Nashua Attorneys take orders from the Mayor, but when those orders violate the constitution, state statutes, or City laws, shouldn’t the Attorneys make a hard stop and comply with the law? Not in Nashua.
The Budget Review Committee (BRC) holds public meetings starting in May to review each department’s budget. In June, the Board of Aldermen held the budget hearing for next year’s budget. Here, the public can question the spending plan. About a dozen citizens show up to question over $300,000,000 in spending. The Mayor, CFO, and Aldermen Dowd, BRC Chair, are most unwelcoming to the few participating.
Wanting to avoid asking many questions during the June public hearing, I attended the May 16, 2024, budget meeting to ask some questions and listen for answers. The Board of Aldermen and their standing committees must permit public comment at the beginning and end of their meetings as legislated through a Nashua Revised Ordinance. This can only be changed by a vote of the full Board.
During this meeting, Aldermen Dowd skipped over the first public comment. Citizens should be able to call out this legislative violation, but it is always awkward, as Board members can contend that you are engaging in disorderly conduct. At this meeting, a member of the BRC noticed that public comment was skipped and challenged the Chair.
Aldermen Dowd explained that he dropped a memo on the committee members’ desks at the start of the meeting requesting that they approve canceling the second public comment. Skipping or eliminating any public comments violates the City Ordinance.
City board chairs play a sneaky game where they slide important communications to Board members the instant the meeting begins and then state that if there is no objection, the communication will be accepted into the record. This is a bad practice, and it is all too often used to conduct public business privately. These communications are not available to the public at the meeting, and there is no policy to require them to be attached to the public record.
So, Alderman Dowd wrote a 2-page communication to the Board; “Also, I will be asking you at the first meeting if we could remove the second public comment period from our Budget Meetings.” Except Aldermen Dowd never asked. “We have other committees that don’t do it at the end. We have asked Corporation Counsel, and we were told we could do this.” Corporation Counsel should uphold the City Ordinance rather than authorize Board members to violate the City laws. Very few citizens attend these public meetings, and those who attend should not be silenced from speaking their 3 minutes.
A senior citizen showed up 45 minutes into the meeting carrying handwritten financial records and appeared to want to speak. The citizen was having none of that when he heard the second public comment was canceled. When the meeting was about to end, a vocal and harassing dialog ensued between the citizen and the Board chair. The Board chair was adamant that the legal office had approved this.
Nashua’s top officials, all licensed attorneys, show no honor, ethics, or morals in running this city government. The law doesn’t apply to them. They can influence the small, tight-knit legal system to create false narratives about their “demanding” citizens. Our Aldermen believe they work for the Mayor and legal office and are playing the go-along-to-get-along game. It is time to flip some seats and find leaders who understand their responsibilities and roles.
It is long overdue for citizens to feel welcomed and respected to address their city leaders in public meetings.