Substandard Living Conditions Special Committee

SUBSTANDARD LIVING CONDITIONS SPECIAL COMMITTEE NOVEMBER 18, 2015 A meeting of the Substandard Living Conditions Special Committee was held Wednesday, November 18, 2015, at 6:00 p.m. in the Aldermanic Chamber. Members of Committee present: Alderman-at-Large Jim Donchess Alderman Sean M. McGuinness Alderman Ken Siegel ELECTION OF COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN ALDERMAN DONCHESS NOMINATED ALDERMAN SIEGEL MOTION BY ALDERMAN MCGUINNESS TO CLOSE THE NOMINATIONS VOTE ON NOMINATION OF ALDERMAN SIEGEL AS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN MOTION CARRIED Alderman Siegel duly elected as committee chairman. ELECTION OF COMMITTEE CLERK Chairman Siegel called for nominations for the Committee Clerk. ALDERMAN SIEGEL NOMINATED ALDERMAN MCGUINNESS MOTION BY ALDERMAN DONCHESS TO CLOSE THE NOMINATIONS VOTE ON NOMINATION OF ALDERMAN MCGUINNESS AS COMMITTEE CLERK MOTION CARRIED Alderman McGuinness duly elected as committee clerk PUBLIC COMMENT - None DISCUSSION Chairman Siegel The purpose of this meeting is organizational. We are not going to be taking testimony, we are going to do just what we did which was to elect a chairman and a clerk and just decide on what the scope of the committee is amongst ourselves and in the future we will have meetings where we do that actual work where most of the public comment would probably be helpful because we actually be doing something. At this time I’d like to offer up to the public if they have any public comment. Ms. Lori Pane, 23 Temple Street I would like to be a member of this committee. Substandard Living Conditions 11-18-15 Page 2 Alderman Siegel Ma’am, this is an Aldermanic Special Committee so you are certainly welcome when the time comes and we take testimony from individuals affected; we’d be more than willing to hear from you and after the meeting I would be happy to take your name and your information but as far as the membership of the committee it’s an Aldermanic Committee. Ms. Pane Okay, thank you. Mr. Nathaniel Durgin, 4 Victoria Drive I want to talk about the scope of the committee. I understand the scope is to look at the conditions and the code violations for both Temple Street and the Country Barn Motel, however, I am asking the committee to expand the scope into zoning violations, at least at the Country Barn Motel. I have done a ton of research on the Country Barn Motel and I have found that the motel and the campground are actually an illegal operation in the City of Nashua. Especially since there is no campground in Nashua listed anywhere in the State of New Hampshire, although I’ve been told by the Code Enforcement Officer on several occasions that it is recognized by both the city and the state. I don’t believe the campground is a recognized campground by the city or the state and furthermore I believe that what they are doing at the campground is not camping. They have erected structures which I am asking the committee to at least investigate whether or not these structures are legal and zoned properly. They call the RV’s, trailers, campers, cabins; they have a bunch of different terms based on what you try to find violations on. I’m talking the people at the Code Enforcement Office and some of the documentation that I have from the Code Enforcement Office; they actually change from RV Park to campground to trailer park. I am asking to include in the scope of the committee to determine if this is a legal operation. I want to refer back to previous comments that I’ve made in prior meetings about this subject. During the Board of Aldermen meetings where I asked what the results were of a court case that the city had against the previous owners of the motel/campground dating back to 1984 – 1985, whether or not that ever made it to court because those were in regard to zoning and zoning violations. What the city claimed in those articles that were listed in the Telegraph was that the owners converted a single family residence into a multi- family dwelling; in other words, they created a motel. I’ve even gone through the archives of the Nashua Telegraph and what I have found was that back in 1980’s they were advertising this as the Country Barn Motel after Fernand Lavoie bought it and then in 1990 they changed it to the Country Barn Motel and Campground. In one of the articles it states that the campground was created in 1982 and that was quoted by Lavoie’s lawyer at the time and I don’t believe that a campground can be created in 1982 and be grandfathered prior to the zoning laws that were enacted back in the 30’s. I want to be clear; I am very interested in the code violations. The fact that people are living 10 feet from a suburban residence in an R-9 zone; it’s a beautiful neighborhood with Majestic Heights and Unicorn Way and Broad Street. This campground with people sleeping in structures that isn’t fit for humans in my opinion. They don’t have drainage… Chairman Siegel Mr. Durgin, one thing I will caution you on is that this is an organizational meeting and it seems as though what you are requesting is that we include in the scope some of the zoning issues that you have. Mr. Durgin Yes. Chairman Siegel I am sure we would be more than happy to take those into consideration but I wouldn’t want you to go through Substandard Living Conditions 11-18-15 Page 3 testimony that’s probably not applicable to an organizational meeting. Mr. Durgin Okay, then I want to make one more comment then. Even if they were grandfathered and given grandfathered rights, what I believe they have done to me and other property owners in that area is that they have created blight. I have taken pictures of what they have done to my property as far as they cut down brush, they put signs up that said no trespassing. They put up 20+ signs within a 50’ range of my house. There should be something that protects the public from a company that is registered in the State of New Hampshire operating in the City of Nashua against the devaluation of property, especially if they are grandfathered for a non-conforming use. They did construction in 2013 of these trailers which they did not go in front of the Planning Board or the Zoning Board, I don’t believe. Chairman Siegel Once again, I appreciate that but this comes under the general heading of looking at zoning and building violations which I believe we probably will decide will be part of our scope so rather than going into the nitty gritty details at our organizational meeting, I would request that you perhaps… Mr. Durgin One other thing I wanted to comment on… Chairman Siegel Or not. Mr. Durgin What this lady asked about being part of the committee, I had sent you a request as far as when this meeting was going to happen and I haven’t received any type of response from you, Ken. I think what she is asking for is some type of attachment or what can we, as the public do to be more informed of what’s going on and when the next meeting is and what’s happening? I’ll leave it at that. I think the public should be allowed to be on this committee and participate, especially the people who are living in these conditions. Mr. Eric Bray, 3 Dover Street I share some of the prior concerns. I am not an abutter but I am a property owner and I think what some are trying to speak to is the actual mission of code enforcement. Right now it’s on a very high profile two properties; the Temple Street Motel and the Country Barn Motel. Code enforcement has a mandate, their mission statement is listed on the Nashua website and I can read it. “Is to ensure compliance with city housing and zoning ordinances and to protect the environment and the health and safety of the community. To maintain property values and to maintain an esthetically pleasing environment. Some of the press that we have seen talks about the question of how did code enforcement not find any violations. I don’t have an opinion either way but I would ask that the scope of this group be expanded in general not just to these two properties but to code enforcement in general. Are the ordinances as written being enforced and if not is it ordinary and customary to waive certain ordinances by practice in Nashua and are there other areas of code enforcement that the existing ordinance could in fact protect the citizens and I question that. I would also offer that it appears when the city sees something they don’t like, like the Peddler’s Daughter sidewalks the city resources are brought to bear to enforce what is viewed as an infraction. I think it’s important to look at it holistically and to seek outside council beyond the Aldermen and beyond city staff to consider involving city residences and to look at resources that are available that the city has already paid for through assessors. Are there other credible complaints to code enforcement outside of these properties that are not acted upon, Substandard Living Conditions 11-18-15 Page 4 not by citizens but by the assessor that we pay and what information is available on the city website today where clear zoning and code enforcement violations, structural building alterations or buildings built without permit that may be zoning issues are in plain sight for all to see. I would ask you to educate yourselves and consider expanding this to many outside of city staff for the betterment of the community. Chairman Siegel If I may, as Chair, we haven’t scoped the committee yet. That’s what we are going to be doing so we do want to take your feedback. Mr. Bray That’s why I came tonight as I have been following this in the press. Chairman Siegel I think you will be happy with how the scope turns out. Ms. Kathy Tucker, 23 Temple Street My friend and I are both here tonight and we both live there. Mostly we are glad to hear about the committee because the conditions in these places are not good. I am also wondering if as citizens we have become involved in this. We have first-hand reports that we can give you on the situation. Organizational Discussion Chairman Siegel Prior to this meeting I made some notes that I hope would help my colleagues on the committee which talk about a general scope of work to sort of guide us or at least provide some talking points and I hope the members in the audience who wanted to have a certain scope will be happy with at least some of these suggestions. I would like to go through a few of the items that I think might be helpful. The major bullet points are first of all this is not a committee that is going to look at one or two particular properties. It is my suggestion that we look at those facilities that have been paid by the Welfare Department in the last six months. So any facility that is being paid a fee for tenants and getting vouchers from the city is eligible. Clearly, the Country Barn Motel and 23 Temple Street have been in the news and in our records so this is easy for us to determine because we have the Finance Committee record of expenditures which comes out every two weeks. I think that’s a decent starting point. We can’t scope the entire city and we are not here to examine every possible rental property. On the other hand we are not here to have a specific target in mind despite what the press does or doesn’t say. We may actually be doing the city resident’s a disservice by not addressing sites that may have issues that haven’t been publicized. The other scope would be that we have to understand what the city and state statutes and ordinances are currently. These are what are used as enforcement tools currently by code enforcement and the Zoning Board of Adjustment. See what’s there right now and what actions have been taken and what holes there might be that might suggest legislation that can be acted on by the Board of Aldermen in short order. I think one of the roles of this committee is to see what’s there and to make suggestions. The next bullet point would be to examine locations which have received the most complaints over the last six to twelve months. There is a variety of ways to do this and I did this last previously with the Nashua Police, Fire & Rescue and the Ambulance Reports and that was why at the time 23 Temple Street had floated to the top of the heap. I would suggest that is something that we can do again. That is something that is helpful and very easy to get. With regard to public input, incoming Alderman for Ward 4, Tom Lopez has kindly volunteered to help us set up discussions with the public that have stayed at any one or more of these locations and I agree with those who have gave public testimony that this is not only a good idea, I think it’s essential because without public input from the people that actually live in the locations Substandard Living Conditions 11-18-15 Page 5 we are just shooting in the dark. The public input is welcome and necessary. The last couple of items is the coordination of some site visits, one or more that we might decide on. I think it’s important based on public comment that we see for ourselves. I don’t care what the reports are. I have been in 23 Temple Street twice myself and I went with the police for a before and after so we will see what the after/after looks like now. Finally, after all is said and done, we as a committee owe it to our colleagues and the public to provide a report which outlines what we found and a suggested course of action which is achievable and achievable in the near term. I think that is critical to accomplish this prior to the end of term of this Board which is on January 10, 2016. This Board of Aldermen has specific authority under the city charter and we intend to use that authority and use it to the fullest extent possible. That is what I believe is my initial stab of the scope and I welcome my colleague’s comments. Alderman Donchess I think you’ve done a good job in laying out some items that the committee should look at and I think the public testimony is really a good idea and we could take testimony from anybody who would like to tell us about the living conditions at the various locations. I think the site visits would also be really good and I agree with all of the potential activities of this committee. The only one we haven’t discussed are the zoning issues that were raised by Mr. Durgin. Chairman Siegel If I may, I kind of included those under statutes and ordinances; I think I mentioned the zoning as one of those. MOTION BY ALDERMAN DONCHESS THAT THE SCOPE OF THE COMMITTEES WORK BE ADOPTED AS DESCRIBED BY THE CHAIR ON THE QUESTION Alderman McGuinness Can the scope be modified at some future date? Chairman Siegel Absolutely because we set our own rules. Alderman McGuinness I just wanted the public to know that. Mr. Durgin mentioned some things that we might have to do some research in the past. Chairman Siegel We can certainly add that to the scope now. Alderman McGuinness You certainly suggest that in point number two, understanding the states statutes and ordinances and what’s been done already. I would concur with Alderman Donchess. Substandard Living Conditions 11-18-15 Page 6 Chairman Siegel I also have as bullet points to get records from the Nashua Police Department and Nashua Fire Rescue and also from code enforcements for locations of interest and as a side; I believe this should include all e-mail communications regarding different sites and what has been going on. Hopefully that includes the scope of what you are asking for. Alderman McGuinness I believe it does. Chairman Siegel Should we vote on whether this is the scope? Alderman McGuinness I believe it’s appropriate and this should be the scope. Chairman Siegel Alderman Donchess has made a motion that this be adopted as the scope of the committee. MOTION CARRIED Alderman Donchess One other topic that came up during public testimony was the notice regarding the meetings. These are public meetings that are noticed and appear on the city calendar. They are not secret. They are definitely public. We definitely want the public to attend. That’s the notice procedure that is followed. If people who have e- mail addresses who would like to make sure they know, maybe they could give the Chair their e-mail addresses and when we schedule a meeting, you could send it out to the interested parties to make sure everybody knows when the meetings are coming. Chairman Siegel I’d be very happy to do that. As for Mr. Durgin’s statement about my being unresponsive, I didn’t receive an e- mail to my city address. I’m very responsive to city email requests. If anything comes through there, I would be more than happy to answer. I apologize if you had sent it there. (Inaudible remarks from the audience) Chairman Siegel As a rule, I generally don’t like to respond to Facebook because we have a Right-to-Know request, and I would like everything on the public record. Alderman Donchess The public is entitled to show up and testify and we encourage that at any meeting. If we’re going to take testimony regarding conditions at any specific time, we’ll make sure that that’s published in advance and encourage everyone who would like to talk about this situation to come in and let us know what’s going on. Chairman Siegel I absolutely agree with that. This entire process is meant to be as transparent as possible. We’re trying to investigate what problems there may be and transparency is the best way to do that. Substandard Living Conditions 11-18-15 Page 7 Alderman McGuinness With respect to the e-mails that’s wonderful for those who are very interested. How would we get word out to anyone in the city who would like to be e-mailed on something like this? Chairman Siegel All Aldermen e-mail addresses are available at the city website which is nashuanh.gov and our phone numbers are also there. E-mails are most effective because we have a way of seeing what each said and also making that available to the public should they request that because that is their right. Alderman Donchess In addition, for those who may not be up-to-date on the city website and calendar, we do have the Aldermanic Assistant, Sue Lovering who works in the room just behind the chamber and that’s open basically, either she or Trish is there from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays so if anyone is puzzled about what’s going on or there is a committee meeting scheduled, if you can either call or visit Sue Lovering she would be responsive to questions. Chairman Siegel That’s an excellent suggestion. Since we have adopted the initial scope and we can change it I had some ideas about which members of the committee might focus on different elements of this. The first item was to determine which of those facilities were paid by the Welfare Department over the last six to twelve months and I believe that perhaps conversations with the Head of the Welfare Department, Bob Mack would be in order for that. I would suggest that myself and Alderman Donchess who are both members of the Finance Committee take a look at that and figure out how to quickly get that taken care of. Alderman Donchess That’s fine with me. Chairman Siegel The second item was the city and state ordinances and statutes. I think we are privileged to have not only our incoming Mayor but an attorney on the committee. I would nominate Alderman Donchess to handle the legality and take a look at that. Alderman Donchess Yes, I will try to handle some of that. Alderman McGuinness I concur. Alderman Donchess I will need to confer with the Legal Department about this. Chairman Siegel I think we are going to have conversations with the Legal Department in general and some we may not want to have. The third item was examining which locations have received complaints. I would suggest that I look at this having done it once before. Substandard Living Conditions 11-18-15 Page 8 Alderman Donchess That’s fine. Chairman Siegel The next one is to interview and set-up meetings with members of the public in coordination with incoming Alderman, Tom Lopez and figuring out how best to get in touch with people, to schedule it, to publicize it and pick a location. I would suggest that myself and Alderman McGuinness take this task on. Alderman McGuinness It’s fine with me. Chairman Siegel Finally, coordinating the site visits as appropriate, I would suggest that Alderman McGuinness do this. Alderman McGuinness I would be happy to do it. Alderman Siegel We will also have to write a final report which we will all be involved in and it has to happen before the end of the term and it will have to happen in such a timeframe that we will have the ability to act on any actions that we deem appropriate. I have notes that I have made and I will make sure they are part of the public record. ADJOURNMENT MOTION BY ALDERMAN MCGUINNESS TO ADJOURN MOTION CARRIED The meeting was declared closed at 6:35 p.m. Alderman Sean M. McGuinness Committee Clerk  Substandard Living Conditions Special Committee November 18,2015 6 PM 1. Initial election of chairman and clerk 2. Public comment - limit to 5 minutes per person and suggest later meetings rather than our initial organizational meeting. 3. Scope of work discussion a. Limit to those facilities that have been paid by the Welfare Department in the last 6-12 months. This can be determined quickly by reviewing Finance Committee records of payments. i. Alderman Siegel and Alderman Donchcss take this action item ii. We need to know what facilities are associated with the various entities. Conversation with Welfare Department and Bob Mack. b. Need to understand what city and state ordinances and statutes currently are in use and apply. Someone has to look into this. In addition, suggestions for additional enforcement tools should be generated if need be. Alderman Donchess will take this. c. Need to examine which locations have received the most complaints over the last 12 months. Alderman Siegel will take this. i. Get records from NPD and NFR per earlier request ii. Get records from Code Enforcement for locations of interest. 1. As an aside, this should include email communications d. Need to coordinate interviews for clients willing to share first hand experiences. i. Coordinate with Tom Lopez ii. Alderman Siegel and Alderman McGuinness take this iii. Locations and times for this work TBD. c. Coordinate site visits where appropriate. Alderman McGuinness will take this. i. These should not be announced far in advance ii. Check with legal to see what our standing is with this iii. Coordinate with code enforcement and possibly with NPD. f. Due date for a written report to the full Board of Aldermen. TBD 4. End of meeting....adjourn.