time periods, but I can tell you that all of the local communities that we have looked at did have some period of hold; it could be anywhere from 7 and the most I saw was 30 days. We would definitely be on the upper end of that scale. Alderman Caron Thank you. Alderman Wilshire Thank you. I have met with the Police Department probably 6 months ago when we first started talking about this and some of the records they have, piles of paper that they have to flip through, and some of them are not discernible. You can’t tell what the items are. Some of them look like just a pile of stuff on a copy machine and you couldn’t even really figure out what was in that pile. I think the digital thing is really going to help matters. And there were a lot of records. I don’t know how many a day or how many in a month you see, but it has got to be quite a bit. How many dealers are there here in Nashua that apply for a secondhand license? Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 11 Michael Moushegian I have heard anywhere from 23-27. I actually got a list from the City Clerk’s Office maybe a month or two ago, and I forget the number, it was 24 or 27, around that number. Alderman Wilshire And I know that it is not just the small mom and pop shops, but there are a lot of bigger businesses now doing this like Best Buy and Hanoush Jewelers and Kay Jewelers and Beldon Jewelers that are buying secondhand because the prices are good right now for them. Just wanted to bring that up. I know the records, stacks and stacks of paper that are just unwieldy to go through when you are trying to find something. I think the digital piece is really going to help out. I have been a victim of theft; my house was broken into when I first bought it, and they took the gold, they took the laptop, they took the camera, and never recovered. Having been a victim on that end of it, the 30 days to me would seem reasonable. Seven days certainly you don’t have time to look for anything, find anything, or recover anything. Fourteen days, like you said I don’t think that is reasonable either. I think 30 days is reasonable, and if you don’t find it by then well …it is not to say you couldn’t find it. Michael Moushegian I don’t think it is purely from an evidence standpoint as well. Certainly the transaction record would exist even if we identified it on the 21st day or 30th day or the 45th day, but it is somebody’s…I use the example it is somebody’s Grandmother’s bracelet or somebody’s family watch or whatever it is. If we can return that to the rightful owner that is really what we need to do. Chairman Chasse I’m just going to make a comment; the 30 days sounds pretty good, but if you see that the 30 days is not working don’t be shy, come back in and ask for 45 or 60 because I have no problem. I hate to see a victim lose an heirloom from their family or something like that and it gets sold. It is an heirloom that has been in the family for generations and you feel like you have been violated. I have been a victim myself also and it is just a violation, and I don’t care if we have to hold the pawnshops to make them hold it a little bit longer, I have no problem with that because we get these people off the streets. That is the way I kind of look at it. Mr. Gallagher would you like to speak? Michael Gallagher, 9 Old Coach Road Yes, thank you. Chairman Chasse This is a little different here, we’re having our… Michael Gallagher I appreciate it. This is all very informative for me so it is good. When I first heard about this I read it on Wednesday the 11th, the Telegraph ran the online version of the article. I read it and I was kind of scratching my head as to the premise of the article. What it sounded like to me was that the Nashua Police Department was writing legislation. That was the first thing that kind of struck me that the Lieutenant had crafted the legislation and that Alderman Wilshire was presenting it on behalf of the Nashua Police Department. I wanted to make sure that, and the Lieutenant was able to clarify kind of the working relationship and that there was a back and forth and whatnot, which was not contained in the article. I wanted to make sure that it was this Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 12 board that is the policy setting board and it is not any other city department that is stepping in saying if we could fingerprint kids as they go to kindergarten it would really make our jobs a lot easier solving crimes 15 years from now. Well of course it would, but we would never allow something like that. That was the first thing, and that is a ridiculous example to compare it to, but purposefully so. When I read it I kind of looked at it and said okay well do we have a need for it, and obviously the Nashua Police Department feels that we do have a need for it. All I had to go by is the article where it says we can’t quantify how often stolen items are put through pawn shops or secondhand dealers. We kind of have an unknown. We know that it is happening. We know that it is “a regular occurrence” but we just don’t know how often. I did not know from reading that article that half of the businesses are already meeting the electronic version. I think some of the legislation makes sense in that it is bringing it up to 2012. But some of these businesses do not own digital cameras as a business, and they would incur an expense, they don’t own a memory card, they would incur an expense, their computer systems that they run their business off of may not be compatible with the devices and they would incur an expense. Now we are asking them to hold onto an item for an additional 2 weeks, which is an immediate cash flow impact for these businesses. Now we’re all struggling these days, we’re all trying to do what we can, we have to hit our rent, we have to hit our payroll, and now that item sits and they lose money. What that means is that they are now going to have to pay less for that particular item. Do I then say gee if I’m going to sell my guitar here I am just going to go over to Hudson and sell it instead of doing business here in Nashua where I would prefer to? There are some impacts, and I think that what happens is the industry as a whole kind of has that negative connotation that this is where shady happenings goes on. That may be the case, I don’t know. I’m not a pawnshop owner and don’t have plans on being one. But I just wanted to make sure that the business side of it is being considered. I understand from the Police Department it is going to make their job easier, from the victims’ standpoint if they have a longer period of time to have an item recovered that is certainly a good thing, but what I would have liked to have seen, where we are dealing with such a small, I think the Telegraph had it as 24 pawn shops/secondhand dealers with Daddy’s Junky Music being one of them, which is now no longer in business so down to 23, that if this board or this committee had proactively reached out to those folks and said we are actively have a conversation that is going to change the way you do business, and we would welcome your feedback. I think that would have gone a long way from a P.R. standpoint on showing that we are in tune, that we want their feedback, and I think it would have been a good thing for the Police Department to have those folks here tonight as well. The meeting was posted, it has gone through all of the requirements, I understand that, but I think it can never hurt to solicit more credible feedback so that you guys can make an even more informed decision. Thank you very much for your time. Chairman Chasse Thank you. Is there any more discussion? The motion on the floor is to recommend final passage of O-12- 01. MOTION CARRIED DISCUSSION - None PUBLIC COMMENT - None Personnel – 1/23/12 Page 13 REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN Chairman Chasse For the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee, we will not be holding steady meetings. We will have the meetings when we need them. There is no reason for us to come in here and take care of 1 or 2 appointments when we have nothing on the docket. I will call the meetings. They will be on Monday nights at 7:00 p.m. ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN SHEEHAN TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 7:40 p.m. Alderman June M. Caron Committee Clerk