Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee

PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE FEBRUARY 10, 2014 A meeting of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee was held on Monday, February 10, 2014, at 7:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Chairman Paul M. Chasse, Jr. presided. Members of the Committee present: Alderman June M. Caron Alderman Sean McGuinness Alderman Ken Siegel Alderman Michael Soucy Also in Attendance: Alderman Richard A. Dowd Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane Mayor Donnalee Lozeau Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy (Arrived at 7:09 p.m.) ELECTION OF COMMITTEE CLERK Chairman Chasse called for nominations for the committee clerk for the 2014-2015. Alderman Caron nominated Alderman Soucy MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO CLOSE THE NOMINATIONS VOTE ON NOMINATION OF ALDERMAN SOUCY AS COMMITTEE CLERK FOR THE 2014-2015 TERM MOTION CARRIED Alderman Soucy duly elected as committee clerk PUBLIC COMMENT - None INTERVIEWS Auditorium Commission Nick Adams (New Appointment) Term to Expire December 31, 2016 MAYOR LOZEAU Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This evening as you can see, I’ve quite a group of folks here tonight that are willing to serve the city in many different capacities. I think this is the first time I have had an opportunity to appoint a new member to the Auditorium Commission at Elm Street. Before what I had done was re-appoint somebody that had been there. This is a group that makes recommendations to the Board of Education for the improvement and the maintenance of the Keefe Auditorium. Sitting to my left is Mr. Nick Adams who has been the Director of Operations at Symphony New Hampshire for the past seven years or so. They have been very involved at the Keefe Auditorium as some of you probably know between performances and trying to help make positive change there. I think they have gone to their fair share of meetings with the Auditorium Commission as it relates to scheduling and other things and I think this was a wonderful opportunity to take somebody who is very engaged in the community and knows how to make things happen and put him on a committee that really can make a difference about what goes on in our Keefe Auditorium. With that, I am happy to introduce to you for your consideration, Mr. Nick Adams. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 2 Mr. Nick Adams I think the Mayor covered it pretty well but I have been with the Symphony for seven years and I’ve worked closely with the Auditorium Commission. Symphony New Hampshire, we use Keefe Auditorium more than anyone else I believe, other than the school so I am intimately aware of the auditorium and I know many of the members of the commission already and they are good friends. The Symphony has a vested interest in making sure that Keefe Auditorium is the kind of place that we all want it to be. I would be happy to serve on the commission. Alderman Siegel I don’t have any questions, I just want to commend the Mayor on what I think is an excellent choice and thank you very much for volunteering for public service. Business & Industrial Development Authority Karen Tehan (New Appointment) Term to Expire December 31, 2016 Mayor Lozeau Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sitting to my left as you just introduced, is Karen Tehan. Karen serves in our community as the Manager of the Bank of New Hampshire. She and her husband, upon arriving in Nashua, made an appointment pretty quickly to meet with me to talk to me about how they could help in the community, how they could volunteer, and what skills they thought they brought to the table. Her husband is now serving on the Historic District Commission and the committee the Karen was interested in was the Business & Industrial Development Authority. I think she brings an interesting skill set to the table for that group, particularly as we are talking about different businesses in the community and I think it’s really helpful to have somebody with a bit of an outside view coming into the community. They have been here since April so I think there is an interesting opportunity with her skill set to talk about what she has seen in other communities that she has served in with her hat on in the business finance world. With that, I present Karen Tehan. Mrs. Karen Tehan My husband and I moved here from the Hartford, CT area in August. I am with TD Bank right here at 191 Main Street and love the downtown area, love working with business and I understand the importance of doing things to help businesses succeed. Historically, I was on the Economic Development Commission in CT which is very similar. I’m thinking to the BIDA, working with your team to accomplish goals that are good for the city. I look forward to your consideration for me being on this Board. Alderman Caron Thank you for offering to be on this because you are also serving on the Nashua Senior Center Board of Director’s as well. You are doing two different aspects of community service and thank you because we know we can use new eyes on our programs. Alderman Deane I have a question. Who is she going to be replacing or is it another appointment to the committee? Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 3 Mayor Lozeau It’s another appointment. Alderman Deane So that would put the committee total to how many? Mayor Lozeau Thirteen - not counting the aldermen. Conservation Commission Michael Gallagher (Reappointment) Term to Expire December 31, 2016 Mayor Lozeau Joining me is Mr. Michael Gallagher who has been serving on the Conservation Commission for some time now. As a matter of fact, the last year he has been serving in the capacity as Chairman of the Commission. I think it probably goes without saying that Mr. Gallagher, I believe, does his job remarkably well. He does his homework, pays attention to making sure that people have all of the information necessary to make the decisions that need to be made. He takes that responsibility to heart and I think that’s very important. He has come to understand the city and how it works well so it allows him to notice when they should be connecting with other city departments to make sure everybody is on the same page and it’s my honor to again nominate, for your consideration, Mr. Michael Gallagher. Mr. Michael Gallagher Thank you to the Mayor for the re-appointment. As the Mayor had mentioned, it’s probably been a little over three years that I’ve been on the Conservation Commission and I think that we are finally in a position where we have six of the seven full time members locked on for a little while. We have a couple of alternate members. I know that the Mayor has had some conversations with additional people which is great. There’s been a great interest in the commission as a whole. We have had our aldermanic liaisons attending our meetings so it’s very much getting up to speed with what we are working with and how we do what we do. I’d be happy to address any concerns or questions that you might have. Alderman Soucy I have had the privilege of serving as the liaison and I’ve watched you on two occasions and I find you to be extremely knowledgeable and there is a lot I am going to learn about conservation and I can’t think of a better person, I really can’t. Thank you for serving. Mr. Gallagher When we were in the pre-meeting it really is a team. The Conservation Commission is made up of people who have served in multiple capacities within the city and it’s really their perspective from serving on some of the other land/use Boards and an understanding of process. What I think I bring to the table is organization and moving things along but there is certainly resources from an environmental standpoint and from a background standpoint that I don’t have and that’s truly what makes this commission what it is. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 4 Downtown Improvement Committee Tia Phillips (New Appointment) Term to Expire December 31, 2016 Mayor Lozeau As you know, we have had a Downtown Improvement Committee for some time now and we often looked to try to find people that both are residents of the city and some that are within the district. The opportunity and the willingness of Tia to serve I think is very helpful because not only does she live in the city and is a member of the Great American Downtown, but she also manages one of the largest downtown housing facility, Clocktower Place. I think that that will be very helpful for the Downtown Improvement Committee. I think that, for those of you who may not know Tia, she’s very direct, very dedicated, and I think she brings a lot to any discussion that people have. Often times I think she can really cut to the bottom of a discussion pretty quickly about where we should be focusing and I’ve benefitted from working on committees with her and I’m thrilled that she is willing to serve in this capacity. For your consideration tonight, let me introduce Tia Phillips. Ms. Tia Phillips I don’t have much more to add other than I do manage Clocktower Place. We have 900-1000 residents that really enjoy living at Clocktower because of our great downtown in Nashua. I’m very interested in becoming part of the committee for the downtown improvements. Alderman Deane I have the same question that I had for the Business & Industrial Development Authority. Is this an addition or is there somebody that’s not being re-appointed. Mayor Lozeau This is an addition. Alderman Deane What does that bring the total to? Mayor Lozeau Eight, again, not including the aldermen. Mine Falls Park Advisory Committee Kim Crider (New Appointment) Term to Expire December 31, 2016 Nicholas J. Serpa (New Appointment) Term to Expire December 31, 2016 Mayor Lozeau This evening I am happy to bring two folks before you that are very interested in the Mine Falls Advisory Committee. Enough so that they have attended meetings, paid attention to what goes on, they are users of the park and whenever we have people that are interested in Mine Falls and are willing to lend not just their time and attention at meetings but a little elbow grease for our volunteer days out at Mine Falls. I am happy to Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 5 grab hold of them and bring them in for your consideration. Both of the folks here today approached me after spending time on the committee and I’ve heard from members of the committee encouraging their appointment tonight. Both of them as you can see from their bios bring a lot. Nick works pretty close by here in Nashua although he lives in Merrimack, but uses the park quite a bit and has given of his time. Kim lives in the north end and she’s the first Brigadier General I have ever met and I think that that might be helpful in getting some clean-up done as well. I think both of them bring a different skill set but the same passion and I am happy to present them for your consideration tonight. Ms. Kim Crider I really appreciate the opportunity to be considered for this committee. As the Mayor indicated, I’ve been a long term resident of Nashua. My family and I have been in Nashua for almost 15 years now. We love Mine Falls and I’ve referred to it as one of the jewels of Nashua. I spend a lot of time in that park myself personally whenever I can. I’m running the trails or cross-country skiing, snow shoeing, anything we can do to spend time in Mine Falls. I have two young children and we love to spend our time there. I have spent time there doing clean-up work as well and I think it is a place that we to continue to treasure and it would be my honor to be considered for that committee. Mr. Nicholas J. Serpa Just to give you some background on myself, while I do work at Ferrite Microwave, two other things that I do in the community is I volunteer at Nashua High School for the First Organization which is the robotics team there which is something that I’m really passionate about. I also teach at the Nashua Community College. Even though I am not a current resident of Nashua, I lived in Nashua from 2000 – 2012. I lived here all my life, I went to high school here and the park is also really important to me as well. I spend a lot of time in the park. I also do the 5K races during the summer, snow shoeing and spending as much time as I can out there. I am excited to join the committee and help not only as the Mayor indicated, to put some elbow grease back into the park but to also help the committee do whatever they need to do to keep it organized and up-to-date and looking good. Chairman Chasse How many are on this committee? Mayor Lozeau There will be thirteen with the addition of these folks here tonight. Alderman Caron I too have heard about both of you from the chairman, Mr. Andruskevich, and he has a passion for Mine Falls Park and he felt that you did to. The people that work on that committee are doing a darn good job and if it wasn’t for you, they’d be a lot of issues there that we just couldn’t handle so I thank you for your service. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 6 Review & Comment Commission Doug Tremlett (New Appointment) Term to Expire December 31, 2016 Mayor Lozeau To my left is Mr. Doug Tremlett and when we looked at Review & Comment this year, and filling the commission positions, Doug was somebody that came quickly to mind for me. He’s just semi-retired and has really a long history with the community through the Elks and other organizations of really giving back to the community, volunteering his time. He is very familiar with a lot of the non-profits that are in the community. He has participated in the meetings so far on Review & Comment even though he is not official yet. Next week is the kick-off meeting. One of the commissioners did not want to be re-appointed this year. Mr. Corey Genest, who is soon to be a dad for the first time and the timing, did not work out so well for him and I am pleased to have Doug, who did not hesitate when I asked him. He was very excited about serving and I am happy to present him for your consideration tonight. Mr. Doug Tremlett I have been a resident of Nashua for 26 years and I’ve volunteered as a coach in hockey and baseball. I work at the Elks and am a member there. I volunteer at the soup kitchen and my wife, Barb, has volunteered on many different committees in the city. We both feel very strongly that non-profits really need the help of the city and I’m looking forward to working with this group. Zoning Board of Adjustment Kathy Vitale, Alternate (New Appointment) Term to Expire December 31, 2016 Mayor Lozeau As many of you know, former Alderman Vitale has served on the Zoning Board of Adjustment before and she brings a lot to that table. I am nominating her tonight as an alternate. One of the goals that I have set with the Board is to try to make sure that not only do we have five full-time members seated, but that we have five alternates if at all possible. That is a Board that as you know, people prefer to have all five members present all of the time. That’s not always possible. I had actually spoken to Alderman Vitale to ask her if she was interested in planning or zoning and based on her work schedule, zoning works best for her. We have an opportunity still on both of those committees so I am taking this opportunity on live TV to just reach out to people and let them know if they are interested in planning or zoning, those are the toughest boards to find people that can put that much time in. If you are interested, please contact the Mayor’s office. That’s a small commercial so with that, Kathy Vitale. Ms. Kathy Vitale Thank you for considering me for this position on the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Tuesday’s happen to be my day off so it’s a perfect fit to spend my evenings. As a liaison to the Planning Board, I liked that Board also but I wanted to make sure that wasn’t – I can’t guarantee when I quit work at night so I didn’t want to not show up at the last minute. With the Zoning Board of Adjustment, I have a free day on Tuesday’s so I look forward to that. I am familiar with the semi judicial process. Since mid-January I have gone back up and sat in on the Zoning Board meetings to get the feel of the current Board and how they function. I know the members on it, at least three of them were there when I was on the Board the last time so I am familiar with the process and I do look forward to serving on that Board again. I used to be on the Conservation Commission for about six years before my first term as an alderman so I am familiar with some of the things that come in from the Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 7 Conservation Commission that have to do with variances and special exceptions and such. It fits it with things I have done in the past. Alderman Soucy If there are five seated members and five alternates with an absentee, how is it determined which alternate steps up to the plate. Ms. Vitale If it’s like it was in the past, they would normally place a phone call out to the alternates to see who can be there tonight. If there is someone travelling on business, they’ll have an alternate to come in. If you have seven people there, they would just determine beforehand, who the voting members that evening will be, even if you all take part in the discussion. Alderman Siegel Have you served in the past with the Chairman of the Zoning Board, Mr. Repucci? Ms. Vitale Yes, I have. Alderman Siegel Okay, so you are aware of the style? I guess the concern I have is that he’s direct also, he’s very strong willed and the concern I might have and I’ve watched this and been a party to it on both sides, he can tend to have a point of view and want to push that and I just want to make sure that you would be willing to push back if need be. Ms. Vitale I have no trouble with that with Mr. Repucci. I know his style and I know the style of at least a couple of the members on the Board and you speak to certain questions on the Zoning Board so in your answers and in the way that you look at different decisions, you need to speak to exactly how you are going to be voting on it. If can’t back up your information and you put out how you are going to vote, you need to be able to back it up in court. Alderman Siegel Okay, good. So you’ve been through that fire, thank you. Mayor Lozeau I wanted to point out to you that I asked the Welfare Director to join you tonight for your discussion on O-14- 009, and I see that it’s almost the last item on the agenda so if the committee might consider maybe moving that up so that Mr. Mack could address you and head out this evening I would appreciate it and I’m sure he would to. If that doesn’t work, I am sure that he will accommodate that as well. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 8 Chairman Chasse You put me in a bind here because normally what we do is we’ve had the past practice of whoever endorses these ordinances usually comes and speaks on them. Alderman Wilshire is not here and neither is Alderman Brown. Mayor Lozeau Are you saying you’d rather not take it up this evening because that’s okay. I’m sure Mr. Mack would be willing to come back another time. He lives local so it’s not as difficult for him as some of the other stuff. Chairman Chasse I’d prefer to do that because I don’t like to set a precedent. Mayor Lozeau I think we’re fine with that. I didn’t realize that neither would be in attendance tonight. I knew Alderman Wilshire wouldn’t. COMMUNICATIONS – None APPLICATION TO LICENSE HAWKER'S, PEDDLER'S, ITINERANT VENDOR'S LICENSE - None APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR Chairman Chasse Before we take this up, this committee used to take them one at a time by each committee. If committee members don’t have any problems right now with any of the nominations, we’re going to do it in one motion. Are there any objections? MOTION BY ALDERMAN CARON TO RECOMMEND THE CONFIRMATION OF THE FOLLOWING APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR: TO THE AUDITORIUM COMMISSION: NICK ADAMS, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2016; TO THE BPW RETIREMENT SYSTEM TRUSTEES: FRANK H. ANDERSON, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2016; TO THE BUSINESS & INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: KAREN TEHAN, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2016; TO THE CONSERVATION COMMISSION: MICHAEL GALLAGHER, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2016; TO THE DOWNTOWN IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE: TIA PHILLIPS, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2016; TO THE HUNT MEMORIAL BUILDING BOARD OF TRUSTEES: CHARLES MATTHEWS, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2018; TO THE MINE FALLS PARK ADVISORY COMMITTEE: KIM CRIDER AND NICHOLAS J. SERPA, FOR TERMS TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2016; TO THE REVIEW & COMMENT COMMISSION: DOUG TREMLETT, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2016; AND TO THE ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT: ALTERNATE KATHY VITALE FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2016 MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None NEW BUSINESS – RESOLUTIONS – None Mayor Lozeau stepped out of the meeting at 7:35 p.m. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 9 NEW BUSINESS – ORDINANCES O-14-001 Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane Alderman June M. Caron ELIMINATING THE PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND THE SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR CENTRAL BUSINESS SERVICE DISTRICT MOTION BY ALDERMAN SOUCY TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane When I went through the committee surveys with the Legislative Manager and I had spoken with the City Clerk and I asked him if he could provide me with days of the months and times in which all of these committees met. There were close to 30 of them on there without liaison assignments and when I got the information back some of these committees hadn’t met in five to seven years, some even longer. I really knew that there would probably be a mad rush for those assignments because you could take all of these committees that never met. Since they no longer serve the purpose the Park and Recreation Advisory Committee, I sat on that. We did a recreation master plan, we met at the newly constructed Lake Street Fire Station on Sunday nights and I believe we started doing that in 1999. Kathy Hirsch was there, I can’t remember all of the people but Alderman McCarthy was on it as well. We did a recreation master plan that we put out and that probably was done in 2001 and the committee has not met since. The Services Advisory Committee for the Central Business District, that had to do with an increase in taxation on these buildings to fund the downtown improvements and that didn’t seem to go over too well with anybody so that really never got off the ground either. There was no purpose in continuing to appoint people to either one of these committees so the idea was to abolish both of them. MOTION CARRIED O-14-002 Endorser: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane ELIMINATING THE 14 COURT STREET COMMISSION AND A RELATED EXPENDABLE TRUST FUND Also assigned to the Budget Review Committee; to appear on its 2/13/14 agenda MOTION BY ALDERMAN SOUCY TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Alderman McCarthy Is there money in the trust fund? Alderman Deane Yes, there is a very small amount of money and eliminating the trust fund does not forbid excepting gifts, contributions, and donations for 14 Court Street. This is another committee that has failed to meet in a number of years. I looked at abolishing this as well. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 10 Alderman McCarthy What happens to the money in the trust fund when we eliminate it? Alderman Deane When I had talked to the legal department what the thought was to allow the building manger to use some of the money for incidentals over there like light bulbs or whatever they needed. Alderman McCarthy If we eliminate the trust fund then there won’t be a non-lapsing place for that money to get kept for that use. I understand the logic of it but it seems like we may want to have a place to put money dedicated to 14 Court Street expenses. Alderman Deane In the legal analysis it says eliminating this expendable trust fund does not prevent the city from accepting donations and gifts for 14 Court Street. Your point does make sense. If somebody dropped a check off for $50,000, where does it go? Between now and Thursday when we have our budget meeting, I’ll get an answer to that question for you. Alderman McCarthy We may actually have that situation at some point in the near future. Alderman Deane If you would like, we could change the title to just “Eliminating the 14 Court Street Commission” and remove the language associated with the expendable trust fund being eliminated as well. We could amend this by doing that. Leave it in place and then we could do the same thing at the budget meeting on Thursday and that expendable trust fund will still be there. Alderman McCarthy Yes, I think the only thing is we may have to change are who the trustees of the trust fund are because they are probably the 14 Court Street Commission at the moment. Alderman Deane We could make the Board of Alderman the agent to expend. What I can is between now and Thursday at the budget meeting I will get the language for that but I think we should amend this by changing the title to “Eliminating the 14 Court Street Commission.” We would remove the “and a related expendable trust fund” from the title. Chairman Chasse Can you put that in the form of a motion? Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 11 Alderman Deane Yes. MOTION BY ALDERMAN DEANE TO AMEND BY CHANGING THE TITLE TO “ELIMINATING THE 14 COURT STREET COMMISSION” AND REMOVING “AND A RELATED EXPENDABLE TRUST FUND” FROM THE TITLE ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane December 11, 2007, is when the expendable trust fund was established. As of December 31, 2013, this expendable trust fund contained no money. Do you think it would be cleaner to do something else after the fact? Alderman McCarthy It’s less work if we leave the existing one there. Why don’t we follow-up with legal and get a recommendation. Chairman Chasse Why don’t we table it? Alderman Deane You don’t have to table it. Alderman McCarthy I would say it was referred to this committee for the purpose of deciding whether to eliminate the commission and the Budget Review Committee to decide what to do about the trust fund. I would go ahead and approve the elimination of the committee and let the Budget Review Committee return an amendment to deal with the trust fund. Alderman Deane I’ll retract my motion and leave it as is and we’ll talk about it on Thursday night. MOTION WITHDRAWN Alderman Siegel If there is no money in the trust fund then why is it a problem dissolving it right now if we can accept money at any point anyway? Chairman Chasse We’ll let the Budget Review Committee take care of that. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 12 Alderman Deane If Alderman McCarthy thinks there could be something happening in the future then you would just have to create another account to put the money in so if the account currently exists, we just leave it in place with no money it. If someone drops off money for it, it’s got a place to go. Alderman McCarthy The basic distinction is if we want to put money in an account that’s dedicated and non-lapsing, it’s got to be a trust fund or a special revenue account. Alderman Siegel Understood - thank you for the clarification. MOTION CARRIED TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE O-14-003 Endorser: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane ELIMINATING THE GREEN TEAM AND TWO RELATED EXPENDABLE TRUST FUNDS Also assigned to the Budget Review Committee; to appear on its 2/13/14 agenda MOTION BY ALDERMAN SOUCY TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane This is another committee that met its goals. We did an appropriation to them for I believe for around $50,000. There’s some money left. Currently, the Mayor has a group of people that are looking at different aspects. When you look at the legislation, you’ll see that one account contained $102.00. When I was speaking to Attorney Clark upstairs I said why don’t you ask Jay to go out and buy some light bulbs or something for the building and deplete the $102.00. The other account contains $22,565.00 and that has to be done in a transfer once the account is abolished into this other account. They are currently looking at different lighting. As far as I know from what the Mayor had told me, there’s a group of people looking at some different efficiency projects and I guess Lake Street is on the radar for some lighting changes. I had talked to the Police Department and they were looking at some lighting changes and I had got some documentation from Karen Smith. I believe the payback if they went to LED’s out in that parking lot would be about five years. That’s another good purpose because those lights are on, like all other outside lights. It would help reduce their electric bill and their operating budget. For now there is that group that’s together and I figured they are meeting and they can figure out what the destiny of that $22,565.00. MOTION CARRIED O-14-004 Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane Alderman June M. Caron ELIMINATING THE CHILD CARE ADVISORY COMMISSION AND RELATED EXPENDABLE TRUST FUND Also assigned to the Budget Review Committee; to appear on its 2/13/14 agenda Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 13 MOTION BY ALDERMAN SOUCY TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane I spoke with Alderman Caron about this and if my memory serves me well, she told me that the committee voted to disband. If you are familiar with the Touch-a-Truck Fundraiser that’s done every year, the money goes into this expendable trust fund and then Southern New Hampshire services is given a portion of this trust fund money to help with child care resources and referrals. It’s basically educational money for folks over there. I called the lady over at the Southern New Hampshire Services and I told her that I had spoken to Alderman Caron and that the committee was breaking up and that we had some money over here to the tune of close to $11,000 that we could release to them to be used for this purpose. The lady was ecstatic. What the money was originally raised for is going to be used for that purpose as the expendable trust fund said. My understanding is that they are going to end up dealing with this Touch-a-Truck Fundraiser, should it continue. The Childcare Advisory, the city’s probably still going to play a part in it because for obvious reasons, if the city didn’t show up, there would not be too many trucks to touch. It’s a good little fundraiser. They were happy and if Alderman Caron wanted to add anything, I’d be happy to hear what she has to say. Alderman Caron Alderman Deane gave you the finale of this but the Childcare Advisory Commission was put into place quite a few years ago, about 20 years ago, before they had a lot of the organizations like Southern NH to deal with parents who were looking for places to bring their children and how to interact with that. We did have a designated employee at the Health Department that basically handled that and we had all these volunteers. Over the years, you’ve had all these other groups come in and so this commission really didn’t do as much as they did at the beginning which was fine because everything should evolve. The last time we spoke, my first term, they were talking about disbanding but wondered what they would do with the money that they raised. My feeling was that if they wanted to disband, if they were using this money for educational purposes, and that’s what it was for – for these daycares and different areas and also to help with lower income families to be able to put their children into daycare, that this was the avenue to go. Touch-a-Truck is part of the Summer Fun Program, it’s probably the only one that there is a fee but that fee went towards a particular purpose. Beth Todgem, who works Southern, is the person that really was the mover and shaker of the Touch-a-Truck and they certainly want to continue that. With the city’s participation, I am sure that will happen and they will have as many people as they normally do. It’s just a donation, it’s not a general fee but they do ask for a donation. I think to move this forward is the way go because they weren’t showing up, they didn’t always a quorum which made it difficult to make decisions. When Alderman Deane called me about it, I thought it was a good time to disintegrate this commission. MOTION CARRIED O-14-006 Endorser: Alderman Ken Siegel RELATIVE TO ELECTRONIC DEVICES UTILIZED BY THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN MOTION BY ALDERMAN SOUCY TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 14 Alderman Siegel The reason that I came up with this is because I thought we could massage this ordinance. I didn’t think it was necessary for people to be compensated for use of a personal device. I think it sets a bad precedent. It’s another budget item that we have to have, another thing the IT Department would have to track and I just don’t see the purpose behind it. I think anybody’s free to use their own personal device but I don’t think that we, as aldermen, should be compensated for that. That’s a personal decision. Furthermore, should an individual alderman want to purchase their city owned device afterwards, I think if the city were to dispose of this asset as it normally would, an alderman would have any right to purchase that but so wouldn’t any other citizen according to this. Right now, the way things read, is that an alderman has sole rights to purchase whatever tablet they had been using upon expiration of their term. Once again, I just think it sets a bad precedent. I’d like everybody to understand that we are not special. I think you have to lead from the front and that’s what the intent of this ordinance change is and I hope you support it. Alderman Soucy Although I am in agreement with Section II on that nobody should be compensated for their own personal device, I am not quite sure that I would really agree with Section I. I don’t think it’s at any cost to the city if you are going to purchase your own I pad. I am not sure what would happen to it either way, whether or not it goes out to bid but if it’s a personal tool that you have been using for a period of two years or if you are lucky and you are on the Board for four years, I don’t see a problem as long as the aldermen purchase the item at a fair market price. I would not expect any special privileges because we aren’t special but I would say that he/she should probably have first dibs to purchase their own tool. Again, as long as it is at fair market price. Alderman Siegel Just to address that. The problem is that in the event that an alderman, for example, is in term for two years, the assumption is that the tablet technology becomes obsolete after two years. That’s just not true. I can tell you that from my personal experience. There is a cost associated with this and that cost is a replacement cost which is a full price replacement cost. The aldermen themselves may wish to buy this at a discount but there’s still that gap in the replacement cost. There’s no particular reason why somebody couldn’t be re-assigned this particular tablet. As I had said when asked previously, the guy at the DPW doesn’t drive away with a sander when he retires. You may not like that analogy but why are we special? Once again, there is that replacement cost. Alderman McCarthy I’m not sure I care. We debated this last term and the current language didn’t pass. I believe it was 14-0 with one person absent the night it passed. I intend to use my own device and don’t intend to ask for reimbursement. I also understand my situation is a little better maybe than some other people. Issuing an incentive to help with it, I don’t care if we do that or not but I think it would be a nice thing to do if people are using the technology to save the city money. The other alternative is that you paper that I think we have already shown, costs us more on a yearly basis than providing the tablets. With regard to disposing them, Mr. Codagnone addressed the issue of the depreciation and frankly, I don’t know that I would buy one after seeing that. We consider the life of the tablets to be five years. They cost about $500.00 so you would buy it for $300.00 after two years. Frankly, I think you can probably get a much better new one for $300.00 after two years and one with a lot of battery life left in it. We are going to have to replace them fairly frequently. I think five years is an excessive life span to think that the tablets are going to last that long. When we looked at them, we looked at replacing them every couple of years. I honestly don’t care what the committee does with it but I think we are going to wind up throwing away a lot of tablets that have been turned back in that we could have turned into some amount of cash by selling them Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 15 to the person who has had familiarity with them. If we recycle them it’s going cost something to clean them back up and send them out. That’s why the original ordinance read the way it did. Alderman Siegel Just to address that, there is nothing in this ordinance that precludes an alderman from purchasing that tablet. What this does, is it opens up the ability of someone besides the alderman to purchase the tablet if they so desire. You haven’t lost that ability if that’s what you want to do. Alderman Dowd That philosophy is not carried by the rest of the city. The School Department has hundreds of iPods and I think that after somebody uses the device for two years or more that if they are going to pay the fair market value for it it’s the least they can do for somebody having spent two or four or more years serving on the Board of Alderman and it’s going to afford the person coming in to replace them an improved technology at a lower price because they will have the offset of the unit that’s been sold at fair market value. The analogy of the sanding truck, I can tell you that if the guy that’s been driving the sanding truck for a few years and leaves and wants to buy it at fair market value, I’d sell it to him in a heartbeat so we can buy a new one because when we go to replace them, they cost a fortune. I just don’t see as far as paying someone for using their own device, I don’t want to use my own device because I want to keep it separate from city business. I’ve been using my own iPad but I’d just assume not. I think that the legislation as its currently written without this change is fine. Alderman Soucy I would just say that if we are going to offer it to the public I think the only mechanism to do that would be by auction. When do we do that, once or twice a year? If you are stepping down as an alderman in January and the auction isn’t until the summer, you have to wait six months. Alderman McCarthy I think we have given up on the auctions. I think we just wholesale excess property to somebody else. Alderman Deane Didn’t we let a contract to some firm to come in and do that on-line? I think what they do is they go through all of the departments, especially the Police Department, and take pictures of everything and post everything and do an on-line auction. Before the City Clerk would be out back with 5,000 bicycles and the Police Department would come down and unload everything in the parking lot and it was kind of a massive undertaking. I think everything is put on-line now. The city gets some money and then the company that’s doing it gets their portion of it. I believe that’s how it’s down now. Alderman Chasse I have a question. Are you trying to amend this? Alderman Siegel Yes. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 16 Alderman Chasse So what you put lines through is what you want to eliminate? Alderman Siegel That would correct, Mr. Chairman. What you see is the original ordinance with the lines through for the changes and then there is one addition and that’s to the paper section. It says a member may also request paper agendas which will be available. I wanted to make sure that people that wanted to work only off paper had more than just an agenda available to them. I would assume that would not be a problem. I don’t understand how someone is just using paper could go and just use an agenda. Alderman Chasse So the motion on the floor was to recommend final passage of O-14-006 but you are amending it and there was no motion on the floor for the amendment. Alderman Siegel No, it’s in already. Alderman Chasse I don’t have the original. Alderman Deane You don’t need the original. Alderman McCarthy This is an ordinance that amends the ordinance that’s in the Nashua Revised Ordinances already. Alderman Chasse Okay, so it’s already in there. Alderman Siegel Yes. I also wanted to address Alderman Dowd’s concerns. I guess one of the things that you had said was that you thought it was the least we could do is to allow an alderman some benefit. I guess that’s part of the philosophy of this is to eliminate any notion that the alderman are special. You may agree or disagree with that. You may not even agree that the legislation ultimately accomplishes that but that was part of the intent also. I would disagree with the philosophy that we deserve anything upon leaving office. Alderman Dowd Somebody might consider us special if we get it for free but if you are paying the fair market value, where’s the benefit? You are paying fair market value for a device that you use and it’s going to be replaced by a newer device for the new person coming in, it’s a wash to the city. It’s not like we are giving them anything. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 17 Alderman Siegel It would be a wash except for the fact that we would be the only one eligible to get it. Fair market value ultimately is determined by a complete market, not a singular market. I understand your philosophy, and if in fact you could always guarantee an alderman would pay the maximum market value and I don’t want to put too fine a point on this because once again, the thrust was a certain sense of eliminating any sense of privilege belonging to the Board of Alderman. Alderman Soucy I would just conclude by saying that if anybody wanted one, there are enough of them out there that they could get one. If I’m paying fair market value for my own personal one that I have used; then I’m paying fair market value and that other person in the public who wants one also at fair market value, there are a lot of them out there and they could get one. Alderman Siegel I might add that this has nothing to do with getting an iPad or not, it’s about what happens when they are gone. Alderman Siegel If there is some sense of the committee that the elimination of that sentence or the re-inclusion of the sentence in Section C-1 would be more palatable to the committee, I would certainly be amenable to that because there doesn’t seem to be much controversy that I’ve heard anyway, about the reimbursement for personally use. There doesn’t seem to be any controversy on number three which is just to enhance the notion of what paper materials would be. Rather than just have a thumbs up or thumbs down on this and then have it be potentially shot down because there is a sense that there is a problem with one, perhaps it would make sense to amend the amendment to leave C-1 in tact as it exists in the current ordinance. I would be willing to make that change if that’s what the committee is sensing. MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO AMEND O-14-006 TO REINTRODUCE THE LANGUAGE SECTION C-1 ON THE QUESTION Alderman Chasse Section C-1 reads unless the individual wants to purchase the device at its current value at a time as determined by the IT Department. That’s the motion, to put that back in. MOTION CARRIED MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE OF O-14-006 AS AMENDED MOTION CARRIED Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 18 O-14-007 Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane Alderman Richard A. Dowd Alderman-at-Large Brian S. McCarthy Alderman Paul M. Chasse Alderman June M. Caron Alderman Michael Soucy Alderman Ken Siegel Alderwoman Mary Ann Melizzi-Golja Alderwoman Brown Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderman-at-Large Diane Sheehan REDUCING THE SIZE OF THE JOINT SPECIAL SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE Also assigned to the Board of Education; to appear on its 2/10/14 agenda MOTION BY ALDERMAN SOUCY TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE ON THE QUESTION Alderman McCarthy I started to look at this last term and didn’t propose this solution. After thinking about it after we introduced this, I’m not sure I like solving the problem this way. Let’s step back and see what we think the problem is. The problem is we can’t get a quorum for Joint Special a lot of the time primarily because there’s a number of members of the Board of Education who don’t attend the meetings on a regular basis. The problem I have is the unintended consequence of reducing the size of the committee to eight members. I was going to give some hypothetical’s, but instead let me give you a really concrete example of the problem that I have had with it which is we’re now looking at the bond authorization for Broad Street School. I think what will get delivered to the Board of Aldermen is a bond with an optional piece in it that the Board can elect to fund or strike when it authorizes the bond for an extension in front of the school which is requested as a security change but which runs to almost $1 million. Frankly after looking at it, I’m not convinced I can support that as the next $1 million we spend on school projects. Currently we still have to get the majority of a 18-member Joint Special Board to vote for that if that is to happen. The way the law works after the money is appropriated, Joint Special can basically spend it however they see fit and their authority to do that and to approve contracts is final. So you could potentially have a situation where the Board of Aldermen says we don’t want to fund that and sets the budget at $8 million instead of 9. With five members of the Joint Special School Building Committee voting in favor of it, you can get something that 2/3 of the Board of Aldermen and 2/3 of the Board of Education do not favor to reach final passage because of the way the committee is constructed. I’m not sure that in the end we’re getting the right set of checks and balances in return for being able to get a quorum at a meeting we ought to be able to get a quorum at all the time. Chairman Chasse So you’re suggesting to keep it the same? Alderman McCarthy I’m not sure. I’m clearly sympathetic to the problem because I’ve sat there as many times as you have not being able to get a tenth member for that committee, but I am concerned in the long term. Joint Special has expended between $200 - $250 million over the past 20 years. 147 for the high schools, $6 million for Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 19 Fairgrounds, $4 million on Pennichuck $6 million on the three schools we just did. A lot of money goes through there. In the days when we were building the high schools, most of the time there were 15-20 people showing up for Joint Special. We’re kind of at a lull at the moment in those expenditures but they are picking back up. This project is much more expensive than the last three. I just don’t want to get to a position where stuff is happening that we look at and say, “Wow, that wasn’t what we had in mind.” Chairman Chasse You know my feelings. I’ve traveled down there to go to meetings and go to meetings and go to meetings and wait and wait and get on the phone and try to find an alderman-at-large to make a quorum. If this stays the same I will guarantee you I will put in an ordinance that’s going to take some of the funds out of their pockets of the Board of Education. We have an ordinance that controls us. I don’t know if I can do it; I’ll have to find out but you’re supposed to attend so many meetings. Unfortunately the president last year, he knew my frustrations and I mentioned it to him. He didn’t step forward and tell his people to get to those meetings. It’s always the same ones that were never there. That’s not fair to the rest of us people that have meetings during the rest of the course of the week to go down there and sit there and twiddle your thumbs waiting of a quorum. Alderman Deane I feel your pain on that. When I had talked to Alderman Dowd and I talked to Alderman McCarthy about it the other day, Alderman McCarthy raises a very, very valid point. I’m sympathetic to the quorum issue too. I have missed some of those meetings but not like some people. Some people haven’t gone to them in a number of years. When I had talked to legal, what the RSA states is it has to be equal members of each board. For some reason when it was formed they used the 9 board members for the Board of Ed and 9 Aldermen and came up with 18. Then there were e-mails that I didn’t respond to that were going back and forth about abolishing the construction committee. When I saw that, I was like wait a minute. My personal opinion is that is a bad idea. I’ve never had the pleasure of serving on the construction committee although I would have enjoyed doing that. I think the construction committee plays an extremely important part, if not the most important part of Joint Special. It appears to me that people that have served on the construction committee are the ones that have spent an extraordinary amount of time and energy meeting going through contracts, working with contractors, going over things. The formality of Joint Special, which is required by state law also to meet once a month, it just made me wonder when I would see people come in and they would take their packet out and drop it on the table and open it up. They had never opened it; they had never looked at it. But there’s nothing I can do about that. I sponsored this, and Alderman McCarthy has brought up a point that I hadn’t considered and I totally agree with him. To take that amount of money and put it in the hands of a very few is not a good way to operate. I do realize Joint Special is painful especially during the months of May, June, July and August when you sit there. I’m not quite sure but I’d be willing to say that we’ve had people come to present that we were paying to be there. We didn’t have a quorum and the meetings were canceled. You have to pay those people anyways. Just the percentage of reduction in the oversight of the money is concern enough for me to not support changing this at all. No matter what you do with the total number of people, I come back to this room, is where I come back. If we place 9 aldermen on there that’s a good majority of this board. They have their own vote but it’s a majority of this board speaking on the expenditures made. As Alderman McCarthy had stated earlier, once that money is released it’s over. Now what are we going to do? Put it in the hands of three people? The more I talked to Brian about that last week that does concern me. Whatever you raise the number up, I’d still like to see 8 or 9 people, and they’re not always going to be there. That’s the problem I have. The quorum part. The whole thing. It’s too bad there’s not more of an interest in it. These are huge projects. The children of our community depend on these facilities. We’re upgrading them to make them cleaner, safer, nurturing learning environments and we can’t get adults to show up to meetings to follow through with their end of the bargain when they are elected. That’s what’s kind of concerning. That’s kind of where I left off. Thank you very much for allowing me some leeway. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 20 Chairman Chasse Do we have any jurisdiction on that? Alderman Deane Their stipend is in their operating budget. Under state law when we release their operating budget, they can spend that money on whatever they want to spend it on. Chairman Chasse We have an operating budget too where our stipend sits in. If we miss so many meetings, you can take part of our stipend. We have an ordinance on that don’t we? Alderman Deane They’re pretty much autonomous with their operations once we release the money. The autonomy starts when we release the money. I understand where you’re going with that though. Alderman Soucy I understand Alderman McCarthy’s valid point of that much money in so few hands and I understand the quorum problem. Does it make sense that we, in the spirit of compromise, reduce it somewhat to maybe 7 and 7 or 8 and 8 and that would probably meet the needs of both the quorum and the numbers? I’m just putting that out there. Chairman Chasse I’ve got the answer for that. What you’re doing it taking the two individuals from the school department that refuse to come down to the meetings so you’re just removing them from the committee. Alderman Deane That’s what they want. Chairman Chasse That’s what they want, and it’s not fair. Do you see what I’m saying? Alderman Soucy I do. Chairman Chasse You are catering to them, and I’m not for that. There’s got to be a way we can force them to come to the meetings. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 21 Alderman Dowd Just a couple of data points. Alderman Deane asked me to go out and get in writing if people wanted to stay on. I had four solid from the Board of Alderman and four solid from the Board of Education and one that will do it if we ask. That’s ten. I’ve had a number of others that say, no way. I don’t want to be on it. Take me off on both boards. I even had one person on the Board of Ed say they’re not ever going to attend. I thought at least as a minimum with 5 and 5 because down with 5, you’re construction committee is not a quorum of the Joint Special and you have five members of the Board of Education which is a majority of the Board of Education. That makes it a little strong. You could go 6 and 6 but now you’re going to pull somebody on that really doesn’t want to be on. Are they going to be effected anyway? In the more than 13 years, time flies when you’re having fun, being on the Joint Special School Building Committee, I’ve only seen once when we had a quorum of people come to drive a certain subject through and it was never on funding. I don’t know what 18 is buying you. With 18, you got to get 10 and we can never get 10 so let’s make it a number that satisfies people’s concerns because I don’t care what the number is as long as we can get a quorum. Let’s make it a number we think we can actually get people there and get something done. To Alderman Deane’s point, we’ve had people come to do presentations, outside vendors and we don’t have a quorum. Other times we’ve had two secretaries chasing people on both boards around all afternoon. That’s not cost effective. I leave it to somebody else. Pick a number. Chairman Chasse Alderman McCarthy, I have a question. Would 10 work? Alderman McCarthy Ten works better than 8. It’s by degrees. Ten is better than 8. Chairman Chasse Then I’ll put a motion n the floor that we change the Joint Special Building Committee from 18 down to ten. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO AMEND BY REDUCING THE JOINT SPECIAL BUILDING COMMITTEE TO TEN ON THE QUESTION Alderman McCarthy I had another suggestion which is what I was looking at last time. Unfortunately I think legal was busy with stuff and we were making very slow progress on some of it. What I wanted to look at was whether we could actually say that a quorum was less than 11 or less than 10 at least for some purposes. A solution to it is to say the only thing on the agenda for Joint Special is the invoices that were in the packet. Then a quorum is something less than ten because we expect to pay those. If nobody shows up, it means there’s no objection basically. That leaves you the problem if you’re going to make a big decision, you need to get more people there but we probably ought to be trying to do that. I don’t know if the committee wants to wait a meeting and see if we can work that out or change the number to ten. I’m not wed to any of them. I just want us to make a decision with our eyes open because at some point in the future we’re likely to say that wasn’t what I had in mind. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 22 Chairman Chasse I have a suggestion. I’m ready to table this and have you and Alderman Deane and Alderman Dowd sit down and come back us and tell us 10 is good, 12 is good. If you want 12, we’ll give you 12. You guys got more of the expertise. If you came in here, you don’t even need to come back. If you told me 12 was good, I can put the 12 in and then we would fly from there. Alderman Siegel It seems to me that Alderman Dowd has a tremendous amount of experience. Alderman McCarthy has raised valid concerns that Alderman Deane agrees with. I don’t know that we need to table because based on experience, I was going to ask Alderman Dowd if he thinks 5 is an achievable number on the school department side? I would trust that 5 would be achievable on the Board of Aldermen side. If that’s the case and there’s no objection, perhaps we could vote on the number 10, for example, now rather than tabling it. Just solve this already. Chairman Chasse It doesn’t hurt to table it because they could sit down and they could really think it out. Alderman Dowd I read the ordinance with the 10 but that’s only because I thought that was a more reasonable number. You can get 5 and 5 that want to be on it. The other thing is we want to start having the Joint Specials prior to the Board of Aldermen meetings. We want to have it in 208. You can’t get 18 people in there. It feels like a convention center, but you can get 10 in there. Chairman Chasse Then you could go to 12 because if it was held over here, I don’t have a problem with that. Alderman Dowd I’m not going to say it’s going to be every time because if we have to do presentations it’s probably easier at North. Chairman Chasse Or right here. Alderman Dowd Tentatively we have a meeting for the 20th of the Construction and the Joint Special. We’re going to be trying to get 18 people to approve the only thing on the Joint Special, which at that point will be approving invoices which you know is a five minute meeting. Do we want to get 18 people together every time we have a five minute meeting? One other data point. I talked to corporation counsel. No matter what we do if we reduce the size of the Joint Special, the Construction Committee even if they were a majority couldn’t approve things. It would still have to go to Joint Special. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 23 Alderman Deane I’m just going back to Alderman McCarthy’s point that was raised earlier. Things are approved by the majority of the Board. If the majority of the Board has no interest in following and tracking the millions of dollars that are sent over there through bond resolutions to the school district for their projects, I just look at that as a sad state of affairs. The whole situation is kind of troublesome when you think about it because we’re elected as an oversight board. Once the bond resolution is approved and money is being utilized, Joint Special has the oversight and then to not have a majority of this Board appointed to Joint Special I don’t agree with that. I go back to when I looked at this and talked to Brian last week. I said that’s a very good point that I didn’t even think of because what was running through my mind is sitting there in the middle of July and why can’t one more person show up? Alderman Chasse is right. It’s the same people all the time that don’t show up. I just think that’s wrong. It’s a huge amount of money. These are large projects. They involve everybody’s kids and they involve every taxpayer’s money, the dollars that are being spent on these projects. We’re elected to oversee these projects. That’s what we’re doing and we can’t get people to show up and do that. What’s wrong with that picture? When Brian mentioned to me we don’t have a majority of the Board anymore acting on these expenditures, we should have at least 8 aldermen on this committee. He told me that last week and the more I thought about it, I said; You know what? You’re right. You were right. It’s like abolishing the finance committee. Would we do that? Would we give up our oversight on the finance committee? I wouldn’t. And they have to be equal numbers. The attendance records would be something to look at. If you made it 16, you know we’re going to have our rate and they’ll have their what, 3 or 4 hopefully? Alderman Dowd I totally agree that we, as a Board of Aldermen, should be having oversight. However, a couple of things. One when there was controversy about spending not only were the 9 aldermen there from the board but also the majority of the other six also came along to voice their opinion and everybody was listened to. But in the same vein if we have 18 and 9 board members of the Board of Education showed up and voted as a block and we only had 1 or 2 aldermen there, you’d lose and they would get to spend the money. Alderman Deane Don’t hold your breath waiting for that day to come. Alderman Dowd I think we had one instance where that happened recently. I’m not going to mention exactly what happened, but they got their way because they had their 9 people voting as a block. If you have a lower number, whatever that number is, it might be safe. Of the ten people that want to be on, I have full confidence in those ten they are going to be educated, fully conservative. Just on the history of the group that’s involved in the last project we finished ahead of schedule, under budget and brought the money forward to the next thing. I understand there could be a problem going forward maybe but I don’t see it now. Chairman Chasse We could always change it back. Alderman McCarthy With respect to a point that you brought up early in this discussion, I would point out that Section 76 of the Charter says each member of the board, education in this case, shall be compensated in such amounts as the Mayor and Board of Aldermen from time to time appropriate in the budget of the city. The number is actually Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 24 established in ordinance 5-109. It would seem like if you choose to pursue the approach of attendance that there’s probably good justification for doing that. Chairman Chasse Boy am I going to be well liked by the Board of Education. The motion on the floor is to amend to ten individuals, five and five. MOTION CARRIED Alderman Dowd One other data point, the Board of Education is considering this at their meeting this evening. We’ll have to see what they come back with too. We’ll have both of those going forward to our meeting on the 18. Alderman Deane Then this can be tabled, right? Alderman Dowd No. We can talk about it at the full Board. We have the Board of Education’s action on it. It went to them as one committee and went to this committee. Alderman Deane I understand that. Alderman Dowd Those come back to the full Board, and we have the discussion at the full Board level. I don’t think we need to table. It. Alderman Deane I would rather not do that. Alderman Dowd This project is fully underway. We can’t delay the work that has to be done. I’d rather get the thing settled on the 18th. Alderman Deane Are you having trouble getting a quorum? Alderman Dowd Yes. Do you mean for the 20? We don’t know. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 25 Alderman Deane You’ve had two Joint Special meetings so far, right? You had the organization and Alderman Dowd We had the organizational and everybody was sort of trapped there. Alderman Deane It only happens every two years. It’s like the locus, right? Chairman Chasse And we had one down here. We had one prior to the Board of Aldermen meeting. Alderman Dowd And we were missing a significant number of people especially from the Board of Ed. Alderman Deane I don’t think we should be discussing this at the full Board. I just don’t. Alderman McCarthy I’m more comfortable with 10 than 8. I think we can try that and see how it goes. Chairman Chasse We can always change it back. Alderman McCarthy We can always change it back. I will continue to talk to legal about whether there’s something we can do to grease the skids for the normal conditions. We have meetings where there’s big things that come in where we award a contract that’s $10 million for the mechanical system at the North High School. We have the ones where we pay $50,000 in bills to the architect and the trailer rental company. That second class of them should be pretty much pro forma. The first one we really probably want more people to attend if we can get it. As a compromise, let’s go with 10 and we’ll continue to look at if there’s something else we can do. MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO RECOMMEND FINAL PASSAGE AS AMENDED ON THE QUESTION Alderman Deane Maybe you can refresh my memory. There was talk of abolishing the construction committee. Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 26 Alderman Dowd I checked with legal. You could have it all done by the Joint Special if it was 8. Now you’re getting into 10. You want a smaller group for the construction. Alderman Deane Believe me, I’m not in favor of abolishing the construction committee. I think the construction committee should stay. The construction committee was formed and appointed by Joint Special. It wasn’t done legislatively. It was a subcommittee that was set up by Joint Special whenever that was, probably when the high schools were being done I would imagine. There was a bunch of different subcommittees when there was all school projects going on at the same time. Alderman Dowd When there’s more than one or two things going, they’ve had different building committees to focus on that one project. Alderman Deane We’ll see what recommendation the Board of Education comes back with. As for the construction committee, that’s an argument that can be had at Joint Special. It has nothing to do with the Board of Aldermen. My guess it was just an idea that was floated out there. You were responding back and forth. I started to but then I was like I’m not going to get involved in that. Alderman Dowd The reason they wanted to abolish the construction committee is they wanted to attend fewer meetings. Alderman Deane That’s not the purpose of a construction committee. Alderman Dowd I know. Alderman Deane I’m happy the construction committee is hopefully going to stay. MOTION CARRIED O-14-009 Endorsers: Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire Alderwoman Pamela T. Brown AMENDING WELFARE DEPARTMENT GENERAL ASSISTANCE GUIDELINES MOTION BY ALDERMAN SOUCY TO TABLE O-14-009 MOTION CARRIED Personnel – 02/10/14 Page 27 DISCUSSION PUBLIC COMMENT REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN POSSIBLE NON-PUBLIC SESSION ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 8:36 p.m. Alderman Michael Soucy Committee Clerk