Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee

PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE FEBRUARY 11, 2013 A meeting of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee was held on February 11, 2013, at 7:03 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, arrived after roll call at 7:10 p.m. Alderman Diane Sheehan, arrived after roll call at 7:28 p.m. Members not in Attendance: Alderman Kathy Vitale Also in Attendance: Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly Alderman Daniel T. Moriarty Alderman-at-Large Mark S. Cookson PUBLIC COMMENT - None INTERVIEWS Conservation Commission Nicholas S. Frasca (New Appointment) Term to Expire: December 31, 2015 Chairman Chasse You want to tell us something about yourself. Nicholas S. Frasca Sure. I’m an attorney in Nashua. I’ve been an attorney for the past ten years. My practice consists mostly of real estate. I do a lot of real estate finance work for banks. I do some land use and some litigation. I practice with my father. I did serve on the Conservation Commission before. I resigned about two years ago but I had served for about six years prior to that resignation and I’m back. Chairman Chasse You’re back. I’ll open it up to the committee, anybody, any questions? Alderman Craffey Yes, thank you. Thank you for wanting to serve on the committee again. I just have a couple of questions. You said you served on the committee before, that you were part of a 6 nothing vote that wanted to have the DES look at the alteration of Touraine. Nicholas S. Frasca I had resigned before that. Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 2 Alderman Craffey You had resigned before that? Okay, is that the reason for the resignation? Nicholas S. Frasca No. No. I had just served for just so long, I needed to do something else. I needed to focus more on my practice, my law practice and service for six years in any public capacity, I was burnt out. Alderman Craffey I served with you on the commission so I know. There’s going to be something similar coming up with, I guess it’s, parcel L and N similar properties in the Merrimack area that will be coming up also. Same type of property types. They’ll be selling off, I believe. Do you have any objections to that type of thing, would you be willing to stand behind the Conversation Commission if they decide to do the same type of thing? Nicholas S. Frasca I think that I would have to look at any application before I made a decision as to how I was going to come down on it, one way or the other. It’s difficult to say whether you’re going to rule in favor of something or not, without actually have the ability to look at the application and every application is different on its face. Alderman Craffey I don’t mean to put you on the spot. I don’t want an affirmative answer yes or no right now. Parcel F there was some ferverant and very compassionate dialog we’ll hear in this chamber as well as out in the public. It was a very, very long drawn out process that ended up not buying the bog and there’s some problems now with that but that’s here nor there right now. I just want to make sure that that was not the reason you had resigned. That was one of my key questions that you had not resigned over that. That you had resigned for other reasons. Nicholas S. Frasca For other reasons and I can tell you that for as long as I was a member of the Conservation Commission, I tried to be reasonable. It’s a question of balancing interests. You’re balancing the interests of the environment versus the interests of individual property owners. So I try to look at each case on that basis. Alderman Craffey That’s all I have to the Chamber. Thank you. Chairman Chasse Let the record show that Alderman Caron is present. Alderman Pressly Thank you. Yes I have some questions. Most of them relate to, sort of, the arrangement and what’s on the internet. They have you down as a new appointment but you’re actually a re-run appointment. Is that fair to say? Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 3 Nicholas S. Frasca Well I think that I’m a new appointment, this time around but I have served before. I did serve for five years. Alderman Pressly One further question. When you thought you’d like to come back, did you approach the mayor? Or did the mayor contact you and ask you to step up? Nicholas S. Frasca Yes, the mayor did express an interest. Alderman Pressly Okay, so she initiated inviting you to come back. Okay. Were you on the board when the Conservation Commission sent a letter to the Pennichuck Corporation asking to buy Parcel F? Nicholas S. Frasca No, I think that was probably before my time. Alderman Pressly It may have been. I think it was around 05, 06, or so. Nicholas S. Frasca That was right around the time that I became a commissioner the first time. Alderman Pressly Okay, so did you know, in fact, that they had tried to buy that parcel during the ten year negotiation? Nicholas S. Frasca I did not. Alderman Pressly You did not know that. Okay. I’ve gone on line to try to understand this. It’s confusing to me. Do you have any idea who you are replacing? Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman, if I could. That’s not something Mr. Frasca would have any idea about. If you have a direct question for me about that, I’d be happy to try to help you. Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 4 Alderman Pressly I do, I do. I’ve gone on line and I’m very confused. You had down here as active members and for one, I bumped into Suzanne Harvey at the grocery store and she said that she sent a letter resigning some time ago. Mayor Lozeau She has resigned. Alderman Pressly Well, she’s still on the website as an active member. Mayor Lozeau Alderman Pressly, I don’t manage the website. I’m not certain if the city clerk’s office has not had a chance to make the appropriate changes. Also, Mary Brundidge is on it but she has resigned as well, quite some time ago. Alderman Pressly Does she send these letters to you or do they go to the clerk’s office? When a person resigns, they send a letter, I presume to you. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman, if I could. Sometimes they do, sometimes they send it to the committee chairman. It’s all different. Sometimes they mention it at a meeting and assume that people so it’s different. Alderman Pressly Then, I would like to ask the mayor, the reason I refer to the website is that it’s the only public record that we have to go to and see who’s a member, how many they need to have, who is the chairman, who gets to vote, who doesn’t get to vote. So you have down here, three vacancies, one for Harvey, one for Vitale and one for Temparino. Which of these three vacancies will this appointment remove? Mayor Lozeau It doesn’t matter. That’s not how it works necessarily. Unless somebody is filling somebody’s term. I can’t tell you for certain which position is being filled. What I can tell you is that right now I know that I have three or four vacancies and between tonight’s meeting and the meeting coming, I intend to bring forward, it either three or four members, for the Conversation Commission. Alderman Pressly I have just done a couple of days trying to understand how this works and I am surprised. I know that you have said before that you rather rely that people will go on the website and because of that, will apply. On the website it says, existing vacancies not open (to the public) and then it says there are no other vacancies for the board or the commission at this time. So I’m wondering how would anybody if you knew somebody that was an environmentalist, say go on line and take a look at the website and see if there’s an opening on the Conversation Commission, it doesn’t appear that there is one. Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 5 Mayor Lozeau There are three open positions according to the website as of right now and what I’m telling you is there are also some others. Alderman Pressly Well, it’s not a particularly inviting website the way I read it and I think I probably know more than the . . .so how many people call you and say, I’d be interested in service on a commission. Mayor Lozeau There’s a fair amount of people that call me. There are some folks here tonight that called me directly and said that they were interested. I had a gentleman this morning that was interested. People generally write in the link for the volunteering and then we send out questions that they answer so we can try to find a good fit for people that are interested in serving. I asked Mr. Frasca to serve because he has a remarkable history with the Conversation Commission and has served as its chairman and I thought he brought a significant amount to the table and this is the second time I have asked him to considerate it since he his term was over and this time he said yes. Alderman Pressly So, I’m trying to figure out who’s on the board right now. According to the website, let me tell you what the website says. Michael Gallagher Chairman Chasse Hold on Alderman Pressley, the website is not up-to-date. So let’s move on and just have the mayor tell us Alderman Pressly Well, I think we need to talk about that because of all the sites I went onto, all of them are not up-to-date. Chairman Chasse This is the personnel/administrative affairs committee, this is here. We’re interviewing the people and we’re not going to talk about the website. Please. Alderman Pressly I know this, but this is the only opportunity that we have to do this. Chairman Chasse Well take that up with the IT department, please. Mayor Lozeau Actually, Alderman Pressly, it’s not the only opportunity. I have seen that there is a problem with the website. I’ve brought it to the attention of the clerk. They’re working with somebody in my office to try to make sure that everything is up-to-date. They were not aware of some of these resignations, nor was I. So if you would like Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 6 to know who the current members are, we have Mr. Michael Gallagher, whose term expires in December of 2013. We have Mr. Gillespie, whose term has expired but they serve until they have been asked to re-up or somebody comes in and Mr. Gillespie will be reappointed. The next one that we have on is David McLaughlin, his term expired in December. He is not going to be nominated again. Cynthia Overby, whose term expires in 2014. Peggy Trivilino who I have not yet had an opportunity to meet with, whose term also expired in December 2012. Those are the current members of the Conservation Commission. Alderman Pressly Just so you know, both of those names are in opposite positions as to what you’re reading. So you have made a decision not to invite former Alderman David McLaughlin to return to this job. Mayor Lozeau He and I have met and he’s not going to be renominated. That’s correct. Alderman Pressly Did you invite him to serve again? Mayor Lozeau I think that’s a discussion between he and I. If he’d like to tell you, he’s welcomed to do so. Alderman Pressly Okay, maybe we would like to hear from him. Chairman Chasse Let the record show that Alderman Cookson has as joined us. Alderman Craffey I just wanted to point out on the website, two things. One, there’s a part you check off to volunteer and you go and fill out the form, which the mayor has already pointed out. Two, on the boards and commissions there’s the Board of Public Works, the Board of Alderman, the Board of Education so they’re all on there so those are elected positions so I just wanted to point out that those are also on there, that you can’t volunteer on those. That’s all I want to say about the website as far as that goes. Alderman Pressly I would like to respond to that. What I did, as I went on the four websites of the commissions and boards that are coming up tonight and I believe that just about every single one of them has major errors. So I don’t know what we do about it. Chairman Chasse Alderman Pressly, let me say one more time. The websites are wrong, it’s not the personnel/administrative affairs committee’s problem. Take it up with the IT department, take it up with the mayor and at a different Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 7 meeting or at her office or something like that. The website’s wrong, we’ll have the IT department or the city clerk fix it. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman, as I’ve said tonight, I’m aware of it and we’re working on it. Right now, the city clerk’s hands have been pretty full in the last few days between the November elections and the change in the back and he’s away at a conference. This is something I am aware of and I’m going to work on it. Alderman Moriarty First, I’d like to apologize to the public for my casual dress. I thought I brought a coat, I didn’t. Normally, I make an attempt not to sit in the chair without a coat on but again, I apologize. Attorney Frasca, thanks for joining us and thanks for allowing yourself to being subjected to such pillory. So, as an attorney, have you ever served as a Public Defender. Nicholas S. Frasca I have not. I’ve managed to avoid that in my practice. Alderman Moriarty The reason I ask is, do you know what significant committees are involved when there’s going to be a land purchase or change in some sort of land matter. Nicholas S. Frasca Planning Board, Conservation Commission, Zoning Board, I think that those would all be involved in one respect or another with land. Alderman Moriarty Right, that’s my impression also. Have you been to a Planning Board Committee or a ZBA? Can you describe what it’s like just a few seconds. Nicholas S. Frasca What it’s like to present? Alderman Moriarty Who shows up? Nicholas S. Frasca They’re sparsely attended. Generally if people are in attendance it’s abutting property owners who might in one way or another be affected by the application that’s before that particular board. Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 8 Alderman Moriarty So again, the reason I’m asking this, I’m getting to a point here is, from what I’ve seen at those meetings, both sides get to talk, the proponent of the change, the developer generally, has their chance to talk and they have a timer and then they allow people who want to speak in opposition and I would say that 90% of the time or more, on proponent, there is an attorney working for the developer, speaking. So, in general, the people who are working to develop land have an attorney that they are paying. The people who are speaking in opposition to a development, usually citizens, don’t have an attorney. So do you see any role of the Conservation Commission as acting as the Public Defender for the citizens in such an aspect? Nicholas S. Frasca I think that’s well outside of the purview of the Conservation Commission to act as Public Defender to a particular project. The role of the Conservation Commission is pretty finite. It’s to look at the wetlands ordinance and to apply it to that particular application and I don’t see the commissioners as acting outside of that role. Alderman Moriarty So then, if it’s not the Conservation Commission what organization within city government do we have to serve as that role? Nicholas S. Frasca That’s good question. I’m sure what the answer is to that. Alderman Pressly There could come a situation where a client of yours or a former client of yours would come before the Commission. What would be your position in regards to that? Nicholas S. Frasca Oh, I would recuse myself. Alderman Cookson Welcome Attorney Frasca. I’m glad that you could join this evening. I did have a question about your previous term on the Conservation Commission. How did that end? Nicholas S. Frasca I resigned. Alderman Cookson You resigned. Can you explain to the committee what has changed since your resignation and now being reappointed to make you want to be back on the Conservation Commission. Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 9 Nicholas S. Frasca I did enjoy my time on the Conservation Commission. It was just the fact that I had served for 5 or 6 years. I was burnt out and it was nice to have every other Tuesday to myself and my weekends free and be with my kids and work more on my law practice, than being at City Hall for hours on end. Alderman Cookson We know how that is. How does your future commitment to the Conservation Commission affect that time with your children and your work? Does it impact what you have experienced since your last resignation? Nicholas S. Frasca Oh, I’m sure it will in some respect but it’s a commitment that I’m willing to make and I think it’s for a good cause and I do enjoy the work and I’m looking forward to it. Alderman Pressly I too would like to thank you for coming tonight and one reason that I think a lot of us have asked a lot of questions, I call you a re-run because that’s what I call myself. I served as a member of the Board of Alderman about 25 years ago and there are a couple of us that come back to do the same thing under different circumstances but you’re listed as a new appointment and there’s no resume in the packet. Nicholas S. Frasca I did bring a resume. Mayor Lozeau It should have been provided, it’s in the packet that I received. It should be in there. Alderman Pressly I don’t have it. No one has it. Mayor Lozeau No one has it? I don’t know how that happened. I’ll make copies and provide it to the members, I have more here. Chairman Chasse Before I forget, everybody that’s going to be interviewed tonight, if you do get the approval from this Committee, you will be sworn in or you will be acted upon by the full board tomorrow night. I’m all set, I don’t anymore questions, so anybody else? That’s it. Thank you for your willingness to serve. Nicholas S. Frasca Thank you very much. Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 10 Alderman Cookson I just had a question to your last point. Does that mean that you will be providing an oral report to the board tomorrow evening? Planning Board Scott E. LeClair, Alternate (New Appointment) Term to Expire: March 31, 2016 David Robbins, Alternate (New Appointment) Term to Expire: March 31, 2016 Edward Weber, Alternate (New Appointment) Term to Expire: March 31, 2016 Chairman Chasse You got it. Next on the agenda, the Planning Board, Scott LeClair, David Robbins and Ed Weber, please come up, take a seat. Mayor Lozeau Thank you Mr. Chairman, if you would indulge me for just a moment. I apologize for being late, I think this is the first time that I had a nominee that had come up without me, giving his accolades on why I had nominated him and I apologize to Mr. Frasca for that and to Alderman Sheehan for being in her seat. Chairman Chasse Let the record show that Alderman Sheehan has joined us. Mayor Lozeau I was at a neighborhood meeting with Alderman Caron and that went a little bit longer than we thought in order to jump out. So, this evening, in addition to Mr. Frasca who you have just met, I would like to introduce to you the three members that I am asking for your consideration on to be alternate members on the Planning Board. It is my understanding that we have some members of the Planning Board that may not be re-upping their term when it expires this year, those discussions are forthcoming, in the meantime, we certainly have a lot of room for alternates. The three gentlemen before you tonight, all have different skills that I believe they bring to the table that I believe is beneficial to the Planning Board. The one thing that they all have in common is I find them to be all very thoughtful members of our community, that are interested in giving back, that believe that the requirements of the Planning Board is something that they are willing to provide to this community. They have been to Planning Board meetings, have reviewed minutes, have met with legal counsel to understand their role on the Planning Board and I believe that they can all be objective. I am confident that they will do their homework and that they will act in a professional manner and I believe that our city will be served by the three gentlemen here before you this evening. Scott LeClair My name is Scott LeClair. I have been a resident here in Nashua now for a little over 12 years. My background, I have about 22 or 23 years of experience with infrastructure, planning and engineering. I am a practicing engineer, principal engineer, for a consulting engineering firm. My firm actually is in the Boston area but I live here in Nashua and I have been for a while. My interest in being on the Planning Board comes from taking a look at the community and looking at where I can sort of give back and probably make the biggest impact with my own experience and capabilities. So I look at the Planning Board that seems like a good place for me to utilize my background and experience and give something back to the community. I did Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 11 spend about 20 years in the military about 11 of it was active duty and in that role I was with, what they called, a civil engineer group, but it’s basically running the base and I was responsible for engineer and planning construction of a community, albeit, some of them big or small. That’s my big interest and that’s why I want to do it. David Robbins My name is David Robbins. I have been a Nashua resident for almost 5 years and very much appreciate the opportunity to be here and want to thank the Mayor for nominating me. I spent my professional life as a member of the Social Security Administration ending up as a supervisor and office manager, retired about 4 ½ years ago. We moved up here in the 4 ½ since I have been a State Representative for one term. Did a lot of volunteering in the community. A lot of work with the church. Involved in community television here in Nashua and some other things. The mayor knew that I was interested after I was no longer serving as a Representative to become involved in the city, learn m ore about the city and I’ve made those interests known and she reached out to me a little while ago and said, would this be something that you’d be interested in doing and I did some research and I said yes it is. It is very important and it’s something I would be very willing to spend whatever times needs to be spent in doing it. I’m interested in this sort of thing and I also have some sense, having been a State Representative, how the devil can be in the details as far as laws and regulations are concerned and perhaps the most important quality I bring to this is the ability, I hope, to listen respectively and then act in what I feel is the best interest of the law and the regulations and the citizens of Nashua. Edward Weber I am a retired union carpenter, out of Boston, the Cambridge area, 35 years on the job and during that time I got my Boston builder’s license and the Massachusetts Supervisor’s License. Ran work for a very large company, many companies actually, so I had all aspects of the job, I had to run from cite work through the finish, ran the different companies to make sure that they adhere to the contract and on time, on budget. I am retired now and I want to give back to my community. I really do like Nashua and I think it’s a great city and I think I can help out. Chairman Chasse Thank you. We’ll open up to the committee members, any questions? Alderman Pressly First, thank you, all of you, for being here and I want to let you know that I have a problem with all of your appointments and it has nothing to do with as individuals. I have said it on the record before and I will say again, this administration has appointed only men to those two major land use boards, both Zoning and Planning and although we have an all female delegation now in Washington, we voted for that and so I think that whenever you’re appointing people to a board, it’s really, really important to have a balance across, not only gender, I think we should have more ethnic balance and I think we should geographic balance and I might, in the future, start to look and make sure that we have people on these land use boards that represent the full geographic area of the city. But why is that important, Planning and Zoning in my mind, are the two boards that really do create the atmosphere in our community and it troubles me no end. On the Planning board there is one alternate and it’s the aldermanic appointment so we have one female alderman who sits on there. But there are no women and I think it’s a huge loss to the city that we don’t have that. So I don’t blame any of you for that but I believe that one of you has already mentioned that the mayor did initiate the approach to you to serve on this committee. I’d like to ask Mr. LeClair, how did you happen to, did you initiate this or did someone . . Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 12 Scott LeClair No, I did, yeah. I’m familiar with planning boards and I just looked at city organization as a whole and thought that was best fit for my experience and interests lie and so I approached Alderman Pressly And when did you retire from the Air Force? Scott LeClair I retired from the Air Force in 2011 so I’m officially retired from one job but I’ve got a little while for the other one. So I do have a little more time in my life, not as much as sometimes. Alderman Pressly Mr. Weber, how about you? Who initiated your involvement? Did someone suggest to you as a friend or did someone approach you and say why don’t you get involved or was this something you initiated on your own? Edward Weber I initiated myself. When I go and do stuff, I already went and looked at some of the stuff that’s coming up on Thursday and I discussed it with my wife and make sure she’s involved too. Alderman Pressly Have you attended any of their meetings? Edward Weber Yes, November’s. Alderman Pressly Okay, it’s very time consuming. Edward Weber Yes, but I’m retired. I have my own business but it’s not going to hurt that. Alderman Pressly I had a couple of questions for Mr. Robbins. Mr. Robbins, it says that you do a lot of traveling on your resume. Do you think that this might be a problem when they need you? David Robbins No, I don’t for a couple of reasons. The traveling I do, if I implied that it was a lot, I think that is overstating the case. My brother-in-law manufacturers satellite trucks that are bought by television stations and he needs people to drive them for delivery, so on occasion, when he doesn’t have anyone else, I will drive. He had to get some trucks out in December and I drove to Austin and to Tucson but I’ve already talked to him about that Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 13 and he has other people and I don’t see that there would be any kind of conflict because I would work around that and there is flexibility. So if the question is being available for meetings and other engagements around the needs of the committee, I don’t see that as being an issue. Alderman Pressly Did you run for offices last time and just did not prevail? David Robbins I did and the voters in their infinite wisdom decided that another individual would better serve. Alderman Pressly What I like to say is that you did not prevail. David Robbins I like to think that the voters are always right. Alderman Pressly Well there’s some truth to that. When reading your resume, I was struck by the fact, I said, boy this guy’s a political operative. Is that a fair, I noticed that you’re on the television, you have a political show on television. I must confess, I have not seen it. So I don’t know if you take an independent position or if you sort of impose your political views into the television. David Robbins Well, things change quickly and to amplify that a little bit for those who may not be glued to Access Nashua, Channel 96, for about six months, I did a television program with Representative Ken Gidge, he’s a Democrat, I’m a registered Republican and we would try to provide information, entertainment and recently we have some creative differences and so Ken is going on, this just happened the last couple of weeks, no acrimony, we have just decided that we want to go in different directions. My direction would be hopefully as a community producer to look at longer term projects that involve more thoughtful consideration of issues than any kind of partisan way of looking at things. So I hope that answers the question. Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman, if I could, I just want to add a little something. The majority of the people that I have appointed to board and commissions are people like the gentlemen to my right who I never met until they expressed an interest. I don’t judge people by what their race is, what their gender is, any of those sorts of things. I spend a significant amount of time pointing out to people, particular those that say, boy I’d love to something, that we have an awful lot of boards and commissions and if any of them interest them, I would love to have them. I actually first met Mr. Robbins when he called into the office, or wrote a letter on a particular issue that he was concerned about and in a return call, we had a lengthy conversation and after that would talk from time to time when things came up and when he did not return to his duties at the State House this last time, he mentioned to me that he would be interested in doing something else to give back to the community and that’s when I made the same suggestion to him. Please take a look at boards and commissions, to see if there’s anything Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 14 you’re interested in. I wouldn’t call him a political operative, I’d call him a person who is really interested in the community, served a couple of terms and is very engaged in making things happen. Very thoughtful. Chairman Chasse I’ll allow it, Alderman Pressly, but let’s not cross the line please. Alderman Pressly I’d just like to say that the reason I say that is in your resume, it’s the art of politics, political issues, I mean, you mention the word and you have held public office. So I think I was justified in making that assumption and that’s not a bad thing but I think it’s worth mentioning. One thing I would love to ask you but I don’t think it is appropriate. In your resume you say that you did help a political person compose their resume and it appears to have been a woman. I’d love to know who it is, but I’m not asking you so don’t tell us. But that was the other political job that you mentioned. David Robbins Shall we meet after the meeting for a moment? There are no secrets on that. Alderman Pressly I don’t need to know. I just want to justify and explain that the words in the resume Chairman Chasse No, I’m stopping you right now Alderman Pressly. This is interviews, this is not political stuff or whatever. You want to find out after the meeting please. Carry on. Alderman Sheehan I am very familiar with Mr. Robbins. I have had a lot of very positive experiences and I find him to be a very fair and thoughtful thorough person and I have enjoyed every encounter I’ve had so I don’t have as much lacking knowledge as I do on Mr. Weber and Mr. LeClair, so I’d like to focus one after the other. If you could just explain to me where you kind of feel on individual property ownership versus the benefit and the impact to the community and where you’d go for information on the law that supports that. Edward Weber It’s always a balance, if anything, the planning side of the house is a balance between the community, the individual at all times. I’m a balanced person by nature and objective. That’s kind of the nature of my being. So that’s kind of how I approach things. As far as information, we would work from the regulations from the state and of the city as they apply to the planning purposes. That’s kind of how I would approach it. I mean, we’re new to it so I don’t have a huge background in those regulations at this point but obviously there would be research on that. Chairman Chasse Alderman Sheehan, let me remind you that they will get training. They have to go through the training, that’s where they would probably know where to get their information. But I don’t believe any of you had your training yet. Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 15 Edward Weber I would be saying the same thing, the 674 that’s a basis and then you get your training. I always listen to both sides, I always have an open mind, I don’t go in there with a closed mind, prerequisite to either thing. I think business is important to Nashua, but we also have to hear both sides. Alderman Sheehan That’s basically what I was looking to hear. Chairman Chasse Any more questions? Alderman Caron I would just like to say, I think that it’s wonderful that three gentlemen came to the mayor, looking to volunteer and then they chose which board or commission, so I think you’ll do your due diligence to that board and Planning and Zoning are very important to the city but I think that this is great that we have some new people coming on that have a desire to serve and I applaud you because those meetings can run long and furious so I thank you very much for wanting to volunteer and be part of this. Alderman Craffey I want to thank you and the mayor. She picked up three unique candidates. Your backgrounds are quite interesting and quite intertwined. It will be interesting when you all serve on the Planning Board, the perspectives that you all bring. I just wanted to point out to Alderman Sheehan, I do serve on the Planning Board as an alternate and we do get 4 hours of training at a minimum, when you start and then there are training courses offered to them that the Planning Board pays for, that they have to go through, it’s required for the Planning Board that they get annual retraining each year, so they will get their training. For you gentlemen, it looks like a project manager Mr. Weber? Basically that’s what you are, seeing the project basically from start to finish? Edward Weber No, supervisor of construction. I was out there on the job site. When it’s in the ground digging, making sure that everything is done properly, inspected, the inspectors are there to make sure that it’s done right to handling the subcontractors to make sure they are there and that they do their job properly as per contract and that the job gets done right and the owner is happy at the end of the job and it works for them. Alderman Craffey I’m sure that Mr. LeClair will agree with me that sounds like the job of a project manager. You described it perfectly. Mr. LeClair could you tell me how all your background would fit into the Planning Board. Scott LeClair Well, I think that I have a lot of experience with the whole infrastructure process as a whole as it relates to communities and buildings and roads and everything else. Particularly on the military side, where it was kind of a similar organization that I was involved with a lot. We basically built bases and communities. Whether Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 16 they were here in the United States or overseas, that was part of our job to do that and I got to oversee organizations that built communities and I thought that really aligned pretty well with planning environment and then in my professional duties, obviously I’m involved with planning processes and construction and I primarily specialize in hospitals and labs. Alderman Craffey As one retired vet to another, thank you for your service. Mr. Robbins, you probably bring the most unique experience to this. I always chide the mayor sometimes of how she always brings in the one person from the outside who brings in the most obtuse view, the person who brings probably the balance to the board. We’re bringing all these professional people in from all sides, the lawyers, the builders, the ground shakers and then she’ll always bring the one person who has this view that says, wait a minute, just doesn’t make sense. What do we do, what are you guys doing? The person who evens it off and has him take a step back and say, okay wait a minute, you’re right, it doesn’t make sense and I see you as that person who’s going to be this guy who does that and I’m very glad that you came in. I see that as I read through your resume and if you worked for the US Social Security Administration and you survived all these years, without going cuckoo. Hiring and firing and having to deal with the union itself was issue enough, you will fit perfectly well with these people. If they go nitpicking and say well this is supposed to be this far and retaining walls have to be here versus here and I think that you’re the person that’s going to be the one who’s going to say, wait a minute, why can’t we put it here? These guys are probably look at you and say, ya you’re right, maybe we can put it there, we can compromise so I think that you’re going to be the voice of reason, as I call them. David Robbins Thank you very much for your confidence. I hope I can live up to it. Alderman Craffey I hope so too. Gentlemen thank you for volunteering and thank you for your time. Alderman Pressly The Chairman has rather chastised me for calling one of the applicants a political activist. I consider that a compliment. Chairman Chasse Please stick to interviewing. Alderman Pressly I’m relating what’s in the resume and I consider that a compliment. I’m pleased that you took advantage of our access television. We put on great programs and it’s a huge, huge, wonderful project for our city. I consider myself a political Chairman Chasse Alderman Pressly please stay to the interviewing and never mind about Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 17 Alderman Pressly And please stop interrupting me. I think you’ve been extremely rude and I ask you to stop it. Chairman Chasse I’ve asked you to stay with the program. Alderman Pressly The program is such that I think you have many interests, many of them are political and I consider that a plus and I think having served and put together a program on public access is something to be very proud of. Thank you for being here. Zoning Board of Adjustment Jean-Paul (JP) G. Boucher Term to Expire: September 11, 2015 (Moving from Alternate to Full Member) Chairman Chasse Anybody else? Thank you. Your willingness to serve and we’ll act upon this in a few minutes. Next on the agenda for the Zoning Board of Adjustment, Jean-Paul Boucher. Alderman Moriarty May I be excused Chairman? Chairman Chasse Sure. Mayor Lozeau It is my distinct pleasure to reintroduce to you Mr. Boucher who has been serving as an alternate on the Zoning Board, has gone to I think almost every meeting since he’s been appointed as an alternate, which is as you know, is not necessarily a requirement. He’s been very engaged, he is a great example of what I look for when I try to appoint somebody to boards like Zoning and Planning. When the opportunity presented itself to appoint him to a full board member, rather than an alternate, it hasn’t even been a year yet, almost a year in March, I wanted to jump with it so I’m pleased that he is able to be here tonight and look forward to his continued service. Chairman Chasse Mr. Boucher, then welcome back. Do you have anything you want to add? Jean-Paul Boucher Again, I want to thank Mayor Lozeau for appointing me to a full time member of the Zoning Board. Again, I took the opportunity very seriously. My intention was always all along to come to this point. This is my way, I Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 18 believe, of serving the community. I have the time and I want to do that and I found it to be very important to show that I am serious about the commitment to this Board. Chairman Chasse Any questions from the committee members? Alderman Craffey What have you found most interesting about your experience, sitting there as an alternate and wanting to become a full board member? Jean-Paul Boucher I think the most interesting thing that I found to be something I didn’t expect was, nothing’s ever the same. Everything’s different with every case. So as you’re looking, as I’m serving, it’s not a service of boredom or how do you say this, that it’s not the same thing all the time. So I kind of live on that kind of stuff. Change and moving forward, never the same thing all the time. So with that, again, the ability to serve on this board is obviously very interesting to me. Some people think that I’m a little crazy because they say that it’s not an easy job, I’m definitely not as young and I’m not even saying that it’s difficult, there’s a lot of time that needs to be put in but that’s the commitment that I knew that I was going to make when I came here last year. So again, it may sound off but I do look forward to every meeting and the challenges that it presents. Alderman Craffey Is there anything that you’re seeing, anything major that maybe this Board of Alderman needs to change. Something major, as an observer that you might have seen out there that might be something and we might have to look at. I’m not putting you on the spot. I’m just staying maybe we can make major changes. But you’re are eyes and ears out there. This is why we have you come in because it gives us an opportunity to ask you this question. Is there something out there that needs to be changed or we should be taking a look at. That’s why we have you come in. Jean-Paul Boucher I’m only one member of that Board. Alderman Craffey Yes, but you’re one voice of the Board and one voice can make a difference. Jean-Paul Boucher I understand that. I guess my point is that I have a lot of respect for the other members I serve with. I have tremendous amount of respect and I’ve learned a lot since I’ve been in here. As an individual, as a resident of Nashua, I have my opinion. I guess right now what I’m saying is that there’s nothing glaring and I would be remiss or I would be a little hesitant to make some personal opinions at this point in time. I think that that conversation, that if you would like to have that, I think that that would be a wonderful thing to have a one Board to another Board, as a whole and I think that would be, to me, more productive than myself sitting here and stating something that may not be totally correct as far as my knowledge of what has happened in the past. So what I’m saying is I think that the idea’s really good. I would strongly suggest that if that was Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 19 something that you would like to do, I would be one member that would be more than welcome a Board coming in and talking to us as a Board and I think that that would be really productive. Alderman Craffey Thank you very much for your opinion. Alderman Pressly Is the committee finished? Thank you. I’ve seen you on television and from what I can tell, you do a good job and I also appreciate your service. My objection to you is the same as the other gentlemen. I think the Zoning Board is the most critical Board that we have in the city. It’s the Board that really determines the character of our community. You make really tough decisions. I think that they usually make somebody else very happy and make somebody else very unhappy. So it’s a difficult, difficult Board to serve on. Two questions related to your service. Do you as a rule, make a site visit to whatever’s before you? Jean-Paul Boucher Every one of them, I make a site visit and maybe two or three times, depending on the complexity of the case. So I always make a site visit. Alderman Pressly What reliance do you put on the staff recommendation? I think that in most cases the city staff makes a recommendation. Jean-Paul Boucher Again, that’s a recommendation. Our job is to weigh all the evidence, so they are providing us with a certain recommendation, when that’s provided and then again, we have to listen to testimony and listen to the facts represented by both parties. Alderman Pressly Further question, I notice on tomorrow’s agenda, you have the Broad Street Parkway. How are you going about a site visit for the Broad Street Parkway? Jean-Paul Boucher I can’t talk about the case itself, but the case has been postponed Alderman Pressly Okay, sorry I didn’t know that. Jean-Paul Boucher Again, that case also, I will look at every piece of paper and site visiting at this time of the year, and getting to certain places may not be practical but again, I do the best I can and with the job that a do right now, my full time job, I have intimate knowledge of Nashua so a lot of Nashua I know of and I kind of see things at the bird’s eye kind of view. It’s not very difficult for me when it comes to site visits per se. Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 20 COMMUNICATIONS - None APPLICATION TO LICENSE HAWKER'S, PEDDLER'S, ITINERANT VENDOR'S LICENSE - None APOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY TO RECOMMEND THE CONFIRMATION OF THE FOLLOWING APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR: TO THE CONSERVATION COMMISSION: NICHOLAS S. FRASCA FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2015; TO THE PLANNING BOARD: ALTERNATES SCOTT E. LECLAIR, DAVID ROBBINS AND EDWARD WEBER FOR TERMS TO EXPIRE MARCH 31, 2016; AND TO THE ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT: JEAN-PAUL G. BOUCHER FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Sheehan My apologies for not being here earlier; I was trying to watch along on TV while I was waiting to be able to get here. The cable went out. The transmission over the computer so I don’t know if it was asked of Attorney Frasca. My understanding is he was on the board before. Why he had left and what circumstances have changed. Chairman Chasse It was asked, and he said that he left because he was burnt out. Number one. He said he had to do some more work on his business and he wanted to spend more time with his kids. It was also asked of him what has changed, and he said he is ready to go at it again. So he did answer those questions. MOTION CARRIED Mayor Lozeau Mr. Chairman, could I just point out to you that this evening I had asked the committee to consider removing from the table the appointment of Leslie. Chairman Chasse It’s coming. UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None NEW BUSINESS – None TABLED IN COMMITTEE Appointments by the Mayor MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY TO TAKE FROM THE TABLE THE APPOINTMENT OF LESLIE MENDENHALL MOTION CARRIED Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 21 Review and Comment Commission Leslie Mendenhall (Reappointment) Term to Expire: December 1, 2015 • Tabled 12/17/12 Mayor Lozeau You may recall a month or so ago, Leslie was on your agenda and has served on Review and Comment for I think almost since the whole time I’ve been Mayor, pretty close anyway. Four years. She has taken on the role of Chairman. I spoke to you at the last meeting to let you know that Leslie had decided that she was going to step down based on some circumstances in her family and the time that it took to be Chairman of that very busy commission. Leslie went into committee meeting and at that committee meeting told her fellow commissioners that she was going to be doing that and they rallied as a group and asked her not to do that. One of the members volunteered to co-chair the committee with her. They split the workload and I was pleased to have Leslie call me and tell me that she would be interested in continue serving and she was grateful that the commissioners were willing to do that. I think, it goes without saying that there has been a lot of give and take around Review and Comment in the last year of determining the best way to make sure that applications are reviewed, that everybody has all the information that they need. That everybody understands when and how the committee is operating and what its procedures and protocols are and I think that it was a tough year a couple of times for how things went forward. It’s always difficult when you have limited dollars and requests greater than those dollars. I’m quite pleased with the work that Leslie has done for those of us who have a look behind the scenes, we know just how much work it is required on that commission and so I’m really pleased to be here tonight, telling you that Mrs. Mendenhall is willing to continue her service. Leslie Mendenhall I have enjoyed the work that I have done over the last 4 years. I was born in Nashua, I’ve lived here the majority of my life except for my husband was in the service and we travelled and to be able to get back to my community is something I do hold very near and dear to my heart. This year was very trying for me. Unfortunately, I did not always act in a manner in which I was proud but it was stressful and we all make mistakes and I’m here to admit to mine. Know that I have worked very hard and am very grateful to the commissioners that I work with, that have offered to split the work with me so I could stay on, that wanted me to stay on at a time that I felt that I just couldn’t do it. I am willing to answer whatever questions you have in order to have that happen. Alderman Caron I know that you were very stressed out and unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be at the Ad-Hoc committee but you did talk about how hard you worked and all the hours that you have of your personal life. Has that changed at all, that would help you? I know that you have someone co-chairing with you. I guess I have two questions. First of all, has any of that changed to make it a little bit easier for you to do this project and number 2: If you come back, wouldn’t it have been better to have two new co-chairs so that it would have taken some of that weight off of you for at least a year or something like that to make it a little bit easier to get back to it where it was so stressful last year to get through this project? Believe me, I know, because I’ve sat on those meetings and it can be overwhelming sometimes. Leslie Mendenhall Well the first question is the commissioners that I serve with on the Review and Comment have not just, Dr. Moriarty stepped up to co-chair with me but every member has taken a piece of something that I have done. So we are sharing the majority of the tasks equally and that gives me the time to do some of the things that I Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 22 have always done that I don’t want to say that they wouldn’t know necessarily how to do, but they would need guidance in getting done. I’m sure they are all more than capable of taking the task and doing it. So that does allow me the time to do that. I think last years was exceptionally stressful. Unfortunately, at points I felt it was than a personal attack than a general attack. Time heals many wounds and I can look at it with a different perspective so I think the balance is going to be okay. Alderman Caron With saying that, considering that some of the ideas that were brought up to help the Review and Comment, not to beat them up, but to help them to correct some of the errors that were there, that made it difficult for everybody to understand what was going on. Do you feel that you can work with that, with the Human Affairs Committee to make those changes and make those adjustments to help all five commissioners do what they have to do as part of Review and Comment without ….everybody takes things personally and I understand that but we have to look at it that this is a process that we have to do and we want to do it the best way we can so that everybody gets their fair share and gets their acknowledgement. I’m trying to get a feel as how are you going to react with some of these changes and ideas that the committee is looking to put in place to help you. Leslie Mendenhall Anything that’s best for the Review and Comment Committee, which will best serve our non-profit agencies, as well as our citizens, I’m willing to work with. Alderman Caron I appreciate that. Thank you. Alderman Craffey A comment that you made that there are some things that you are going to have to do, that the other people wouldn’t know how to do without guidance. I’m hoping that over the next couple of years on your term that you’ll allow them to do those things or show them these things so there’s not so much pressure on you. Leslie Mendenhall Absolutely. Through the process that we went through last year with all the questioning of Review and Comment, did write an SOP manual of how everything is done. So at this point, anyone of the commissioners would be able to pick that up and do the job fully, without guidance. Alderman Craffey You’ve done a very good job the previous years. I would hate to lose you as a member of the Review and Comment Commission. To see all this good work go to waste and I know from experience, having been coming up through the ranks of management to where I am now, that if you don’t show how to do something, you can get totally stressed out and end up in a bad situation. Leslie Mendenhall Sometimes, we learn lessons the hard way. Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 23 Alderman Craffey And time does heal all wounds but the scars that they leave can leave bad memories and we don’t want that. So take a word of advice, please train the people. I hope that you’ll stay on beyond the end of your term and consider staying on afterwards too. Alderman Pressly This is a committee I’ve has respected so strongly over the years. I know you’ve had a tough job. I’ve never questioned your results so I was a little surprised that there were some problems this year. I gather from what you have said that you feel that all the issued have been addressed and overcomed and there will be some changes I presume. I did try to watch some of the meetings and came away very confused so I hope you are not. Leslie Mendenhall I’m not confused. I think that every process has constant change. Alderman Pressly That’s true. Every new player brings in a new perspective. Leslie Mendenhall Right. So I think everyone should always continue to evolve and I don’t think Review and Comment is different from anything else. Alderman Pressly I would just like to say thank you for your service and I’m glad that your colleagues talked you into staying on and congratulations. Alderman Sheehan First, thank you for the years of service you have given. I think I have a different perspective than some of my colleagues because I still have some very serious concerns that I haven’t heard you address. In the meetings you said that you have a 70 hour a week for one of your jobs and 50 hours at another job and that this is your volunteer so, I’m not sure what has changed in that regard. I know that what I’ve seen evidenced to this year hasn’t indicated a change because all of those deadlines that were supposed to have had have been missed. So I’m not seeing evidence that something has changed and I understand that your desire and your want to do that is there, but what I’m seeing is that a week and a half after the application was supposed to be on line, I’m getting a call, do you have a copy of it because it’s still not up? We had worked very hard to get volunteers so that you would have more than the 16 and the website didn’t get reflected and nobody was following up. I wasn’t getting the e-mails that I was expecting back so that I could do the process that I needed to for Ad-Hoc. We had a meeting upstairs of Review and Comment and to the openness and one of the things we were supposed to be working on, Review and Comment, met on the stage, not on microphone, so anybody else that came to the meeting couldn’t hear anything from where the seating is. So all the things that have been a concern to me, what the evidence is showing is that there is still going to be an issue and I think there have been some very good process improvements coming down but I think just the timing wise, that’s where my concern is. That if you have one job that you’re working 70 hours a week and another job that you’re working Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 24 50 hours a week and this is your volunteer job, and you said that this takes between 30 and 60 hours a week during that process, that’s more time than there is in a day. The other thing that concerns me is that at the beginning of the year, you said you weren’t going to be doing this, we asked for an interview when you were up for a renewal. That was put off and put off and then you said I’m leaving and yet you assumed chairmanship, when you knew you were leaving and just riding out an ex tension. So, to me, there’s been a lot of avoidance and the partnering and I understand that you may have felt that some of this was personal but the rest of the committee was able to see that it’s not and really, really worked collaboratively and the changes that were suggested were also minor, if you saw the reports. Everything was just very minor or putting things spelled out so that it’s not warehoused to the person rather than an institution so that God forbid something happens to a chairman, things are able to move on and as administrations change, things move on. My concern is that if you’re still working 120 hours a week, which is a lot for any person to do, how you’re able to do this and what I’m seeing is that the application didn’t go up in time. What I’m seeing is the people who called and e-mailed and responded to the things are TV weren’t responded to, this is where my concern is that the intention is there and the intention is good, but in reality, there just isn’t enough plate to add more to it. Leslie Mendenhall When I said I work 70 hours at one job and 50 at another, it feels like that. Do I physically work that, probably not. There are days that it feels that way. I do have a new assistant in my office who takes up some of that main job, that helps quite a bit. As far as the application not getting up on line, that was handed to the mayor’s office and they do that for us, so that’s something that we did not fail to do. As far as the volunteers that we got from the ad campaign, there was a delay, yes, on us getting back to them but when we did reach out to them I believe only three of them responded favorably to do it, of the ones that we had received. They were reached out to and they only 3 continued on. The volunteers were handed off to commissioner Genest so he can give you those exact numbers. So yes, there was a delay in reaching out to those volunteers and that is the absolute truth. I sat in, I believe all but 2 of the Ad-Hoc committee meetings, even though I was not a member of the Ad-Hoc committee, to work with the Human Affairs Committee to make these changes, so I’m very well aware of the changes that were recommended and I don’t know what you think we’re avoiding or what you think I’m avoiding. I’m not sure where that was all going. Alderman Sheehan I don’t mean to say that you’re avoiding, that’s probably not a good characterization. In the Ad-Hoc meeting, it was my responsibility when we all worked on just those tweaks on aligning the different fields on the form, my responsibility was to have it finished and then have the team sign off on it and give it to you so it could go on. We have it in the minutes, it was very clear and I had asked Brenda, do you have it, do you have it? No, no, no, I’ll get it and then 10 days later she said, can you just send it to me? So I think if it’s organizational, if you don’t understand that this is part of what my concerns are. That when we’re in a rush and we’re vague and don’t have time to take responsibility, and actually having that happen, and I realize that the intentions are good but this is my concern because it’s just, as you have said yourself, it’s a lot of work but in a very compressed amount of time and it is overwhelming and yet, you knew you were leaving and again, assumed chairmanship. This is the part where there’s some disconnect here or I don’t understand. If I thought I was leaving a job, I wouldn’t take the chairmanship again. Leslie Mendenhall I can explain. I was told that I was to stay on until my replacement was put in place by the mayor and my place was the chair so that’s where I stayed and continued to work with the other commissioners as I always had. I did not feel that that was a wrong step to make. The other commissioners didn’t step up and say, well Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 25 since you’re leaving why don’t you do this? I was fulfilling my obligation until my replacement was found and I was doing that as my duty to what I had signed on to. I was not doing it to be disrespectful to anyone. I thought actually that it was just the opposite, to respect the office that I held and see it to the end and I apologize if you feel that that was disrespectful. Mayor Lozeau Alderman Sheehan, I mentioned earlier that the majority that I appoint are people that I didn’t know and there’s a handful of people that I appoint because I know them. I asked Leslie to do this job when I came in because I knew that Leslie would dedicate herself to getting the job done and she would do it well. I don’t know where the disconnect was with the application, as you’ve described, and getting it to my office and getting it posted. I don’t know if it was the Ad-Hoc committing doing some work on it and it needed to go back to the commissioners to decide if they agreed? Because they still need to do that. So the disconnect might have been that next meeting that had to take place before it then got posted. I think it’s really hard for Leslie to be sitting here in front of us. I think the easy thing to do would have been for her to say, never mind I don’t want to do this anymore. I understand that there was a struggle and I’ve talked to some of you about that struggle and yes, Leslie hit her breaking point and said I’m done but she was also a member of Review and Comment when those commissioners used to come in and they’d hand in their report and they’d never even get invited up because nothing changed. I think what was suggested last time was that everybody take an opportunity to hear each other out. Consider the changes that were offered. I think that took place. I asked Leslie to stay until I found her replacement because I couldn’t let that Review and Comment, based on the timing, go forward without having that happen. Leslie didn’t decide to leave until after I was moving her appointment forward. So her appointment was moving forward, it was on the agenda and I called her up and had a conversation with her and said, Leslie are you sure you want to move forward? Is this really what you want do to? Do you have the time, can it work, are your new grandbabies okay? That kind of conversation. She said, you know what, maybe it is best if I don’t do this because, we’ve got all of these parts that have to be done and maybe it’s best that I don’t. So I said, can you just stay until I find your replacement? And my plan was to talk to some of the other commissioners about being the chair and I have those things scheduled to have those conversations and that meeting happened in the interim. They rallied and she called me back and said, everybody’s taking a little piece and I think we can do it. I have to say that I’m confident that she’ll do what she needs to do or I wouldn’t be bringing her forward. They often say, go to the busiest people to get something done and I think that this is one of those cases. Alderman Sheehan I appreciate that and I respect it and I’ve used that as a rule of thumb myself. My fear is she’s doing it out of loyalty to you when she truly is overstretched and I understand that you do have that reliance on each other, you know each other very well and you work very well together and I think that’s a benefit but I don’t know if that’s also compelling her to do maybe more than she is able to at this time with the two jobs. Leslie Mendenhall I would like to respond to that personally. The mayor and I sat together in the State House when I was a State Representative and if I walked down Main Street at that time and tripped over her, I might not have known who she was. I was a little bank teller, happy housewife, doing my thing, going to school to get my degree in Human Services and stumbled upon an opportunity to do a sabbatical where I went to work for Southern New Hampshire Services, obviously, where the mayor had worked prior to being the mayor. I never saw her, I never worked with her other than running into her at Mary’s House Thanksgiving 10 year anniversary party. We had maybe two conversations. There is a great understanding that the mayor and I have this long standing relationship, unfortunately, that might fall under one of the fallacies that people understand. The relationship I have built with the mayor have been through working at Southern on Mary’s House and coming to realize that both being born and raised in the city, we have a great deal of love and respect for it and that is Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 26 where my backing of her to be mayor came from and that is where her asking me to do this job came from. I don’t think that there’s the relationship that people think we have, although I have a great deal of respect for her and what she does. I have, no disrespect, the loyalty to do what she wants me to do. I have loyalty to do what I think is right for this city and what I put my name on. Whether the mayor agrees with that or not is not my concern. Mayor Lozeau No disrespect taken. I just know that if Leslie says she’ll do something, she does it and that works for me. Alderman Cookson I wanted to give your committee and the members that are here, an opportunity to speak. I’m sure everyone knows that I serve as the aldermanic liaison to the Review and Comment Commission and in that role I’m also identified as a commissioner of the Review and Comment Commission. You will find no better person, no better human being than Leslie. She works tremendously hard for the Review and Comment Commission. She is diligent, she is thorough and above all else, she knows when she needs help. She came to the committee that evening, a couple of weeks ago, and said, you know I’m thinking about this is it. There’s was not one commissioner in that room that would have let her walk out and not continue to be part of that group. The commissioners rallied around her because they believe in her. They rallied around her because they know that she’s capable of doing it and if there’s help that she needs, you’ve got Dr. Moriarty who’s is stepping up to coach her. You’ve got Commissioner Genest who’s helping the volunteer. You just pass that responsibility off to him and Commissioner Genest took it and ran with it and came back with our list of complete volunteers. The meeting that we had the following Tuesday, on the 29th of January, although all of the volunteers may not have been there that evening we had our list of volunteers and we had in excess of the 20 that are minimum numbers recommended. We certainly appreciate the efforts that were taken by the Ad- Hoc Committee and the viewing or the posting of volunteer opportunities on TV 16 and I’m not sure if there was another station that did it as well, I know that it was at least TV 16 and to Mrs. Mendenhall’s point, not all volunteers were reached in a timely manner as a result of those people that were seeing the ads but I will tell you that I’ve got at least two new members on my team because volunteers stepped forward so they were reached out to and I have two additional volunteers on my team. I can’t speak highly enough of Mrs. Mendenhall. I’ve been on Review and Comment for 6 of the last 8 years. It was only this last term that my role was replaced with another alderman so I’ve had the opportunity to see Leslie as the chair of the commission. I’ve had the opportunity to see the leadership that she exudes with the commission and she’s a well respected person so I couldn’t speak more highly of her and I certainly hope that this committee provides her the opportunity to continue on. It will only serve the best interest of the city if she has the opportunity to continue on the Review and Comment Commission regardless of what her role may be on that Commission, she’s a valuable asset and we enjoy interacting with her and deliberating with her and trying to make the process that much better. Chairman Chasse Mrs. Mendenhall, I really don’t know what kind of work you’ve done down there but there’s an old saying, if you haven’t got anything good to say, don’t say it. What you just got from Alderman Cookson was a very good recommendation and I will stand behind that recommendation. He went to bat for you and it sounds that splitting some of the duties might just work this time around so there will be less stress on everybody. I don’t have anything else to say. Alderman Craffey I’ve known Alderman Cookson since I started on this council. I have a lot of confidence in him and I go to him Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 27 with a lot of questions and for him to come out and make that type of recommendation stands very highly in my book and I will definitely stand behind his recommendation. I know from experience and done a lot of management in my life that when you get a valuable asset you hold onto it. What you saw when they rallied around you was the true volunteerism. You take your asset, if it’s in trouble, you take it and rally around it and you try to support it the best you can. Those commissioners rallying around you and splitting the duties is their way of expressing their compassion and their love for you. That alone is enough for me to vote yet. That alone. That and the Alderman Cookson recommendation is enough for me. Keep up the good work. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY TO RECOMMEND THE CONFIRMATION OF THE REAPPOINTMENT OF LESLIE MENDENHALL TO THE REVIEW & COMMENT COMMISSION FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 1, 2015 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Caron I just have and I appreciate Alderman Cookson’s remarks, the only thing that I would say before we vote, that Mrs. Mendenhall takes the advice that has come through with the Ad-Hoc Committee and the recommendations and the ideas that we want to put together, that we treat them and work with them as best we can so that we can move on because the past is the past and we should make that part of this process so that if something happens again, somewhere down the line, that it’s not personal, it’s just something that there are things there that need to be critiqued and made up. Everybody needs to be able to come back and the idea that all the other commissioners rallied around her and were willing to step up to the plate, which is another big thing, because if you don’t step up to the plate to help someone who’s drowning in work, then it doesn’t go well with the rest of them. I will tell you, I was not going to vote yes for her reappointment but after listening to her and her passion for doing this and willing to work with everyone, I will vote yes to reappoint Mrs. Mendenhall because it’s important that we have good people working together on these projects. Alderman Sheehan I want to make clear that I have the upmost respect for her as well and also the commissioner I know best is Dr. Moriarty and he also speaks very highly of her and has the greatest respect for her and nothing that I had to say had anything to do with her intentions. I think she had the best of intentions and was doing the best that she could and it was all on her and unfortunately, that’s very difficult to deal with. I’m happy with the answers that I’ve heard tonight. I too came in here with the intention of not supporting her but some of what she has said has changed that and I would like to see that moving forward, I would be a lot more comfortable if it wasn’t until 2015, but that’s what it is. I’m hopeful that she’s going to rely on the others as she said here tonight and that things are going to be better this year and that it’s not going to be perceived that something is personal and I don’t think that it was. I do understand that it’s hard to say no once you’re already half way through something and you just take on more and more and when you’re going down, she kind of went down by herself, so I too will be supporting this and I don’t want anyone to get the impression that I don’t think she didn’t try as hard as she could or didn’t work as hard as a human possibly could. Just to be real clear on that. MOTION CARRIED DISCUSSION Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 28 Alderman Pressly I’m not a member of the committee but I would like, I would hope you would take the time to discuss the status of the records because I think it’s going to impact this committee a great deal, so may I bring it up now, or would you rather have it under remarks by the Alderman. Chairman Chasse What records? Alderman Pressly Well, I’ve gone on the internet to try to advise people, particularly women, to please study what boards we have and see if there’s one that interests them. Going on these boards, it’s hard to figure out who serves, what the status is. If you ask, who are they replacing? They don’t know. So you don’t know who the voting members are of the committees you’re appointing people to. That’s now your fault. I’ve come to this committee a lot because I’m interested in what you do and this committee works as hard as any of them if not more so than most. You put in a lot of time but I think somehow these commissions and boards are so important to this city that I think it should be pretty clear, who’s on them, who’s not, what the terms are, what the terms are not. It got sort of funny, since I’m new to the internet to go on the four committees that were up tonight and find major errors in the information on the internet and I’m the one that says don’t rely totally on the internet but that’s what we’ve got and there are errors up and down the line. Chairman Chasse Alderman Pressly, that doesn’t fall under the Personnel/Administrative Committee. Alderman Pressly No but it affects you. Chairman Chasse If there not up-to-date, then it’s up to, maybe if you want to take them, go down and see the City Clerk or talk to the mayor or someone in the mayor’s office to get those boards, or the people who are on those boards, up- do-date. But there’s nothing for us here to do. Alderman Pressly Now see, if I were on your committee, I would be very alarmed because I think you need to know who’s on the board now, see if this new applicant fits in, see the make-up of the whole board. I’m quite surprised at your lack of concern. So enough said. Chairman Chasse I’m not going to lose my hair over it. I guarantee you that. When we bring somebody else new on the board it’s not my jurisdiction to make sure that the new guy on the Zoning Board or the new guy on the Planning Board has his name on the internet. My job is to approve them over here, get them to the full board, approved by the full board, it’s not even the full board’s job to make sure that those things are up-to-date. It’s the mayor Personnel – 02/11/13 Page 29 and the IT department or somebody else’s. I’m not going to go step anybody else’s toes and say hey, get those boards up-to-date. That is not my function and that’s my feelings. Mayor Lozeau I just wanted to take a moment to say, I said it earlier, I’ll say it again. I’ll take responsibility for this. We’ll make it’s done. I looked at all the ones that Alderman Pressly said, I don’t see huge errors. I mean, sometimes it’s just a crossover thing. Somebody has resigned, that information hasn’t got to the clerk’s office. Sometimes, it hasn’t got to me. It depends on how that member did that. So I will look at them. I agree that they should be up-to-date and as I said earlier, I’ll take care of it. Chairman Chasse I will follow up on it. Mayor Lozeau I will, so no worries. Chairman Chasse The ball’s in your court Mayor Lozeau. PUBLIC COMMENT - None REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN POSSIBLE NON-PUBLIC SESSION ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CRAFFEY TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 8:40 p.m. Alderman June M. Caron Committee Clerk