City Council - Regular Meeting

the hour of 7 o'clock. I'm going to call into uh call to order the Monday, January 12th, 2026 meeting of the Concrete City Council. Before we get started, I'll just mention that for anyone who uh needs assistance hearing, uh there are hearing devices, supplemental hearing devices in the back of the room at the Conquer TV booth where Michael is waving his hand. Uh you can touch base with Michael and uh receive one of these. They are headphones and they'll augment uh the sound for you. Uh now, will you please uh join stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all

Madame clerk uh please call the role. Yes. Councelor Brown here. Mayor Dlin present. Councelor Davyy here. Councelor Fennessy present. Councelor Foot excused. Grady Sexman here. Councelor Horn here. [clears throat] Councelor Caleb here. Councelor Keech here. Councelor Kovik present. Councelor Curts present. Councelor Slasher here. Councelor Schultz here. Councelor Seiku here. And councelor Todd here. Very good. Thank you. Uh I'll entertain a motion to approve the uh meeting minutes of our December 8th, 2025 city council meeting. Move approval. moved and seconded. Any discussion? Council Credit.

Thanks, your honor. I just want to note for the record that on pages 16 and 17 that that it accurately reflects discussion regarding tableabling the compensation study. However, this item involves compensation uh for all departments and I believe it was appropriate to acknowledge that there was a potential indirect conflict of interest. I'm not suggesting any impropriy. There was a lot going on that evening. I think it was really just an oversight. My concern simply is that when matters of compensation come before us, we should be explicit about disclosures and or the absence thereof to ensure consistency and public confidence in the process. Thank you, councelor. You're welcome.

Any other discussion? All those in favor of adopting the minutes as proposed, please signify by saying I. I know. Eyes have it. Uh it's now my great pleasure to ask uh Jim Milikin, the president, I believe, or chairman of the board of [cough and clears throat] the Conquered Historical Society to come forward with a presentation. Thank you. Can I get some help? Yes, of course. Anybody who doesn't have one, please take one. Oh, here you go. [snorts] Now wait one second. I think I got one. Certainly.

I think I have enough. But if you already have one bypass for the moment. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

I have two already. [laughter] This this happens to be the deluxe edition. And the one you have is a little different. And I'll explain in one second. [clears throat] [snorts]

Oh, I have a couple left over. Oh, I need one. And then you will have couple now. [laughter] [cough] You better take one while you can. Because these are the end and there's a big story that goes behind that, but I'm not going to give you the big story.

Uh, I've got some remarks and then I'll be very happy to answer some questions. Um, but I'll do my remarks first because they really explain what's going on. Only take a minute. Uh, mayors, members of the city council, and members of the public, thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening. Crosscurren Currents of Change is not simply a book about the past. It's a record of how leadership, industry, service, and civic choices shape conquered through the 20th century. and by extension how those decisions continue to shape the city we govern today. History matters in leadership because it provides context. It reminds us that today's challenges are rarely new, that progress is rarely linear, and that every major decision carries long-term consequences, which you well know. intended the consequences intended or otherwise. When leaders understand how a community arrived where it is, they are better equipped to decide where it should go. This publication reflects that principle. 18 local authors, many of them civic leaders, contributed chapters, that examined conquered military service, business industry, neighborhoods, schools, institutions, and civic life. Together they tell a story not of isolated moments but of interconnected

choices and shared responsibilities across the generations. We are especially proud that both the mayor and councelor Cordovic contributed chapters and I encourage you look at the back. There's a uh [clears throat] there's quite a list back there and there's more to this book than you can imagine. The fact that we had people involved with government underscores history is not separate from governance. It is part of it. Their work alongside that of the other contributors reinforce the idea that leadership benefits when it is informed by an honest understanding of the past. Our hope is the crosscurrens of change serves not only as a historical record but as a reference point a reminder that thoughtful informed decisions had always been cons have always been central to conquer's resilience and success. These are the final paper books, paperback books by the way, that we have in our collection. So you might consider these priceless or free. [laughter] Even so, we've reduced this value to about five bucks for the for the last several years. Well within the gift value under your council rules. So you can keep it.

[laughter]

I think thank you for your time, your service, and for recognizing the value of our city's history. So, you may use this as a guide for your leadership today. That's all I had to say, but I'd love to answer questions. And I'll just point out this book. Uh there were four people that really made it happen besides the board of directors and previous board members all listed in here and then all the contributors in the back but the primary person was John Mil and John was the person I'm looking for the right worked and worked at the state house for a while but had a very very important career as a reporter for different newspapers. And I can remember asking John, would you be willing to chair this program and he absolutely he said yes. He was about to retire and he worked his butt on making this happen and it was very shortly thereafter that he suddenly passed away and it that was very very sad. A second person who was our project manager was D uh uh Dick Osborne. And Dick was the president of WKXL. And there were two other people that were who put it together, made it happen along with all our contributors. Uh and one of them is Becky Kinnan. Does anybody know Becky Kinnan? Well, she was the designer and she's sitting right behind me. And that's great for Becky. And of course, we had to have an art director, an art designer, and guess

who? Jeff Forester. And you see him in the Cocket Monitor every day. And he's here, too. The one thing I would add was that, you know, you had a 2020 uh program back when Bill Marino was your mayor. And out of that work that they did with the 2020, Doug Black, Dr. black, some of you may remember, very very good friend of mine, came came to me and said, "We've been discussing about a conquered historical society. Would you consider making that happen?" Really? He said, "Absolutely." And it was shortly thereafter with the help of attorney Susan Ley who some of you we had bylaws and a fantastic committee of board of directors and they're listed also in the book and then the very it wasn't but we were about a year into it and we had we had life its history we had boot history those are histories of conquered boot was the early one life was the next one that we as a society said, "Wait a minute. It's our responsibility to do the 20th century." And we got together and said, "Absolutely, we're going to make it happen." And we started the process. But there were a couple important things. One of them was that this book was going to be entirely a conquered project. It was, do you remember town and country printing a repo? They did the printing. Do you remember Capital Offset up on North Main Street? They uh contributed a great deal to the final printing. And then

we This book, by the way, literally came off the presses as we were having our first night putting it together. And it was in town. It was at uh the conquered hotel and in that area where we did and the books literally came down the street on a on a on a It was a fun fun night. But every person that contributed was from conquered. The book was produced by people in conquered and it was supposed to [clears throat] be uh a conquered item forever. And the other thing that was most important that John Mill and six it on is that it should be readable. And the whole point of this book was that you could take this home and put it on your on your table in the living room and pick it up at any time and have fun reading it because if you look at the chapters, there is a theme in every chapter. And it's exciting when you stop to read it and see how the different people involved in each one of those chapters played a role in who we are today. And by the way, we're lucky folks who live here in conquered and have this kind of a history behind us. And I congratulate you all for being elected to continue to be our governance.

Any questions? Any questions for Mr. Milligan? I have one. Thanks. First of all, thank you very much for all this work. It's outstanding. Uh, and you talk a lot about your history of conquered and also, but I don't know the history of you. Where did you [clears throat] come from? And [laughter] what is your history? A good question. He's on witness protection. [laughter]

I'll make it. I grew up in public and I had the very very good fortune uh as a young man uh to go through all the public schools uh St. Paul's Church uh University of New Hampshire and at one point I was a comfort policeman [clears throat] the best job I ever had. and at at another point I was the president of the chamber of commerce and then later the uh director or vice versa. Thank you.

So I grew up here and I couldn't be happier and to be so fortunate. I am a very very fortunate person to have had some kind of a leadership role and helping to continue to make conquered what a wonderful place it really is. Well, you pay it forward and thank you very much. It's it's great. Right. Right. Thank you for asking, Council Caleb. Yeah. First of all, thank you so much. This is incredibly meaningful. Um, I'm curious, uh, how long was the process for, uh, I mean, the research, the writing, the it this is I'd turn around and ask Becky, but I would say it seemed like forever to [laughter] Oh, by the way, the table of contents, uh, in the back is

the 23, pardon me, the glossery. Glossery, excuse 23 pages. When John put it together, he said, "We're going to have that thing that'll sit on the table and can people people can pick it up, but it's going to be accurate." And he checked and checked and checked. So when you go to the glossery, 23 pages of glossery, you can depend on that to be a legitimate history book. That's extremely extremely important uh for this book and for us when we put it together. Any other council Todd?

Thank you, your honor. I don't really have a question, but I do have a comment. Uh, and that is uh that uh you just mentioned that you feel very lucky and fortunate to have lived in. [clears throat] Well, I will return that. I'll say that we are very uh here in conquered working uh in many capacities that you had all the way back to walking the beat in Panico, I believe. As a matter of fact,

yes, that's why we're in such great shape now. [laughter] for that. Uh and uh and also I would all the names that you mentioned, I feel very fortunate personally to have been able to to know and work with all those people. Um and as well as working with you, which was a delight. Um and I really want to thank you. Your timing is incredible as we start to undertake the master plan process to bring this out to our attention. And I really do want to just thank you for uh reminding us to uh continue to learn from our history. Thank you. ANY OTHER Thank you very much. Um, before we move forward, I would just like to acknowledge I believe that we have the St. Paul School Political Magazine here. Is this true or Well, would you stand please and be recognized? WELCOME.

[applause] WE'RE HAPPY to have you here. We hope you find it enjoyable, interesting evening. And I will mention to you that St. Paul's School is spread throughout the pages of the book that Mr. Milligan just presented to us. A great connection and great history and connection between the school and the city over the uh over the the years, over the centuries really. So, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. [clears throat] This moves us to the consent calendar. Um I will uh I will just mention that item 20 was pulled from consent. Do I have a motion to adopt the consent calendar? Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor? I opposed. No.

Eyes have it. Consent calendar is adopted. That now moves us to the public hearing phase of our meeting. Madam city clerk, uh item 27A. It's an ordinance amending the code of ordinances title 4 zoning code chapter 28 zoning ordinance zoning districts and allowable uses amending section 28-2-3 the zoning map 28-2-3b1 the zoning overlay district maps thank you city manager

the honor members of the council the city of conquered participates in the national flood insurance program through the through the federal emergency management agency by participating here the city agrees to adopt flood flood plane management regulations to regulate development in the most sensitive floodprone areas in the city, also known as flood hazard district. In return for adopting the flood plane management regulations, residents of the city are able to purchase flood insurance through the program at a lower rate than private insurance can provide. In order for the city to remain compliant or in good standing, the city must adopt uh FEMA's new uh flood insurance maps and flood insurance rate maps uh effective date of January 23, 2026. So the recommendation and this has gone through planning board has reviewed and approved the recommendation that you approve these.

Thank you. Any questions for the city manager? Seeing none, I'll open I'll open the public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to testify on item 27A? Right. Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing on item 27A. Madam city clerk, item 27B. It's a resolution appropriating the sum of $100,000 in the water main replacement project for the construction of water distribution infrastructure improvements as part of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation's bridge rehabilitation project and authorizing the use the issuance [clears throat] of water general obligation bonds and notes in the sum of $100,000.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Now, members of the council, you may recall in September of this past year, the city council appropriated $300,000 for improvements uh to the water main infrastructure near the north and south parapit walls of the east side drive bridge. On October 23, New Hampshire DOT received bids for construction and repair of the rehabilitation project and including improvements of the city's water main infrastructure. The bids received are more than 30% higher than the engineers cost estimates for the project. The state sent us a letter and the u DOT has indicated that it is prepared to recommend the award of the contract to a low bidder including the city's water infrastructure improvements if the city approves of this action. They've asked that a supplemental appropriation is needed. Uh as currently the appropriated budget for this work is insufficient to fund the work at bid as proposed for the award. The recommendation is the city council appropriate an additional $100,000 to complete this project. And as you can see from the resolution, these dollars come from uh the uh this reserve fund. As you could if you go to the resolution report, you can see that it is general obligation bonds and notes from the water capital project fund. So, we just simply bond additional $100,000 to make this project happen if we want to go along with the state's project.

Thank you. Any questions for the city manager? Seeing none, I'll open the public hearing. Anyone in the audience who would like to testify on this item? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. Adam, city clerk, item 27 C. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $18,500 to assist the library's mission in providing a variety of equitable services to patrons at the Conquered Public Library and accepting the sum of $18,500 in donations from the Conquered Public Library Foundation for this purpose. [clears throat]

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. You know, members of the council, this check covers the period from January 1st of this year to December 31st of this year. And the Conquered Public Library Foundation has been very generous in the donations to the public library and recommended you accept the dollars. Thank you. Any questions for the city manager? All right, seeing none, I'll open this uh item to public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on item 27 C? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. Madam City Clerk, item 27D. It is a resolution clarifying and revising capital reserve account purposes, closing capital reserve accounts, and transferring remaining balances. Mr. City Man. Thank you, Mr. City Manager.

Members of the council, uh, the resolution they have in front of you is to clarify, revise the purpose of the use of the city's capital reserve accounts, closing the reserve accounts that are no longer used, and transferring the balances to certain reserve accounts. These accounts have been in use to help the city council manage expenditures of operating budgets and capital budgets which in turn helps manage the annual tax rate. As part of this process, New Hampshire RSA 34 uh colon 11 change of purpose after the purpose for which the capital reserve fund is established has been determined. No change shall be made in the purpose for which said fund may be expended unless and until such change has been authorized by a favorable vote of threequarters of all the members of city council and such change shall only be made after public hearing and help pursuant to a notice. The attached resolution in the subsequent public hearing would satisfy the provisions of 3411 if approved by the city council.

Thank you. Any questions for the city manager? Councelor Brown. Yes, thank you. I understand that the Department of Justice has a trustees of trust funds handbook. Do the trustees of the trust funds who oversee these capital reserve accounts, do they receive training uh from that handbook? I don't know. I have to ask the folks it's not provided. No. Follow up.

Follow up. uh do the what type of uh what training do the trustees of trust funds receive for that? I I understand that if they um if funds are withdrawn and they do not they are not for the purpose of the account, they're guilty of a misdemeanor. Do we provide any training to the trustees before they serve in this capacity? No, we do not. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

Any other questions for the city manager? Right. I'll open uh this item to a public hearing. Is there anyone who'd like to testify? Please come up. Welcome. Good evening, mayors, members of the city council, city manager, city clerk. I'm Ro Schweer and I know I'm not allowed to ask any questions, so I'm only going to make statements. I see there's an item in this form MS9 or whatever it is for a Nelson Legacy Fund 62NL and there apparently is no principal left. There is $292.38 in interest this year. There is no income based on that interest. I mean, I would have assumed that uh instead of having a separate passport to keep under your pillow for each of these funds that maybe they were commled, so all of the funds would receive some rate of interest. So, I'm kind of curious as to why this particular fund is [clears throat] not generating any interest and if we're not using it, why is it being eliminated? But so, that's a statement. That's not a question. Okay. The second thing is that uh a former member of the city council whom I understand is a friend of the mayor who has moved to a different community said in that community the reports of the trust funds are published in the report and I noticed that the stuff for these trust funds is not in the city budget and I wonder you know that's kind of curious I think that you know this stuff is not in the city budget where everybody can see You know, so once again, I feel strange about that. The third thing is that the

standards of the GFOA for municipal auditing say that the fund the auditor must audit every fund individually and not just the uh city as a whole. And I'm kind of curious as to whether that's actually being done. That's a statement. That's not a question. And lastly, I sent around a letter which many of you must have seen or at least had the chance to see about concerns that various people in this city have about the process of managing trust funds. One member of the public who was not a city councelor, actually went to the attorney general's office and Jeff Stretch, whatever his name is, said that maybe we need to get the police involved in this issue. And there are other people who seem to think that the city officials have stolen $100,000 which can't be [clears throat] accounted for. And my feeling is that what we need to do, and that's what this letter said, is we need to get the Department of Revenue Administration for free to examine the process that the city has for managing trust funds [snorts] and see if it's correct because we had a former city treasurer who presumably may have been involved in this process who went to NSUA and apparently the process down there was found to be not correct. So I think it's questionable whether things are here and once again I don't understand why the city is not uh you know doing this thing which would be free to make sure the process is correct because one of two things would happen. Number one if the DRRA finds the process is correct then that would reassure the members of the city and they wouldn't be worried about sending people to jail or which person in the city is stealing $100,000.

On the other hand, if the DA determines that the process has deficiencies, then we could correct them instead of getting the police involved in this. I don't think, you know, anyone is a crook. I think that we need to explain to people that this is being done correctly and I think nobody hired by the city is going to be trusted. Whereas DRRA is a neutral party that is more knowledgeable than anybody. and that's why I think they're the ones that should be asked to examine the city's process and see if it's correct. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Schwiter. Councelor uh Schultz.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Really, my question is for you. I f but first I want to say I have this the um I have no doubt that our finance staff, especially Mr. Lebron and his staff um are doing everything that they're supposed to be doing. Having having in addition to that, I'm wondering if we could suspend the rules in some fashion to answer some of these questions rather than leave them hanging out there given the serious nature of the questions. I just um I have such respect for Mr. Schwiker and where he's coming from that I feel like the that the heft of those questions should be addressed. council, we can we can uh deal with those uh during the discussion phase.

Thank you. Welcome, councelor Kredic.

Thank you, your honor. Uh Mr. Schwer, thank you so much for your testimony. I always appreciate you being here. Um who was the source of the uh questionable $100,000 uh nefarious activity? Do you know if you know? Well, the original source of this was a comment made by the deputy city manager that there was $100,000. They didn't know where it went. And some people have interpreted that to mean it was stolen. That's not how I interpreted it. by merely reporting that there are people in this city that uh are not happy about that statement and it would be nice to know that in fact we are doing things properly and you know people in the city aren't walking off with it.

May I ask a followup? Yeah.

Was this in the conversation in regards to the um purchase of um furniture and accessories and free pen um in the budget for the recreation department? I am not sure whether it had to do with pens or what it was. And I think I I think I understand where you're coming from and I think I agree with you. But I am not this person. I'm merely reporting that they interpreted things perhaps differently than some other people. And that's why it would be nice if we had DRRA give everybody a clean bill of health so these questions don't linger. It's not healthy for the city for residents to think that the city government is crooked.

Agreed. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Schwer? Councelor Ke. Thank you, your honor. So, Mr. Sweer, I just want to be clear. So, you're perpetuating a rumor or you actually actually know this is a issue? That's the That's the problem I'm wrestling with. Okay. I know that somebody who seemed to think that the $100,000 was missing asked me if I thought it was missing. I said I did not. But apparently this person would not have asked if he didn't have a different opinion. Thank you. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Shriker. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Schwiker. Always good to see you. Would anyone else like to testify on this item? Yes. Welcome.

Good evening, counselors. Uh, Mayor, my name is Jason Ghart and I would like to discuss the the issue I see is that there's a lot of questions as to money where it went or and [clears throat] this current item seems to just murky the waters even more. And I actually did see a clip about the $200,000 from the recreation reserve fund and didn't know if it was used for pencils or pens. And I was in the state government for one term. And I I just find that kind of absurd, especially right now with all of the widespread widespread fraud going on throughout the country. People don't really trust government accounting and I can't blame them. I don't. and I was in the government, you know. So, what I wanted to bring up was that it's pretty explicit RSA 3410 that reserve funds shall only be made for or in connection with the purposes for which said fund was established. And obviously, as it was stated before, it's a misdemeanor if they're using funds for things that weren't supposed to be. I just really would recommend that kind of just put everything on ice and the DR. I wouldn't trust a government agency to oversee another government agency. That just seems to be a recipe for more disaster. Another government agency to be created to see those government agencies that didn't do their job in the first place. Recently, I have been I've discovered that the county grand jury is actually the mechanism for investigating government. We only think of it as in its investig in accusatory role. Prosecutor brings forth an accusation says, "Hey, should we indict this guy?" But it turns out other states, for instance, Florida, they use its investigatory capabilities to its full extent. And I just want to read from the the handbook for the grand juries in Florida. This is really interesting. The grand jury, in addition to the duty of formally indicting those

charged with crime, has a further important duty of making investigations on its own initiative, which it will report as a presentment. The dis duty this duty permits investigation of how public officials are conducting their offices and discharging their public trusts. The grand jury may investigate as to whether public institutions are being properly administered and conducted. It has the power to inspect those institutions and if necessary may ca may call before the grand jury those in charge of the oper operations of public institutions as well as any other person who has information and can testify concerning them. Last sentence, if the grand jury finds that an unlawful, improper, or corrupt condition exists, it may recommend a remedy. And our grand jury in Marramac County, it meets well, it meets every month, but the new grand jury is coming in on Wednesday. And in September for the previous grand jury, I gave them information about this this duty and obligation they have to investigate government because, no offense, but we need somebody to oversee government that's not in government. And these people serve for 120 days, then they're out. They have no incentive to to, you know, play party politics. So anyway, I'm going to go Wednesday and I'm going to bring this issue up to them with some other ones. But I I just I don't want to think that anybody's doing anything untoward, but I mean there's a lot of money that's kind of up in the air and I I don't want to call it off right now, but I just Yeah. So anyway, that's what I kind of wanted to come here with. And just one other thing, the City of Conquer trustees of trust fund meeting back in November, the meeting started at 2:00 and ended at 209. Um that just I don't know. This whole thing just seems kind of sketched from somebody kind of looking from the outside. So, I would just highly highly recommend that you guys just put this on ice for the time being cuz I don't see the rush to mix up the pot more. Just kind of let everything settle, find out what happened because obviously something's wrong. I mean, let's be honest. So, let's just kind of figure out what's wrong. Nobody's looking because getting back to the grand jury angle, it's not

always about indictments. the grand jury can recommend a correction or they can simply just censure somebody basically like hey Jim you really aren't good at the job you know and I think that's better than because it's not about locking people up it's about correcting a problem you have people getting kicked out of their homes for not paying taxes there's real there are real consequences towards money not being used for what it's supposed to be used for so that's just kind of what I want to say tonight so and um yeah thank you any questions for Mr. Ghard councelor Schultz thank you Mr. Mayor I just wanted to say hi. Since you pointed at me a couple of times, we did work on some criminal justice legislation together at the state house. We probably disagree on a lot of other things. A lot of things. Thanks for remembering me. Good to see you.

Good seeing you. Thank you. I have a question, Mr. Ghog. Council Brown. Yes. Uh if someone is interested in following up with you about the the grand jury, what should they do?

Well, I'm going to talk to him 7:30 at the Superior Courthouse on Wednesday. and they're very receptive to just it's just regular people. It's 23 people that were told, "Hey, you're getting 20 bucks a day and you got to hear these cases." But I just if you look back historically, especially in the mid 1930s, 1935, the runaway grand jury under uh future Governor Dwey, they were upset about some racketeering and major prostitution rings going on. And now, let's back up. In 1992, there's a Supreme Court case. Williams and Scalia said in there the grand jury can investigate something even if they just want to make sure a crime isn't being committed. They don't even need to think something. So, it's very broad. Um, but anyway, yes, going to give them information and hopefully we can kind of get the bottom of this in some other things because in other areas of the country, they investigate everything from homelessness to it's not just about I think the timer is up.

Thank [clears throat] you. Thank you, Mr. G. All right. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Would anyone else like Would anyone else like to testify? [snorts] Seeing none, I'll declare the public hearing on item 27D closed. Madam City Clerk, item 27E, it is a resolution appropriating the sum of $2,50,000 as a transfer to reserves and authorizing the use of $2,50,000 from the fiscal year 2025 general fund assigned fund balance for this purpose.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Your honor, members of the council, you have a 82page report which I won't go through the entire thing, but the um let's hit some of the highlights. Uh the fiscal year 25 general fund total expenses expenses were under the amended budget by 2,139,300 and some items exceeded budget and some were under budget, but overall that's how much we were under budget. The basis for the attached resolution which you have is to transfer funds to reserve for future use to support needed initiatives that were either not funded in the fiscal year 26 operating budget were issues that arose after the fiscal year 26 budget was adopted. So the recommendations are and this one from fiscal policy advisory committee is to place $1.5 million into the paving program into highway reserve. That's one of your major uh uh initiatives. Put $50,000 into technology infrastructure and equipment reserve. Put $150,000 into the equipment reserve. So the equipment reserve would be obviously for fire equipment or general services equipment. Put $250,000 into the recreation reserve. Put $100,000 into the economic development reserve. That totals 2 million uh $50,000. and then allocate to uh the budgetary use of fund balance $655,000 for total side fund balance two $2,75. The attached resolution also makes recommend recommendation for supplemental appropriation amount of $46,000 $16,000 for a new replacement of furniture and fixtures. So, as you recall, we don't put a lot of furniture or much of any furniture in any of the individual budgets. We stripped all that out during one of the last recessions. So you when you've had dollars, that's how you've been able and I'll talk about that in a second. Uh $20,000 for overtime for the prosecutor's office to

complete software implementation and $10,000 for education and training. As you recall, during the recessions, you've stripped out a lot of training funds. So you've been able to put them back a little bit, but not all the way back. So you carry this one fund in case something comes up. So, the new replacement furniture and fixtures includes furniture for the accounting office, the human services office, the welfare department, and overtime for the prosecutor's office to scan legacy files into the new prosecutors by crap uh software. The request also includes funding for the educational related opportunities that may arise through the fiscal year that were not included in the fiscal year 26 budget. In addition to this, you have uh your the results of your enterprise and special revenue funds. So, and [snorts] you can see going through there and I'll just I'll just touch on the highlights for I'll touch on each one, but you can see uh you have a column for the amended budget, the actual budget, and the variance. And the variance is what the difference is between what you approved in the end result. So, you can see the parking fund uh did $653,900 better than budget. The airport did $52,600 better than budget. housing res uh revolving uh loan fund did $81,500 better than budget. The golf fund did $53,900 better than budget. The arena on the other hand $51,100 less and talked about those issues in the past. We'll talk about them again during the budget and how to address those. The solid waste fund did $542,900 better than budget. the uh the octif, the north end opportunity quarter tax increment financing district did $99,000 better than budget. The Sears block tax increment financing district did $1,100 less than budget but essentially, you know, just $1,000 off. So, it's pretty very close to budget. The Penokeook Village Tax Increment Financing District

did $20,700 better than budget. The water fund did $323,700 better than budget. The wastewater fund did $8,300 better than budget. So if you look at those roughly you on your enterprise funds and special revenue funds, you did 1,784,300 better than budget in any private sector, public sector. That is a tremendous results, tremendous financial results. And I recommend uh you you thank all the departments who did that because that that's just outstanding. in in terms of uh financial management of their budgets. And with that, I'll be glad to take questions. Any questions for the city manager? Council [snorts] Brown.

Yes. Thank you. I'm looking at the resolution uh which is recommending 250,000 to the recreation reserve and 100,000 to economic development. Um this time last year, we approved 400,000 to go to the recreation reserve. And the purpose of the recreation reserve is for future projects related to the citywide community center. Now during budget, we approved a bond for 130,000 for that same CIP 443. So I'm wondering why do we keep putting money into the recreation reserve if we're not using it for the purpose that it was intended? And I had asked uh in September where the 200,000 that was withdrawn uh from the recreation reserve went and that was when [clears throat] the finance director Mr. Lebron said he couldn't account for it and a h 100,000 has been withdrawn and I had asked in our December meeting where that money went. So if it's not going towards the purpose that it was originally created, where is it going? And the economic development You know, the purpose, the the actual purpose is investment in an office park, industrial park, and a civic center. And yet during budget, we pulled out 150,000 for events. And it is that is not the purpose for capital reserve funds or even this reserve. So I don't understand why we're putting more money into accounts that we cannot uh track where it's going

for. Well, we we could ask Mr. Lebron and Mr. took a 40 to come forward. When I say we, the wei is you. And so it's all up to you. Every time you've taken any funds and put them into the reserve accounts or taken any funds out, it's been a vote, a public vote by the city council, including you, Council Brown. So, I think I answered most of your question because it's you who actually did all this. So, a lot of the discussions about concerns about how funds came in and came out and what disappeared and didn't is really related to the city. He did not approve00 out of order. Out of order. Uh so I would ask Mr. Lebron and Mr. Confory to try to answer some of this.

To start with the $200,000 from last year that was part of the original budget for the fiscal year 2025 budget. Those dollars were transferred from the uh recreation reserve to the recreation department revenue line transfer in from trust line. It's fully accounted for. So counselor, if you're saying it's not accounted for, it is accounted for. When I said it, I couldn't tell you if we bought pens or pencils with it. It's because it went into the general revenue line of the recreation department. The $100,000 you're talking about, that was reduced from $200,000 last year to $100,000 in fiscal year 2026. Those funds went from the recreation reserve to the general re revenue line for the recreation department. That is fully accounted for. So for you to make that comment is absolutely inaccurate. May I ask Mr. Lebron a question please?

Mr. Lebron, when we were working on the budget, all of us except for the council Caleb and councelor Davyy who are not on the city council at that time. When we were working as the finance committee, did you hand out to us a budget detail document? Actually, the budget detail document went out to all the counselors when the budget was delivered on I believe May 9th. So that was May 9th. Thank you. And on page 42 of that document, was there a notation that $100,000 had been transferred from the recreation reserve into uh the revenue line of the uh parks and recck department?

It was a budget item. So the city budgeted and the city council approved that revenue budget of $100,000 from the recreation reserve to the trust fund line. Thank you. And so that and that is what we we voted on when we approved the fiscal 26 budget. Correct. The city council adopted the fiscal 26 budget on June 5th, 2025. And does my memory serve that that was unanimously adopted? I believe it was. Would that generally mean that everyone who was at the table at the time voted for it? That's what I would Thank you, Mrs. Thank you, Mr. Followup, your honor. Surely.

Thank you. I would just like to remind everyone that these funds were for a specific purpose, the recreation reserve. They are not meant to go into the general fund to pay down the debt. They go into a savings account for a very spe specific purpose. I attended the trustees of trust funds meeting in October and I asked them if they verify any of the withdrawals as they are supposed to do and they said they have never done that. Now, Mr. LeBron just sent an email to all of the counselors when I asked where are the minutes for when we approved the most recent withdrawals that happened between July 1st and October 31st. I said I would like to see the minutes for when we approved it and when the trustees approved it because the process is that it happens at the council first and then the trustees verify that the withdrawals match the purpose of the fund and he said they will approve it in January. That is after the withdrawals were done. The it's closing the barn door after the horse has left. The withdrawals have already happened. They did not approve it. We are not following the correct procedure.

Mr. Lebron, may I ask a question? Mr. Lebron, Mr. Penford, certainly. Have have funds been tr have uh dollars been transferred out of these capital reserve funds appropriately? They have. They've been moved to the general fund or to the uh capital funds that the city council approved. Mr. Goodord, as city solicitor, is that consistent with your understanding?

That is consistent with my understanding based on my review. I've worked with Mr. LeBron uh to review this um and worked with the trustees of the trust fund so that they understood their statutory obligations. Um and obviously the item the previous item before you is to make sure that there is absolute transparency and clar clarity going forward with the resolutions that the council has adopted.

Are you confident uh Mr. Confori that we are in compliance with state statute? Based on what I have reviewed, we are in compliance. And again, I think that there are some clarity issues that can be addressed in the previous item with regard to the resolutions to make sure that it is consistent with the council's wishes. Um but and that is why that item has been brought forward um after working with Mr. Lebron and his staff. Um but with regard to um how uh the the activities have taken place, I don't see anything that would cause me concern. Thank you. Thank you very much, Council Brown. Sorry.

Yes. I I just would like to ask Mr. Confori, did the trustees receive training on their responsibilities for verifying uh and when did that training happened? How frequently does that train has that training happened? So, Council Brown, I can't I'm not going to speak to any attorney client privileged communications that I had with the trustees. Um, and I am not familiar with what training they may or may not have had either uh directly through the city or the attorney general's office. Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen.

I'll now open public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on item I believe we're on item 27E? Mr. Shreker,

welcome back. [clears throat]

Hello again, everybody. And you know, once again, I have a little bit of a concern about the way this is being done. A couple of months ago, there was an item that there was a labor contract [clears throat] that had run over and money was needed for it and it was said, well, you know, we have to raise taxes to cover that. We can't take it out of any reserve funds. But now it seems like we have enough reserve funds that we're spending furniture with it. And so I wonder if maybe we want to revisit that instead of raising the taxes to cover that uh you know pay increase that we buy less furniture and use the reserve funds that we're going to use for the furniture because personally I think that you know our public safety people if they negotiated a contract they deserve to get it and that's more important than keeping the furniture another year. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Schwiker? All right. Thank you Mr. Schwiker. Is there anyone else who would like to testify on this item? I'll declare the public hearing closed. Madam City clerk, item 27F. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $46,000 in the general fund for furniture and fixtures, overtime, education, and training, and authorizing the use of $46,000 in reserve funds for this purpose. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. You and I covered this in the last presentation. This is all part of the same thing.

All right. Thank you. Any questions for the city manager? All right. Would anyone like to testify on this item? Opening the public hearing. Seeing none, I'll declare the public hearing closed. Madam city clerk, uh this moves us to the public hearing action phase of our meeting. Madame city clerk, item 28. It is an ordinance amending the code of ordinances title 4 zoning code chapter 28 zoning ordinance zoning districts and allowable uses by amending the zoning map and the zoning overlay district maps. Thank you. Do I have a motion? Move approval. Second.

Moved and seconded. Any discussion. All right. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I opposed. No. Eyes have it. Madam city clerk, item 29. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $100,000 in the water main replacement project for the construction of water distribution infrastructure improvements as part of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation's bridge rehabilitation project and authorizing the issuance of water general obligation bonds and notes in the sum of $100,000 for this purpose. Thank you. Do I have a motion? Approval. Second. Second. Approval moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I.

Oppos? No. Eyes have it. And the motion passes by the required twothirds majority. Madam [clears throat] city clerk, item number 30. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $18,500 to assist the library's mission in providing a variety of equitable services to patrons at the conquered public library and accepting the sum of $18,500 in donations from the conquered public library foundation for this purpose. Thank you. Do I have a motion? Move approval. Second. Approval moved and seconded. Any discussion? Right. All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I. Post. No. Eyes have it. The motion passes by the required twothirds majority. Madam city clerk. Item 20 uh 31.

It is a resolution clarifying revising capital reserve account purposes, closing capital reserve accounts, transferring remaining balances. Thank you. Move approval. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Councelor Schultz.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just um I feel like the questions that were pointed out, at least some of the main questions that Mr. [clears throat] Schwher had were addressed, um I will be supporting this in the next couple of um items because I have complete trust in Mr. Lebron and his staff and I feel like um I feel satisfied. Um if there's any suspect that I'm missing of Mr. Swiker's questions that we could address though if I if I'm one didn't get addressed do I encourage my fellow counselors to raise that um because I do think it's good when citizens ask these questions but I feel pretty satisfied with the work that our staff has done.

Thank you councelor councelor Caleb did I see your hand up

um actually do have a question no um I want to echo um what councelor said there about confidence in the folks we have working on this. Um although my question related to the recreation reserve um is regarding the change the and other recreation related purposes as approved by city council. And I'm not sure if it's a a question or just a curiosity how adding that phrase may potentially take away from the original intention of CIP the capital improvement project

for which it was designed. Um so would Mr. Confory like to speak to that

or or Mr. Lebron? So, all right, members of the council, uh, councelor K, the, um, the recreation reserve resolution that you have, the original one, um, that was adopted pursuant to um the the statute that is not necessarily for capital reserve funds, but for non-c capital reserve funds that allows a a broader use. Um, so as I understand it, the original resolution was related to the um, community center. Um, but there were uh, there were some there was some some language both in the resolution and in the report that was presented to council that said it was going to be used for debt service, also for expenses. Um, and then there was some indication that there may be other expenses that the council may choose to use for that. So when we looked at the history of this, there was a lack of clarity in terms of whether it was tethered completely to the community development center or used for other purposes because there was some language both in the ordinance and the res and the report that came with it. Um that really wasn't clear what the council's intent was and we understand that the council has then acted with a broader um use than it had uh necessarily in just the community development fund. That's why wanted to bring this forward, provide clarity of saying, okay, we're going to make it clear in the actual language of the resolution that this has some broader intent um to clean up that language that was in these different reports and resolution. It came forward originally.

Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Council Horn. Um, I would like to make a motion to amend the proposed resolution. Okay.

Um, I would like to move forward with closing the reserve account suggested and transferring their funds as suggested which was 5836 5906 6824 6901 Downtown Economic Development 8628 and the SVMS. Um, also supporting a change to the resolution 6901 to better add the definition to support the replacement of the fire apparatus as approved by city council. But I would then propose to not make any further changes to the verbiage to the 14 reserve that would add variables of and other X related purposes as approved by city council.

Council, do you have that in writing? Did you provide it to the city clerk in writing? Yep. Like do you have it now in writing? Yes. Okay. Did you provide to the clerk because it's very detailed in Yep. That's the end of my amendment. Sorry. Okay. There's there's a second. All right. Seconded. Is there discussion? Councelor Credovic. Thank you. Would this also mean that we're not going to transfer $250,000 into some of these reserves that you are mentioning here of these 14 because otherwise they'll be locked in place to be used for the sole purpose of and not for the broader use of recreational activities. I'm just using that one as an example because it's the one off the top of my head. No, I was just Oh, sorry. That's right. You can respond. Thank you.

I was just addressing this specific resolution. Councelor Curts. Thank you. May I ask a question? Ask councelor harm. Certainly, if she's willing to answer, are you I just wanted to could I speak to my Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, go ahead and speak to your motion. I apologize. I should have recognized you for that.

Um, I did a lot of research around reserve funds, their purpose and their definition. I primary primarily relied on the New Hampshire Municipal Association, which provides a lot of information derived from the state statutes and guidance from the Department of Revenue Administration. The purpose as outlined by these entities clearly state that voters should always know what these funds will be used for. If a resident asks what is the reserve fund for, I don't think us saying whatever a future council decides is a good answer. This creates confusion, uncertainty, skepticism, especially at a time when public trust in government spending is always fragile. The NHMA and DRRA also note that the purpose cannot be too ambiguous. I'll quote from their presentation. vague purposes present potential conflict regarding proper expenditures. End quote. The phrase and other related purposes as approved by city council is simply too vague. Reserve funds exist for specific clearly articulated reasons, stability, emergencies, long-term planning, or defined capital needs as defined by the state statutes. When we dilute that clarity, we undermine the very purpose of having reserve funds in the first place.

Thank you, Councelor Curts. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Council Horn. I also looked at the NHMA's um presentation and also right now I'm looking at RSA 341 and the item one under that says a specific capital improvement, but item two says or type of capital improvement. That language in the RSA combined with the example in the NH NHMA presentation which gives just capital improvements as their vague example to me is a far cry from I think you named 14 specific types of improvements within the city. And I think given the scale with which we operate, it is reasonable for us to set aside funds for types of improvement such as economic development, community development, um recreation. So I think that this is a question of um interpretation of the RSA, what qualifies as a type. And in this case, I disagree that it undermines public trust. I think that in fact tonight's uh item before us is intended to clarify that these funds are in fact set aside for purposes related to recreation and the language changes and the other 13 um capital reserve funds are intended to do the same to create greater clarity for the public and then leave it at the discretion of the council which is elected.

Thank you councelor councelor Tennessee.

Thank you. Um I will not be supporting the amendment, but I do appreciate uh councelor Horn um digging into the statutes which um in my my daytime job I spend a fair amount of time with. Um I do think as revised what's being proposed makes a lot of sense. Um I think much [clears throat] of that NHMA material is geared towards town meeting and making when voters show up that they understand what the purpose is of a trust fund that's being created. Um I think that we uh operate in a slightly different fashion because at the end of the day it's us sitting around the council table who have the opportunity to change a trust fund anytime we want provided we get enough votes. So I think what's really important is to make sure that we all sitting around the table understand the particular buckets for which we're putting money away and make sure that the purpose associated with it makes sense. Um while I I understand some people want to narrow the purpose uh as much as possible, I do think we want to make it uh sufficiently broad so we understand what category of uh appropriation the money should go towards but not unreasonably limit it to um such a purpose that you know effectively we can't use the money again until we you know get threequarters of us to vote for a new purpose. So that's where I stand. Thank you,

Council Brown.

Yes. I'd just like to point out that there are um there is an RSA for towns and it's RSA 35. RSA 34 deals specifically with cities. And we received public testimony that talked about these funds are for a specific purpose. That's the creation of them. This is making them more generic, not specific. And you know, we have a a fund fire apparatus replacement. We did not put money into that. We could have put hundreds of thousands of dollars in. We've put three and a half million dollars into the recreation reserve. We bonded a fire truck instead of using the fire apparatus replacement. And because we bonded that truck, we are paying 400,000 in interest. So I think that we are not we are not being as smart about these funds because we should as the governing body uh be examining what our future needs are and how we should be saving for them. I was listening during budget when the city manager said yes you can use it for everything. Yes, you can. You can do it. You can do what you want. Then I took financial policies class and then I talked to other municipalities, talked to the auditors and they said it must be for a specific purpose. So it was learning that my role as a representative that and all of us at the table 41 colon 9 we have the responsibility of internal controls for the assets and the properties of the public and this is part of it. So I think before we put more money into these, although I support this amendment, I do not think we should generalize any of these terms, but I think we really need to look at what are we saving for. Why are we putting 250,000 into a recreation reserve when we know that the fire station is going to have

more needs? when we know that there are other issues happening in the city, I think we need to look forward to uh what's happening before we dedicate a h 100,000 for economic development when it's clearly for an office park, industrial park, and civic center. So, I will be supporting this amendment. Thank you, councelor. Any other discussion? Councelor Schlloer.

So, I I don't think I can support this amendment. [clears throat] I think it all depends on what you mean by specific. I mean recreation is different than highway. Okay. So, but if it's specified as a recreation as a type, then it's specified. It's specific. I don't think saying specific means you have to know well which piece of equipment, which building or something like that. But it's the category of community improvement or recreation reserve or highway reserve. And those are the specific purposes. And it says for example the highway transfer to it is recommended to add and other highway related purposes as approved by city council. So I think that's saying to the public this reserve is used for highway purposes. That's the type of expenditure that this reserve is. So I think this is cleaning it up. So, I will be I think I have confidence that this is really maybe overdue, but we're sort of cleaning up some of our housekeeping, our language so that it's clarified and we have the responsibility to make to oversee it. In this instance, I think I cannot support this amendment.

Council, [clears throat] thank you. I appreciate councelor Schlloer's comments and I agree with them. And I would add that [clears throat] uh I think folks need to remember that the reason that we have reserve accounts is to make it easier on folks to pay their taxes. I mean that there's no nefarious reason that we're creating these accounts or we're trying to hide money or we're trying to be not transparent. It's actually the opposite. We're trying to be more transparent by having separate accounts. That's why we have enterprise funds. That was why we have separate uh funds parking for example and golf and so forth. that's make it easier for the folks to see where the dollars are being spent, where the money is going. And ultimately, the reason for the reserve funds is in fact to make it easier so we don't hit taxpayers with uh large tax rate increases annually uh and that we can we can soften [clears throat] that blow by using some of this reserve fund dollars. It's no different than utilizing grant fund dollars when we when we apply for and receive grants. Um, so I also appreciate councelor Horn's u uh digging into this and spending time with this u and uh but I I also can't support it for those reasons. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other councelor Caleb? Oh, thank you. Um can we hear the amendment again? Can you provide it to the city to the city clerk, please? I ema Did you get it? You have it in writing, right? Yeah. Did you provide it to the city clerk so she can read it? Oh, no. I'm sorry. Here I emailed it. I'm sorry. No, I don't have it printed. She emailed it to the city clerk. She emailed it to the city clerk. All right. Well, could you provide her with your device so she can read it? Yeah. Thank you. Just as a matter of course, if people want to come in with extremely detailed uh amendments, we need to have that writing like hard copy. Paper paper. [cough]

Thank you. Thank you, councelor.

Is it No spoke like three hours and I said right. So, Councelor Horn's motion is to amend the proposed resolution and move forward with closing re reserve accounts suggested and transfer their funds as suggested. She has in parentheses 5836, 5906, 6824, 6901, which is downtown economic development, 8628, and SVMS

soil soil vapor management system.

Thank you. Um, she would also suggest uh a change to resolution 691 to better add definition of to support the replacement of fire apparatus as approved by city council. And then um she proposes to not make any further changes to the verbiage to the 11 reserves that would add variables of and other X related purposes as approved by city council. It includes 5906 Durgen Block 6570 6572 6859 8427 8517 8575 8576 8935 9537 9605 9650 9627 and 9608.

Thank you councelor Caleb. Thank you. Um I in thinking about this um maybe I'm focusing I'm not sure maybe I'm focusing too much on the you know the original intent and I'm just going back to the recreation reserve because I I when I'm looking into this I the context tells me that this was kind of a contentious topic recently and um I forgive me this is my first day. Um this might be a kind of [laughter] a silly question. you're doing.

Um, but if the original intent of this particular one um was for the Heights Community Center and it was used for a number of other projects and then we're adding the language that makes it a little bit more vague, why not open a separate reserve account for those, you know, others as necessary and leave this one as a community center reserve fund. That and again I say this is my first day. I'm just the first thing that comes to mind is maybe there are situations in here where things should be separated. That's I'm not sure. But I I appreciate um Councelor Horn looking into this and um with such detail. I do. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor. And and just for clarification, the place where we're at right now is considering discussing and voting upon specifically Council Horn's Yeah. amendment. Yeah. Proposed amendment. Council Key. Um I just for the record, I just object to um what was just introduced to the record, the electronic um uh amendment or I'm sorry, electronic uh testimony that may or may not been from Councelor Horn. Uh I don't think that's appropriate.

Well, councelor, let me let me say again for clarification, according to city council rules, the city uh the mayor may require a written a written uh amendment. Uh I'm not requiring the written amendment. In other words, the way I interpret that interpret that is a written hard copy to be able to present it to the clerk. I'm allowing it now because it hasn't come up before, you know, and obviously council horn a lot of work into it.

I I understand your point. Just know that going forward the mayor can very easily say, "I'm sorry, you don't have a written copy of your amendment. We we're not going to consider it, but we are going to do it in this case because it has not come up while I've been sitting in this seat." Any further discussion? Council Credit. Thank you, your honor. U Mr. Kofford, where does president come into play? because certainly this is not the first time that we have um used money out of the [clears throat] reserve and then replenished money in the reserve um for different reserves, not just this one. Isn't there a precedent or is there a precedent that says we've done this in the past, we're cleaning this up and that's uh the message that is for the council. Is that correct? Please

approach. I feel like a judge. Approach.

Don't move until I'm told to. So, council, I wouldn't say that precedent is really the issue here. I think the the important thing to remember is that this is the council's resolutions, right? So, they when you know, we've given you a series of resolutions that the council has adopted over the years. Um over decades, the verbiage that was used um to create those resolutions has changed as staff changed, I think, and used different templates. So that created some lack of clarity in terms of all right, we want to make sure that we're expressing the council's intent right now. So what's before you is an attempt again to express the council's intent. Do do you want to again give yourself some more leeway with regard to the language? Do you want to stay with with more restrictive language? Do you want to create a different uh reserve fund? You certainly can do any of those things. So ultimately it is up to council to review their resolutions and decide do these still reflect what we want to uh how we want to use these uh reserves going forward.

Thank you. Thank you councelor Kurts. Thank you. May I speak to uh councelor Caleb's suggestion or inquiry about keeping this you know a specific height community center reserve and then Sure.

Okay. Thanks. Um my thought on that is that when we look at the when I look at the other reserves that we have in this resolution they are largely types highway wastewater water and while previously right in 2016 that council did create a reserve which they created language to make it specific for a Heights community center to me what we're proposing to do tonight um is you know take the voice of the council brings the recreation reserve language in alignment with the other types of capital reserves that we have. And I just think [clears throat] it would be um cumbersome and and unnecessary to create a separate reserve. To me, they're all of a type. A bridge reserve, um, sidewalk reserve, recreation, and then the council has at its discretion the opportunity to allocate funds to any of the number of um, recreation facilities have around the city that we maintain, you know, in a a cycle, parks, etc.

Councelor Brown.

Yes. I'd just like to uh just two things quick. budget detail is not available publicly. Um, and it just is a line item that says 200,000 recreation reserve. Doesn't say what it's for. So, I'd like to see that made public going forward. But, I really want to thank uh, Councelor Caleb. really appreciate your creative thinking and I I think that what you're considering and I hope you do because I would second it is an amendment to an amendment of councelor horns that we create a recreation reserve for memorial field because that is a project that we are looking at that is going forward and that I would be absolutely open to this 250,000 going into a capital reserve account for Memorial Field because we know that's $31 million and we have so many projects um ahead of us and I'm looking at RSA 31 colon uh 34 colon 1 and it's the um let's see um Roman numeral 6 which is for oh no uh Roman numeral 2 which is construction reconstruction of a type of capital improvement Um, so I think that would align and I um hope you consider because I think that is a great creative solution.

Council, let me just say I'm not going to consider an amendment to a proposed amendment. If councelor Caleb wanted to come after we vote on councelor Horn's amendment, make an amendment certainly, but we're not going to have amendments on amendments on amendments on amendments to confuse them. We have one amendment before us. uh parliamentary procedure. Uh point of point of parliamentary procedure, your honor, that that is in order to have an amendment to an amendment. That's my ruling. Councelor, I rule on this I rule at this at this table. Council Grady Saxton, I'm fine. Thank you. You're fine. Okay. Council sec.

Thank you, your honor. I just want to understand because it seemed like this is a little confusing and Michelle councelor, please help me here. Your amendment here is really as presented everything you are okay with it except the language out of the 11 reserves previous language you want those language to be kept. Is that correct? Yes. Go ahead.

Uh I mistyped that it was 14 but yes keeping their current language as they are all of all of them that we would be keeping open. So follow up. Thank you. So everything that uh the city administration recommended UC port except that you feel the language that we are adding is not clear enough because it's giving us too much flexibility. Is that correct? Correct. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments before we vote? Roll call. Uh Mr. city manager. You want to?

Yeah, sure. The I was just watching student sleeve there. All right.

So, the uh two things. One is um just just to add if you you know, if you if you've looked through all the original language on the reserve accounts, you know, just using one example is uh if you're looking for highways and it says the city's including capital improvement funds for its improvements to highways and roads. So, somebody brought up earlier. So that I guess that means no sidewalks, no drainage, no traffic signals, right? But you constantly every single year you take money out of the highway reserve to do those types of things. So what you're saying now is all those times you did that, you should not have been doing that. Why would you want to limit yourself on on those things when when everybody knows when you put those dollars in, you're looking at the capital projects that are in the budget generally and you're saying, "Let's put some money in there because we're going to need these things." So, so take some credit for yourself. You you've been doing it right. You haven't been doing it wrong. Um, and also if you think about you're you're actually um making it vagger. The way you're making it vagger is if you don't put the money into the reserves because you wouldn't be putting money into the reserves now because you couldn't spend them the way that you wanted to spend them. It's going to just simply go to fund balance. So, you're just going to create this enormous fund balance and you're not going to be able to tell the public what why do you have this fund balance? Or some of you could say, "Well, I we're we we're going to use it on roads." And some can say, "We're going to use it on replastering the pool at Rollins Park." And some people are going to say, "We're going to fix the uh the the um uh paths in at at Keech Park." Um some going to say, "We're going to use it on Canal Street." But it's but if you have it in the reserves and you have those capital projects, you could actually tie it down. So So I'm suggesting that you actually limit how the money gets used by putting in the reserves. You're communicating to the community recreation's important, economic development is important. If you just let it go to fund balance, which is what you'll be doing because you there'd be no reason anymore to put funds in

something in these reserves that don't have a purpose that you wouldn't want to use it for, [cough] you're going to you you're just communicating to the community that you don't have a plan. So, you remember I came in in October, gave you the entire um capital improvement program and said, "Give me some feedback of anything you want to change." you didn't want to change anything so we left it. So when we look at these reserves, we say, "Okay, this is the capital budget that the city has." Um, could be memorial field, it could be anything else. And when we actually allocate these dollars, for example, the highway improvement program, I would really like to do uh repaving up on the heights. So I've put a tremendous amount of money more in the capital budget or in the reserve for the capital budget, do some major roads that need to get done on the heights, sidewalks on Penroke Road. I mean, there's all kinds of projects like that. If you don't want to do that and just let the money go to fund balance and then just deal with it at that time, that just actually gives more flexibility for us to be able to do that. But why why would you do why want why not communicate to the community this is what our priorities are.

Okay. And I'm sorry. No, not I'll leave it. All right. Are we ready for the vote? Excuse me. May I ask him a question? Come the city manager a question based on his statements. You want to entertain a question? Go ahead. I I'm just confused why we wouldn't use unassigned fund balance for something that was um un you know that I think is and that's something that we would vote on. So it wouldn't have to come from a recreation reserve a vague broad recreation reserve if there is something that comes up because we have done it. I think we did it at the last meeting that we will take from the unassigned fund balance and that's what it's there for. Right. And that makes it vagger to the may I Yes.

That makes it vagger to the community. You're not saying that you're putting away money for recreation reserve. You're just saying you're putting it in a fund balance with no purpose. So you agree? No. No. I'm okay. All right. No, we don't. All right. Are we ready for the question? This is the amendment. On the amendment. This is on the amendment presented by councelor Horn. Do we all know what the question is? Yes. And I've uh had a roll call vote requested. So it will be a roll call vote. This is on councelor Horn's amendment to the original measure to the original motion to adopt this item as presented. So we're voting on councelor Horn's amendment. All right. Madam city clerk,

councelor Brown, yes. Mayor Champlain, no. Councelor Davyy, nay. Council Peny, no. Councelor Foot is not here. My apologies. Councelor Grady Stton, no. Councelor Horn, yes. Councelor Caleb, no. No. No. Thank you. Councelor Kee, no. Councelor Credick, no. Councelor Curts, no. Councelor Slasher, no. Councelor Schultz, no. Councelor Seiku, no. And councelor Todd, no. The motion fails. The motion fails. We now have the original motion before us.

Councelor Sec. So I voted no for two reasons and I want to talk about flexibility because I think often time when we say give the city council flexibility and our authority as well any funds that we move from any reserve money that moved still comes to this council. So even if we are vague or too broad we can still make the decision. The decision is not saying that And that's what the language said in this motion that we have on uh councelor Brown. I see you councelor go ahead and speak.

So for me I think when the authority is still on the table of the council to make the decision of course a definition is always good because clarity is what we are looking to do. But based on what uh the city manager just talked about or stated, every money that we have in a reserve fund, either we make a a broader definition or not, we are going to be having that same opportunity to vote on it when the time comes. Council, you all set council. Council Thank you.

Thank you. Um, I would like to first thank Councelor Brown for bringing up this issue. Um, in part because, uh, I think it was, uh, a great opportunity for city staff to go back and take a look. I mean, many of these reserve accounts have been there for many, many years. And, um, I think they did a lot of great homework in sort of going through and highlighting where there's some ambiguities from our prior councils. Not that I'm going to blame them, but uh perhaps some ambiguities in how they viewed uh what those funds were being put aside for. Um I'm particularly happy that we're closing a bunch of these accounts which clearly have long since served their purpose. So um thank you to uh

[clears throat]

uh the deputy city manager to uh the city solicitor and city manager for for going through this exercise. And I do think it's been sort of helpful for us to go back and look and see, you know, we we know about the existence of these funds and sort of a general idea about what they are there for, but really going back and sort of understanding what the purpose is and making sure going forward that the purpose is what we want it to be. Because I agree with what the city manager said. We could just put everything in unassigned fund ballots. You know, that would be great, right? It would it it would create essentially a a savings account we could use for any purpose. But the minute you did that, you would have everybody saying, "Why are you putting all this money in this big account with no purpose for which you're going to use it?" At least by using these reserve count accounts, we're signaling here's where we want to spend our money. here's where we think our biggest uh expenditures are coming down the road and and this is why we're holding on to that money which otherwise we could return back to the citizens. I mean it's it's their tax dollars, right? So, um I guess I'll conclude with thank you for bringing it up. Thank you for everybody taking a deeper dive at this.

Thank you, Councelor Kale.

Yeah, thank you. Um so so I voted no. Um I I think the level of specificity I may be looking for is just somewhere in the middle. Um and I based on you know uh what Mr. Confford said earlier um it is an interesting I guess the council does have opportunities and that one of these opportunities presented to us is um you know to take a look at these reserve funds to close some of them to make them potentially more specific or more vague. Um, and I think I just struggle kind of in the moment where everything moves very quickly and wondering a question I guess I'm wondering is is there a timeline attached to approval of this? Is it I guess I'm asking is it urgent to approve this?

[snorts]

there's not an urgency of getting it done today. I think the importance is um clarifying the uh each one of those reserve funds to provide the city council with the flexibility to manage the city operations the way that they deem is appropriate, the most appropriate. I think as we get into the next budget process, there's, you know, there's been some uh items that were brought up that said you can't use it for this, you can't use it for that, we're doing this wrong, we're doing that wrong. This clarifies those confusions. When the city manager presents the budget in in May, if he hasn't been able to properly utilize those funds because now somebody's claiming that, you know, uh we can't use it for that purpose, that presents a problem for him. If you look at just just the paving program, $2.9 million between the money that was used in the uh highway reserve fund, if you you know, just divide that by $546,000, which is 1% on the tax rate, you know, you're looking at, you know, five and a half to 6% on the tax rate in order to support that. You know, it makes sense to be able to use those funds. set the city council sets those funds aside so that you can manage the bud the budget and streamline things a little bit more to manage the tax rate increases to manage the capital increases. You know the city council can decide whatever you want to use those funds for. If you want us to you know develop many more capital account uh capital reserve accounts we can do that for those purposes that you want that can be done as time goes on. But I think, you know, if you take too long in order to approve this, it puts the city manager in a jam as he's starting to prepare the budget for fiscal year 2027, which is coming right up upon us. And I think that this helps to clarify all those things and it puts those issues to rest.

Mr. Mr. Lebrren, when does the city manager generally start working with staff to put together the budget before before he presents it to us in May? You know, Mr. mayor when the city council adopted the budget on June 5th last year and I had a meeting with him on June 6th and he started to talk about fiscal year 27 already. So [laughter] I just he doesn't give me a break whatsoever.

You may I give you example Tim Thompson just talked to me today about the closeouts of all the different projects that we're doing. We I want to have I want to have the capital budget pretty much done in the next couple weeks because from out of that capital budget I'll know what our operating costs are going to be associated with that council. I can work with you if you want to because I've been thinking along the same line. We're probably going to need a reserve account for the Marac River Greenway Trail. I mean you're talking about a $13 million project that's going to run through the entire city and which is constantly going to need to be uh going to need staffing. It's going to need it's going to need equipment. It's going to need all kinds of improvements. Why why not create something for that? And there could be other ones that that make sense in this state. And if you want to specifically put dollars there, then maybe people are going to make donations and you can put money into the reserves. I'll be glad to work with you on that.

Thank you. I I really appreciate the clarification. And thank you. Thank you, Councelor Schultz.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um I want to echo um what councelor Feny said. I do think we um need to thank councelor Brown um for the for the questions that she raised to a point. I think that my urgency is there was um a suggestion of fiscal impropriety a malfeasance at one point in social media elsewhere um and I I think maybe even at one of our previous meetings I feel an urgency knowing this isn't the case to clear the record to let this happen now and you know I hope I'm one of those folks that likes to question things and examine them and welcome that from the public. Um, but in this case when it when it tiptoes towards the the belief or an almost an assumption of malfeasance, I do not believe that's the case. So, I feel an urgency to want to clear that out of our minds and say we are addressing this right now. So, I hope that's helpful. Um, I love that you're you're bringing good questions. Um, but I feel a sense of urgency. Thank you, councelor. Are we ready for the vote?

Your honor, may I speak? I've had there have been three counselors who've referenced me. May I Sure.

I I appreciate that and and I feel the same way, but I do feel that we can trust but verify. You know, if the trustees have not been receiving training, then we should ensure that they receive that training. And I would also like counselors to reflect on our budget process. June 5th, we had our workshop and we worked very hard. And if you looked at that workshop and we went through this was the page from the mayor and I remember we spent what an hour shaving just a small bit. But what I noticed about this was that we only approved 205,000 from the community improvement reserve but 449,000 was withdrawn. So I watched that that whole meeting. I watched that finance meeting on June 5th and we went from finance, we approved this and then we went right into the budget and in the budget those minutes say 449,000. We did not discuss that. We did not say yes we we spent a long time. We know that 205,000 and it does meet the requirements for the capital reserve fund was to clean up Healey Park because we discussed that. My concern is that we did not discuss 100,000 coming from the recreation reserve and we did not discuss 244 additional coming from the community improvement. Mr. Lebran, would you like to respond to that?

If you look at the minutes of the meeting from June 5th, it identifies the 205 and the 244,000. and it also identifies another 150,000 from economic development reserve. It's all in the minutes and the minutes reflect the budget that was adopted by the city council and included every dollar. Do not try to say that there were the dollars that were transferred out were not approved by the city council. Every dollar was approved. I want to make that completely clear. Every dollar was approved. Thank you, Mr. Lebron. Are we ready for the question? Your your honor. He was I want to say that that was incorrect.

Council out of order. Out of order. uh point of order. That was an incorrect statement because I'm making this is a point of order. You can claim a point of order if there is misinformation being given and that is misinformation. You can look at the minutes from our finance meeting. The 244,000 was not approved by council. Counselor, that's so erroneous. I you know, honestly, I'm trying to be I'm trying to be polite here. Back to your Let's move the question. Move the question. that we have to now vote on to move the question. All those in favor of moving the signify by saying I I opposed. No. No.

Eyes have it by the required twothirds majority. Now we'll put the vote to the qu. Now we we'll be voting on the original motion which is to approve item 31. All those in favor please signify by saying I. I oppose. No. No. The motion passes by the required threequarter majority. Madam City clerk, item 32. It is a resolution appropriating the sum of $2,50,000 as a transfer to reserves and authorizing the use of $2,50,000 from fiscal year 2025 general fund assigned fund balance for this purpose. Approval moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor of the motion as presented, please signify by saying I. I.

Opposed? No. No. Eyes have it. Motion is adopted. M madam city clerk item 33 it is a resolution appropriating the sum of $46,000 in the general fund for furniture and fixtures overtime education and training and authorizing the use of $46,000 in reserve funds for this purpose moved second moved and seconded any discussion all those in favor please signify by saying I opposed no no eyes have it by the required two-thirds majority which is also the case for item 32 thank you this takes is to consideration of items pulled from the consent agenda. Madam City clerk, item 20. Yes, it was pulled from the consent agenda by councelor Brown. Sure.

It's a resolution establishing committee guidelines and term limits for the committee for conquer's plan to end homelessness. Thank you. Do we have a motion? I h am would like to ask questions. Do we have a motion? The motion is to ex uh I'm adding an amendment [clears throat] to this report. the we don't have a motion on the on the um I Olive mo motion to approve approve and discuss there is no motion to discuss we need a motion a motion to approve make a motion to do and then we second and then we discuss right all right councelor Brown would you speak

so I think this is an excellent uh this report I think is great that we should have um term limits and I do especially like on page two where they talk about a a member who misses three consecutive meetings without notice is subject to removal. Um, as we know that I have been removed from the committees that I was on and I'd like to note or point out that I would like this rule to apply to counselors. We have a counselor who is on the fiscal policy advisory committee and the public safety board who does not attend those meetings. There were 14 uh public safety meetings. he attended one. So I believe that if a counselor does not attend meetings, they should not be on that committee. And a a counselor who has a clear conflict of interest should not be the chair of a committee. If the co if the chair of a committee does not hold a meeting like the public safety committee which did not meet at all in 2023 there [clears throat] were months there was a gap of eight months between the public safety board meeting 12 months 15 months the public safety board there's so many public dollars taxpayer dollars that go towards that I don't expect to be on that committee I don't expect to chair because I have a conflict lict of interest. So I truly question why the chair of of the public safety committee is there and is not holding regular meetings. I think that should be correct.

May I respond? You may. Thank you, your honor. Um first of all, the document that you circulated with attendance was incorrect. You published it online. You circulated it to the clerk. It was absolutely incorrect. It was not factual and it's not a public document. Second of all, um if you believe that I have a conflict, then you should state what that is right here, right now, not online, while making all sorts of Nope. While making all sorts of allegations, accusations of criminal wrongdoing by staff and by your fellow counselors. Instead of saying it online, you should say it right now. Go ahead.

Okay. I believe that uh Councelor Grady Saxon has a conflict of interest. She is the lobbyist for the New Hampshire Coalition Against uh Domestic and Sexual Violence, which trains police officers and law enforcement and receives um um funds for settlements uh with the coalition. So, the person who trains law enforcement officers in pre in pre-trial publicity should not be the chair overseeing the police officer budget. That is it. And I believe that there is an ethics complaint that was uh filed with the clerk today for order. Mr. Mayor, point of order.

Yeah, councelor. As far as I know, the safety committee doesn't oversee this the the police department budget. council. Yes, I'm empathetic to having this conversation. I too felt maligned by that report that went around. It isn't official. I don't think this has anything to do with the commission to end homelessness. You'd like to move the question? Yes, please respond. Your honor, may I respond? I think that I've been imputed. I would like to have a response. Respect.

Thank you. Um I uh do not train the conquered police department. My organization has never trained the conquered police department uh in terms of any uh recent history that any staff person has in my organization. My organization does train police officers. Um and when they do so, uh there is no there is no monetary value attached to that in any way. So again, I do not train police department officers. I never have. I am the chair of an advisory board that makes advisory opinions to this body that makes the ultimate decision. I have no authority over any budget and there is no uh perception of uh a ethical or a conflict of interest in any way and certainly no financial um benefit to my organization or to myself in terms of our relationship with the conquered police department and I would appreciate it if you would stop making allegations as such on social media or here. The question has been moved. All right. All those in favor of uh moving the question, please signify by saying I

oppose. No. Eyes have it by the required three4 majority. Now we're up. We're now voting on the original. Let's vote on the original motion. All those in favor of the motion is presented, please signify by saying I. I oppose. No. Eyes have. Uh I'll declare a fiveminute recess. Thank you. There is an

So moved second moved and seconded. All those in favor please signify by saying I I opposed. No. All right. I'll entertain a motion to refer the communication uh on the suspense calendar. Uh suspense one communication from the attorney general's office regarding review of city contracts for DEI related provisions uh to refer that communication to the DEIGB committee and the legal department. So moved. Moved and seconded. All those in favor? I. All those opposed? No. All right. The motion passes. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded. All those in favor? Opposed? No. We are adjourned.