Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee

PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE NOVEMBER 17, 2014 A meeting of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee was held on Monday, November 17, 2014, at 6:30 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 Michael Soucy Members not in Attendance: Alderman Ken Siegel Also in Attendance: Alderman-at-Large David W. Deane Alderman-at-Large Daniel Moriarty PUBLIC COMMENT – None COMMUNICATIONS From: Stephen M. Bennett, Corporation Counsel, Esquire Re: Merrimack Valley Regional Water District’s Candidate for Appointment to the Pennichuck Corporation Board of Directors MOTION BY ALDERMAN SOUCY TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE MOTION CARRIED From: Thomas J. Leonard, Chairman, Pennichuck Board of Directors Re: Merrimack Valley Regional Water District – Nomination to the Pennichuck Board of Directors MOTION BY ALDERMAN SOUCY TO ACCEPT AND PLACE ON FILE MOTION CARRIED APPLICATION TO LICENSE HAWKER'S, PEDDLER'S, ITINERANT VENDOR'S LICENSE - None Alderman Deane Are they going to eventually add pawnshops to that? Chairman Chasse That’s a good question. We’ll have to ask to City Clerk Bergeron on that. Alderman Deane I think we should look into that. They should probably be licensed as well and if they are licensed, how does that work. Thank you. APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO TABLE THE REAPPOINTMENTS OF MARY LOU BLAISDELL AND RICHARD LANNAN TO THE DOWNTOWN IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE AND INVITE THEM TO THE NEXT PERSONNEL/ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MEETING Personnel – 11/17/14 Page 2 MOTION CARRIED MOTION BY ALDERMAN CHASSE TO RECOMMEND THE CONFIRMATION OF THE FOLLOWING MAYORAL APPOINTMENTS: TO THE BUSINESS & INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: HEATH GAFFNEY, JACK TULLEY, AND BRADLEY VEAR, FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE SEPTEMBER 13, 2017; TO THE DOWNTOWN IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE: JOHN KOUTSOS FOR A TERM TO EXPIRE DECEMBER 31, 2017; TO THE NASHUA ARTS COMMISSION: PAUL LAFLAMME, ELIZABETH RACIOPPI, AND ERIC VALLIERE FOR TERMS TO EXPIRE APRIL 1, 2017; AND TO THE NASHUA HOUSING AUTHORITY: JAMES TOLLNER AND ERIC WILSON FOR TERMS TO EXPIRE OCTOBER 14, 2019 MOTION CARRIED ELECTIONS Pennichuck Corporation Board of Directors Dr. George Bower (Merrimack Valley Regional Water District’s Representative) Dr. George Bower Good evening, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Board. Some time ago I was approached by some members of the district to apply for the position. I’d like to think that’s because of the kind of technical and government background that I would bring to the board. In my professional life I’ve worked primarily with industrial facilities doing a lot of environmental licensing and permitting taking them through the regulatory approval processes for the development of new operations and a lot of times for modifications and revisions to the kind of regulatory approvals that they have. That includes everything from air quality to hazardous waste to water quality to their sewer discharges to their water uses. For many years, 13 years, I served on the planning board in the Town of Amherst and really worked with that board not only as a board member but also as someone to help provide some technical and scientific expertise to the board as it looked to make decisions on different kinds of projects. Invariably one of the issues that would arise with any type of development was the nature of its impacts relative to the groundwater, drinking water and generally to water supply. Quite often I was called upon by the board and then after leaving the board was frequently hired as consultant to the board to help review projects to look at those same types of impacts. In addition to that, I bring a business background. I own my consulting firm. We do business throughout the United States primarily with industrial facilities but also with state and travel governments and provide them with both services and advise on usually he development of industrial operations and what kind of impacts it has on their systems. From my own standpoint, from a business standpoint, I’ve also served on that board of directors for a company by the name of Prosys which several years ago, probably ten years, got bought out. They were a manufacturer of high performance aura microfiltration and ultrafiltration systems and typically very large scaled systems of anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 gallons per minute of water. Finally, I have always had and this goes back to my upbringing, just an ethic of providing service to the community in which I live. Once we moved to Amherst in 1984, the first thing that both my wife and I did was we applied to serve on local boards. If we’re going to live in a community, we decided that we’re also going to be active in those communities. Our son and daughter went through the public schools. They are both well employed right now which is kind of nice. We’re proud of that. We’ve continued to provide those kinds of services. Anytime that I can provide the kind of technical and scientific expertise that I have to assist a local government, and in this case it would be Pennichuck, in making decisions about their operations and how they do things, I’m more than happy to do that. I bring a pretty strong playing background. I also have done quite a lot of work in catastrophic risk assessment and looking at why systems fail. For any type of water system that’s a relatively critical kind of decision-making process to have, to evaluate what are our strengths, what are our weaknesses and how do we ensure that we continue to ride a stable and high quality supply of water for all of the residents of the towns and the City of Nashua. Personnel – 11/17/14 Page 3 Alderman McGuiness They found you? Dr. Bower I think it was kind of a mutual process. I was asked if I would be interested in the position, and I said yes, I would be interested in going through that process. Alderman McGuinness I appreciate your zeal for contributing to the community, but your professional background is fascinating. Chairman Chasse Do you reside in Amherst? Dr. Bower Yes, almost on the Mount Vernon line. Alderman Deane There’s two of us that are still here that were here from the beginning of the Pennichuck acquisition. There was a lot of public outcry. We took ownership of our water system. The one thing that was important to me and to everyone is we need the water system, we need it maintained. When the original Charter came up the appointment of this individual was by the board, not by the mayor. The mayor was an original appointment to serve. Her term has since expired. I just want to say we’re all in this together. We have a very good board with very talented people on it. We have a very good operation system. It needs work but we have some stellar employees. It’s a very well-run company and it provides a resource that we all can’t survive without. What do you think you’re going to add to the board, itself? This basically is a representative of the Regional Water District. It’s always been my position for years when there was problems with smaller water entities that we failing or had significant financial problems or infrastructure problems, things of that nature, the PUC would always turn to Pennichuck to basically take it over and bail it out and get it running on the straight and narrow. What’s your opinion on the way the company is currently situated? Dr. Bower I followed that whole process of acquisition and resistance and back and forth with a lot of interest. I thought it was just fascinating that a city was taking on that type of an endeavor. I understood exactly what was happening. The Town of Amherst and a lot of residents of the Town of Amherst are customers of Pennichuck after having had its own water district in the town. There was kind of a mini transfer there that took place. It is just a resource that we can’t do without. Unless it’s managed in the best interest of the users, it’s a system that’s going to have a lot of difficulty. Pennichuck has always been very well managed. Having sat on the local planning board where the watershed in the town fed quite a bit of that system, I became very sensitive to the fact that the kind of land use development that we allowed and the kind of impacts that we would allow when we make a local planning decision could have a major impact on what would happen with water resources. There’s that dichotomy that exists between the responsibility that a local government has to protect the water resource and the demands that they have for using water. Those two things have to be in balance. It will take me awhile to really understand what’s going on on the board and what all the dynamics are and how those work, but the one piece I think I do bring is the appreciation for the watershed that we have that needs to be protected that has to be done in a manner that is consistent with good development so we protect that resource because it has to be there 100 years from now. We need that long range perspective. We need to make sure that we’re not doing things today that years from now we’re going to begin to regret. Personnel – 11/17/14 Page 4 We’ve done a lot of cleanup of underground storage tanks that had the potential to be a huge threat. Hopefully we can avoid creating that kind of a problem in the first place. If we understand that you’re putting place controls with development at its onset, we can begin to protect that water resource. Alderman Deane I noticed that your daughter went to Texas Tech. Did she play on the basketball team down there? Dr. Bower No. She was in sports medicine and athletic training. She did spend a year with the football team. She just graduated this spring. Alderman Deane This whole process to the Merrimack Regional Valley Water District has been, I don’t know if the word “painful” actually covers it, but I’ve been off and on. I’m an alternate to them now. They finally came to the realization that they couldn’t get enough people together for a quorum and formed a subcommittee and did the interview process. Finally we had a candidate. This has been going on for a long, long time. This will basically end something that should have been done in the beginning. We had some issues there too. It’s a very good company and very talented people work there and there’s some very interesting people on the board. There’s just a wide range of knowledge and different traits that everybody brings to the table. To date as far as I’m concerned, things have worked out just fine. It was a long trudge and a lot of it was through the political mud, but we survived and we now own our resource. I wish you well. Thank you. Alderman Moriarty I noticed in the minutes detailing the interview process on the Merrimack Valley Regional Committee that you were modest in your answer when asked if it was Dr. or Mr. Bower. You said academics were a while ago. But you earned the right to be called Dr. Bower so I’ll make the point of addressing you that way. Dr. Bower Thank you, Dr. Moriarty. Alderman Moriarty Many people will forget, but one organization that we’ll probably always remember is the organization alumni association that sends you cards asking for money. They will remember. It’s taken me awhile to learn. I’m inclined to endorse you based on your resume and what other people said. I remember Mr. Door when he was interviewed, I attended that interview at Pennichuck, he knew the background on this question quite well. when I go door to door I get complaints. Pennichuck, the city owns them. I want to know what they are doing. Why don’t they publish everything they do. it’s taken me awhile to understand to answer well enough why there’s a difference between a shareholder and a rate payer. In your case you represent both. You’re the rate payer, the shareholder, you communicate with the City of Nashua, but the reason your purpose was created was to be the anti-Nashua. You have a more complicated answer to that question because now you have the ratepayer, the shareholder and the anti-shareholder. What are your feelings about that complicated relationship? Dr. Bower First, it’s something you have to learn. When I first got on the planning board on Amherst, my role was really to sit there for the first year and listen. There’s lot of things you’d like to say, but it is complicated. If you’re going to be effective, you need to learn what’s going on. There was a piece of advice that one of the board Personnel – 11/17/14 Page 5 members gave me probably at the end of my first meeting. A gentleman by the name of Doug Kirkwood who had been on the board a long time and had been in town a long time. I had been living in town at that time for maybe four or five months. He said one thing you have to remember is when you’re on the board here, you actually have three different constituencies who you have to represent. You have to represent the developer because they are really a landowner. You have to represent the citizens of the town because this is their town. The other thing you have to do is you have to represent the rule of law which is the zoning ordinance that we have. You have to make sure that you provide a balance between all three of those things and do what is in everyone’s best interest. Sometimes that’s really hard to do. I do a lot of work in public meetings with the approval process. My feeling is if everyone walks away equally unhappy, you’ve probably done a pretty good job. This is a case too where I think there’s an opportunity to be that conduit between the various parties not only to bring to the board what their frustrations are, but to go back to the members of the district with the frustrations or with the concerns of the board to make sure that everyone understands how this process really works and how I should work efficiently. You really have to understand what each other positions are and work together to ensure that there is a stable, safe source of water. Sometimes not everybody is happy about the decisions you make. That’s part of what goes along with the job. Alderman Moriarty Were you in North Dakota? Dr. Bower Yes. Alderman Moriarty There’s a typo on your resume with the patent number. They final three numbers are transposed. It’s not 6,110,136, it’s 6,110,361. If you google you can discover that fairly quickly. I was looking up the patent you have on integrated soil and fluid decontamination system. It reminded me of something I did with my graduate work. How do you decontaminate soil? What’s the physical mechanism? Do you boil it and you have gas? Do you run acetone through it? Dr. Bower There’s a couple different processes. There’s two facilities that I have been working with there. Both of those are using a process known as high temperature thermal desorption. You’re taking the drill cuttings in this case that have oil in them and running them through a large rotary dryer at about 650 – 700 degrees. You volatile out the hydrocarbons. At that temperature, given the nature of the crude oil that is there, that is some of the lightest crude there is, all the hydro carbons are gone. You can test it with any of the SW 846 methods and find non-detectable levels of hydro carbons left in the drilling oils. Depending upon the type of process, they are either condensed back down to oil to recover it or they are combusting it and using and recycling some of that waste heat back to the process. Alderman Moriarty SO you bake it and then you burn it off and then you’re left with powder. Dr. Bower It’s not that much different than baking a cake. You’re drying off the liquid and in the process you’re removing contaminants and creating gas. If you’re interested there is a very high quality facility up in Loudon that does this very same process. I worked in ‘92, ‘93 permitting that operation. If you’d ever like to tour it, I’d be more than happy to set that up for you. It’s fascinating. Personnel – 11/17/14 Page 6 Alderman Caron I read your resume, and I think you will be a great addition to the Board of Directors. I think you will bring a lot to the table and we’re happy to have you. Thank you for volunteering. I love the fact that you want to volunteer when you go to a community. I think that is wonderful. If more people would do that, that would be great. Thank you. Chairman Chasse I want to wish you the best of luck. MOTION BY ALDERMAN SOUCY TO RECOMMEND THE ELECTION OF DR. GEORGE BOWER AS THE MERRIMACK VALLEY REGIONAL WATER DISTRICT’S REPRESENTATIVE TO THE PENNICHUCK CORPORATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS MOTION CARRIED UNFINISHED BUSINESS – None NEW BUSINESS - None TABLED IN COMMITTEE Alderman Deane I had put a piece of legislation in pertaining to amending the members of the trustees for the CERF Committee. It was tabled on the 25 of August, and nothing has happened and nothing has come forward for quite a period of time. Wasn’t Alderman McCarthy going to come forward with an amendment? Chairman Chasse I haven’t seen anything so it’s still sitting on the table. It will be sitting on the table until something comes. Alderman Deane Or until I manage to get enough votes to take it off and send it forward the way it sits. Chairman Chasse If I get the information, I’ll be happy to get it out of my committee. Alderman Deane What about the merit legislation? Chairman Chasse We’re still waiting for information. I’d be happy to get that off my table too. DISCUSSION PUBLIC COMMENT REMARKS BY THE ALDERMEN Personnel – 11/17/14 Page 7 POSSIBLE NON-PUBLIC SESSION ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN CARON TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 7:00 p.m. Alderman Michael Soucy Committee Clerk