Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee

PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE DECEMBER 17, 2012 A meeting of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee was held on Monday, December 17, 2012, at 7:00 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 June M. Caron Alderman Kathy Vitale, Arrived after Roll Call Alderman Diane Sheehan Also in Attendance: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy Alderman-at-Large Jim Donchess, Arrived after Roll Call PUBLIC COMMENT INTERVIEWS Nashua Airport Authority Gordon T. Jackson (New Appointment) Term to Expire: August 31, 2017 Mayor Lozeau Thank you for this opportunity to bring before you this evening for your consideration Mr. Gordon Jackson as an Airport Authority Commissioner. As you can see from his bio, he’s led a rather colorful, interesting life. Some time ago, Mr. Jackson had spoken to me about his interest in the Airport Authority. Long ago had been a pilot and has always been interested in planes. We, of course, have talked about that the airport carries a budget and a busy meeting schedule. Of course with the new runway, a lot of great things happening at the airport. One of the reasons, I brought Mr. Jackson here for your consideration is because I think it’s important on the Airport Authority to at least have one of the commissioners be somebody that brings kind of the outside- in view to the Authority. Typically those that are interested in serving on the Airport Authority are those that have been involved at the airport for a long time, either have business there or is an active pilot; that sort of thing. Commissioner Britton who has not been able to renew his term brought that kind of outside-in to the airport. I think that is a very important component, and I think Mr. Jackson brings that to the table. Like many of you here, I’ve known Mr. Jackson for a long time. I find him to be very thoughtful. I’m confident that he will do his homework and will be a really great addition to the Authority board. I appreciate you considering him this evening. Chairman Chasse Let the record show that Alderman Vitale is present. Mr. Jackson I won’t get into a lot of comments, I know you have a long meeting ahead of you this evening. As the Mayor said, I have a great interest in the airport. I grew up around one as a kid. I was always told I was plane crazy so this is some extension of that process. My many years working with TV13, I got an opportunity to experience the airport firsthand and come to realize what a real jewel in the crown that it is for the City of Nashua. Now that I am sort of semi-retired, I think I have the time to devote to something of this nation. I did Personnel – 12/17/12 Page 2 spend many years on the cable committee, so I know what it’s involved in in being a volunteer to try to move things along in the city and make it better for all of our citizens. I’m really anxious to see if I can play an important in helping to work on this committee. One of the goals I would like to do is to try is use my experience at communications to make the airport more, shall I say, obvious to many of the citizens of Nashua who really don’t have a real appreciation for what it is. The other thing I can say is growing up near an airport, I’m also aware of what it is like to be someone that lives in close proximity to an airport so I understand the problems that go along with that, particularly if someone is doing a run-up of an engine at two o’clock in the morning. I’ve had that sort of experience too in my life so I can appreciate what it is like for some citizens. If there are any questions, I would be happy to answer them. Alderman Caron I think that is wonderful because I agree with you, we have a jewel there at the airport. Really unless you’re involved with aviation, you don’t realize how valuable that airport is to the city and the community. I think with your communications background, you’ll be able to bring that forward. I look forward to you sitting on that committee and being a great asset. Mr. Jackson Thank you, June. Alderman Sheehan I was going to have similar remarks as to the communication and having a pilot point of view. I’ve also dealt with Mr. Jackson before and found him very professional. I think having more visibility on what the airport offers; there’s great programs there for kids to learn how to fly and there’s other things to do there that we enjoy that often people don’t know about. So I hope you can bring some of your talents to the table in that way. Mr. Jackson Thanks, Diane. Chairman Chasse I want to thank you for your willingness to serve. We’ll take up your appointment later on in the evening. Mr. Jackson Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mayor Lozeau I just wanted to point out that the next appointments are the board presidents as you know. Then I would ask you this evening to please table the reappointment for Commissioner Leslie Mendenhall if you would. Chairman Chasse Sure will. Thank you. Enjoy your evening. Personnel – 12/17/12 Page 3 Recycling Expansion Committee Robert Earley (New Appointment) Term to Expire: December 13, 2013 Michelle Spears (New Appointment) Term to Expire: December 13, 2013 Edmond Stebbins (New Appointment) Term to Expire: December 13, 2013 President McCarthy We created the Recycling Committee and appointed three people to it who are all involved in condominiums and can give us a good perspective on how that will fit in with condominiums of various scales throughout the city. Mr. Earley I’m the property manager of Ledgewood Hills. I’ve managed Ledgewood for nine years now. It’s a large community of 376 units. Very particular, they’ve been around for 28 years and like things done a certain way. I think I know their concerns, their issues and I can bring those to the committee in a way to bring together a new plan to recycling at condominiums. Ms. Spears I’m actually the board president for a smaller condo association, 45 units and about 100 people live there. Recycling has been a passion of mine since high school really. I used to promote it at the school to try to get kids to do more recycling back a little while ago. The one thing that I hear regularly is: “I’d recycle if I had a way to do it.” Right now being such a small association, we don’t have that to offer. I know I got to the landfill weekly, and I bring recycling there and I take other people’s recycling if they need. Really we need a larger scale solution. I’ve been interested in helping out with the city for a long time. Didn’t really know how and this came up. With me being so passionate about it, I thought it would be a good opportunity. Mr. Stebbins Good evening. Ed Stebbins. I live at Partridge Berry Hills Condos. We have 304 units on 26 acres of land. I also believe we are the oldest condominium complex in the city from what the history books tell me. Many of our owners have also asked about recycling. When I heard Mr. Donchess’ motion a few months ago to propose this, I was really excited about it. Many of you know I ran for the Board of Public Works last year so I do have an interest in these types of subjects. Alderman Donchess Very briefly, I have been enthusiastic about instituting and expanding recycling for a long time. Alderman McCarthy, I want to thank him for appointing me and the other aldermen and the three citizen members. Assuming you confirm me, I look forward to serving with all ten members, I think it is, or eleven, of the committee because the Board of Public Works is on it by designation. Alderman Caron Alderman McCarthy asked me to join this committee. I have to admit that I am not a recycler, but I am always willing to learn and understand what’s going on. But I think it’s a good idea and if we can get those people that are in the condos to recycle and get more of the city’s townhouses and whatever out there to recycle, I think it’s a great thing and I’m looking forward to getting the ideas and working with the Board of Public Works and the rest of the members on this committee. I think it’s a great idea. Personnel – 12/17/12 Page 4 President McCarthy Just to speak on behalf of the last Aldermanic appointment to the committee, Alderman Dowd in addition to being a member of the Board is also the President of the Kessler Farm Condo Association. I think he has some good experience with the needs of that community as well. Alderman Donchess By the time we get finished with this, Alderman Caron will have her green bucket out there every week full to the brim. We’ll accomplish at least that. President McCarthy The weekly visits from the Telegraph photographer should accomplish that. Chairman Chasse Any questions from any other members on the committee? I want to wish you all the luck on the committee. We’ll take your appointments up in a few minutes. You do have a lot of work ahead of you. Hopefully you guys will come up with a game plan and things will work out so thank you. 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 BOARD OF REGISTRARS: KATHRYN FOGAL FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2015; TO THE FIRE PREVENTION CODE BOARD OF APPEALS: RONALD A. DEBLOIS, JR., DANIEL GAGNON, AND JOHN RUDOLPH FOR TERMS TO EXPIRE OCTOBER 31, 2015; TO THE MINE FALLS PARK ADVISORY COMMITTEE: EDWARD MORAN AND DAVID SILVA FOR TERMS TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2015; TO THE NASHUA AIRPORT AUTHORITY: GORDON T. JACKSON FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE AUGUST 31, 2017; TO THE NASHUA HOUSING AUTHORITY: SELMA PASTOR FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE OCTOBER 14, 2017 AND TO THE REVIEW AND COMMENT COMMISSION: KEVIN MORIARTY FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 1, 2015 MOTION CARRIED 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 RECYCLING EXPANSION COMMITTEE: ALDERMAN JUNE M. CARON, ALDERMAN-AT-LARGE JIM DONCHESS, ALDERMAN RICHARD A. DOWD, ROBERT EARLEY, MICHELLE SPEARS, AND EDMOND STEBBINS FOR TERMS TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 13, 2013 ON THE QUESTION Personnel – 12/17/12 Page 5 Alderman Vitale I’m really excited to see what this committee is going to bring forward to us, both in the procedures to advanced recycling into our condo association community and also maybe related costs associated with that too. I think it’s going to be a really good thing. As soon as we can get it implement, I think the better. Alderman Caron I agree with Alderman Vitale. I think the other thing is you have members of the condo associations that seem to be already working on these ideas. I think they’re going to have a lot of things to bring to the table right away because we only have, what, four months to come back with a report so I think this is a good idea. Alderman Sheehan I would like to echo my colleagues. If it makes sense for a homeowner to recycle, it certainly makes sense for a condo dweller to recycle because we have a finite resource with our landfill. Anything that we can do to maximize the life of that is good for the entire city. MOTION CARRIED MOTION BY ALDERMAN VITALE TO TABLE THE APPOINTMENT OF LESLIE MENDENHALL TO THE REVIEW AND COMMENT COMMISSION UNTIL IT IS ON OUR AGENDA ON THE QUESTION Alderman Sheehan I kind of have a problem with this because the way the ordinance is originally written, this person is supposed to be appointed in October. We now have a situation where we’re into December. There’s been some key deadlines missed. What are we looking at as a rescheduled date if this is not done today as we were already supposed to have had a chairman named. Chairman Chasse I believe that Ms. Mendenhall is resigned or is not going to look for a reappointment. Alderman Sheehan Okay thank you, I withdraw my question. MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None NEW BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS – None Personnel – 12/17/12 Page 6 NEW BUSINESS – ORDINANCES O-12-28 Endorser: Alderman Diane Sheehan PROHIBITING THE CITY FROM CHARGING FOR THE COSTS OF CERTAIN OFFICIAL VISITS AND CAMPAIGN EVENTS • Also assigned to Budget Review Committee; Tabled 11/28/12 MOTION BY ALDERMAN SHEEHAN TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Alderman Sheehan Thank you. I know this was tabled in Budget from the discussion there. Everyone was voting against it and I just would like to say that I appreciate their efforts to table it for me to come back. Since then I did say anything that needed to be said here. My original intention was that we need to have a policy regarding this. We can have discussions on whether or not people think it is worthwhile or not, but the fact of the matter is, when we send a bill for the President or presidential nominee to the nominee’s campaign, they send it to the Secret Service whose policy is not to pay. If we think by sending a bill we are going to get paid, it is simply a feel good reaction. Over the years we have not billed any others. This is the first time we have had to bill and I can understand the frustration when we have super packs for millions of dollars and people using that money simply to ring our phones off the hooks and fill our mailboxes everyday. The billing I was told was approximately $30,000, that it was $3,000 for Mitt Romney to visit and $22,000 for Obama. I came up with $25,000. But we spent that money for, in my view, the protection of first in the nation status. When people come here to hear these people speak, if we are billing them or having these types of discussions that we are not going to get paid for anyway, to me it opens the door for people in other parts of the country to push back on our first-in-the-nation status. Yes, it was a political event, but on the larger end it did bring 8,500 people to Main Street that shopped afterwards. Just Lights told me they sold a lot of lighting that day to people that were there for that. There was a line at every restaurant, not just Burger King. People were stuck there for hours and there was nothing to eat or drink allowed in there. It was a big event that was well attended and had a positive economic impact and I do not want to put our status as first-in-the-nation in jeopardy by any method. I also think that we need to have a policy. I think that amending it to add, perhaps until there is a Federal law that requires payment, that when I worked in Massachusetts for GTE, when we set up political offices we had to be paid in advance because it was known that they just don’t pay. I think either we have a policy, we either get paid in advance or something doesn’t happen, I don’t know, but just feeling good that we have sent somebody a bill that is never going to get paid and maybe we take it as a write-off, it just does not make any sense to me unless there is a chance of actually getting paid, sending the bill and that was my reasoning. I just think it needs to be a consistent policy. Thank you. Alderman Vitale What does the word “certain” mean as far as costs of certain official visits or campaign events, what does the word certain refer to? Alderman Sheehan I’m not sure what you mean, campaign visits? Personnel – 12/17/12 Page 7 Alderman Vitale You said it it’s charging for the costs of certain official visits and campaign events. Alderman Sheehan Campaign events assumed I was looking to protect. Alderman Vitale Could that be taken out, the costs of official visits and campaign events and not use the word “certain”, because I don’t know what that word “certain” means. It means there is a difference between one kind or another, that is how I take it. Chairman Chasse Alderman McCarthy must have some light on the subject. Alderman McCarthy It is actually fairly common in the language of the ordinances and it says there are two classes of them. In the body of the Ordinance it divides them into just the ones that are the two major candidates and presidential. Alderman Vitale Official visits, I guess I don’t have any problems as picking up the costs for them. I do have a problem picking up for the cost of campaign events. Depending on those candidates coming, it still seems they should be billed for the campaign events. I can understand Alderman Sheehan’s point that you are not going to get paid. I think they should be billed for their campaign events. They have funding sources. Unless we are, as a city making a donation to a campaign which is what it amounts to, I have a problem not charging for it whether we get paid or not and I would certainly hope we would have more of a mechanism to get paid. Maybe they always say no, I don’t know that for sure, I was not the one that did the research on it. Alderman Sheehan has indicated it is a policy of the Secret Service that they don’t pay them, but I have a problem not charging for campaign events. Alderman Craffey Thank you. I don’t have a problem with picking up the costs because he is here for official purposes, i.e., to celebrate or make Nashua on some sort of cutting edge, or doing something different. He is here to highlight that. I have no problem with any president coming in and doing that. Campaigns are different. They are photo ops and they should be charged. They re-charge the campaign, we send them the money, they rent the space. Most campaigns pay. The Secret Service does not pay, that’s fine, but we should be charging a bill. As far as first affecting the presidential status it does not do that. That is set by the National campaigns, not whether or not we charge them or not for their visits. That is set by the National Government bodies, the National GOP and the National Democratic parties. They set when people have their elections when they are coming. They set dates and events coming forward. I know New Hampshire has an amendment that requires them to be first-in-the nation. I don’t think this affects our first-in-the nation. I will not support this right now as it stands. Thank you. Personnel – 12/17/12 Page 8 Alderman Caron I agree with my colleagues. I don’t have a problem with a sitting president coming to visit. That is part of doing business, but campaigns, they make a lot of money. If I remember Alderman Sheehan, when Romney came and used the Holman Stadium they did pay about $2,000 to Park Rec for the cause. I’m not sure if I’m right on the numbers. Alderman Sheehan If I could interject, this has nothing to do with the venue rental and that is accepted from it. It is only related to personnel and materials not to venue rental and I specifically excluded that. Alderman Caron But if they are willing to pay for the venue rental, then they should be able to pay for the cost of the personnel, whether it’s police or fire. We are dealing with budgets. That money is coming out of our budgets for other things. I too will not support this piece as it stands. Alderman Sheehan I did specifically exclude rent for a venue because they always do pay that, it’s just the other costs are given to the Secret Service who does not pay for putting a front loader or having overtime police or fire and I understand and respect my colleague’s position on this. I just want everybody to understand that we have already paid because we paid the personnel their paychecks, their overtime that week. Everyone keeps saying, we shouldn’t pay, we have paid, we’ve always paid. I’m letting this go. I understand this is a battle already lost, but I felt I had to put in this legislation. I respect what you’re saying. I think they have millions and millions and millions left over. Yes, that would be the right thing to do, but I don’t think until there is national policy we should be doing it, but I understand where everybody else is coming from. Just to be clear, we did pay. We pay every time. What we need to do is truthfully budget. Every four years this happens. It’s not a surprise. I think we should have some sort of policy so it’s not year-to-year that we decide how we are going to handle it, but we are policy board of our city government and I think we need to have a position on it. Thank you. Chairman Chasse Here is my outlook on this. We are paying for it. We are going to have the police department in front of us again looking for more money for their overtime. The Mayor has said that they put in a bill. I don’t know if we have been reimbursed or not. We haven’t been reimbursed, Alderman McCarthy? Alderman McCarthy No, and we never will be. Chairman Chasse We never will be. Alderman Sheehan But it feels goods. Chairman Chasse Personnel – 12/17/12 Page 9 So tell them to stop coming to Nashua. I understand, it’s worth the try to get some money back. When these people come and they don’t just come once to Nashua, they came numerous times. They put the people in Nashua in a burden. They couldn’t even get to their houses. Main Street was packed. I heard a rumor the planes were flying low because they wanted to keep them in the flight of the President. All these crazy things you hear. I’m glad it’s over, but I hate to see having the police department come back in front of us looking for more overtime money and I think that is going to happen again. They are going to beat their budget again. I will not support this, I’m sorry. Alderman Vitale May I ask a question to Alderman McCarthy? We meet with our state delegation, but with our delegates to Washington about how the discussion goes at a national level regarding the visits to each of the states. We are not a town that is unlike others across the country and other states across country, how we write our letters supporting certain information, is this something that our delegates to Washington that we can forward our question to? Alderman McCarthy I was not intending to speak on this, but I can basically take either side of the issue, but I think pragmatically, the answer is you’re not going to get any satisfaction that way because it is in the end a semi-political issue. The side that is in doesn’t want anything done that would reflect on them and the side that isn’t in does not want anything done that would reflect on them when they are in. It’s one of those things where, I’ve got to say, I’m offended that we pick up the bill for that in an election where $6 billion was spent on lousy, negative advertising that did nothing to enhance the choice of a next president. On the other hand, I don’t think there is any way we are ever going to see that. The pieces that we can get reimbursed for we do by asking for the money up front, which is the venue rentals. The stuff that the Secret Service demands of the local police department, it’s just going to happen and we are never going to get reimbursed for it as far as I know. We did have a case where one of the congressional campaigns reimbursed us, but that is a little different because that is not stuff that the Secret Service is asking for. Can we do something about it by saying, if you want to rent Holman Stadium and you need to have Secret Service governed protection the rental cost is $30,000, we can probably do that. The downside is nobody would ever come here again because that is just tough to deal with. As Alderman Sheehan points out there is some intrinsic goodness to us having candidates in Nashua, having Nashua shown on the National evening news once every four years for a couple of times, there is some value to that. Given that we’re probably never going to break even on it, the legislation may make sense. The one thing I would not do is try to differentiate visits by the sitting President during campaign season from visits by the other majority candidate because that does get to a point where you really are making a distinction that is political even without intending to do that. Once the candidates are declared it’s really tough to tell what is an official visit and what is not. Was Obama’s visit to New Jersey the week before election day an official visit or a campaign stop, it’s hard to tell. It would be hard to argue it either way, in fact. If Romney stopped in the same places in that week, would that be a campaign stop or an official visit, hard to tell. We can spend a lot more time splitting those hairs than it’s worth in the end to try to get it back. The system we’ve got of bill them and don’t expect to get paid, at least we keep track of the number and go that way. We could optimize it by just not sending a bill. There are ways we could get more of the money back but I think they are harmful to the community. As for interacting with the national delegation, there is stuff that is much more valuable to us that I would rather spend that political capital on when we do so. Chairman Chasse The motion on the floor is to recommend final passage of O-12-28. MOTION FAILED Personnel – 12/17/12 Page 10 MOTION BY ALDERMAN SHEEHAN TO RECOMMEND INDEFINITE POSTPONEMENT MOTION CARRIED DISCUSSION – None PUBLIC COMMENT - None REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN - None POSSIBLE NON-PUBLIC SESSION ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 7:35 p.m. Alderman June M. Caron Committee Clerk