Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to tonight's city  council for March the 16th uh here at 7 pm. I   um council Taylor was not able to make it um in  uh in time. He's traveling, so he's joining by   Zoom. So, I would await a motion to leave the  nonpublic session and to seal the minutes of   that non-public session. So, moved. Second. And  it will need to be a roll call vote. Okay. Uh,   Assistant Mayor Kelly, yes. Councelor  Cook, yes. Councelor Councelor Bllelock,   yes. Councelor Baggley, yes. Uh,  councelor Monroe, yes. Councelor Flynn,   yes. Councelor Hopkins. Yes. Okay. Eight out of  nine, your honor. And on Taber's on Oh, he is. Counselor, can you hear us? And are  you able to uh say that you're present? Okay. I think we will um until we can uh we're  going to act as if um we are missing councelor   Taber. Okay. Um so all right. Um and we have a  few uh students uh behind us. Um before uh and   they're shadowing us for student government day.  Um before I ask Simon to lead us in the pledge   of allegiance. I didn't tell you that. Um but um  I'd just like to um when I heard the news of the   uh six airmen that were lost at the 135th wing  um last Thursday, I didn't quite um understand   at first when I heard refuelers. Um I immediately  thought of our men and women at the 157th wing   uh here uh at Peas. It's a reminder um  of what they do uh to go into harm's way  

um on behalf of our great country. Um, and I just  want as we stand for the pledge of allegiance   uh to think of those individuals uh  that are away from their families,   away from our community uh that  are serving on behalf of all of us to the flag of the United States of America  and to the republic for which it stands.   One nation under God, indivisible, with  liberty and justice for all. Great job,   Simon. Already better than me. Um, so I I want to  just um we have uh the the students. Um we have a   um um there's many more than are are  simply here, but for uh what's that? Oh, we still have to seal them. We're just  going to do it until we can uh join all   uh so uh to close the minutes or the meeting  and the uh uh and seal the minutes of the   uh public non-public session. All in favor? I.  Any opposed? We don't have councelor Taber yet.   Um so I would like to um first uh just  um ask the students uh that are here   for student government day to embarrass  them and to stand um as we applaud them. Um there are some shadowing us here uh on  the council. There's some across uh the city  

government. Um shadowing in every department. Um  it is uh one of the most exciting things uh that   we can do um as a city. Uh want to thank again  councelor Taber for reviving this a few years um   ago and and Heather and Michelle Wheeler for being  such great advocates uh for this program year in   year out. Uh we look forward uh to Thursday. It's  just a opportunity to um uh for us in I won't   speak about the opportunity for the students, but  for the folks that are up here for city staff, it   is an amazing opportunity to see why it is we join  um or run for city council in the first place. Um   to be a part of the future and to know what our  actions are actually uh for uh and that's the the   next generation. So, just um thank you again for  for being here uh for the work that you'll put in   um and for all um you know for for all of the  students uh and all the staff that are making   Thursday a memorable day. So, just want to thank  you and we will let you out. This is probably   going to be a little longer meeting. We will let  you out uh before midnight. I assure you of that.   Um your honor. Okay, just correct the record that  it was councelor Blelock who brought this back.   Yeah, you said Taber. Did I say Taber? I was  looking at Oh, because Taber's not here. That's   okay. Sorry, Council Bla. I was All right. Yeah.  Sorry, Rich is gonna Yeah. Okay. All right. Yes,   Council Bla. Um Okay. So, um we what we're going  to do uh so we have uh the Secretary of State   Scandlin here. I um who was gracious enough  uh to attend um to to discuss the school care   matter. And I know that a lot of you in the  room are eager to hear about the school care   uh matter. Um we are going to have that um right  after we get to uh women's uh the proclamation   that we have. We're going to suspend the rules and  have him speak uh before public comment. Um and   then we'll have public comment and those that have  signed up uh to speak will be able to speak and  

say uh uh anything that is on their mind and we  will start uh with uh um in the order of signups.   Does that just make sense to Well, it is what it  is, but that's I just wanted to make sure that   you're not going to have to wait until the end  to uh to hear from the Secretary of State. Um so,   first the um acceptance of minutes for March 2nd,  2026. Your honor, I move to accept and approve the   minutes at the March 2nd, 2026 council meeting.  I second that. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Next, uh, we have a proclamation on  Women's History Month. Whereas Portsmith   has particularly proud and distinctive  record of women in leadership positions,   Mayor Carrie Dondo began this legacy when she  was elected as Portsmith's first female city   councelor in 1940 and was subsequently elected  as our first female mayor in 1945. Her daughter   Eileen Dondo Foley followed her as mayor in 1968.  Mary Foley holds or mayor Foley holds the record   as the longest serving mayor in Portsouth history  serving our community for eight distinguished   terms between the years of 1968 and 1997. Mayor  Foley was success succeeded in the esteemed   position by Mary Morack Keenan and Mayor Evelyn  Cerell. And whereas as of inauguration day 2026,   Portsmith is ablely and effective served by a  female majority council with assistant mayor   Joanna Kelly and city councilors Kate Cook,  Beth Maro, Michelle Flynn, and Annie Hopkins.   These distinguished public servants are trusted  by the residents of Portsouth to work tirelessly   for all of us while the city is skillfully led  by our first woman city manager, Karen Connard.   women continue to inspire us with their leadership  as the chairs and members of city boards and   commissions and as professional staff across city  departments. And whereas every year since 1987,   the month of March is designated Women's History  Month to celebrate the contributions women of  

every race, class, and ethnic background have made  to the growth and strength of the United States,   and to recognize the specific achievements women  have made over the course of American history,   including serving as leaders at the forefront  of the suffrage, abolitionist, emancipation,   labor, and civil rights movements. And whereas  we are resolved to affirm the city's mission to   foster a diverse, fiscally sound, and harmonious  community which offers a full range of housing,   business, cultural, and recreational opportunities  for all of its residents, business, and visitors.   Now therefore, I, DO McCackan, mayor of the city  of Portsouth, on behalf of the members of the city   council and citizens of Portsouth, do hereby  proclaim the month of March 2026 in Portsouth,   New Hampshire as Women's History Month, and  urge all citizens to learn and celebrate the   essential contributions of women to the  past, present, and future of Portsouth.   given with my hand in the seal of the city  of Portsouth on the 16th day of March, 2026. I would now await a motion to suspend the rules.   So move and bring up uh move up  items for uh 13 C and 14 A. Second. Still no councelor Taber. All in favor? I.  Any opposed? Um so with that um I would invite   Secretary of State David Scandlin um here. I  would offer him to have a few words. Uh before   uh uh he speaks. I I simply um I want to I want  to stress um just how an important of an issue   uh this is to the city of Portsouth. Um we are  talking about health insurance for half of our  

employees um and those entrusted not only with  the teaching of our children but the support   of our school system. So this is all school  employees. I say this um not just uh from a   position of being lucky enough to be elected  mayor um in in this great city. I say this as   somebody that knows how incredibly difficult it  is to in the process of battling for a diagnosis,   battling for a future, battling for healthcare,  how incredibly difficult it is to navigate the   insurance process that we have in this country.  It is probably one of, if not the hardest times   of my life was watching my wife who was in the  process of figuring out that she had lupus,   uh, which was a diagnosis that came over repeated  tests to navigate the billing process. Even with   fantastic insurance that I had through my  employer, it was still a monumental effort   to keep up with the number of bills and claims  that we got. And I can very sincerely say that   the fear that exists when it comes to whether  or not those bills are going to be taken care   of should never be a part of the process of  focusing on your healthcare. We can assure you   as a council that regardless of how school care  may have brought this situation to our doorstep.  

We are not going to use those same tactics against  our teachers and we expect to be able to walk away   from this evening with a resolution to this  that ensures the continuation of your care.   So, with that, I would like to invite the esteemed  Secretary of State, David Scandlin, uh to uh uh   address uh Portsouth and then answer hopefully a  few questions. That's great. Thank you, Mr. Mayor,   and members of the council. And I think it's  great to see students shadowing uh the council.   Um I think I see some future leaders back there,  so I will look forward to that. That's great.   Um my I'm going to start in a basic sense and  talk about what a risk pool organization is. It   is not an insurance company. An insurance  company is a for-profit organization that   uh where people pay premiums to the insurance  company for the product that they're selling.   Might be health insurance, might be automobile  insurance or whatever. But those rates are   guaranteed. What is built into those rates are  the opportunity to build reserves and profit and   what is called floats in the insurance industry  where they have these large pools of money that   are available to weather a a very large claim  or whatever and that is just built built into   the business uh that they have created. A pulled  risk organization is a lot different. Basically,   it's self- insurance. The state of New Hampshire  self-insures its employees. So does the city of   Manchester. So does the city of NSHA. And they  cover the cost of claims for the medical care  

uh of their employees. And if the expenses exceed  the claims that are coming in, those political   subdivisions have to reach into their treasury  to grab the money that they need to pay those   bills. A pulled re a pulled risk organization  really is no different. It simply gives political   subdivisions that don't have the size to be able  to self-insure and realize some cost shavings   savings by having a you know a large group of uh  of employees to join together with other political   subdivisions so that they can have the critical  mass that's large enough to be able to do that.   They're sharing risk. So they're spreading the  expenses of medical care out over the whole pulled   risk organization. And when there is a surplus  that is generated uh in the in the payments that   are made by the political subdivisions, that's  returned back to the political subdivisions.   In the rare occasion that there are expenses that  exceed the claims, the political subdivisions are   responsible for that payment. They have to reach  into their treasury to to uh uh come up with the   money to pay those claims. Um, as part of the  discussion that I've been hearing there, there are   some pulled risk organizations out there that are  saying that they are nonaccessible. In my opinion,   there is no such thing. A pulled risk organization  may be able to try and hold enough in their   reserves to be to be able to weather a downturn.  And in so doing, they don't have to assess the   political subdivisions. They just carry it forward  and uh maybe raise the rates for the upcoming  

year, but they don't have to make an assessment  mid year. Bottom line is that the assessments   have basically been made in advance for that  situation. And if there was a situation where that   organization ran out of money, the only place they  can go to get it is the political subdivisions   that are members of that organization.  That's the only way the bills get paid. Just trying to get my train of thought back  here. There's usually not this many people. Um, so there was a a kind of a perfect storm that  occurred and it occurred for a number of reasons   and it occurred to every pulled risk organization  that was offering health insurance back in 2023.   uh the Pulled Risk Organization Health Trust uh  came to visit my office and they showed us our   financials, their financials and it was showing  uh an increase in claims that was really cutting   into their uh you know their reserves for payment  and they the the amount of cash that they had on   hand by the end of the year was significantly  lower than it should have been uh at the time.   that raised some flags. And we had our actuaries  uh that work for the Secretary of State take a   look at um the other pulled risk organizations  that were out there. And there was another one   called New Hampshire Interlocal Trust uh which  was also in dire straits and and in fact that   uh pulled risk organization ended up going out of  business. they they had to uh make an assessment  

uh of their members, increase their rates and  uh a bunch of their members started leaving.   They decided to end the business and run out  the business at which point we stepped in   uh and asked the judge to appoint a receiver  to take over that organization and make sure   that the claims were run out and that was done in  a very successful way. School care was not on the   horizon at that point, but as we found out later,  the same issues were affecting them that affected   the others. All of the healthc care related pulled  risk organizations uh had a very difficult time. When something like that occurs, it has to be  dealt with promptly and aggressively. And that   is what happened with uh with school care. Uh  they have been from my perspective they've been   very transparent. The board of directors has taken  the issues that they were facing very seriously.   Um they were responsible. Uh it is painful  to to make an assessment on the members of   the scale that was requested uh by school care.  I I completely understand how the council feels   um and the taxpayers in the town, but to bring  school care back up to the point of being viable,   it had to be done. Uh otherwise, they may be in  runoff right now. uh as a result of what occurred. The amount of money that these pool risk  organizations hold is a point of discussion that  

that should be made. Uh because we're talking  about really large sums of taxpayer money,   employee money, and retiree money that pay for  these uh for these uh uh for the for the health   care. And because of that, we're talking  of all the pulled risk organizations that   operate in New Hampshire, I think we're talking  about $750 million, half a billion dollars a   year of taxpayer, employee, and retiree  funds that are managed by these programs. When the reserve levels get too high, then the  money that the taxpayer money and the employee   money that is that is being used to pay for  these items is not being controlled by the   political subdivision. It's being controlled  by the people that are running the pool risk   organizations. And we know a few years ago  when there was a big issue with the local   government center that that the money was not  being properly used in some instances and uh   and that was causing a problem. Um it's important  because of that that the members of these pulled   risk organizations pay attention to them uh making  sure that they're transparent and making sure that   you understand how they're operating and how  that money is spent. And maybe by doing that   we could avoid the situation uh that we just  had. Now when we found out in my office about   uh the issue the big issue that we were facing  with the pulled risk organizations being in   financial trouble. We submitted or had a piece  of legislation submitted to help with that. And   I think had that passed, we not we might not  be in the in the in the position that we're  

in at the moment. Um what that bill did was  it it would have created thresholds within   which the reserve levels necessary to be on  hand to cover uh unusual events in terms of   you know major claims and other things uh to  keep those pulled risk organizations healthy.   um that bill didn't pass and we're dealing with  legislation again this time. But the bottom line   is the pulled risk organizations that were in  trouble and needed help have stepped up. Uh in   the case of school care, their board of directors  has made some really difficult decisions. Uh,   but I think that they've acted responsibly and  once this is behind us, hopefully we won't see a   situation like this again in a long, long time.  Hopefully never. So, we'll deal with it. Yeah.   Hopefully you guys won't have to deal with it  either. But, Mr. Mayor, I'll stop there and be   happy to answer any questions. Thanks, Secretary  of State. Um, I have a number of questions. Um,   and then I know a few other counselors do. And  you know the goal is uh for us to uh one um and   thank you uh for providing as much clarity as you  did. Um the goal for us is to to have um both for   the members in this room and the members that are  ultimately responsible uh the taxpayer uh for this   to understand um some of the legality around  this. So, I'm going to ask a couple questions   um and then um then hopefully um we will uh we'll  get you on your way. So, appreciate that. Um so,   is it your position that school care may  lawfully deny coverage or stop paying claims   based on non-payment of the assessment even as  the city of Portsouth continues to pay premiums?

If a member political subdivision does  not pay uh the the assessments that are   made to cover the costs of the pulled risk  organization, then I think at some point   uh the pulled risk organization has  no other choice but to deny claims   uh until uh the member organiz the  member organization uh makes a payment.   We saw that with the runout of uh NHIT. Uh in  the end, all of the political subdivisions paid,   but when things get that bad, cash flow is really  important. And in the case of NHIT in there was a   there there was an assessment that had to be  made. And if it was not made, the the member   organizations would not have been able to pay  claims that were catastrophic, like a you know,   a major organ transplant or something like that.  And HIT had um stop-loss insurance, but the way   that works is the bill has to be paid in the  first instance and then you receive the money   back uh for the stop loss. So that's an example  of where cash flow is really important. And if   you don't have it, you can't pay the bills. And if  you can't pay the bills, the medical provider will   uh will bill the patient directly. That's that's  helpful. Um we are, you know, between now and and   um the I guess the start of the next fiscal  year um will likely pay um the same amount   in assessment. Uh that is uh a monthly premium.  Is there operative contract language that makes  

this assessment a required contribution such  that school care can deny those claims even   while we are actively paying? You know, in this  situation, we're actively paying school care   uh for this month, next month, continue on uh from  a cash flow perspective. Is there language in the   operating agreement that allows them to add an  assessment as a part of that? Yeah, I don't know   the answer to that question except to say that the  premium payments have to be made just to deal with   the usual claims that are made in the course of  business. The the advice that was provided by the   organization's actuary. The assessment is above  and beyond that. The assessment is because the the   payments that were being made by the political  subdivisions were not meeting the needs of the   claims that were that were being made. Now, I  don't know what the reason was for that. That's   a that's a good question to ask school care, you  know, whether their actuary was off or whether   there were other mitigating cir circumstances  that caused such a dramatic uh problem. But I   don't know the answer to your specific question. I  don't know the details of and certainly, you know,   understand that there might not be answers uh that  you're able to provide uh this evening. Um school   care when we uh made an offer um to kind of create  the solveny until the end of of this year um uh   denied that but uh implied that um the Secretary  of State's office um if it were to approve um uh   the uh proposal uh would be able to accept that.  Is that an accurate uh reading of of school care's   uh advice back to the city of Portsouth? Well,  again, I you know that specific question I don't   have the answer to. Um um oh maybe another way to  ask it is the secretary of state are you willing  

um to review and approve an alternative resolution  that protects coverage addresses school care's   financial concerns avoids forcing local taxpayers  to pay an assessment approved before school care's   own written policies uh expressly allowed for such  charges. Um, I would say that school care, it's my   understanding that they have come to some payment  arrangements with other political subdivisions.   Uh, but they are all within this fiscal year. And,  uh, there are only two political subdivisions out   of 90 that have not paid or made some agreement to  pay. And so to the extent that you have a couple   communities that are not paying the assessment,  they're being subsidized by the other 88. And   again, this, you know, when when the when the  members of the pool risk organizations sign up,   you know, they're agreeing that we are a united  group and uh we're going to spread the risk uh   and everybody's going to be treated fairly. And  I think if you try and delay the payments outside   of the current fiscal year, then then uh it's  problematic for the other members of the group.   And I think that was in part of the the letter  back to the city um around that equal treatment.   It's not our intention to ask for um and the other  political subdivision um in this case is is Dover.   Um we weren't looking for a specific deal for  for Dover and Portsouth. Um we would love that   to be supportive for the entire group. Would  you support um making the alternative that we   uh proposed available to any similarly situated  member community including refunds for those   that have already paid or credits against future  contributions for those that chose uh that option?  

I just don't see how you can do that because of  what I said at the very beginning is that if you   do that and you delay the bills aren't going to  get paid. Somebody has to pay the bills and that's   what a pulled risk organization is. It is again a  group of political subdivision that come together   for the purpose of spreading their risk and  making health care available to their employees.   If there's a surplus, you get money back.  And if the expenditures exceed the claims,   uh, that has to be paid. And if you have a have a  formula where you're spreading the cost out over   future years, the bills aren't getting paid. So,  and I and I I see that um the where we run into,   I guess, maybe a little um disagreement in  that same um time period. you had mentioned   um health trust um we also and uh have health  trusts uh as a part of the city. They came to   you in 2023 um and they wanted to start raising  uh premiums and when we look back those premiums   were higher uh but their reserves have grown as  a result of that and and this year uh it was 11%   um you know that we paid uh as a city as a  result of that versus the 26% plus the 1.57   million equating to a 39%. Um we we entered  into and and un understood the agreement   uh with school care under the kind of  the membership agreement that expressly   um states that assessments are not allowed in  those members. So we all come together as you say   um it states that assess they will not assess  their members. Did your office review the written   school care policy uh be you know stating that  assessments were not to be used before supporting  

the the September 2025 assessment. Um we have  a disagreement with Health Trust over you know   whether they have a nonaccessible uh program or  not for again for the same reason. if they're if   they run out of money and they have claims that  are outstanding, they have to pay those bills. If   they don't pay them, then it's going to fall  back on the employees uh and the retirees uh of the community. So, um I'm not going to say much  more than that because there's litigation going on   in that in that particular area and and that.  Um bottom line is the bills have to get paid.   Understand that and you know we agree um in in  that certainly uh that the bills have to be paid.   I think the question is how quickly we return uh  the reserves. You know health trust and I'm not   looking for you to comment on health trust did  that through the rate setting uh model which is   what we would expected school care to do. school  care was coming in in retrospect much lower than   they should have based on um actuarial tables and  thus went through you know 29 and a half million   dollars in three years where health trust chose a  tact um where they were able to grow the reserves   over that same time period. I I guess um let me  just let me just make this point is that both pool   risk organizations related to health care that  are existing today have reserve levels that are   lower than they should be. It's going to take  them some time to build them back up to what I   think is in a a reasonable range of um reserves to  be. And to get there, they have to incre increase   their rates. If they're going to get there fast,  the rates are going to go up. If they spread it  

out over a longer period of time, they won't  go up quite as much. But both both pull risk   organizations are in a situation where they have  to increase their reserve levels to be healthy.   I understand that. Um I guess we could we could  come back into this point and I won't belabor it,   I promise. Um, but did you review the the or your  office review the the the school care policy that   that expressly state that they were going to use  the rate setting uh mode and did and prohibitly   said no to assessments and then how did you  conclude that the assessment was consistent   with school careers governing framework with  their policy stating the exact opposite? Yeah,   I'm not familiar with that but I don't know if  Eric or Jimmy you have a comment. Could you ask   a question again, please? Sure. Um, did you review  school care's policy? Um, and how did you conclude   that the assessment was consistent with school  care's governing framework when school care's   own written policy said assessments were not to  be used? I should introduce myself. My name is   Eric Forcher and I am the director of the Bureau  of Securities Regulation and I've been with the   Secretary of State's office for a long time.  And so, did we review the specific contracting   question that your city signed with school care  and that provision? I can't sit here today and   say that, but I support everything the secretary  said in terms of what the law requires and how we   view the law. I don't have specific recollection  of not our So, no, I'm not asking for our uh I'm   asking for the policy, the school care governing  policy, not specific to Portsouth, but consistent   of all the subdivisions come together. Did you  review that policy? I'm not familiar with the   policy you're speaking of right now. I'd have to  see it. We've reviewed a lot over the last several   years. I just don't know exactly the the policy  you're speaking about. So I don't want to sit   here and say for certain we did or did not. But  back to Secretary of State Scandlin's comments,   the rest of what we believe the law says and what  the law requires. You know, that's why we're here   today. But that specific policy, I can't sit here  for certain and say for sure or not. Okay, Eric,  

and I thank you. It seems like there might be a  little bit of a a disconnect only because that   that you know we're we're in the same uh boat of  like okay we're all going to come together and   we're all going to have um an understanding of  how we're going to raise rates and um you know   through the members of school care um and then  it's hard to kind of I guess um understand if   you didn't review that policy. So I guess is there  a way that what governing documents did the office   um look at or rely on when it endorsed the  assessment of school care the governing documents   of like because they have to come together you  have to vote there's a board there's a governing   documents is there any governing documents the  secretary of state's office looked at when when   when thinking about uh endorsing this assessment  I don't know that we actually endorsed the incess   the assessment as it was made we endorsed or  you know we said that school care has acted in   a responsible way in writing the the the condition  of their organization. So you know the the the the   bylaws are made by the pled risk organization  whatever agreements are in place or between   the pled risk organization and the political  subdivisions. Um we we follow the statute which   is RSA 5B and that's that is the statute that  gives the secretary of state the responsibility   to be the regulator. Um because these groups are  not insurance companies as I said right at the   beginning. Um and when there was an issue like  we just experienced, you know, we stepped in and   provided the assistance that was necessary for the  board of directors of these groups to be able to  

um make the decisions that they made. Okay. Um  and and and I appreciate that. So I can assume   if we didn't look at the the governing kind  of framework or documents or we don't recall   um doing that is it fair to say that we you  did not look at any of the member participation   agreements um when when assess when looking at  the um assessment or the the uh the ability to   assess. It's not to say we didn't look at it. I  said earlier that I didn't remember the specific   policy you were speaking to. At the end of the  day, when it comes down to it, we look at the law   and the law is very clear under RSA 5B what self  insurance is. You get the benefit of the gains and   you have to pay when it's out of money and that's  very clear in our understanding of 5B. So, I don't   have the specific membership agreement in front of  me. We looked at a lot of agreements. We supported   school care's board throughout their process and  the decision they made and we support it today.   Um, it's right back to what RSA 5B allows and  requires. Yeah. And I and there's no disagreement   in terms of if they run out of money like I would  say that we'd have to keep them afloat, you know,   that would be until the end of Jul end of June and  then we would go back to rate setting and build it   up over time as the municipality would expect.  It seems like now we're talking about doing it   all in once, putting it on the taxpayers. Many  communities are facing job losses in terms of   the teachers and that's the harder part for us to  kind of square that circle around is the decision   to allow an assessment to bring this back up you  know without a a broad um I guess understanding of   all the communities um involved here um is I guess  you know so this it sounds like the authority   um maybe didn't come from any of these specific uh  documents and I'm not trying to put words in your   mouth but you don't remember uh you've mentioned  mentioned um the broad reading of of RSA 5B. Is it   fair to say that you relied on the broad reading  of RSA 5B rather than school care's written board   policies and member contracts? I don't think  that's fair to say, but at the end of the day,  

we're required to follow what the legislature  passed, which was RSA 5B, and our interpretation   of that is very clear. And that requires members  to pay when assessments are needed. And if you   spread it out beyond one fiscal year, you create  winners and losers. There are members who have   paid this year. they get the benefit this year.  Members that do not create a situation of winners   and losers in the next fiscal year. And that's  what we're here to protect. And that's why   stretching out payments beyond this fiscal year  is not fair to some members of the group. And I   know this isn't a fun conversation to have, but  at the end of the day, if you collect money after   this fiscal year, those that took part in the pool  this fiscal year are the losers in that situation.   Well, there was an agreement from I think it  was there was two kind of sidebar agreements   with conquered and uh London that allowed the  split payment between uh payment this fiscal year   and then a second payment of July 15th of the next  fiscal year. So is what you're saying right now is   that's an unfair uh way of of doing that. Please  tell me more about the conquered agreement. I just   want to check something. So, he was offered to all  um and it allowed for um the uh to be paid part uh   now and then part uh July 15th. And while you're  conferring, I would just simply say that we're not   looking for a special dis dispensation for just  Portsmith uh and Dover, but rather looking at   um something that could be offered in terms  of refunds or credits to the other member   organizations uh that have had to have had to  make very hard choices in terms of their budgets.   uh letting go of employees um in a difficult  um uncertain fiscal future at the moment. Did you have the answer? Any agreement to make  payments related to an assessment this fiscal   year should be made in this fiscal year? I'm not  aware of an agreement that says otherwise. Oh,  

okay. That's news. Um so um I guess um part of  the the issue that we have uh here is you know   um we are certainly up here and we will make votes  uh and we will expend funds. Um uh I believe that   the there's now taxpayer standing uh so those  votes uh can be questioned. Is it your position   that a municipality may lawfully appropriate  taxpayer funds to pay an assessment that was   approved before school care's own written  policy expressly allowed for such changes? Sorry, David, you're doing such a great job. And  Eric's Yeah, I think you're asking the secretary   for a legal opinion, not one that I'm comfortable  giving the city of Portsouth today, but you're   asking him to render a legal opinion on the  law. And I don't think that's today's the place   for that. Well, it's just that we have risk in  expending funds and so it sounds like your office   will not put any legal position at the moment  in writing so that municipalities and school   districts are not left exposed to later claims uh  that they use taxpayer funds inappropriately. We'd   be happy to respond to anything in writing that  you want to provide to us and I'll take it back to   the legal team and we will respond. I don't think  we've ever said we wouldn't respond to a official   letter from the city of ports with asking us  questions but please write us a letter and we'll   be happy to look at it carefully and respond.  Okay. Um and that's that's helpful. So I think   that um part of it would be um in addition to  maybe uh responding um if we pay this assessment   um and reliance on your office your office's  position which you you've stated very clearly   here tonight that assessments are allowed through  5B and that payment is you know potentially   challenged um as unauthorized or improper. Will  the secretary of state um defend the legality  

of that payment? The payment the payment would  be made from the city of Portsmouth from a fund   that has a legal question surrounding whether you  can payment from that fund from that fund. You're   asking us to answer whether or not Portsmith can  expend monies from Yeah. So, I'll try to give a   hypothetical. Say that somebody looks at the  board policies of school care and they say that   expressly an assessment is not allowed um and that  uh funds will be raised through the rate setting   model. um and they question not necessarily just  whether or not we're um keeping them solvent,   but creating the entire reserve in one in one fell  swoop. And they question whether or not here in   Portsouth or other municipalities, but but here  in Portsouth um if we had the legal authority uh   to spend those funds properly uh because it's not  right now included in the agreements that we have   with school care. You're here today to say that  5B gives that broad latitude. I'm simply asking   if you would help defend us in the case that  somebody might bring a lawsuit against the city   of Portsouth for expending funds for a purpose  that was later to be questioned by a taxpayer   is contrary to our governing documents of school  care. If asked, we'll continue to support what   we've said today and what we believe RSA 5B says,  means, and requires whether or not we're going to   defend Portsmouth. Do you mean be the attorneys  for Portsouth in court? defending that contract   lawsuit. That's a question for you and your city  attorney. But we will continue and have continued   to continue to say exactly what we be we believe  5B requires. So if anybody asks us that be it a   judge or a city council such as this or anybody  will continue to say exactly what we believe 5B   requires and that is assessments are required in  situations like this. And thank you. Um I think   that um just just a couple more questions here.  promise and I do appreciate you guys have been   great. I know these are, as you said, not easy  conversations to have, not easy questions to have,  

and you know, um, we're not talking about  hypotheticals. We're talking about actual people,   um, many of whom are here in this audience  and are scared about, uh, the future of health   insurance. And I I understand that. When did  your office um, first become aware that school   cares reserves had deteriorated to the point  that a member assessment was being considered? I don't want to guess on the exact date as I sit  here now. We'll be happy to respond with the exact   date, but certainly by last fall, we knew um the  exact date I don't have in front of me, but you   know, we have actuaries that we have hired that  have been following and monitoring and analyzing   these pools for a long time. the exact date that  schoolare decided it required an assessment to   keep afloat. I don't have that date in front of  me. Okay. And I guess like given that there's   annual audits um and some actuarial um filing  require filing requirements. I understand that   health trust came in 2023. Um what did your office  do with that information, you know, before school   care had exhausted its reserves? So they were  at 29.5 million. They lost $9 million. you know,   health trust came to you um in 2023. What did your  office do, I guess, back, you know, um the 2024   time period with this information? So, I should  correct you that there are not annual audits of   these risk pools. They do get audited, but they're  not annually. Okay? I should just correct you on   that. We do get an annual filing every single year  that provides us with their uh swarm their audited   financial statements and some actuarial reports  that we do review every year. And with school   care, we are in constant communication with them  when it comes to our concerns, their questions,   etc. We have a very good working relationship with  school care. And to go back to your question about   exactly what we knew, when we did, and when we  talked to them, it's hard to pinpoint an exact  

date, but we're in regular communication with  them. And I don't have an exact date for you as   to when in 2024 we figured out, you know, which  where exactly the reserves were. But the audited   financials that are due to that come to us every  single year are audited financials for the prior   ending fiscal year. So we have those every single  year. Okay. And and great point because auditing   them every year would make our rate or the the  cost that we would pay go up. It would make your   work uh probably un unbearable. But I guess the  the question was I mean if you can get back to us   uh with that information the um you know given  those you know given you know when health trust   came in and said we got a problem in 2023 I'm  assuming that you know there was financial   statements that delivered by school care um  just understanding you know what you did uh   with that information when you received it um in  the as as schoolare was going through three years   of exhausting $29.5 million uh would be helpful  to know. And just just to to follow up on that,   I mean, when we started finding out about what was  going on, we did act pretty aggressively. Um, we   communicated what was going on to the governor's  office and the legislative leadership. Uh, we had   that piece of legislation that I mentioned earlier  that was filed to help address the situation. Um   and so we we have taken steps to uh you know make  sure this does not happen again in the future.   I think I understand um uh that and I I think the  um it's just hard to kind of square it with you   know outside of the um you know supportion or  supporting of the bills that you know weren't   successful last year and similar bill I think  it's SP 661 that's in front of the legislature   right now we're in committee um outside of that  was there um earlier corrective action um I guess  

suggested to to school. Aside from um proposing  legislation that would make um explicit uh the   implicit uh reading of 5B to make assessments,  but we're in constant communication with them   over the years. I'd have to look exactly into  our records for exactly what you're asking,   but I want to make sure the record's very clear on  audits again if I may. Sorry to go back to this.   So, we do examinations of these risk pools, not  every year, but we do examine them. And there's   a big difference between our examinations and  the audit that they do require to be performed   on their financials every single year. So I just  want to make very clear Oh, sure. that there's   an audit being done by an independent accounting  form. Yes. Yeah. And and and we received a a copy.   I you know it's more the if it's you know if it's  $29.5 million and then it loses $9 million and you   know another 15 and then it's 20 million it's in  the red. Those are things that you know it took   a threeyear period to get here. It's just trying  to wrap my head around, you know, the oversight   that exists within the office to understand like  how we could have been at an earlier stage to ask   for a different um and I understand that you're  in a lawsuit with health trust, but they are   they took the exact opposite track in that they  they were able to come through this and and we   have now significantly lower premiums uh than uh  than required by schoolare and the reserves are   building up although not nearly as fast. they're  building up under, you know, um, cooperation with   the member agreements. Respectfully, mayor, I  disagree with the assertion that they took the   other direction, but I don't want to comment any  further because we are impending litigation. Sure.   Understand? Yeah. Not fair for me to talk. So, I'm  just going to disagree respectfully. All right. We   agree to All right. So, we'll agree to disagree  um on that. I'd like to open and I just uh before   I open up to other folks that have questions, I  just want to thank you again for for coming here   tonight. And I know that this is not um uh the uh  the most fun conversation uh to have. There's a   lot of details uh that have to come in uh here. Uh  there's a lot that we're weighing. It's you know  

concerning. Hopefully, we can have some written  confirmation of, you know, the legal defense of of   this uh in writing. And um if we are, you know, if  a taxpayer does uh view the the policies uh that   we were under with school care at the time of the  assessment was made expressly prohibiting that,   that would be helpful to to have that in writing  uh from your office. again, you know, let the   lawyers kind of figure out uh that. But that's as  somebody that's a steward of taxpayer money and   a fiduciary of the city of Portsouth, I need to  be able to know um that there will be um support   for us uh in um any claims that may be made  against the city for an expenditure of funds of   uh this uh this gravity. So, just thank you and I  appreciate that and we look forward to receiving a   letter and addressing your concerns to the extent  we can. But thank you for the time. Thank you,   Eric. Councelor Cook. Um, thank you your honor and  thank you Secretary of State Scanland for coming   here tonight to answer our questions. I really  do appreciate it. I know it's a kind of a trip   over here to the sea coast. So, thank you. Um, I'm  going to come at a few questions from the place of   trying to protect the stability of health care  for our school employees and note that I know a   bit about risk pools because my mother managed  a risk pool for over 80 school districts that   ultimately ended up closing because of  of high high cost claims. And so I know   exactly what happens when risk pools don't  um can't cover um excessive claims over time.   So in your role as a regulator um we know that  premiums are increasing this year by 26% for us   um for school care and that increase only provides  a small percentage of um a backs stop essentially   going into um about a 1% savings for them. So  that really doesn't build in this reserve beyond  

what the assessment is that we're receiving.  But and we also know that when we're going out   on the open market, we're getting bids of around  a 40% increase for the same pool. So my question   really is um clearly there's a gap between  what they're assessing us and what they need   to be assessing us to really build reserves over  the next several years. So how can you guarantee   that we'll not be in the same predicament in  a few years? The legislation that we proposed   uh that is trying to move through the process  again this year establishes a a bottom threshold   and a and an upper threshold of what the reserve  levels should be. and based on actuarial input on   what those levels are uh is kind of the target of  where uh we're shooting for with that legislation. When the reserve levels drop so low, it is  important to get them back up but at the same   time without having a huge sticker shock to  get there. And so I think that's what school   care and health trust are attempting to do is  keep, you know, keep the increases reasonable,   allowing them to, you know, build on the reserve  level even though they're not quite getting into   that range that they should be. It's it's a  tough business right now as you said. It's   it's across the board. It's not just pulled risk  organizations. It's just health care generally.   So, as a follow on to that, um, we also  know that the leadership at school care is   leaving this year. The deputy director already  left. The executive director is leaving. Um,   can you guarantee that those departures are not  associated with concerns about future performance  

and stability of the pool? I don't believe  that's the case. Um, I don't know for certain,   but you know, the bottom line is it's the members  that are the poolled risk organization. And so,   whoever replaces them should be known to you and  you should have faith and confidence, you know,   in the individuals that move into those  roles. I think, you know, I will say that   I think Lisa Duket has done an outstanding  job maneuvering through a really, really,   really difficult situation and I know that what  she went through certainly was not easy. Um, and I   think that she deserves credit for that. you know,  whether you agree in the end with what she did,   um, I think she was incredibly responsible  and took the bull by the horns and, you know,   really stepped up and and did a remarkable job.  And um finally, I know there are not provisions   in New Hampshire state law for this, but is  your office going to backs stop our school care   um subscribers should school care fail or declare  insolveny within the next few years? Part of the   legislation is that part of the legislation is  that when reserve levels drop below a certain   threshold, they're supposed to notify the members  of the pool risk organization. That's number one.   And and that alert should be early enough  so that the members realize what's going on.   If the reserve levels continue to drop, uh, it  would reach a point where there is an assessment   that would have to be made. If they drop below  that, then it's possible the state could step  

in and request that a receiver be appointed to,  you know, run the affairs of the organization to   protect the taxpayers and and and the members of  the uh pool risk organization. Have you considered   any changes um recommending any changes to school  care's board so that taxpayer rep taxpayers have   direct representation on that board rather than  it just being subscribers? Um so that we wouldn't   get into a position where um taxpayers are kind of  left out of the discussion until it's too late. I   think that's something that should be discussed  among the members and if you want taxpayer   representation then, you know, put that in the  bylaws. That's it's your organization. You know,   you're a member of it. You you know, you were  the ones that have a say. Thank you. We'll   go to councelor Begley and councelor Taber.  Thanks, honor. Um and thank you, Secretary,   for being with us tonight. Um my understanding  is under RSA um 5B4 you basically have all the   power to interpret and enforce uh these types  of ris risk pools more or less. Is that kind of   your opinion as well? The RSI 5B states that the  secretary of state is the regulator uh and and we   manage that through the Bureau of Securities which  Eric operates. And I appreciate you guys are,   you know, trying to do the best you can with the  limited RSAs you have to work with and trying to   get more RSAs passed that would give you more  flexibility. Um, the last three years of audits   uh are listed on the school care um website  and they're all with Crow LLP which I think   is a good thing because it means it's not a new  auditor. It's it's somebody that understands,  

you know, school care. um their audit February  2nd, 2022nd um has the statement in it which is   uh liquidity and going concern. As of June 30th,  2025, the pool reported net deficit of 4,730,545 caused by elevated claims and a premium deficiency  reserve. These conditions raise substantial doubt   about the coalition's ability to continue as a  going concern within one year of the issuance of   these financial statements. Have you guys been  made aware of that uh audit and that statement   in particular? Yes, we were aware of that. That  was if you're reading from the 2022 independent   audited financial report that would have been  submitted to our office. Uh 26 26. Yes. What's   what's the date of it? Uh February 2nd, 2026.  February 2nd, 2026. And it's as of June 30th,   2025. So 22 would Okay. And then you know looking  you know at the financials over the the last three   audit cycles what you get is um they were they  were very solid uh with 29.9 million in reserve   several years ago. Um but then what happened is  over the course of two years uh they underset   the rate setting by over six 6% uh leading to  this deficit the evaporation of that roughly $30   million to this $4.5 million deficit. Um this year  they're they're showing an 18% increase. Um if   they undershoot it uh they'll have to do another  assessment. At what point do you guys step in and   say, you know, the governance here is is not doing  as good a job as it could? We've got three years  

of you understating rates uh leading to a deficit  issue. I I would imagine school care is one of the   bigger risk pools that you guys oversee. Yes. And  if we thought that the board was not capable of   getting out of situation that they might be in, we  would we would step in. We would we would ask for   receiverhip um and be decisive about it. Uh that's  what we did with NHIT when you know when they were   uh going under and you know that worked out  reasonably well. And I would add that I don't   think the actuaries to relied on were um unique.  I think actuaries in health pools that we have   seen were missing the mark. They were that school  cares actuary was not unique in being an actuary   missed the mark that year. I think we're seeing  an issue with that at least across the risk pools   that we regulate but possibly beyond that. I I  think uh the school care board relied on their   actuaries and help setting their rates and acts  are not always right either. And I think that we   saw not just with school care but with others  that actuaries were missing the mark. So it's   not isolated just to actuaries or school care's  decision to follow their actuaries advice in that   year. Um, as an aside, I'd be interested to see  some of that data. We only deal with the contracts   that we deal with at the city of Portsouth. So,  I wouldn't see um everything that you're seeing   with other actuaries and you know, from from  our perspective or at least from my perspective,   school care looks like an outlier instead  of consistent with others. So, that would be   helpful data. And then the final question for you  is it sounds like based on what I'm hearing from   the answers to my questions that you guys would  only step in at the receiverhip point. There's   not kind of a coaching step or looks like school  carees on the skid. Maybe they could use some of   uh you know the institutional knowledge that we  have at the Secretary of State's office to help   them out a little. We do that. We we have our own  actuaries and accountants that we contract with.  

And when school care was having issues, we did  make those individuals available to to help. Um,   and uh, yeah, so you know, we're willing to  provide resources that, you know, that they   can use as a resource basically. And I would add  to that that we were getting draft financials from   schoolare every single month too, providing them  to our actuaries, our accountants, and actively   following them. So it wasn't what you had posited  possibly at the when there's just an assessment   needed, we were there well before that with our  experts, offering a helping hand in letting them   consult our experts um as well as getting their  draft financials regularly. Well, I guess that   brings up one last question for me. Would the  city of Portsmith have access to any of those   actual reports or you know what we're or speaking  for myself as a counselor the the assessment is is   of great concern but what is of greater concern  is that school care is no longer an ongoing   concern which seems to be at least a reasonable  concern to have based on the the data that we're   looking at. And if that were to happen we'd be in  a situation where our teachers don't have health   insurance. So that's my fundamental concern, not  the assessment, although I have concerns about   that. My fundamental concern is how do we make  sure that we don't end up in a situation where   this insurance company can no longer cover claims.  I think we we we're pushing for legislation to   help in that regard um as well. So that is one  thing we're trying to do is we're in favor of   certain legislation that was put in that would I  think assist in that and reduce the significantly   reduce the likelihood of insolveny. So that's  one way we're helping. if that helps answer   your question. Yeah. And and I guess sorry I keep  saying the last question but this will truly be   the last question. Um in the private sector flow  um you know Warren Buffett talks about it a lot.   You know it's it's what you really pay claims  out of because you're allowed you've got this   large base of capital you can make investments  and then you get a return on those investments   and then out of those returns you can pay out  some of your claims. What I understand your RSA  

would do is allow there to be a reserve so that  there'd be more float instead of, you know, kind   of refunds every year when there's an overage. You  could put those investment monies to work and then   longterm you have more stability because you're  not just uh dependent on contributions. You're   dependent on contributions plus the proceeds from  those investments. Yeah. And but we're trying to   structure that so that what I would call excess  reserves or additional reserves are still owned   by the member political subdivisions so that  you know if you leave you get to take your   money with you that is in that reserve and so to  that degree you control it as opposed to a pool   risk organization controlling it and doing what  they think is best with those taxpayer dollars.   I would also add counselor that without this  legislation just that the the pools do invest   the monies they have in their reserves and  get a return and get to use the benefit of   that return even today without that legislation.  So the money that is in reserves is invested.   Great. Thank you. I appreciate you guys coming  tonight. Thank you, Councelor Taber. Thank you,   Mayor. Um thank you for coming, Secretary Scan.  Um we've talked a number of about this pattern   of for three years running um school care was  not setting their rates appropriately for their   costs. They were setting their rates below their  costs. So, you know, I question the the wholesome   praise for school care for doing this assessment  because in essence, what you're what we're saying   is it was okay to slowly go into a deficit, but  to solve it, everybody has to pay right away.   Uh I think we've we've put forward a proposal  where it takes two years to uh bring our payments  

back up to cover the assessment. Uh and that  seems reasonable um because school care took three   years to drain their reserve. Um do you have any  thoughts on that? Well, I think we we covered it   earlier. Maybe you weren't here yet, but but these  are bills that are due now. And if it gets put   off, then most of the other political subdivisions  that have agreed to pay and have paid or that now   subsidizing, you know, that decision. And there's  an issue of fairness there. But more importantly,   we want to make sure that the claims get paid for  the employees of Portsouth um and and the retirees   of the town. And if you put that off, then you're  in danger of not having those bills covered.   And my only other question is how often if that  legislation passes, which sounds very smart   to check their reserves. Are we checking twice a  year? H how often would that be reviewed? There is   more than one piece of legislation and I believe  you're speaking to the Senate bill which is the   one that we do support. That one does have a range  that reserves would require to be in 12 and 20%.   Um but your question again please. Um what's the  time period that we're looking at? Do we are in   that we we and you what you would you would do  as regulators. Yeah. So we receive financials   uh on a monthly basis and we receive the  audit report that whole risk organization   has done annually. But there is a lag  time of quite a few months between when  

between the end of the fiscal year and when we  actually receive that audit report. Um I will say   that with school care they they've been completely  transparent with us. Um you know they um the people on the board and the administration  there are concerned about doing a good job and   so but we have a good working relationship with  them and I'm sure that uh you know we needed   information from them that we would get it.  I don't know if you want to add anything. The   only thing I'll add is that the legislation that  we're speaking about does have a ban they need to   get into between 12 and 20%. And then there's a  member equity account beyond that that Secretary   Scan was speaking about that would be the members  own it and take it with them for anything above   the 20%. And then to your question about what  what what does the regulator do? Well, when you   get below the 12% there are certain triggers and  announcements that have to be made at 8% and 4%.   bills into the law. Notice triggers and time  to prepare. Thank you. Uh, assistant mayor then   councelor B. Thank you. Uh, thank you gentlemen  and thank you to the members of the pool who are   here this evening. Uh, I just have one question.  Uh, when we're talking about the assessment in the   number of $30 million, it is my understanding that  school care board uh, via their staffer actually   floated several different options. So my question  is did they or their whether it be the board or   the staff reach out to the secretary uh of state's  office for advice of which number to choose and if   so how did the secretary of state uh how did your  office respond and why? I can tell you that we   availed school care's board of our professionals  should they want them. But the decision on how   much to assess was a decision of the board, not  an easy one obviously and the exact amount that   they decided to assess was their decision to  get them to a point where they believed that   pool would be financially sound. So the exact  number what we said I don't have in front of me,   but I do know that we were there. We were there  to help. We availed our experts and we supported  

their ultimate decision. Thank you. I do I guess  have one more followup. Okay. Um, so, so was the   Secretary of State's office aware that there were  several figures that were floated, one that would   make them viable through the end of next fiscal  year, one to immediately build their reserves up   and one to go over what their anticipated desired  reserves were. I'm not sure if I had the exact   numbers that they were considering between this  number or that number. I just know that they were   grappling with what number to pick. So, I assume  that they were grappling between different numbers   and trying to make the best decision for the  impact on members and the financial solveny of   the board. So I don't have a specific number of  whether they were thinking between that number or   this number and why they landed on the one they  did to put respectfully that's a question for   school care and I'm so sorry one more uh you have  said several times that the secretary of state has   had made several uh whether they were contractors  or internal employees available to school s uh   school care staff in boards were they were they  used okay yes okay councor um thank you is there   another plan if the those bills on the floor don't  pass um would be like in suiting a receiver you   speak about or there's no I'll let Secretary  Scanland answer the legislative question. I'll   just say there's no um plan or indication that  we're going for a receiver for school care at any   time right now. Okay. I understand they collected  a lot of their assessments and they're not in the   position they were before. So no to receiver for  school care at this time. Thank you. If they don't   pass, we'll keep trying. Um, but I do know that  that school care in particular has looked at the   formula that is being proposed in the legislation  and that seems to be a direction they're heading   in with their own policy. So, um, if they do that,  I think they're they're on solid ground moving   forward. Thank you very much. Did your office  help uh craft those policies? So, the policy I'm   talking about is what is in the legislation? Yes.  Oh, no. Sorry. I thought you said they're on solid  

ground with new policies. Did your office help  them craft those new policies? The board decided   to to create the policy. What I was referring to  was that they seem to be following the thresholds   that are recommended in the legislation. Okay. So,  there's no communicate. There wasn't uh was there   communication in terms of helping them craft  those policies? There was communication about   what was in the bill. Okay. But in terms of the  policies that they're entering into that, that's   that's their decision. Understood. Um, seeing no  other uh questions, I want to thank you uh for the   time. It sounds as though, you know, it was our  our best effort to put forward something not that   that worked just for for Portsouth. And I just  want to underscore that because it came back in   terms of fairness. anything that we would have um  that ultimately your office would have accepted,   we would expect ourselves that to be shared with  all member organizations so that if they had paid   money in, they would have been able to be refunded  that money back, ensuring that school care would   have still been solvent or chosen to use that as  a credit. And that's only so important because,   you know, with April coming up and teacher  contracts being um being, you know, having to   be set in there, uh many school departments  across the state because of this assessment   being so high had to eliminate positions. And  that's something that's just devastating for   a community to go through. And the speed of which  this assessment and the amount of this assessment   was putting many communities uh that didn't have  the ability to question any of this in a position   where they simply had to pay to ensure care  and couldn't have uh the conversation frankly   that we're having right now. So, I want to again  thank you, underscore that this wasn't simply a   Portsmith or do um but I really do appreciate uh  the conversation that you joined us here for this  

evening. Um and certainly uh welcome any uh future  conversations that that um city of Portsmith and   the Secretary of State's office may have and and  thank you very much again. We're here to help and   thanks for letting us be here. Thank you. So,  um, on this, um, I would like to request, um,   uh, first a a sample motion and and if I have it,  I'll, uh, I'll speak to it. Um, move to authorize   the city manager to negotiate a payment agreement  with school care in the amount of 1,570,66 under protest. So moved. Second. I I think  that it's um it's incredibly important   um for our teachers uh to and sorry I  told Nancy that I was going to do this,   our school employees. It's not just teachers.  There's many people that support our students   and I promised her I was going to say school  employees and I probably butchered it 10   times tonight, but I want to thank Nancy uh for  reminding me. Um there is just not a um a plan   uh that we can see as a or I can see as a  city. I don't know uh if the vote will pass.   um can see as a city where we can do anything  but um continue on uh to pay this assessment   regardless of whether or not we believe it's legal  or not or the tactics of when this assessment   was delivered seemingly very far into uh this  fiscal year when we weren't able to be able to   uh make any other arrangements. Having said that,  the idea that we would try to move to another plan   um to disrupt uh care here is something that I  don't believe anyone in the city uh can in good   conscience uh support. there's too many unknowns.  And then know that we the the information that we  

have um is that our uh our school employees are  worth the certainty of knowing where their care   is going to come from. um and be able to uh  understand that the city council and the city   of Portsouth uh supports um this even though as  this conversation I feel demonstrated somewhat is   a very complicated situation that we still are  concerned on legal uh exposure with councelor   Bleock. Thank you honor. Um and I'm just going to  say um healthc care for school employees is always   a priority. Um I graduated from Portsouth High. A  lot of my teachers are still teaching or here in   this room tonight. Um I do not want to jeopardize  the health care um of Portsouth employees of   school employees. Um we as a council have a  financial responsibility to our residents and our   taxpayers. Um school care I feel like always also  has a financial responsibility to its members. Councelor Cook. Uh thank you your honor. Um, as  I said earlier, my biggest concern has always   been the stability of health care for our  school employees and and making sure that   their health insurance is going to be there for  them when they need it. And so that's my concern   around school care and will continue to be my  concern until they prove to me that they can   adequately manage this risk pool and we don't see  further depletion of their reserves over time. Um,   but there's no question to me that we need  to pay this assessment to make sure that our   teachers have continuity of care. And I come at  this from a a place of uh being a person who has   been without health insurance at various times in  my life. Um, I ended up getting married six months   before my wedding date legally because I didn't  have health insurance and I was ill. And so my  

husband and I got legally married so that I could  have health insurance. Um I know what it's like to   go without. I worry about people having to deal  with situations like that. And that is the last   thing that I would I would do is put anyone in a  situation where they didn't have that continuity   of care. And so, um, I'm going to be very diligent  about watching carefully what school care is doing   over the next few years and making sure that  they do have adequate reserves to provide for   our school employees because I don't want to be  in a position that in a year, a year and a half,   um, we get a notice that suddenly school  care is no longer solvent and our school   employees suddenly have to go without care and  we are scrambling to find health care for them.   Um and so um that's why I'm  supporting this tonight. Uh councelor Begley. Yeah, thanks your honor. I  take a different approach uh after looking at the   financials uh the the actions and the behavior  of the school care board. Uh the the governance   failures uh I think it's time to rip the band-aid  off. Sign provides school care health insurance.   So, it's not like it's this non uh typical  insurance. It's just a pool of cities and towns.   I think we'd much better serve our employees by  finding a insurance company or a different risk   pool um organization because I don't have the  confidence that this will uh be a viable ongoing   insurance option for our schools. Council Begley,  council moral. Um, I have a lot of concerns around   the management of school care and where they,  you know, where healthcare is going. It's it's   going up. I'm a business owner. I I see all of  these amounts. I understand, you know, you have  

to have the money to pay the bill, but you also  we have taxpayers that we have to answer to. So,   um, there's going to be some hard decisions after,  you know, if we actually do pass this vote and pay   this bill, there's going to be some hard decisions  around a lot of the the budgets this season and   there's going to be a lot of taxpayers. They're  going to have a lot of questions. So, I hope as   we continue to push back and ask these questions,  people understand it's for the best interest of   our entire community and to make sure that we're  not just spending taxpayers money without getting   the proper answers and making sure that we won't  be legally held liable for actually making the   payment, that we actually, you know, it's going  for the right reasons. Um, I will support the   bill, but I I do, as Councelor Cook said, I  agree. There needs to be a lot of oversight   and watching of what happens with that risk pool  to make sure it can continue to be solvent and not   um we don't want to leave any of our school  employees in a lurch because it doesn't succeed. Councelor Taber, thanks, Mayor. I come out of  this saying yes, we probably need we need to   this assessment. Um, I think Secretary Scandlin  made a pretty clear legal case that when school   care runs out of funds, the burden falls back on  the municipalities and towns and their treasuries.   Um but I think there need to be reforms that  we need to learn from this specifically the   stress tests in the legis legislation uh about the  reserves the reserve levels 12% 4% are essential   um there needs to be a stronger actuary uh you  know we we heard what was relayed to us was the  

actuaries said things weren't that bad and they  Um, and then I think councelor Cooks got a really   good point uh about uh people besides just the  teachers union representatives and the school   administrator representatives uh on the board.  Um there there needs to be um I would hope that   school care looks at um some representation  for uh taxpayers in that. Um it's very it's   it's a law of human nature that um to postpone  difficult things and postpone things like rate   increases that u maybe the constituencies like um  the representatives of the the administrations of   the schools and the unions don't want to do so  and and that's how we ended up in where we are.   So yes, we need to pay this uh so that we  can um have reliable insurance for all of our   school employees, but there need to be reforms.  Yes. Uh this certainly has uh with protests,   I would agree with the sentiments that  the um concern that we have especially and   um as explained uh this evening, we have two  of the health uh risk pools uh the risk pools   here in the city of Portsouth. We have one that  has kept rates higher and we experienced those   higher rates but has also grown the reserve in  the same time period that school care lost $29.5   million. To have that backstoppped by uh taxpayers  with an assessment is not something that we can   collectively agree as a city is going to put us  in position to offer health care teacher for our   school employees long term. That is something  that is uh more than simply distressing. it is   um we're not going to be able to um it's not  going to be around long enough if every time  

we negotiate contracts they will simply have  assessments um in addition to that payment our   taxpayers simply can't live in that world. Um  and so having said that um that's not the issue   uh here tonight and I've had many conversations of  you know uh through legal staff through teachers.   Um it is important that that uh conversation  and that um those questions are resolved once   we resolve uh for our teachers that we will have  health insurance uninterrupted for the next uh   fiscal year commiserate with the contracts that  we have. That is the most important in my view.   Uh and so at this point, I will ask for a roll  call vote on the motion on the top. Yes, Mayor. Assistant Mayor Kelly, yes. Councelor Cook,  yes. Councelor Taber, yes. Councelor Bllelock,   yes. Councelor Baggley, no. Council  Monroe, yes. Councelor Flynn,   yes. Councelor Hopkins, yes. 8 to nine.  Motion passes. Mayor 8 to one. 8 to one. She didn't count your Oh, I didn't vote. Uh,  yes. Mayor, I voted. Yes. Um, thank you. Um,   given that there is many questions still here  tonight, um, I would await a motion direct the   office of our city attorney to submit  public records request to school care,   the office of the secretary of state, and the  National Education Educator Association of   New Hampshire seeking records relevant to the  assessment. So moved. Second. Any discussion?   We'll take a roll call vote. This time I will  forget you. Uh, Assistant Mayor Kelly. Yes.   Councelor Cook, yes. Councelor Taber, yes.  Councelor Bllock, yes. Councelor Baggley,  

yes. Uh, Council Monroe, yes. Councelor Flynn,  yes. Councelor Hopkins, yes. Mayor McCackan, yes.   Unanimous. I'd wait further a motion to direct  the city manager to explore uncommitted funds   in the remainder of the fiscal year 2026 budget  to address as much as possible of the $1,570,66 assessment as possible without curtailing services  and to report back. So move second. All right. Uh   and just to clarify um what this means um looking  at the budget that we have passed on the city side   now um with the remaining funds that we have up  until the end of our fiscal year looking for any   uncommitted funds uh that we can eliminate at this  moment um un um hired employees uh in order to   uh pay uh for this uh assessment on the city side.  Uh please a roll call vote. Okay. Assistant Mayor   Kelly. Yes. Councelor Cook. Yes. Councelor Taber.  Yes. Councelor Block. Yes. Councelor Baggley.   Yes. Council Maro. Yes. Councelor Flynn. Yes.  Councelor Hopkins. Yes. Uh Mayor McCackan? Yes.   Unanimous. And finally, I'd request a motion uh  that the school board explore uncommitted funds   in the remainder of the fiscal year 2026  budget to address as much as the 1,576,66 assessment as possible without contailing  services and to report back. So moved. Second.   And for explanation, uh this is while this  is a um a a a school educators um employees   um uh healthcare. Uh we are one city of Portsouth.  Uh we are looking at our budgets. We would ask the   uh the school department to look at the same for  the remainder of this year of uncommitted funds   uh to be able to uh pay for the assessments. If  we could have a roll call vote. Yes. And this is  

to request the school board uh look at this and to  report back. Assistant Mayor Kelly, yes. Councelor   Cook, yes. Councelor Taber, yes. Councelor Block,  yes. Councelor Baggley, yes. Councelor Maro,   yes. Councelor Flynn, yes. Councelor Hopkins,  yes. Mayor McCackan, yes. unanimous before um we   will take a um break. I want to recognize that  we have public comment um now um a number of   uh signups. Uh we'll move to that and then we will  take a a small recess to allow for our school um   our our student government uh folks who have been  doing a great job on a very uh tough meeting um   to to leave if they are able. Um, first up is uh  uh Stephanie Sequort on Sister Cities Committee. Is she here? Oh, she's coming very quickly. Good evening, Mr. Mayor,  Assistant Mayor, Counselors, City Manager,   Attorney Moral. I'm here as a member of the board  of the Japan America Society of New Hampshire just   to speak in favor of your motion this evening,  your consideration of making the sister city   committee a permanent committee. Um that is  something that our sister cities do. In fact,   when we had a delegation from Nishinan in  September, one of the five people who came with   mayor was the president of the Nishinan sister  city organization. So, it means a lot to them,   these relationships, these friendships,  and I know it means a lot to Portsmouth,   and thank you, Councelor Bllelock,  for for uh kind of leading the charge,  

but I thought it important to have the Japan  America Society say this is a great idea. And   thank you. Thank you, Stephanie. Um, next up,  we have Gerald Duffy on Housing Action Plan. Gerald Duffy, 428 Pleasant Street. Um, Mr. Mayor,  fellow counselors and uh high schoolers. Uh you   guys really reduced the average age this evening  in the chamber just crushed it. Different energy.   So, thank you for coming. Uh so, I'm the  co-founder of Progress Portsouth. I want   to use this time just to speak briefly about the  housing action plan. Uh first of all, thank you.   Uh authorizing the creation of the housing action  plan was a meaningful commitment by this council.   Uh the city now has a 130 plus item datadriven  roadmap for housing reform and that exists because   the council chose to pursue it. Uh tonight you'll  hear I think from Peter Britz uh about the next   step narrowing that list to a manageable set  of priorities. I want to acknowledge that this   triage process is genuinely hard. evaluating over  135 items uh maybe reducing them to just a couple   of dozen uh based on impact and feasibility  uh in a city with competing interests and   constrained staff requires real judgment. Uh,  Progress Portsouth is committed to supporting   that process. And I want to recognize the work  of housing committee co-chairs, uh, uh, councelor   John Taber, assistant mayor Joe Kelly, and also  the planning sustainability director, Peter Britz,   uh, for getting us to this point. Uh, one thing  I'd ask the council to hold on to as you do this,   uh, Portsouth is a city where roughly half of all  residents rent their homes. uh any public input   process around the housing action plan needs to  reach that half of the city. Not just homeowners,  

but not just people who show up at the planning  board hearings. Uh renters are often people most   directly affected by housing policy and they are  consistently the least represented in the rooms   where it gets made. So meaningful uh public input  means designing for that gap, not just opening the   door and see seeing who walks in. And finally, I  know because there are high school students here.   Um, if you're interested in what your students,  if you're interested in what it looks like,   citizen engagement looks like from the other  side of the DEIS, um, I'd like to put in a   plug in for Progress Portsmouth. Uh, put that in  your phones. Uh, Progress Portsouth www. Um, and,   uh, and I'd invite you to take a look at the  kinds of things we do there. And if any of   you can teach me, I'm a boomer. So if any of  you know can teach me how to use Instagram,   I would Tik Tok now. Absolutely serious  about that. So reach out. But thank you   all very much. Thank you Jerry. Um next we  have Alex Kithro of On topic of school career. Good evening. My name is Alex Clifro and I've been  a teacher here in Portsouth for 13 years. I feel   fortunate to teach in a community that supports  and advocates for its teachers. However, right now   I am deeply concerned. After crunching the numbers  on health insurance, some of you appear to have   concluded that a change is warranted. To best tell  you my story, I decided to crunch some numbers,   too. Four and a half years ago when I was first  diagnosed with cancer. One year three months   ago when I was diagnosed for a second time.  Five months ago when I was diagnosed for a   third time. 372. Three hospitals between here and  Boston. Seven specialists and two surgeons. 13.  

The number of mammograms, ultrasounds, MRIs,  CT scans, bone density scans, and PET scans   I have had. Three. The number of surgeries  I've had to remove cancer from my body. 39.   The number of chemotherapy treatments I have  received, including just this morning, 30,   the number of endocrine therapy treatments I have  received, 56, the number of radiation treatments I   have received, and 10, the number of imunotherapy  treatments I have received. Our current health   insurance has provided me access to all of these  life-saving and necessary measures without being   burdened with unimaginable medical bills. The  insurance company's case managers even advocate   for what I need in ways that make it easier for me  to focus on getting better and not on navigating   the health insurance logistics. Your proposed  changes are a threat to my ability to maintain my   current treatment plan. Losing my health insurance  or a last minute shift onto another plan with new   insurance company simply is not an option.  For someone with a chronic health diagnosis,   the cost of what you are considering is high.  Higher monthly rates, increases in co-pays,   and increases in deductibles means more of a  financial burden will be placed on my family   and me, and one that is potentially not  sustainable. The cost of cancer is more   than just the numbers I've shared. By taking  away affordable, highquality health insurance,   you would be creating an imbalance that cannot  easily be writed for me. Some of you endorsed   supporting teachers as part of your campaign.  I'm a teacher standing before you this evening   letting you know that this is not supportive.  Your decision-making related to your bottom   line does not support my ability to be the best  version of me as I continue on my cancer journey   and also as I continue to be a mom, a wife, and  a teacher here in Portsouth. Here is my bottom   line. 1,713. The number of days I have been kept  alive despite everything I have shared with you  

tonight. Our current insurance has supported me  every step of the way. and I am asking that you   do the same for me and the rest of the Portsouth  School Department. Thank you. Thank you, Alex. Aaron Bacham on schoolare. Good evening. um plans changed a little bit  in light of what I was going to say and I   very much appreciate the support here tonight um  in continuing with the insurance we have given   the trepidation that would happen considering  any changes at this point and I do understand   the concerns of the council and representing  the taxpayers and I wanted to bring up three   different things as I've listened through  all of this tonight um one of them just a   quick clarification councelor Taber is you had  asked about the representation on school care   on the board. It is not just teacher unions. I  happen to be the current rep but it is any member   uh who represents the labor within Ed O'Connell  from New Franklin school was a custodial staff who   represented. So it is not just the the teachers  it can be anyone from the municipality that   represents on the labor. One of the pieces that I  I guess I have a question of um is when we looked   at when we found out about this issue in later  February, I knew and from following along that   the London Darian Conquered plan that had been  given to all 90 municipalities I think it was   November 6th. So, I think we were really caught  by surprise to have this brought up to us at the   end of February. Is there a reason that if there  was a proposal that wanted to be considered that  

that wasn't given to school care sooner so that  it actually could be before the deadlines? Oh,   sorry, Erin. This isn't we can't have a back  and forth, but that's a I wasn't sure if you   can but that is that is a question that would  be helpful for me if you could answer. And then   the other piece of this is a little bit of  history. Um, in 2012 in city negotiations,   it's kind of like baseball. There's always a  game of which association's going to be going   first. And in 2012, the schools were up first.  And it became very clear to all five units that   there was a new plan. This was very different  than the Matthew Thornton style Blue Cross Blue   Shield plan that we had been on, school care. and  to close our contracts. It was very clear that we   would be accepting this insurance proposal and  we were told by attorney Clawson that police and   fire are going to be right behind you guys and  clearly that did not happen. So we are sitting   and again I much appreciate the stance and the  understanding tonight that you've undertaken   of the decision to move forward with this but  understand that we also feel that we have been the   good doobies and the stewards for the taxpayers  and in choosing this there are 2.74 million that   has come back to the city of Portsouth. So it is  not all the doom and gloom and yes you know this   is a really tough time but understand that we  were pushed to take this insurance by the city   and we believe that we did the right thing for  the city. Thank you. Thank you very much Erin.

Next uh we have Esther Kennedy  on the topic of Portsouth. Esther Kennedy 41 Pickering A and for knowing the fact  that most of these people are getting up at 6:00   tomorrow morning, I think it'd be really nice to  tell them if there's going to be another vote on   this or not. So, just to be clear, we voted to uh  to I know it sounded kind of convoluted, but um we   voted to uh direct the city manager to pay uh the  funds um that was requested in terms of the full   uh assessment uh from the city of Portsouth  to schoolare. She will negotiate that like   how they're going to receive uh that money, but we  are committed to paying uh for that. uh and we are   doing so under protest uh not because we don't  intend to pay but intend uh to have follow-up   conversations. So the bottom line there'll be no  more action tonight on this topic in um or this   like in terms of this and I'm breaking my own  rules of going back and forth but since you've   raised the issue like after no in terms of school  care we've passed the assess we've we've committed   the city to paying 1.57 million extended 606 um we  will not take further action after anybody is free   uh to leave but I know that there are some  people still speaking um on school there   um and wanting to express um how important it is  uh to them. Uh and we just reset her time because   I'm stealing all our time. Um but the uh but  correct we will pay the assessment um as a result   of the previous vote that we had the first motion.  Thank you. I just wanted these people to know they   could leave if they wanted to. Um so good luck  tomorrow everyone teaching. Um, I just want to  

uh bring up the fact that there is uh $7 million  in an assurance stability count and I guess I'm   not sure why that's not being utilized. So what  happened um is when money comes back it typically   goes into that account to be used for rainy days.  Um you have 7 million in there. So my question   would be how come that isn't being part of this  conversation and maybe it is down the road but   um I would think that would be a big part of the  conversation. So there is no guilt on this end and   there is she is right there was a 27 2 million  point 2.7 million dollars because these guys   have been so good in keeping healthy um that was  returned. So I guess I just feel that that needs   to be cleaned up. Um what I would like to thank  what I was coming here to talk about tonight was   I wanted to thank Kelly. I wasn't able to be here  um the last council meeting for all her hard work,   the number of years she worked with me as a  counselor. Um everything she did. I was kind of   sad to hear that she was going so quickly. Um and  I hope that we really look hard to find someone   that is competent enough to fill her shoes. So, I  really want to thank her. The last thing I wanted   to talk about was community power. I, like many  others, was put on community power without my   signature. I'm still on community power. And the  reason I'm still on it is so I want to be able   to question it for people that I know don't feel  comfortable coming here and questioning it. So,   I stayed on community power and I'm still  on it, but it's getting ridiculous, folks.   And I believe you owe more than I heard  on the Zoom an explanation. And Mr. Taber,   I have to ask Councelor Taber, what are you  getting out of it? Because it you you've  

been supported. You've been supported and  community power is definitely not meeting   um financially the same thing as Eversource. So I  really think you need to take a deep dive in that.   I also think you need to alert the citizens.  Many of them are elderly citizens that would   not necessarily be keeping up with it on why um  they're still on it and what their options are.   Even if there's a toll line at the city, they  can call to get information on it. Um I would   encourage you to do that because basically the  council made a decision to go to community power   without the citizens input. You did it and now  we're paying more. um than what we would have   if we were on Eversource. So, I'll keep that  plug going. Um and thank you for and students,   you're doing a great job. Thank you. Thank you,  Esther. Next up is Marcus Santi on school care. It's not you, Marcus. I wasn't going to talk.  Um so, Marcus Santi, I live at 461 Road.   uh teacher at Robert Listister Academy, subscriber  to school care uh through my wife who is at the   library right now uh and is the kindergarten  is a kindergarten teacher at Little Harbor.   Um so I'm here not only as a member of the  school district but also a parent who relies   on consistent reliable health insurance to care  for our daughter who lives with cystic fibrosis.   So I want to share with you why maintaining  stable health coverage is not just a benefit,   it's a necessity for everybody in our community  who face ongoing health challenges. And I know   that we've got the vote tonight that's, you know,  going to shore up things for the rest of the the   uh um contract, but this is to to put it on  record and keep it for future reference. So,   when a child lives with a chronic condition like  cystic fibrosis, every day presents a new hurdle.   Treatment isn't a one-time cost, but a continuous  commitment that includes frequent doctor visits,  

specialized medications, and most importantly,  peace of mind. Consistent health insurance   ensures there's no interruptions in our daughter's  care, which means we can focus more on her growth   and less on administrative hurdles. Imagine the  stress and uncertainty uh not just for our family,   but for our entire community when health policies  change unexpectedly. Uh these uncertainties force   us to scramble for alternatives, creating gaps  in the timely care that our children and we all   need. When a district commits to health uh to  consistent health insurance policies, it sends   a clear message. Every student and every family  is valued and supported. This isn't just about   covering expenses. It's about ensuring quality of  life that lets our children thrive both in school   and at home. Maintaining reliable insurance  means that health care providers can deliver   continuous life-saving support. It allows for deep  trusting relationships between par uh patients and   their medical professionals, a critical factor in  managing chronic conditions. So, with consistent   coverage, my do uh my daughter's doctors  can monitor her progress, adjust treatments   as necessary, uh make decisions based on her  long-term well-being, not just the immediate cost   or availability of alternative plans. Furthermore,  by keeping health insurance consistent throughout   our district, we reduce the stress on families  who already carry the emotional and financial   burdens of managing a chronic illness. Uh reducing  uncertainty allows us to focus on what really   matters, the education, health, and overall  happiness of our children. Healthy students   are more engaged, more productive, they're  better prepared to learn and contribute to   our community in the future. So, I've I'm urging  you to do what you did about 20 minutes ago. Um,   so 88 of the 90 districts have already done  um what you just did tonight. So, we need to   uh you know, it's under protest. I hope that we  can fix what's going on with school care because   we don't want to be in this position again. Uh you  don't want to be in this position again. Um, but  

a district that commits to reliable, consistent  health insurance is making an investment in its   most precious resource, which is our kids. Uh, for  my daughter and all kids facing health challenges,   uh, this isn't a luxury. It's just it's a  lifeline. Thanks. Thank you, Marcus. Well, um, we now have uh, Chair Rapaore, Lisa Raaport  on, uh, school care, chair of the school board. Thank you, mayor, and members of the council. I  also wasn't a 100% sure how this was going to go   tonight. And I want to just start by saying I am  incredibly grateful to all of the time and work   that has been put in by everyone on the council,  by our city attorneys, by others on the city staff   who've been working really hard for months to try  to come to some sort of resolution that preserves   health insurance for our staff. These are our  neighbors, our friends, our community members,   and our teachers. And I think ultimately that it's  the right thing to do. So, I am very appreciative   that you reached that decision. You know, I do not  want to run down the clock here. But, you know,   20 years ago, roughly this month, I mean, I had  to have emergency heart surgery. And I remember   being in the ambulance and telling my husband  that I wasn't going to go into the hospital   until we could get the insurance company on the  phone to say that it would be covered because I   had no idea if it would be paid for. and  I was trying to think about starting out   our life together with what could have been  hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical   bills. It was covered and it worked out, but I  don't want anyone to ever be in that situation.   It's horrible and I think you all understand that.  So, I appreciate the decision that you made. Um,   I would also just say that going forward, I  know that we will all have to make some very   hard decisions in this budget cycle to figure out  how to manage that $ 1.57 million payment. And I   certainly think that the school board needs to do  our share to have those conversations. But I do  

very much remain concerned about what happens if  we have to lose more jobs after already presenting   a budget to you that reduces headcount by about  four and a half positions full-time in addition   to the jobs that we've reduced in the previous  budget cycles. I know there's not an easy answer,   but I just 100% have to voice that at some point  we're cutting opportunities for our kids and we're   making the quality of our schools reduced if we  cut too many people. I know this isn't going to   be easy, but I just needed to voice that. And  I will say thank you for all of your hard work   and trying to come to a resolution on this and  we will continue to work with you to the best   of our ability to try to come to a solution  that is in the best interest of our staff,   our kids, and our community. So, thank you.  That's all I wanted to say. Thank you, Chair. Next, we have Chris White on  audit. Is Chris still here? He is. Is he still here? Oh, I was trying  to get up here. Oh, there he is. Thank you, Mayor McGern, for allowing me to speak  at tonight's city council meeting. I'm Chris White   from Porter Street. This evening, I want to  discuss the audit committee, which I believe   has lost much of its power and effectiveness. As  a former chair, I think the committee is now fully   controlled by city management and functions like  many other departments. The current auditor CLA   finishes their term in May, but there hasn't been  any sign that the audit committee will initiate a   request for a proposal. Without this competitive  process, there is no chance to evaluate the  

auditor's performance or consider alternatives.  Competition is necessary to ensure auditors act   in the best interests of Portsouth residents. It's  up to the city council to demand higher standards   from both the audit committee chair John Taber and  city management. Why isn't there more enthusiasm,   inquiry, or commitment to defending our  interests? Instead, it seems as if everyone   is disengaged while city spending grows and  management controls remain weak. In fact,   I believe the city bears responsibility for  notable waste, fraud, incompetence, and possibly   even corruption. Rather than keeping wasteful  spending in check, some city council members   uh political ambitions seem to have taken priority  over public good. Given these issues, I recommend   the council commission a financial audit of the  city's accounts covering the past 10 years. a   review I'll refer to as the cookie jar audit. Here  are some examples of questionable decisions. The   city never recorded a contingent liability for the  Banfield Road lawsuit. Money was spent on studies   like converting State Street to two-way traffic  benefiting wall consulting where Erica Wagonic,   vice chair of parking and traffic safety works.  The Market Square master plan study also seemed   unnecessary, although it gave counselors Cook  and Bagley favorable publicity. The city often   chooses litigation, such as its suit against  school care over reserves and premium increases,   a costly and pointless action since the city is  required to pay. And thank you very much for doing  

the payment. The city received two and a half  million in rebates over time from school care,   but hasn't explained how those funds were used,  especially now that the claims have risen and   reserves are low. Resources were devoted  to supporting community power, a new entity   with little effect on lowering utility costs.  Yet, it consumed much city and council time.   There are many other examples of waste and  inefficiencies such as issues with capital   improvement projects, bond financing, and overtime  misuse, but the bigger question is whether there   may also be corruption going on. A thorough  financial audit would clarify these concerns. I   urge the council to act and conduct a  cookie jar audit. Thank you. Thank you,   Chris. Uh, next is Klein Dick. Klein  Dickens of Urgent Matter Peace. Good evening, city councilors and well,  I would have said secretary of state. Um,   but I don't think he's here anymore. Um, my name  is Klein Dickens. I grew up in Portsouth and I now   live in Northampton. I'm here representing ICE out  New Hampshire. We are the coalition that won the   fight to keep ICE out of Rockingham County Jail.  And when ICE in our state wanted to cage thousands   of people in a warehouse in Marramac, we are the  coalition that showed up to make sure that would   never happen. At 7:10 this evening, two Journey  aviation planes landed at Peas International   Airport for refueling. They are carrying Ukrainian  refugees and in the next 24 hours, they will   attempt to send them into a war zone. Every human  being on this earth has a right to seek asylum   here in the US. Counselor Cook is well aware  of this, having worked in human rights law. The   people in this room have the power to stop this  murderous cruelty, which is a flagrant violation   of international and local laws. The Washington  Post and the Independent have reported that this   company, Journey Aviation, has trafficked people  to Ukraine once before, as well as to the occupied  

West Bank, both of which are active war zones.  So, we ice out New Hampshire, make the following   demands of the people in this room, including the  council and the secretary secretary of state and   also uh the teachers union. While we're at it,  first Ice Out New Hampshire demands the immediate   grounding of Journey Aviation's Flight 8 and 86  at Peas International Airport and the im immediate   release of all passengers on board. Second, in  the name of Ona Judge, who fled her enslaver,   President George Washington, and was protected by  the city at the risk of legal pers prosecution and   physical violence against our community. Ice  Out New Hampshire demands that the people and   leaders of this city provide housing for all the  passengers of these flights. For those who would   like to immediately return to their homes, Ice Out  New Hampshire demands that the city provide them   free and consensual transport there. Third, Ice  Out New Hampshire, and this is also the last one,   so don't worry. ICE New Hampshire demands that all  legal, social, and economic measures to be taken   by the city and state, as well as local civic and  business leaders to sanction Jouri aviation for   attempting to carry out an illegal rendition of  people to a war zone. To all the young people here   today, do not let the inaction of this council who  last year passed a resolution that was ineffective   and did not keep people from being deported from  our city or the hostility of this state who was   encouraged ICE to purchase a warehouse in Marramac  and has signed contracts with them to enforce   immigration law. Don't let these people keep  you from imagining and creating a better world.   This world is something we all make together. And  no matter what politicians may say, we can always   make this world differently. No human being is  illegal on stolen land. Let us provide refuge to   all people, even when those in power punish us  for keeping people safe. Thank you. Thank you. We next have Paige Trace on Portsmith.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of  the city council of Portsouth. Um,   I am Paige Trace and I'm from  Portsouth, New Hampshire.   Um, the first thing I'm going to bring up  is a bit of a lesson for those of you who   have shadowed the council. And I say this as  a past counselor and Mayor McCran would be the   first one respectfully to agree with me that the  council works for the residents of Portsouth. The   staff of Portsouth works for the city manager who  answers to the council, particularly the mayor. And now I'm going to immediately now that  we've ascertained that this is correct,   I'm going to suggest something. I  wasn't able to be here last month and   I want to say as a past counselor  during COVID that Kelly Barnaby spent countless hours working for the city of  Portsmouth and the city council. And then after   us, she spent countless hours working for those  of you who have been counselors for the last six   years. Have we recognized her? Have we said,  "Thank you for your service?" No, we haven't.   And we hide behind the fact that Kelly didn't want  it. Does that mean that you don't say thank you?  

Of course you do. And so while I respectfully say  that June as prom hopefully will be fabulous, this   city has had so many years of one happy, cheerful,  honest woman. She was meticulous. She had more   honorariums and had more things that that any  of you could hopelessly dream of. She was overly   qualified and we had her one of the most highly  qualified clerks in the state of New Hampshire.   And what do we do? You know, for all appearances,  it looks like we could we just got rid of her. And I think that that falls on you,  Mayor McCran. With all due respect,   you're responsible for this. And there are  those of us as residents who would like to   know why suddenly after all these years of an  honest, smiling face who represented Portsmouth,   why she's no longer with us. Thank you. Thank  you, Paige. Next is Brad Duncan on school care. Is Brad here? We'll come back to Brad. Um Emily  Hartzell on school care. Not here. Um   Molly French. Did I see Molly? Not here.  Uh Nancy Navlin Claymer. There we are.

Good evening everyone. I'm Nancy Nelene Clayberg,  405 FW Hartford Drive. I just want to take a brief   moment to thank you and to thank our school board,  to thank our city staff, Susan Morurell and Trevor   McCord, our city manager, Karen Canard, our  superintendent. He was here, Dr. Mclofflin. Oh,   there he is. Um, for all your hard work on  the school care issue. As many of you know,   I was a city councelor for six years and I've  been on the school board for countless years.   Many difficult issues come our way and this  probably is one of the most difficult that I've   seen. And I and I'm sure I speak for many of the  people here truly appreciate all the hard work,   the dedication, and the love that  went into solving this problem. So,   I just want to take a minute to thank you and  our school people that are here. Now I'll tell   you their paraprofessionals, their clericals,  their custodians, their cafeteria workers,   their school administrators, and our teachers.  Thank you very much. Thank you, Nancy. Uh we have David Castellano on Zoom. Hi. Yes. Good evening. Good  evening. Yes. Uh David Costalano,   93 Spreaker Way here in Portsouth. Um  I am pleased that the council will be   will be paying the amount that is due as  many other municipalities have. Uh I do   take issue with paying it under protest. Um  we all know Portsouth is an affluent city.  

people enjoy living here. There are a lot of uh  less fortunate communities in the state and I   find it a little bit insulting that we're paying  our fair share out of protest. That's all. Thank   you. Thank you, David. Um, I'd like to um  Oh, former Mayor Beexstead, please come up. Good evening. Rick Beckstead, 1395  Bizzington Street. I haven't been   here in quite some time. First, I'd like to  thank the council and the mayor for going and   voting for the healthc care. As many of  you know, my wife has battled two bouts.   one today. She's about four years is actually  the anniversary for the metastatic breast cancer   and she actually did uh 11 12 years with  breast cancer. Um so we're back to where   we started from. But I am one that knows how  important the insurance is. My wife works in   municipality in the state of New Hampshire.  Uh and it's a great deal important to all   of these people that came tonight and aren't  here now. So I greatly appreciate that. Um, we came here to recognize Kelly Barnaby. And  the reason why I came down here to recognize   Kelly Barnaby is no one else has. Council  M, I'm sorry, Mayor Mccron, you had gone   and basically acknowledged the the people that  came uh at the last meeting and many of you,   most all of you did not recognize at all. I worked  very closely with her as mayor, as city counselor,   and as a resident. She was a guiding light.  When you had a question, you'd go see Kelly. Uh,   and when Kelly wasn't there, June does one hell of  a job. Uh, when when she is there and she will be,   I guess, the interimm. I still have questions  on that. Why the council would be doing that?   That's a personnel matter. And in your four plus  years on the council, I've never seen the council  

actually take up an employee status. And it's not  the city manager that's doing it. So, I guess that   leads me to questions. Your job is not to just to  watch out for our teachers, for our community, for   our taxpayers, but you're also supposed to look  out for our employees. And not just the teachers,   but the ones that are underneath this roof. I  have serious questions on how Kelly left. I have   theories. I have thoughts. I would love to speak  to any one of you if you're allowed to speak to   me on any of this. and I could share some of my  concerns, my experiences as a mayor under this   city hall. Um, I think they should be addressed.  I think it's your job to go and do so. Uh, I know   the city manager goes and runs the city, but she  doesn't run all of the city and she doesn't run   all the employees as far as I'm concerned. Um, I  have some serious doubts. So, my shout out is to   Kelly Barnaby. I wish June the best of luck uh  on her ventures. um however long or little they   may be here in the city of Portsouth. Um and  we'll see what happens from there. But if you   see another employee that's going and leaving and  you're not really aware of it, I would definitely   go and question it because there were many that  were done. Uh you've got Judy Banger that all   of a sudden kind of just disappeared. Uh you've  got Nick Crackell disappeared. You've got Juliet   Walker disappeared. No real acknowledgement  or anything like that. But when Andrew left,   he was here. You all clapped. you thank Andrew for  the years of service. Something's not right and   I'm going to keep following it. So, I hope you  follow it, too. And if you have any questions,   you all know how to get a hold of me.  So, thank you very much. Thank you, Rick. What's that? Roy. Roy, come on up. Happy St. Patrick's Day,  Roy. Good evening, Roy Hel.  

777 Middle Road, Portsouth. My question is, does  the city govern the school board and do they have   anything to say about all of what the school  puts forward and they make their rules? Do we   have you people say an approval or disapproval or  somebody that's telling them or asking them what   they're presenting because all of the taxpayers  paying for what their decision is. So decision   should be coming through you people not on their  own. That's all I have to say. Thank you Roy. Um   and given that it was asked a couple of times,  just would want to invite uh Nathan Lenny um   to speak before we break um on the uh healthcare  reserve uh and yes, the healthcare reserve. Mayor,   uh councilors, I just want to try to address  the questions that were asked previously. Uh   would remind you that we do in fact have  a health insurance stabilization reserve   as was referenced this evening. It is connected  to a policy effectively of the same name. That   policy is uh included as a part of our financial  policies and practices in the in the budget book   every year. Uh this has been in place since uh the  early 2000s. 2002 it was initially established.   Part of that policy is that we budget each  cycle for health insurance using a 10-year   rolling average of rate change as opposed to the  actual change, excuse me, change in the rates   uh in the given year. That is intended by the  design of the policy to have a smoothing effect   on the budget impact of health insurance  costs. Uh it's also true as was suggested  

earlier that we finished fiscal year 2025 with  a balance of just over 7 million 7 million23,597 in that in that reserve. It is also uh the case  that over the last few years uh in the absence of   any recalibration that we have had uh a trend  toward the actual spending being greater than   the amount budgeted. And so we have drawn on that  reserve. The reserve stands at 7 million. Right in   the budget book it was suggested or projected that  we might draw down $2.5 million as a part of this   year's operations. Right now the projection is  just under 1.5 million. So we expect to close this   year at one at an amount in that fund of somewhere  around 5.5 million. There's another um element to   that policy which is uh a guiding principle that  we not draw down on more than 25% of the corpus of   the fund in a given cycle. And so as we take away  from the motion that was made this evening and uh   and seek savings that we can use to generate funds  to help cover the cost of the assessment. The uh   reserve certainly may be a piece of that and we'll  have more information on that when we come back   uh to uh to seek final authorization for how we  go about making payment. I remind you that we   have 11.4% as a rate increase in health insurance  for the health trust uh side of the house which   is all of our general government police and fire  department employees and a 26.2% rate increase   uh on the uh on the school side for all of our  school employees. Uh we understand that there   will be significant increases and as we seek to  manage the budget, the reserve will also serve   a purpose in helping to smooth it for another  cycle. Thank you. Hey, Nathan Petra, come on down.

Petra, so just uh before we press the button,  is there anybody else that would like to speak   uh in public comment? I'm gonna after Petra I'm  going to close it only because we're going to   break and get the the kids um home but if there's  anybody else that would um Okay, one more after   Petra. Y Peter Huda Portsmith. Okay. I'm glad that  uh Nathan actually came up here and discussed that   because that was my major question. Why are we Why  did you tonight go automatically to the unassigned   balance when we do have a a health stabilization  fund? The balance is 7 million and theoretically   you did receive back almost 2.7 in surplus over  the last five years. So there should be money   enough money in there that you do not have to go  to the unassigned fund balance. So I would ask you   why why was the motion made automatically to do  that? Thank you. It wasn't made to um to authorize   it from unassigned fund balance. I can assure you  we'll have a further work session on uh the monies   and offer public comment as a part of that. Thank  you. Um I would like um I think I know um what you   guys are here for. I would just um um we're going  to do one more thing after uh public comment. Um   and that would be to and how about we do this? Uh  we can move to suspend the rules and bring forward   um item 16B, the acceptance of donation from  Atlas Engineering LLC for a new school board   at the South Mill Pond uh basketball courts. So  moved. Second. All in favor? I. Um and we No,   we if you would like to say anything um to  it, uh feel free to uh come up and address uh

I'm Peter first. I live at 240 Marcy Street in  Fort Smith. And um it was interesting listening   to everyone today in their comments and uh on the  on the health insurance issue with the school.   I thought it was people sound like they're sort of  criticizing uh the management for when sometimes   you have a bad year uh in a different program and  it's easy to point fingers at uh someone who's   administering the program just because things  look really bad. Uh but it's pretty common in a   lot of uh programs that you have a bad year and  that doesn't necessarily mean that there's been   mismanagement. Um there's been a lot of talk about  the community power program and I think it's easy   to draw sim similarities to that where it looks  like they there's also a bad year happening with   uh solar uh management. And that doesn't  necessarily mean that there's mismanagement,   but it's a challenging uh environment and it  changes from one year to the next. Uh so I don't   know, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens  next. And I also wanted to echo Klein on the   um issue at peace with the flights  uh sending refugees to Ukraine. Um,   I don't know what can be done here today to  resolve this, but I do ask that if you have   an opportunity to speak with anyone on the the uh  Portsmith uh on the PDA to please speak up. Um,   do whatever you can. We all really  appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you,   Peter. Uh, now we have a motion on the floor  um that they accept his donation from Atlas  

Engineering LLC for a new school board at  the South Millond basketball courts. Um, okay. It is for that. Okay.  Sorry for it. It's from Okay. Serious Summer League. Um, I would  like to thank you um for uh that donation.   As somebody that uh played with council on those  uh those courts um not to the level of of some   people that played on those courts, um it's a uh  it's an amazing um opportunity um to be able to   accept this uh donation and I expect it to be an  inspiration uh for those um that play. Not only,   you know, this is a far cry from the basketball  courts having the lights turned off an hour   before the tennis courts because of the riff raff  that was around, you know, uh myself included. Um   this is a an a an exclamation point on um you  know what we value as a city and I just want   to thank uh the serious summer league for the um  impressive donation um and commitment to the city   of Portsouth. So I will take a any We haven't  made the motion yet. Oh, we haven't made Oh,   we just did the Oh, man. Just Okay. Okay. So, um  Councelor Bllock, I wait a motion. Um I'll move to   approve and accept the donation from Sirius Summer  League as presented. Second. Um and like the mayor   said, um I think this is a great addition to the  Southville Playgrounds. Um you know, I grew up   playing in the PAL basketball league and you'd  always have that little scoreboard that they put   on the ground and you know, you couldn't see it  and you're trying to look over and if you get the   ball, you're like, I don't know how much time's  left. Um, but I think this is a great the serious   summer league um is a great legacy. Um, I know  the Robinson family is very highly involved and   um they've just I mean the the level of  basketball that's come to Portsouth um  

it just made it better. Um but I think this is a  great addition. So I thank you. You're here. All   in favor? I. Any opposed? Seeing none, we will  take a 10-minute recess. Uh thank you very much.

Welcome back to I just made it through uh public  comment. U we'll um await a motion. Your honor,   um I move to suspend the rules and bring  up item 16A. Second. All in favor? I. Any   opposed? 16A is acceptance of donation  from Richard Duddy to donate a memorial   bench in in honor of Richie Duddy. Your  honor, I move to accept a memorial bench   from Richard Duddy in memory of Richie Duddy to  be installed at the Plains Ballfield. Second, council. Thank you, honor. Um, I'll just say I'd  like to call myself a friend of Richie Duddy. Um,   he was a great guy. He made us made Portzsworth a  better place. Um, but I always will think of him   when I am at Plains. Um, because that's I know  Rich Teddy has made a large impact there. Um,   but that's where I would always see Richie. Um,  so I'm happy to support this. Absolutely. Fellow   huge Celtics fan. Uh, a great guy. Always had  a smile. Always put a smile on your face. Um,   it will be a nice remembrance um  to remember um that enthusiasm and   um just that that that happiness uh anytime  you're a plane. So certainly support   uh this and and thank you uh to the Daddy  family. All in favor? I. Any opposed? We are now where are we? Um, public hearings and vote on ordinances and or  resolutions. Public hearing and second reading of   ordinance amendment to chapter 1, administrative  code, article 4, commissions and authorities  

section 1.415 be added to establish permanent  sister city committee. Your honor, I move to   pass second reading and schedule third and final  reading on the April 6, 2026 meeting. Second. And   do we have a presentation loaded? Oh, it's just  council, not just it is. Um, so in the packet   you'll find um you know the audience creating  the new committee. Um really um Stephanie Cord   kind of said it best. It's boots on the ground.  Um we have these wonderful relationships um from   being from hosting Japan and Russia preventing  World War Zero um to our friends in Son Carelo,   you know, that are some of our neighbors moved  there from here and now we have this wonderful   um connection with them and UNH is getting  involved and we're putting on film festivals   and just nothing but good stuff. Um, so I think  it's really important that we have a committee to   foster these relationships, to be able to greet,  you know, the mayor from Santelo when he comes.   Um, to be able to greet the the the students  from Nichinon when they come and and to actually   um to to make sure that's done right. Um, you  know, and it also uh represents our our true   identity as a city of the open door. Um, you know,  I think in times where there are some troubling,   um, events going on overseas, um, these  connections, these boots on the ground,   these connections city to city become really  important. Um, but yeah, if there's any questions,   I'd be happy to answer them. Any questions  before we open up to public hearing? No questions at this time. I will open  the public hearing to speak to or against.   uh establishing a permanent uh sister city  committee. Seeing no one rise and no one on Zoom,   I will close the public hearing. Any additional  council questions or deliberations? I would simply  

say uh thank you uh councelor Bllelock  um and to the committee. Um, in general,   there's always a um, it's hard to believe that  this isn't a permanent committee already. Um,   just given the fact that, uh, diplomacy and  citizen diplomacy uh, doesn't get a day off. Um,   this should always be a priority of the city. Uh,  thank you for bringing this up and for making this   permanent so that this work can continue  regardless of council or direction of uh,   the blue ribbon committees that are set. Um  this is important to keep up that work. Um so   that when there are times of strife um we have  the opportunity of relationships already built.   So thank you very much. All in favor? I. Any  opposed? And your honor, I'd like to move to   suspend the rules to bring up third and final  reading. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Oh. Oh. I move to pass. I move to pass. Uh, third  and final reading. Um, yeah. Second. All in favor?   I. Any opposed? Thank council actually. And thank  you to the members of the sister city committee.   Um, we truly appreciative of the work. Um, and the  mayor Santar Kajello is going to be here at the   I'm so I gota got to get better. Um, but my my my  daughter can speak a little Italian now because of   the work of the sister city community. um we'll  be here I believe at um the end of this month   um uh March 27th to is there the 30th? Yeah,  the 30th. So um we'll be uh making uh folks   aware of more of those activities, but really  excited to host uh them once again. Next up,   public hearing and second reading of ordinance  amended to chapter 10 zoning ordinance as follows.   Reszone parcel described on the city tax map 209  lot 87 from single residence B SRB to gateway  

neighborhood mixeduse center G2 and article 4  zoning districts and use regulations section   10.440 use 3.40 40 museum to be changed from  S special exemption to P permitted and gateway   neighborhood mixeduse corridor G1 and G2. The  zoning maps to be amended are referenced in   the city zoning ordinance at chapter 10 article 4  zoning and district use regulations referenced in   the city zoning ordinance at chapter 10 article 4  zoning and district use regulations section 10.421   district location and boundaries section 10.421.10  10 collectively the zoning maps. Your honor,   we have assistant planning director Peter Stit  here with a brief presentation. Good evening,   mayor and city councilors. Um, this hearing is a  request from the Portsouth Submarine and Maritime   Association for their property located at uh 569  Submarine Way. Go to the next slide. Um they sent   a letter in October requesting to be reszoned to  gateway and to allow museum as a permitted use in   the district. Uh the property the history they've  received a variance in 1981 for the existing use.   Um and any expansion they've done over the years  has had to come to the zoning board um and as   recent as 2023 when they were before the zoning  board for a variance to add their visitor center.   Uh the council received this letter and then  referred it to the planning board for their   recommendation. The planning board reviewed  this request and decided and recommended that   they actually go to gateway 2 um and  to allow museum as a permitted use in   both gateway one and gateway 2 districts. The  next slide shows the change in the use tables   um where it currently is a special exception which  would have to go to the zoning board as well.   So, um, planning board thought that  allow this honor the request of the,   uh, the submarine museum to change this to a  permitted use. Um, if you go to the next slide,  

this will show the map change. We're currently on  the left, it's existing at single residence B. Um,   and the proposed change to gateway 2. Um, this  doesn't uh, uh, approve any sort of project. They   are looking at maybe expanding the museum uses on  the property. Um, but those uses would be subject   to the gateway standards and site plan review.  And in the gateway, you do have a perimeter   buffer. So, they would have to, if they expand  the property, the use on the property, they would   have to have a a more um delineated buffer between  the adjacent um subdivision there on Leslie Drive,   which is zoned single residence B. And that is  all for this one. If you have any questions, any questions for Peter? We will now open it up to the public hearing.  speak too for against this change specifically   uh for the property known as I guess um if  that entire um ordinance that I read didn't   make it clear it's the Albaore um and the museum  there um but uh if uh there are we will open the   public hearing speak too for against that change  seeing no one rise I will close the public hearing   any additional questions or council or of the  council Wait a motion. Oh, councelor Cook. Uh,   thank you, your honor. Um, I just wanted to  um thank the planning board for looking at   these changes in gateway to allow museum as a  permitted use without a special exception. Um,   this not only benefits the Albaore and  I think this is critical to remember,   this will benefit um our broader arts and cultural  community um because we can have um museums um  

in the gateway district without having to go  through the special permit process. Thank you.   I'd make a motion that we move to pass second  reading and schedule third and fi final re   uh schedule a third reading at the April 6,  2026 city council meeting. Second. Any further   discussion? I will simply say um that uh agree  with councelor Cook this benefits all um museums,   organizations in the gateway. But uh to be able  to do this uh for the Albaore um it's not a I   don't have to recuse myself. Uh my dad has not  been here for uh a number of years. It was his   favorite board that he ever served on uh was that  of the Albaore. Uh they do a fantastic job. If   you are thinking about um you know popping in uh  especially with young kids, I would suggest that   you do so. Uh it is amazing what um it represents  in terms of our history, but it's also amazing   just representing what we can do as a city. We  got that boat into that spot. It took an entire   community and it was probably one of the greatest  days of Portsouth that ingenuity, the strength and   determination to do so. Uh may they have many more  uh uh fruitful years um speaking to the history of   the submariners uh here in Portsouth. Uh we are  truly honored by their legacy. I will certainly   be supporting this. All in favor? Oh, council  Buck. Um, yeah, just to add that I, you know,   growing up there as a kid kid and being able to  take field school, field trips there and learn,   um, I I guess I kind of took for granted because  it was it was it was so part of our life. Um,   I I took our f my friends from New Zealand there  and they don't have submarines in New Zealand. So,   they were and their 5-year-old daughter were very  impressed. U, but to see it through their eyes   really made me appreciate what the Albaore is and  how lucky we are. All in favor? I. Any opposed?   I'd like to make a motion to suspend the rules  to bring forward third reading. Second. All in  

favor? I. Any opposed? I'll make the motion that  we bring uh pass third and final reading of the   um ordinance as presented. Second. All in favor?  I. Any opposed? Next public hearing and second   reading of ordinance amendment chapter 10 zoning  ordinance to change the zoning designation of the   following parcel pursuant to chapter 10 article  4 zoning and district use regulations section   10.421 district location and boundaries  section 10.421.10 of the zoning ordinance. I move to pass second reading and  schedule third reading at the April 6,   2026 city council meeting. Second.  There's a motion on the floor. And   now we have the presentation.  Do you have it? It's coming. Peter's back. All right. Um, so these gateway map  amendments are are city initiated zoning changes   uh intended to better align with our master  plan goals for mixeduse corridors as well as   the council's goal to provide more housing  opportunities in the city. Next slide. Um,   a little background. uh the land use committee  which was established during the 2022 to 2023   part of their work they identified over  60 parcels near or adjacent to existing   gateway districts. Of those parcels they  um advanced 40 of them um to be resoned   um to Gateway and the council adopted  those map amendments in the spring of 2024.   If the next slide shows a map of of the parcels  that are outlined in red were those subject   parcels um that were adopted in in 2024. Um and  these amendments tonight you kind of advance the   continued work of that were was started by the  land use committee. Um and then continued by the  

housing committee on the next slide. uh they were  their last term was 2024 to 2025 and they took up   those additional parcels that weren't initially  forwarded. Some of those were incorporated when   the council adopted the gateway neighborhood  overlay. Um so what remains are 10 parcels   that went to the planning board um uh and they  voted in January to advance those to the council. Uh but first um these are this is the corridor  map shown in the master plan. It's not parcel   specific. It just follows mainly Lafayette  Road, Woodbury Avenue and and Route One bypass.   Um but they call for concentrating mixeduse  development, housing and employment along these   major corridors. And the next slide has some  actions from the U current master plan where   mixeduse development is encouraged in existing  commercial areas and the proposed map amendments   are are consistent with these objectives um as  they are adjacent or located in these corridor   areas. Uh next slide is the first property which  is a thousand market street. It's currently zoned   office research and proposed to be um zoned  gateway one. And again, these changes will   just allow for housing to be um developed on  these properties. Most of them are zoned either   office research or industrial. Um next slide is  three properties along Marona Road. We have one   Mara Road, two Marina Road, and 11 Marina Road.  and they are currently adjacent to gateway two   which is the orange to the east. Um and so these  these will be um changed to gateway 2 as proposed.

Next slide is 2059 Lafayette Road currently zoned  mixed residential business. Uh, this property is   under construction actually for an 8-unit  apartment building and it is proposed to be   zoned gateway one which is shown across Lafayette  Road and then to the south um across Hoover Drive. And then the final slide is properties adjacent  to uh that big building is Walmart there. That's   that all the red area is gateway one. And  so there's a property at 199 Constitution A,   20 Post Road, 70 and 100 Heritage, and then  55 Heritage. So these are all adjacent to   uh the existing gateway, and they're  proposed to all be zoned gateway 1. So that's a summary of the map amendments.  There are any questions on those? Council questions before the public hearing. We'll open. Oh, uh, councelor Taber. Um, Peter,   um, we did have a parcel on that list  that was on Sheer Water Drive. Did that   become part of the GNOD? Yes. Everything  along Portsouth Boulevard? Um, yeah. Okay. Any other questions before  we open it to public comment?   Opening the public comment uh to speak to  against the proposed zoning amendments. Good evening again. Um I sort of hate to  be a bit of a downer on the Morona road.  

You also have in your packet this evening  a letter regarding what will happen to the   property on Banfield in what the family would like  to do in the future. So the obvious is that if   you have the three properties on Morona and you  reszone those to mixeduse residential whatever   then suddenly when you come back with what's in  your packet of potentially 392 apartments on a   piece of property that's pretty degraded and  pretty polluted. Um, it won't be spot zoning,   will it? Because you'll already have properties  reszoned going from basically Lafayette down   to Bfield and across that will be zoned  for residential, mixed use residential.   So I question you is your discussion of making  Morona Road part of the gateway is that just to   further down the road on Banfield to make Bfield  fully residential and can you do that on a piece   of property that is currently under litigation?  And what's what's being discussed between the   family that is litigating against the city and  Portsouth Housing Authority for the property   on Banfield and why are you doing this on per  on Morona? It's all just a little bit too pat. But you do have that big development that the  family would like to do on Banfield and this  

would just make it a little bit smoother. The  other question that I have and I didn't live here   long enough. Many of you have councelor Bllelock,  you grew up here. Councelor Mckran, Mayor Mckran,   you grew up here. How many of you remember the  fact that Morona Road wasn't was used as a dump as   a landfill? And there are those in this city who  continue to talk about the fact that they have to   reblack top certain pavements because they keep  sinking. So, I just ask you to do a little more   research before you start blifully building all  over this city. As much as we do need housing, I   think you should be a little more objective about  where you put it because a super fun site that's   being litigated is probably not a good idea and  neither is Morona Road. But here we are. Anyway,   thank you for listening to me. Thank you,  Paige. Any other speakers too for against Esther Kennedy, Pickering Nav, Portsmith.  Um, and I guess to follow along with what   Paige was saying, my concern is anytime you take  industrial and changing it to where people can   live, you really need to know what's underneath  there or you have a liability. And Morona Road,   I remember years ago sitting in Mr. Gangster's  office and watching them pave and how they have to  

pave it every year because the trash was settling.  And so I have to ask you, is this prudent? Is this   the way to go? In particular, in that area, it's  industrial for a reason. It was industrial for   years. It was a trash pit all along there. We know  that. We know that Banfield and um probably has a   lot of the same things as Kley and the base. And  we know on the base they won't let you build any   um structure for human living. Jones AB we know  has the same thing and we've had a huge amount   of cancer cases on that app. So I guess I have to  ask you are you setting the city up by making this   zoning change in an industrial area where we know  there's a lot of stuff dumped. We know that for   a fact. It's on the um records and I agree with  Paige. Are you trying to do this so that you can   um because of a lawsuit go for Banfield and not  look like you're spot zoning? That's a question   I'd ask my city management in my legal. But you  make this zoning, you know, one person said,   "Why are you going tonight?" And I said, "Because  I know what's there. I have seen it on the maps.   I've seen it on the environmental impact maps.  And if I didn't go and I had a friend move there   and buy things innocently, they were built, then I  can can't say that I didn't do what I could do. So   now I'm putting it on your laps to do what you  can do. And I would really caution you to look  

at industrial zones that we know were industrial  zones for centuries. And we also know that when   peas was really going full-fledged ahead, there  was a lot of things dumped there that are toxic.   We know that they were in Banfield. We know  they're on Jones. We know they're in Kley. We   know they're in Tlen. We know Tlen has affected  our water. Going to potentially affect our water.   We know Kley is affect affecting a lot of  things. So I ask you before you do the zoning,   ask the city management, the environmental people,  talk to the EPA, do your due diligence because   the fact that you're here tonight trying to do  zoning for moving industrial off tells me you   don't know. So I've just warned you. Thank  you. Thank you, Esther. Any other speakers? Paige, second bite of the apple. Come on up. This is a conjecture. I realize this hasn't gone  before TAC. It hasn't gone before the different   boards. But I ask you to think where are the  public sewer lines right now? Where is public   water? Does it go down Bfield? Is there public  sewer on Banfield or would you have to bring it   across lots from community campus if there's  public sewer at community campus? How do you  

intend to bring the public sewer in for a massive  project of potentially 39892 apartments? Now   that's also traffic. You have a blind hill going  over St. Pats down to Banfield. Down to right to   the left be right behind St. Pats. Right next  to St. Pats is the piece of property on Bfield   that you're in litigation with. But every single  afternoon, anybody who goes to the post office   in the middle of the afternoon realizes that  there are parents lined up on Banfield Road,   stopped dead in both directions, waiting to turn  into St. Pats to pick up their children. That's   fine. We all know it. Those of us who live in the  area figure it's going to be there, so we stop.   Well, what about all of those 800 cars that you  now have at the 392 units that come whizzing up   and over a blind hill and the next left is  into their apartment complex. There is a lot   to be considered with this piece of property  and I know it's not been easy for the city.   Paige, just sorry I I don't mean to interrupt,  but um what property we're you're talking about   the letter that's in here reality with the map  suggesting what they would like to do with it,   but separate from the zone like just I'm  just want to be clear separate from the   on the other side of Hill. Okay, it's all it's  all one and the same. But there's no proposed   zoning or there's no proposed uh project on the  the the maps. Like the letter is the letter is   what they would suggest. Yes. Okay. But  not the properties we're discussing. No,  

but you do have the two properties. My apologies,  Mr. Mayor, but with all due respect, you have the   two properties between Heritage Avenue and Capitol  Avenue. Okay. they go through and the question is   do you have the sewer potential to handle that?  Now that's something that obviously Peter Rice   could probably answer in a nancond. I'm just here  to say slow down, take a deep breath and look at   where you're developing or where you're thinking  you're going to develop because it may not be you   may not want to reszone some of the industrial.  It's not commercial. It's industrial zoned. You   may not want to so quickly make that residential  or mixeduse residential zone 2. Anyway,   that's all I'm saying is there's more to there's  more to this whole puzzle than you think. And I'd   like to take two seconds even though it's a public  hearing to take a shout out to DPW during the last   winter because they were on top of it and they  did the best damn job they could. page. I'm going   to take umbrage with that saying it's the past  winter. We're not through this winter yet. Donald,   I I want to go on the record right now that if  we have more snow, it is Paige Trace's fault. Oh,   of course. But you see, I listen to those trucks  go by my bedroom window all night long. So,   I know they're working and I know  when they're working. Absolutely. So,   I I pray to God we're not getting more snow,  but I don't think we are. Thank you, Paige. Anybody else speaking on um this? I'm going  to close the Oh, we going to close the public  

comments. Seeing none on Zoom. Nobody rising.  Councelor Taber. Um yeah, this is I think a   tribute to Beth Marois persistent because this  came about during the land use committee and   uh rather than do everything at once, some  of it was held back and and we did talk in   the housing committee about the mix of residential  and industrial and I think we're just allowing the   market to dictate what happens. Uh and if somebody  has a lucrative industrial parcel, they're not   going to sell it and turn it into housing.  Um and uh but and and lastly, these parcels   uh were recommended for action um to the planning  board from the housing committee long before   u anything with um banfield realy. So this was  this came out of a review of where could housing   happen that isn't happening now. And you know 80%  of the city is in residential neighborhoods. So   this proposal gives us 56 acres uh that are now  zoned um to allow housing that would not have been   zoned that way. And I think that's a a big step  forward. Thank you councelor Taber. Council Moro,   I mean, I'd like to go back. I mean, the Morona  road, especially that area, was actually part of   our original discussions when we created Gateway.  There was a lot of discussions around that area   being mixed. So, I feel like this is just building  on what we've been talking about for years to move   forward. And it has nothing to do with what's  across the street. We haven't even discussed   Bfield Road or any of the properties on there and  changing them. We're trying to stick close to the  

actual corridor. So I think that the parcels that  were picked, they were picked very selectively for   that specific expansion of a gateway and not  off the beaten path. So I just like to make   that very clear. Thank council morelock. And  yeah, just a little history on Morona Road.   Uh the Baronsskies were nice enough to but  they named it after Mike, Ronnie, and Nancy,   so that's why it's called Morona. So fair enough.  Yeah. The um um question for the city attorney.   um raised in a public hearing if there is a change  from in this place uh to industrial um on Morona 1   uh 2 and 11 u moving from um industrial to  uh a uh to the neighboring um and I believe   the neighboring on one of these is a um it's  a G2 gateway 2 uh right next to the daycare   um that's there. Is there any um is there  any issue for the city in terms of what   uh may be under that for a future developer to  discover? Um would we be held liable for the   decision to move from industrial to a other zoning  use? Well, that's a complicated legal question,   but my gut reaction is no. um the owners of that  property, past, present, future, would be liable   for any contamination that's on the property.  Thank you. Any further questions um on this? Do we have a motion on Yes, we do. Um John All in favor? I. Any opposed? All  right. Next up, and given that there  

was public comment on that, um we will uh not  have that sail through on the third reading. Okay, we're on to the um elderly exemptions.   Um public hearing and adoption of  resolution pursuant to RSA 7239-B. The city uh hereby amends the elder exemption  based on assessed value for qualified taxpayers   such that the exemption shall be available only  when the qualifying taxpayers uh have a net income   of not more than and we've had the presentation  but we will be back with another presentation   to refresh the memory with uh Rosanne Lince our  city assessor. Good evening, mayor, city council   members. I am going to go over the presentation  that I did a little bit last week, but then I   have a little bit more to add to it based on  information that I provided in the council packets   um this past week. So annually, the city of  Portsouth reviews income and asset levels for   both the elderly and disabled exemptions and makes  recommendations based on these levels pursuant to   RSA 72 37B and RSA 7239B. Again, last year the  city council increased the income levels for   qualifying elderly and disabled taxpayers to the  following levels. Income single went to $55,534. Income married went to $72,84 and the asset limits  remained the same as in prior years to $500,000.   Next slide, please. At the last meeting, February  17th, 2026, city council meeting, the city of   Portsouth assessor's office brought forward three  recommendations um to the city councelor along   with an a fourth option. Those options were option  one, adjust the income limits reflective of the  

2026 increase for social security recipients  of $2.8% as follows. Single up 57 up to   $57,89 an increase of $1,55. Married, increase  to $74,843, an increase of $2,39, and leave the   asset levels the same. Option two was adjust the  income limit reflective of the increases in the   November to November Boston, Cambridge, Newton,  Mass, New Hampshire consumer price index of 2.77%   as follows. Single increase to 57,72 an increase  of $1,538. Married, $74,821, an increase of 2017,   and again leave the asset limits the  same. The third option was to do nothing.   I at that meeting brought forward  a fourth option which was to adjust   the income asset levels as follows.  Single $65,000 an increase of $9,466. Married $85,000 an increase of $12,196 and the  asset limits to $750,000 a $250,000 increase.   Now, in your council packet, you'll see that  there was um uh information brought forward to you   concerning uh taxpayers that applied for 2024 and  2025 that were denied the elderly exemption. So,   if you look at that information, I this  is going to show you basically what that   um information provided has broken down to. So  if you look at the number of applicants which   were 32 72% of those applicants were  single that were denied. Next slide.

The reason we're of the denials were  over the income limit 24 of them which   was about 75% of the applicants. Six were  over the asset limit which was about 19%.   And um those that were both over income and asset  were two which was about 6%. Income limits are the   primary reason seniors are denied. Next slide  please. So based on this information that these   denials happened the average income of those that  were denied for single taxpayers were $62,533. and with a median of $60,281.  Those that were denied married,   $83,544 was the average. $82,150 was the  single. In that married applicants reported   about a $21,000 higher income on average over  single. Several of the denials were really close   to the income limits for single taxpayers,  ranging anywhere between $1,00 to $1,500. Next slide, please. So, the assets show that for  the single taxpayers that were denied, they were   they um didn't qualify in income, but they would  have qualified on assets. for single it was $34146 sorry $314,633 on average for single  the median assets were $258,44 married average was $222,414  the median assets were $235,342

most applicants are well below the $500,000  asset limit asset denials occur primary   primarily when assets exceed 600,000 to   $780,000. The highest reported asset level  for those that were denied were $783,883. So again, the majority of of income um  these people were qualified based on assets,   but they weren't qualified based on income. So, additional observations just out of those  that were denied for these past two years,   most applicants uh fell in the age range of 75 to   79 and 80 plus. Very few applicants  were under 70 that were were denied or very few applicants were under 70. This  indicates that the program is primarily   used for older seniors on fixed incomes. Single  applicants were denied between incomes ranging   between 56,000 and 67,000. Married applicants  were denied with a range of 80,000 to 83,000. This   suggests many seniors are moderately above current  limits as far as single taxpayers concerned. my additional review and what I brought forward.  Um this the option number four is what we looked   at savings of the elderly household and what  they would need uh to supplement their income   to come close to the median household and the  per capita income levels. This indicated that   $750,000 in a savings account earned 5% interest  and withdrawing $45,000 per year was needed to   come up close to the median household and per  capita income levels reported for the city of   Portsmiths. Their savings would be exhausted by  age 87. And the next slide just shows you where  

uh that income uh that um was generated from.  and I got it and plugged in numbers on a a   retirement calculator to come up with that  range of how long it would take somebody at   $750,000 to draw down their income to supplement  social security. And that's what this next slide   will show if single and married taxpayers on  average receive social security, which is about   $33,000 for single and I'm assuming $66,000 for  married. And then they drew down $45,000 per year   based on $750,000. That's what their total  income would be, which is close to what the   median per capita income is and what the median  household income is for the city of Portsouth. So again, I just wanted to put in that when  I looked at what the overall impact would   be on the city of Portsouth, it would be  an additional 4 cents on the tax rate if   about 20% of the taxpayers, which would  be these two 2024 and 2025 denials were   to receive the exemption. Thank you,  Rosanne. Any questions for Roseanne? Councelor Begley. Uh, thank you, your honor.  Um, is it correct that we have roughly 52% owner   occupied and 48% renter occupied uh dwellings in  Portsmith? I don't know that answer. Okay. Uh,   would it be correct that if you are a renter, all  of these exemptions are not available to you? No,   they wouldn't be. They have to be owned by they  have to be occupied by a property owner and own   the property. Okay. Okay. So, if the numbers  are correct, roughly half of our residents,   even if this were to pass tonight in any form,  they would be unable to take advantage of it   because of right, they're renters. They're  not property owners, right? Um and the median  

household uh assessed value in Portsmouth  is right around $750,000. Uh right now,   it's right around that. Yeah. So even though  that's not included in the assessment,   it would be fair to say that for the median  household, they'd be looking at 1.5 million   in net net assets potentially and still qualify  for this exemption, right? But they wouldn't   be able to use their asset as a liquid asset for  their home. Do we honor RSA 7238- and you'd have   to tell me what that one is. Uh well, and this  the second half of this is going to be Scott's   going to present that statute. That is noon. Yeah.  Which is the um tax the tax deferral. He's going   to speak to that u because you asked for it.  So he's going to do a presentation on that.   I guess I think they go hand inand because the  way I'm looking at it is any the budget is the   budget. So any tax adjustments we give to any one  group effectively penalizes all the other groups   because they have to make up the shortfall. Um  what I'm concerned about is we're leaving half of   our population out of any chance to get this. And  now what we're doing is we're protecting up to $   1.5 million in assets that could be inherited  by second generation through tax abatement.   um when we have a tool with the tax deferral  which what you can do is you can apply for   um if you're over 65 and you've owned your home  for 5 years what you can do is basically not pay   taxes acrew a bill and interest that when you  either sell your house or or your circumstances   change that's when the city would collect those  dollars. Um my concern is not everybody can not   everybody can qualify for that deferral. That's  up to the assessor whether you qualify or not.   And typically you still have to show income and  assets for that deferral. So a lot of times the   elderly will not apply for that because it places  a lean on their home. And if you're 80 years old,  

that's a scary concept. Uh you also if you have  a mortgage on that property, you have to get the   lean holders permission to put that lean on the  home. A lot of mortgage companies will not do it.   So it's not a given that you get that deferral.  You have to apply for it. You have to be granted   it. And if you have a mortgage on that property,  you have to have the lean holder sign off because   then the lean from the city of Portsmith also  takes precedent if it comes to a foreclosure, right? But if you if you owned your home  free and clear, this is something that   would be available to you if you're out  to everybody. Everybody knows about that.   You can't force somebody to to apply for  that. It places a lean on their property,   right? But and then they don't have to pay those  taxes. So it's not like it's without benefit. No,   they pay those taxes when they  sell the property plus interest. That lean is a lean that they pay those taxes  back to the city of Portsouth plus interest.   And I guess that's what my concern is is that  we're giving too much of a tax break to to one   group and penalizing the rest of the the residents  of the city by creating up to $ 1.5 million in   uh inheritance potential without the city  being able to recoup any taxes on that. Well,   if you're 60 years old and you have  $750,000 in the bank and you die and   you have a $750,000 house, then yes, that would  be correct. Thank you. Any other questions to   the council? And there's another portion of the  presentation. Would like to go through that now. Thank you, Rosanne. Kind of stole a lot of my presentation there, but  but Scott, you're here. It's almost 10:30. So,   good evening, mayor, city council. Uh my name is  Scott. I'm one of the assessors here in Portsouth.   Uh, in addition to the elderly and  disabled exemption previously presented,  

uh, New Hampshire state statute RSA  7238A authorizes municipalities to grant   a property tax deferral to qualifying elderly  and disabled residents. Uh, under this statute,   the assessing office may approve a deferral of  all or portion of the property taxes due plus   interest at the statutory rate of 5% annually.  Uh, when payment of those taxes would create an   undue hardship or could result in potential loss  of the property. If granted, the deferral results   in a recorded lean at the registry of deeds. The  total amount deferred may not exceed 85% of the   property's equity, which provides a financial  protection to the city. Um, next slide, please.   Uh, the eligibility requirements through RSA 72  7238A. Uh to qualify for the deferral program,   an applicant must meet the following criteria,  be at least 65 years of age or eligible for the   disability benefit under title two or title 16 of  the federal social security act, be a resident and   have occupied the property as their primary  resident for at least five consecutive years   if applying as an elderly or at least one year  as applying as a disabled. Uh obtain a written   approval from the mortgage holder if the property  is encumbered. uh file an an application annually   no later than March 1st following the notice  of tax. Uh if approved, the deferral applies   to the most recent tax bill issued by the city.  Next slide, please. Um who should consider a   deferral? The tax deferral program is intended for  residents experiencing genuine financial hardship.   It may be particularly appropriate for individuals  whose property tax obligation is placing strain on   their ability to meet basic living expenses or may  have otherwise considered selling their home due   to the tax burden. The purpose of the statute is  to provide stability and allow qualified residents   to remain in their homes during the period of  financial difficulty. Next slide, please. Um,   advantages of the deferral program. There are  several advantages to the statutory deferral  

option. The interest rate of a delinquent property  tax is 8% annually. Under the deferral statute,   the interest rate reduces it to 5%. The program  supports aging in place for qualifying seniors.   Uh deferrals may be granted for a single year  or recurring annual basis subject to review each   year. The deferral may be utilized in addition  to the elderly or disabled exemption when an   exemption alone does not sufficiently reduce the  tax burden. It's important to emphasize that a   deferral is not a forgiveness of taxes, but rather  a post a postponement of payment. Uh, next slide,   please. Uh, additional tax relief options.  In addition to the exemption and deferrals,   the city administers and provides access to  other tax relief mechanisms, including exemptions   for improvements made to assist persons with  disabilities pursuant to RSA 7237A. Uh financial   hardship relief through the statutory abatement  process and the state of New Hampshire low and   moderate income property tax relief program.  Detailed information regarding these programs are   available on our website. Um, and just a recap and  maybe a maybe to anticipate some questions. Um,   currently we have no one in this program. So,  zero actually. Uh, we did have a few this year   that began the process but did not arrive for  the March 1st deadline. Um, participation has   historically been limited. However, the program  serves as an important safety mechanism for   residents facing hardship. Um, is this effectively  shifting the burden to the future taxpayer? No.   The deferred taxes remain owed and acure interest.  The program does not eliminate the obligation. It   mere it merely postpones the collection under  the structured statutory safeguards. And does   this program present financial risk to the city?  The statute limits total deferrals to no more than   85% of the property's equity val. Additionally,  the lean is recorded and secured which pro   protects the city's financial interests. Thank  you. Thank you, Scott. Any questions on either  

presentation before we open the Oh, uh, we'll go  councelor Hopkins and then councelor Flynn. Um,   I think my question was for the first portion of  this and the applicants for the um, exemption.   You said most applicants fall into like 75 plus  years old. I'm and very few were under 70. So that   probably answers my question. I was wondering  how many folks are young and disabled that are   applying for these types of credits or are we  not seeing that as much? We're not seeing that   as much. We've only we only had two and ever since  I've been here, it's always been a very small pool   of disabled that have qualified because they have  to be receiving social security benefits in order   to qualify for it. Okay. Thank you, Councelor  Flynn. Thank you, Mayor. I I don't really have   a question. And I just want to say that to me this  is thank you. This is something we need to lean   into to create conditions for people to stay in  their homes. And the fact that it's such a small   pool and such a small adjustment. I'm just um this  is the sort of thing that people that I'm meeting   in my neighborhood are talking about and asking  me about. So thank you. I don't know if that was   out of turn, but um I will say I've been here for  a long time and the pool continually gets smaller.   We have our elderly are are selling or dying.  Um they're having a hard time. We see them all   the time come in. They continually ask us are how  has it gone up enough where I qualify? So we see   the need to try and catch up with income levels  that are out that are are falling behind for the   elderly. So yeah, and I would just add that I did  do a quick search on the website. You sort of like   navigational navigational. I was like, "Oh, it's  very easy. All the information is there on the  

assessor's page under tax relief comprised there."  So, thank you. You're welcome. Assistant Mayor,   thank you. Um just a a quick um question for for  your numbers. As you were talking um for the 750,   how um how many um of the previous year applicants  were denied um for that asset limit. Oh,   before 2024 and 2025. Yes. I don't know. Okay. Be  the state of New Hampshire doesn't really allow us   to keep lists of elderly. So, I just tried to get  some information together for the last couple of   years because it's it's really good information  to have as to who's being denied and the range   they're being denied, but I'm really not allowed  to keep lists like that. Y So, that makes sense.   Um I just wonder if if if as as I look at option  four and it says the increase of 750. Um if there   is an option or you see that there would be a hu  a large denial rate if that was say to increase   um say this year just like 125 uh versus the  whole 250 and maybe do it in a slower incremental   um increase. if you if you feel that that would be  detrimental to some that apply or if you feel that   that would still alleviate a lot of the stress  on the residents that are applying. No, that's   why I brought forward the other analysis that  I did because it's showing you that those that   are applying, a lot of them aren't reaching that  $750,000, but they are coming closer to $600,000.   So, the the council has the option of trying  it and seeing how many qualify and then moving   forward every year. every year you look at the  incomes, you can look at the assets every year,   you know, so if you're if you're not comfortable  with the whole 750, but you want to try and   capture those that you really see on those two um  lists that I gave. Um you can start there. That's  

what I mean just as to share with me that's what  I was kind of thinking and I think you're right   on the money with the income. I think that's very  clear. Um, I do think the asset I I would I would   like to give it a little bit of room to capture  as we're kind of trending towards some of the   600. So that's why I would think that, you know,  um to look at um just doing a doing an additional   $125,000 in the assets to give that that little  bit of a safe a safety net of that $50,000 over   um kind of where we're seeing people trend  to. Just trying to get my list so I can see So, if I was going to recommend something out  other than the 650 or the $750,000 based on what   I'm seeing here and based on the presentation, I  would I would ask the council to consider 600 to   $650,000 tonight. Okay? And that would probably  capture the majority of these people. We right   now have people applying for this exemption hoping  something like this goes through. Um because we're   getting really close to the date that they can  apply which is April 15th. Um and then you said   between 600 and 650. Yeah. I mean and then next  year look to see who else is coming in and who's   not qualifying based on those limits. Um but if  you look at at those that are being denied and   you look at where what's the where the denials  are falling. Yeah. Where the denials are falling   you the the outliers are about 750 to 8 to 783.  Yeah. So that's like a big delta that's a jump   up to. Just a parliamentary inquiry because this  is a published hearing. Do we have the options   of changing any of these numbers? We have in the  past. You can change them during as long as you're  

not exceeding them, you can change them. Great.  Thank you. Because you're having a public hearing   tonight and you're not offering anything more  than what you're doing tonight. So, we can go   one direction but not the other. Correct. Oh, and  I should let Susan answer that for the words out. Thank you very much, Councelor Cook. Uh, thank  you, your honor. Um, when I'm looking at the   analysis and why you chose 750,000, I mean,  it's logical to me because you're looking at um   average lifespan, which getting to basically if  somebody starts at 65 with $750,000 and they're   only withdrawing 45,000 a year out of that  savings to supplement their social security,   which does not quite get them to median income  for Portsmith. they're still going to run out   of money, right, by the time they're 87, which  is average lifespan, correct, right? Now, so um   if we change that and reduce that, we're looking  at taking them back to around 81, 80 years old   and having them run out of savings. Yeah, we were  discussing that. And it it actually I think it's   coming down almost into like 78 somewhere like  that. So, yes, very close to that. So, they will   be running out of money at $750,000. I've done  some research on it. So that's why I I looked at   that number and said I know that that number based  on on the elderly that I've been talking to is a   number that gets them hopefully to withdraw out of  their savings so they can survive just on social   security. And my understanding also this is this  um estimates that they have a rate of return of   5% on their investment. And so if they're not if  they're invested in safer investments, they might  

only be earning three three and a half%. So they  might not make it to 87 at 750 though. Correct. Councelor Cook, Councelor Bagley. Uh thank  you your honor. If I understand correctly,   I know it's hard to estimate, but  you're forecasting a roughly four   4 cent change would be if we voted to pass this an increase of 4%. So it would be it would  be an estimated total of 11 cents. Every last   time without that option four, it would have  been seven cents. But if I'm going to add the   750 and everybody that's on these two lists  was going to be approved, which is about 20%   more at full and I'm estimating based on the  full amount of each one of these exemptions.   A lot of these individuals never reach the full  amount because their assessments are below that.   But I'm estimating it at the worst case scenario  of an additional 4 cents. So it would be 11. All   right. So 4 cents on a medium priced house. So  median in Portsmouth is 762. But say if we use 750   that's about $300 for the four cents. Yeah. It's  a little late but I trust you. Okay. All right. Councelor Cook. No, sorry. I  didn't mean to have my hand up. Oh,   sorry. I just was thinking, do we  want to get to the public hearing? Oh, first a motion to go past 10:30. Wait a motion  go past 10:30. Somebody has to do it. Oh. Oh,   I'll make the motion. Second. All in favor?  I. Any opposed? Opposed. There you go. I get up at 532.

So, um we will open the public hearing um speak to  or against uh this as or the options as presented. Seeing no one rise, uh we'll  close the public hearing. Any   additional uh council questions and deliberations? Councelor Hopkins. Um I just have a comment. Uh  thank you to you know for bringing this to our   attention because um the numbers are tricky and I  you know assessing things is is not an easy task.   But I think what I appreciate most about this is  that it speaks to who we want to have in our city,   who we want the city to belong to. And I think  community care for our elders is important.   Um that's one of my personal values. So I thank  you for putting that value and you know reaching   that conclusion of you know we want this Portsouth  to include our elders in a comfortable re you know   in a comfortable manner. Um thank you for  putting numbers to that and trying to get   that functioning. So I really do appreciate  that. Thank you councelor Hopkins. Councelor   Cook. Thank you your honor. Um, I move to adopt a  proposed increase in the elderly exemption and the   disabled exemption um to the limit set forth in  option four. Second. Um I don't know if we can we   can only do we have to do one at a time. Correct.  I'll amend that just to say the elderly exemption   first. Is that right? We can yeah do one at  a time. All right. Any discussion, councelor   Biller? Uh thank you. Um thank you honor. Um,  I just always, you know, people that have lived   here the longest are going to be our our elderly  neighbors. Um, you know, they've kind of always   think of them, they they've kind of paved the way  before us. They've paved the road before us. Um,  

but I also the most sensitive members of our  community. Um, if something bad happens to me,   I can go get another job. I can get a second  job or a third job or whatever. Um, but if I'm,   you know, a little bit older, if I'm over the age  of 80, it's not going to be easy to go get another   job. Um, so I think we need to look after the  our members of our community. Councelor Cook. Uh,   thank you, your honor. Um, one of my biggest  concerns is always people being able to stay   in their homes because we don't have alternate  housing to provide them in the community. So,   if if an if a an individual or a couple can no  longer afford to pay for their property taxes, you   can only apply so many years for a lean against  your house when you're concerned about losing your   home. Um, and then you're at some point you're  really concerned about how much equity do I   even have to go anywhere else. And in the city of  Portsouth, it's it's very difficult to sell a home   and have somewhere else to go in the community. Um  beyond just the fact that um home prices are very   high, there's not a lot of availability. And so um  these residents are stuck at an age that they they   would have to relocate long distances away from  family and friends potentially that live here.   and that puts them at a a distinct disadvantage in  aging um and it impacts their health. So um when   people have to leave their communities um at an  older age. So I think it's really critical that   we focus on investing um in in that community  and keeping them here for the duration of their   lifetimes which means increasing these limits. and  councelor Cook. Councelor Begley. Yeah, thank you   honor. Um, in the past I've I've voted for this  exemption because I do think it's important, but  

I do think it's important that we recognize that,  you know, about half of our seniors don't own   their homes. They they rent and this leaves them  out in the cold. And not only does it leave it out   in the cold, but now instead of those homes being  taxed the medium value uh $500 additional for the   exemption, it's now going to be closer to $830.  And at some point, I think we've gone too far in   giving a discount to some people that excludes  others. If if everyone in in town owned their   home, I' I'd support this, but we we have close  to a 50/50 split between renters and and owners,   and this leaves renters out in the cold. And  councelor Bagel, I just do want to point out um   a 4 cent tax increase, and we're talking about 11  cents, is a $30 tax increase. It's not a $300 uh   dollar tax increase. 4 cents on a thou. So we'll  do the math for a $750,000 home uh you are talking   about uh every uh thousand. So you take that as  750 multiply 750 by 4 cents and you get to about   30.88 uh% or $30 on a yearly average. So just I'm  doing my math wrong then you are. I was confused   like this. Um so it's a $30 um you know and that's  you know represents you know what now will be   um increased on on seven so it's increasing it  by about um you know a third uh additional or   50% more uh than what it previously was. Um  I think that is important. Um there is a uh   I it's not just because it's the most frustrating  thing um that we face. Uh there are um there are   countless people um that you will run into uh  serving on the city council. More so if your   wife allows you to go to Demoolas, which my wife  uh smartly usually doesn't let me do it, don't  

um because I I spend a little more time talking.  Uh the tougher conversations that I've had there   are been probably what Rosanne has had uh and what  Scott has had in folks that are are very curious   on what is going on with the exemption. And I  was incredibly proud when we first did this. And   councelor Taber, got to give you a lot of credit  um for being the the leader um on this to start,   you know, saying what, you know, can we do and  for Roseanne for leaning in so much uh to this   exercise and saying how can we um increase these  rates? And they went from not increasing for a   long time to increasing for the first time. And  you know, it's not that we've just been proud   as a city of Portsouth, but it's a lifeline to  many seniors. I don't think that we are going to   be able to support the growth in the city and it's  not like you know um it's not by accident that our   our city is a valuable place. Um it's a valuable  place because there is a enormous amount of sweat   equity that went into making Portsouth what it is.  Um it's not just because it is on the water. It's   been on the water for 400 years. it hasn't been as  valuable for 400 years. Um, and so the idea that   the folks that made it valuable by putting their  efforts into whether it was creating the Siri   Street open or market square day or taking the  votes and supporting changing market square to be   what it is, removing the parking that they would  be in a position to somehow be priced out. These   numbers are not people that bought their house  5 years ago. There is not a single person that's   going to qualify for this that you know statute  alone you didn't move move to Portsouth earning   um $65,000 as a single person and bought a  house that you are now looking to not be able to   uh afford the taxes on. And so these are folks  that have been here an incredibly long time have  

been building this community. And if we can make  it easier for those folks to stay, I think those   folks will trust us more in the decisions that  we have to make in terms of expanding the amount   of housing options that we do have. So, while I  certainly am sympathetic to the folks that are   going to be paying, myself included, $30 more uh  on a yearly basis and for the renters that still   don't have that opportunity. I expect this to  allow us to have more people on board with the the   types of changes we just made tonight, increasing  the amount of housing that's possible here because   they won't look at that as increasing the value  of their property so much that they will be forced   to sell. And it's a in my belief a very pro-ousing  uh move to make to make sure that those folks that   are um that have made Portmith get to benefit from  that uh get to retire and live in their homes and   uh continue to um share the stories of of what  makes Portsmith the most desirable place to live.   And so I will be supporting this and I thank uh  both Rosanne and Scott uh for the effort that   went into doing this. And just the I think that  um just on a a side note um it's hard to be the   city assessor. Um it's not an easy um job to have  and the fact that um we have one like Rosanne who   um has worked as hard as she has to make sure that  we are creating this opportunity for as many folks   is not lost on me and it shouldn't be lost on  anybody in the city of Portsmouth. So thank you   so much for uh going um above and beyond um  in this case again to create an opportunity   for more people to benefit from this. Uh, your  honor, I just I I want to apologize being off   at literally an order of magnitude. Uh, the  decision at $30 is is a no-brainer. At $300,   I had a lot of concerns. So, that was entirely  my fault. I was doing the math all wrong. It's  

a it's a a testament that we should not  uh go past 10:30 if we can avoid it. Um,   we were thinking of a lot of things. I did want to  mention one more thing is that this Thursday we're   doing a lunch and learn for the elderly. Um, it's  at noon to 2. It's going to be at the Levenson   room at the library. And I encourage everybody  to come. It's not going to just be looking at   the elderly and the disabled exemptions. Everybody  there will be able to discuss any exemption that   the city offers. And I'll be doing a presentation  also that day. Thank you, Rosanne. So, we have   this. It requires a roll call vote because it's  Is that a motion? Do we not have the motion? No,   we have the motion. We had the motion by  councelor Cook. Ro, I should remember this. Um,   uh, we will, uh, let's do it. All in favor?  I, any opposed? Seeing none, unanimous. Um, next is Yep. Disabled. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's  what I was getting to that little faith. be of   little faith turning the No, I was all right. Um,  so I had just to turn the page on this to go to   item. Uh, councelor Cook, your honor, I move to  accept the proposed increase of disabled exemption   based upon the numbers presented to us in option  four. Second. Any further discussion? We councelor   Cook, do we need to have another public hearing?  We do. Yep. Yeah. Um, I will open the public   hearing. speak too for against. Seeing none and  none on Zoom, I will close the public hearing. Um,   any additional questions of the council? Seeing  none, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Seeing none.  

Thank you both. Uh, Scott and Rosan. Now we  have the, um, our refund. Public hearing of   resolution authorizing the issuance of refunding  bonds of up to $8,500,000 to refinance certain   outstanding bonds of the city so as to reduce  interest cost and to pay all costs incidental   and related thereto. We have first a presentation  which will be given by money of verbal of verbal.   Good evening folks. Very very verbal and  very quick. Uh in 2014 we sold a set of   bond municipal bonds. There are they are callable  bonds. There's a provision that allows us to do   so after 10 years. Uh in our analysis ongoing  of our bonding situation, we identified that   we had a key opportunity to recall, excuse  me, to call these bonds and refund them,   effectively refinancing. Uh we anticipate the  savings of uh better than $443,000 as a result of   u uh improved interest rates. We seek your uh  bonding authorization to do this refunding. Um,   and just FYI, it will take a a super majority  of six members and we do need a roll call vote.   Yeah. I move to adopt the resolution as presented.  Second. Any council questions? Now open the public   hearing on the resolution of uh refinancing.  We welcome Huda Huda Portsouth. So councilors,   my question is what are we refinancing here?  Which projects are included? Um I have never   seen a place where we have various bonds and you  have to look at the date. I could not figure out  

and I have all the data what we were doing here  and what projects. I I looked at maybe Hobbs Hill,   maybe Peas, may I I have no idea. So, as a  resident, I would actually like to know which   projects will be included in here. And that is my  my public comment. Um, I do not remember when we   had just general obligations bonds with a date on  here. So, that means that you have to look it up.   I have to look it up. So, I I kind of want to  know what we're doing here. Thank you, Peter. Esther Kennedy, 41, Pickering, Portmith.  Um, I just can't say any better than what   Peter said. There's no information there. Um,  when we were looking at the thing for tonight,   I was hoping to see what was going on and  why the money was being transferred. So,   um, any information would be great. Again,  please don't keep the public in the dark. Thank you, Mr. Kennedy. Are there any other  speakers to against in the public comment?   Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Any  questions for Nathan? Nathan, please. Uh, the the   original bonds issued that are eligible for this  current refunding were issued on June 25th, 2014   for the middle school renovations, Hobs Hill Water  Tank, Pierce Island Wastewater Treatment Plant,   and Peas Wastewater Treatment Plant. Um, and  uh, the templates that I pulled and the review  

of bond council didn't call for us to to include  those in the resolution, but they are included   in the city manager's memo uh, explaining this  uh, request. I will definitely check with bond   council about including that in the future.  Makes sense. Thank you, Nathan. Um were you   able to opine simply just on the position we're  in to be able to refinance these um these bonds? Was I am I able to apply? I right. Just so imagine  so you know often city council um it's it's kind   of easy to assume because uh we've done this a  number of times but just um we've we've taken   out bonds refinancing what this means to the lay  person when they are looking at you know what are   we doing uh with refinancing um could you just  give a high level of what you know this effort   entails? This is very much like refinancing of  your home to find a more attractive uh interest   rate over the course of uh the remainder of your  um of your mortgage, if you will. In this case,   20-year bonds uh were uh issued. And as  we've reached the end of the first 10 years,   we have the option to call them back, pay them  off, and reissue new bonds to replace them.   doing so with lower interest rates so that we can  save over the second half of the life of the of   the loan or the borrowing we can save uh on the  interest costs which will have a an an impact of   reducing the budget impact for this borrowing over  the next decade. So uh and this is a this analysis   we do this analysis in tandem with uh our um our  consultants at Hilltop Securities and uh we review   it uh every all of this with our bond council at  uh Troutman and uh they they signal to us when  

we are seeing things that that they have vouched  safe them and they are in fact able to generate   savings. Nathan, uh, councelor Maro and then  councelor, uh, Bagwell, I just want to confirm   that the new bonds that we'll refinance into are  going to be 10-year bonds, not like the original   20. Same life as the underlying bonds that  they're replacing. Yes. Same same majority date   ultimately. Councley, I never lose a chance to  tout it, but we've had the AAA bond rating since   2013, which means that that's the best rating.  So, whatever the prevailing interest rate is,   we're always going to get the best interest rate.  And the risk of uh bragging for the city about   that is the the only direction we can ever go is  down. And what is the anticipated savings again   for the $443,358 was the estimate given to us.  Thank you. Any other uh questions? Um with that,   u we do need a roll call vote. June is grabbing  the roll call as we speak. All right. Assistant   Mayor Kelly, yes. Councelor Cook, yes. Councelor  Taber, yes. Council Blox, yes. Councelor Bagley,   yes. Council Maro, yes. Councelor Flynn, yes.  Councelor Hopkins, yes. Mayor McCran, yes. Your   honor. Thank you, June. Next, we have a public  hearing of resolution authorizing a supplemental   appropriation of 400,000 from unassigned fund  balance for the necessary expenditures related   to outside counsel. Your honor, I move to  authorize the supplemental appropriation for   outside council fees of $400,000. Second. The  attorney has a brief uh verbal presentation. Good evening, everyone. Um so um there's a memo  um in the packet but I can summarize the details.  

We were asked uh councelor Taber asked for a  report back with some details about the status   of this litigation and the costs associated  with it um that are precipitating the request   for supplemental appropriation. So, um, for  history, this suit was initiated in December   of 2022. Banfield Realy LLC, which I'll refer to  just as Banfield, filed suit against the city in   federal court on an environmental claim. It's  a complex environmental claim um initiated by   the most recent owners um against a number of of  entities, not just the city, but also PHA and the   former owners of this property along with a real  estate agent who was involved in the sale of the   property. They claim that the city was responsible  for dumping contaminated materials on their   property back in the late 60s early 70s as part  of the urban redevelopment project of the city's   north end. Um, Banfield Realy claims that there's  a potential of nine to$17 million in damages in   order to remediate uh the property and that is the  substance of the lawsuit. So, in March of 2023,   we engaged the MLAN law firm to represent the city  um which is typical in such a a complex federal   uh litigation. So, they have representing us  since that time. We've gone through a number of   um substantial discovery. As you might imagine,  digging into records from the 1960s is an enormous  

task. A lot of those records related to uh the  real estate that was um uh involved in the urban   renewal project um by PHA. It also involved a  substantial amount of research into the actual   uh legal relationship between the city and PHA,  which is a complex analysis. Um all which led   to our council filing motions to dismiss us  from the lawsuit. We don't believe that the   city was involved. if there was any dumping  of hazardous material on that property that   the city was involved in that dumping. Um that  motion to dismiss was denied um but very thinly   denied. Um so a lot of discovery has uh continued  through the process. Hundreds of pleadings have   been filed. Many court appearances have occurred.  um depositions have been taken and again a lot of   documentation has been dug up through the historic  records. Uh over the period of time the city has   paid approximately half a million dollars so far  in legal fees to defend this lawsuit. Um at this   point in the lawsuit, it's been determined that  we have good grounds to file a motion for summary   judgement. A motion has been filed, objections  have been filed, and we're waiting for the court   to schedule a hearing on that motion. If our  motion is granted, we will be dismissed from   the lawsuit. Um, and we are hopeful, particularly  based upon the analysis done on the motion to  

dismiss, that we're very close. Um, there is  no, our position is there is no evidence that's   been discovered in all of this time doing all of  this discovery, looking up all the documents and   um taking all the depositions that could support a  claim that the city is legally responsible for any   of the contamination at that site, assuming any  of that contamination even had anything to do with   the urban renewal project in the north end. So,  um unfortunately, while we're waiting to have a   hearing on the motion for summary judgement, we're  also preparing for the trial which is scheduled   in November. Um that trial date comes with a lot  of deadlines for additional discovery including   experts. Um and we have an expert disclosure  deadline up and coming um in the next month or   so. Experts, environmental experts are going to  be very expensive. Um and there'll be additional   a lot of time and effort put in with by our  attorneys um and by the law firm in defending us   in this lawsuit. We're still very hopeful that the  motion for summary judgement will be granted, but   then there's always the opportunities for motions  to reconsider and appeals. So, um while we're   hopeful that that our um legal bills will end  in the next four months or so, um there's no no   guaranteeing that and in order to continue to pay  their um pay their fees and continue on with their   defending the city and this litigation. This this  amount is what was determined to be appropriate   um with consultation with the finance department  in terms of where we are with what we've already  

paid and um where we are with going forward  to get us through the end of this fiscal year.   Um before we open it up uh for public hearing  speakers um had a couple of clarifying questions.   Um we have um uh originally um looked for a motion  to dismiss that was not successful. Uh we are now   um uh asking for more money um in order to have a  summary judgement. My my specific question is it   seems as though the summary judgement is going to  uh be the first thing it that is in a few months,   three months you said before the motion's been  filed, all the pleadings are filed and we're   waiting for the court to schedule a hearing. So  hopefully maybe next month we'll get a hearing.   Is is there any possib And at the same time we  must continue to prepare for a trial in November.   Y is there any um do you think there would be  any uh sympathy of the court uh to extend the   um the uh the deadline such for the um the the  court date um in November uh for a time uh in   the future that we could stop the um the effect  of of preparing for that trial and focus on the   summary judgement. aspects of this uh and if  doing so would that reduce any like or amount   of money that we would have to um propose as a  part of this supplemental or yes supplemental.   So um we've already worked that strategy a little  and we postponed the trial that was supposed to   be I believe um this summer. We postponed it to  the fall so that we could engage in this summary  

judgement motion in order to stop um or delay the  um use of council fees past the summary judgement   motion, but we can't delay some parts of that  any further. Um, and I don't think that the   court would would um be entertaining of another  motion to delay the trial um until the resolution   of the summary judgement motion. They are moving  to delay the deadline for our expert disclosures,   but they're most likely only going to be able  to delay them for a month or so. So, um, we've   already attempted these tactics of delaying until  we get an order and we've done, uh, we've delayed   it as far as we think the court is willing to  agree to. Okay. And I'll get to councelor Bagley.   Just one more question on this. If, um, our um,  pleading for summary judgement is successful. Um, at that point, would we then be preparing for  uh trial or would we be preparing for appeals to   that summary judgement? Appeals on the summary  judgement. And would we expect um the expert   um testimony disclosures to be required  um if uh summary judgement is granted?   No, everything would be stayed and delayed until  there was a final assuming someone appealed it.   You would wait until the order on the appeal.  Okay. And at any point um in summary judgement um   is it's a significant amount of money that we've  spent on uh this. I think it creates a percept it  

it's frustrating to expend this amount of money  on uh certainly any uh thing but given everything   that we're dealing with at the city it's it's  a heightened uh microscope. Um is there any   ability to extract legal fees uh from uh the the  litigants in this and would we attempt to do so? There's you know generally attorneys fees are only  granted when there is some type of bad faith uh on   the part of the litigants you know as part of the  litigation whether there's any ability to extract   money down the road um for some type of resolution  of the case that's always possible but as far as   getting an order from the court for attorney's  fees okay highly highly unlikely and and and it   would require a lot of more council fees to make  the effort. So, final question. Uh the $400,000   that we are both spending for these um the payment  of of uh fees already incurred this year and fees   anticipated to be incurred in this fiscal year.  Um if we have summary judgement and it doesn't go   our way, uh that is to continue to prepare for  this case and throughout the rest of the year.   And if it does go our way, it would be would  that money would those monies be encumbered for   uh pres preserving our or preparing for an appeal  or would we expect to have potentially less monies   um allocated based on uh a different or  not having to procure expert testimony? So I think what we've what we're anticipating is  that this amount of money would get us through   to the end of this fiscal year. assuming we fully  litigate the motion for summary judgement and we  

start hiring experts and we continue on with  discovery and getting ready for trial. Um if   something happens to cut that short um then we'll  spend less than than what we're anticipating.   Um I guess the only qu like the thing that's um  and we might not don't have an answer for that.   My my question is if uh summary judgement um if  that hearing um we do we expect a decision on   summary judgement to happen before uh the end  of the fiscal year. I can only hope assuming   we have a hearing in April. I would hope we'd  have an order by the end of June. Okay. So,   we're not going to be able to um I guess the only  I mean the frustrating part is that uh we could   be out of this by June um or out of like at least  out of having to hire the experts, but we have to   hire the experts before June. Correct. Uh because  of that, I guess I would ask that um additional   efforts are are are made with this appropriation  to um um see if there's a a willingness of the   court to recognize the unique position that we are  in uh before the summary judgment um is required.   Understanding every plaintiff has the right to  everybody has a right to a speedy trial. But   considering the amount of money that we would be  spending on this, it's hard uh or it's important   to at least ask that question. Sorry. I can  certainly ask our council to make those efforts.   Councelor Bea, thank you. Thank you, honor.  So, we've spent roughly a half million dollars   to date. Yes. And that was starting in 2023. How  much did we spend so far in this fiscal year? In   this fiscal year, I'm not sure I have that number.  Nathan might have that number. I think it's like it's like 10:30. Curse. Uh, sure. We did the  fiscal year numbers. Yeah. Our billing so far to  

date 153 286 153,000 for FY26. For FY26 and we're  anticipating an additional 400 in FY26. We haven't   paid the 153. This would be inclusive of the 153.  That was through January 31. That we haven't paid   yet. That's the That's Yeah, that's the the That's  the We have not paid the 153,000. Is that correct?   We have paid. We have paid and have for  the better part of these seven months of   the fiscal year anticipated an end to this  next month and an end to this next month. And now you've just heard the story of when  hopefully it will end. Okay. So, just to expound   further, you know, my my challenge with this is,  you know, we're in a very tough budget year. We've   got issues with health insurance. We asking for  cuts from all the departments. We anticipated this   would be dismissed so we wouldn't need much money,  but then it wasn't. Now we're spending upwards of   a thousand hours researching for for summary  judgment with a relatively for at least this   area high-end law firm. It just seems like there  might be some economies if we if we got lower paid   research type people because my understanding  is this isn't overly technical legal. It's an   overly researchheavy legal type case. Um I just  I don't understand it's the financial budgeting   of the legal department. It's actually highly  technical um the environmental law and um this   is actually a case of first impression in regards  to the city's relationship with the public housing   authority. Um, so it be first impression in this  jurisdiction. So there are it is highly technical  

uh environmental claim and it's a it's a very  complex legal um claim that's before the court   that um that they're defending the city on. So um  this is typical of the expense that you will get   from outside council. I think we saw even higher  hourly bills um in our McIntyre litigation but   this is you know how outside council bills um and  in order to prepare adequately for trial this is   the type of work that has to get done. I guess  I don't understand if it's that type of case   why we were optimistic that it would be dismissed  then because they lack any evidence that we were   participating in any type of disposal of any type  of hazardous material on the property. However,   the legal standard on the motion to dismiss always  weighs any possible facts in the favor of the   um the defendant um on the motion. And um  the court by a very thin finding decided   that there was some facts that and legal issues  that needed to be resolved before the court.   So despite that thin finding, it's yet still  a complex, highly technical case. Yes, it is.   So the thin finding is not That's why I'm not a  lawyer. Yep. So just like uh and I'm not a lawyer   either. So um the thin finding is not or veiled uh  was thinly veiled uh finding is the original word   I thought. But the um whether or not uh the court  is going to give difference to the evidence to the  

plaintiff or not doesn't take away from the fact  that the effort going into this was to have the   case dismissed because on its merits we believe  that the case should have been dismissed and that   was not the case that you know we were that we  were left with. I don't know if um if we you know   we could have last year appropriated more money on  contingency that this would not be dismissed but   I think we would have had a similar conversation  around appropriating more money for something that   we didn't believe uh would merit at that time and  now that we have that information I think it's a   better at least use of funds sort of over commit  funds on the city side uh to accurately commit   based on our best guesses on what that would  happen and come back to the council with another   uh request. I think that there's um you know,  I would really like to be able to see our legal   counsel uh understand that the effort to go  to trial before the summary judgement is a   unfortunate amount or an unfortunate alignment of  resources and timing that it would be um certainly   a um it would be great if we didn't have to do  that. One question that I have is 153,000 has   been paid um this year uh for this up to January  31st. The expectation of what we are spending the   400,000 is the uh months of February, March, uh  April, May, and June. That is what the $400,000   uh reflects. Not monies that not the monies of  March. Is that accurate? No, it would include   March because we've only We just got the bill  for February just the other day and that was   $38,000 approximately, right? So, so February,  so 38 32,000 for February, for March, for April,   for May, and for June. That's our anticipated  is if we have to continue working on this case  

through the end of the fiscal year. That's how  we're getting to that to that number. Correct.   The math was the math was 153,000 committed  through January and an estimate of 50,000 a   year for the remaining five month 50,000 a month  for the remaining five months. So 150 plus 250   400,000. Real quick though, Nathan, you said that  we had already paid the 153,000. Is that accurate?   Yes. Why are we then committing uh why are we not  committing 250,000 to this then? That's what I'm   to cover those costs with an appropriation other  than taking the dollars out of contingency. Okay,   got it. So, we Okay, so it was out of contingency.  That contingency is going to be required for other   aspects of our of our um and so we want to leave  the contingency in that amount and we want to   properly and accurately reflect where that money  is coming from and that is the outside council.   And so we're going to appropriate the money in  the full amount and instead of paying it out of   contingency, we're going to take that money out of  this appropriation. Yes, sir. Got it. Thank you.   Uh councelor Taber. Um thanks, mayor. Um thank  you, city attorney, for briefing on on this and   and um revealing the whole backstory. Um, it  sounds to me, well, first off, I I think my   initial reaction, I'm sure may have been that of  other counselors. If any other department of the   city, the schools, public works, the police  had said we need a $400,000 supplemental,   uh, without detail, uh, we would question that.  So, I appreciate that that that we've gotten the   detail and it's now public and we can talk about  it in public. And what's emerging is there is a   clear litigation strategy, stepby-step strategy.  And it's, you know, we're working for the best  

outcome with summary judgement, but planning for  the worst outcome with the supplemental. Um the   obvious question for us representing the taxpayers  is could uh this be done inhouse now that all the   discovery uh the research of the documents has  been done and you know I fully appreciate that   sometimes you need, you know, as a friend says,  lawyers come in herbivores and carnivores and   sometimes you need a carnivore um to litigate. Al  also I think that the billing reflects the amount   of hours that are put towards this and you would  take all of my staff all of our hours and we would   do nothing else. So that that's the reason to go  out to outside counsel for complex litigation. Um   as much as all of us would love to play in federal  court, um that we would get nothing else done on   the his behalf if we were we would have, you know,  obligations to do our very best in this litigation   and we would have to spend all of our waking hours  on it. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Taber. Uh,   thank you, uh, Susan or Attorney Moro. Um, we will  open the public hearing. Speaking to against, uh, Peter Huda. So if in this past discussion,  if I understand correctly, the bills that   are going to come forward that you do have  an invoice for or an estimate are 250,000.

So my first question would be um on a contingent  liability. Now this is an accounting concept and   what this means is contingent liabilities are  potential obligations that arise depending on   outcome of uncertain future events for  municipalities. These include lawsuits,   environmental cleanup or guarantees on loans. And  then I'm looking at the um the caffer on page 97   which covers this commitments and contingencies.  the second paragraph after it discusses what   um attorney morose moral said it is anticipated  the s city will incur additional attorney fees   as motion practice continues in the federal court  so basically we knew about this last year at the   end of last year and it wasn't put in there in  a number form so now it's coming forward on this   so my my next question would be in addition to  the 250 50 that I think Nathan said was coming   forward. Um there was also an amount in here  of 55,000 that was for something else that   was that included or are you going to need more  money for that? So those would be my questions.   The last question would be um this I know  this is very complex but is the city paying   for PHA here? How is how is the uh the cost here  after all of this discovery being separated? And   um I think if if the city is paying that  I think I think the residents need to know   and the taxpayers and the council.  So those would be my questions if I  

understand your discussion right. If not,  correct me. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. Good evening, Rick Bestead, 1395 Islington Street.  So, I know a little bit about this property,   knew about urban renewal. Not saying that the  city necessarily should be liable. I'm hoping   it's something that is dismissed. The problem I  have is is we're in litigation and lawsuit with   a property owner and I'm not going to say names or  anything like that, but how did we find it moral,   responsible that we then helped the owners that we  are that own this property also own the bookstore   on Lafayette Road for poor Walter. they own  it. And the city helped to close, literally   helped to close that property down, which led  to unfortunately something that everyone would   probably regret for the rest of their lives. We  enforced a uh registration requirement. Now, I've   been here for over 40 years, and cars and stuff  like that have always been there. The bookstore's   always been there. Isn't there a conflict of  interest that we're in litigation and lawsuit,   but the city helped to evict a man for the  property owners in place? And I'm sure probably   with the faces that I'm seeing, some people don't  even know that that wasn't even a thing. That the   property owners back in 2017 actually acquired  the property and we have what we have now. So,   I would be asking your legal and the city manager  how we separate those two when we're in litigation   lawsuit. My heart, and I'm hoping I'm wrong, is we  used it to negotiate maybe a settlement. Michael  

Kaine, we did that. You guys went and negotiated  with them to go and reszone the property. And   you're going to be asked for an incentive to go  up to six stories. And that's part of, you know,   kind of your requirement. And I know you  guys can all still say no for it. Um,   but I know the incentive as far as more housing  is what the goal of this council is. So,   so be it. Um, you know, I mean, you've got  a letter in the packet like somebody had   mentioned earlier from the property owners now  that say it's toxic land and they want to put,   you know, 350 plus units on it, families, homes.  So, I think the council has some questions and   I think legal and I think the city manager owe  the council an explanation. And I know that's   not going to happen other than closed doors, but  I at least wanted to raise it a point because I   saw a few blank faces there that nobody had  any acknowledgement that the same company,   the same owners of these two properties.  Thank you very much. Thank you, Rick. Esther Kennedy 41 pickav um I want to go  again to what I said earlier now that you know   this you know you're in legal jeopardy. You're  spending thousands of dollars on industrial land. Do you really want to do it on Morona Road  knowing what's there? Do you really want   to do it moving down Bfield or even  on Heritage knowing what's there? Is this just the start of future lawsuits?  Until you get this one figured out,  

do you really want to change that zoning?  I have researched this property. I've read   what has been in the paper. I've  read what was put in the packet. Um,   there's a lot of whatifs about this. Rick  is right. They own Port Walters Mortgage. Where's the conflict? Where's the conflict  with Portsouth Housing Authority? Where are   your expenses? Where what do Petra's right? Are  we paying their legal fees? How does that work? Again, think about knowing that it is in the  PE's records. It is in our city records of   what's buried there. And now you have soil  samples to prove it. Do you really want to   change the properties to gateway? And I agree  um with Petra I think the 400,000 is going to   be a drop in the bucket. What counselor  be using the people we're using. It could   potentially be a lot more and you're going  to have to answer to that because you have   no answer right now because you can't.  It's in the courts. It's in the courts.   But you need to think about being proactive and  not reactive. And I really would encourage you   to think about that third reading until this  all gets through. Thank you. Thank you, Esther. Any other speakers? Two for against the  appropriation uh before the council. Seeing none,  

closing the public hearing. Any additional council  questions or deliberations? I'll start us off   uh with a couple of points. Um one, uh the  153,000 uh was expended already invoiced at   the end of January uh was previously paid uh from  contingency. This would allow for that 153,000   to come into to uh this appropriation with the  additional $50,000 per month from February, March,   April, May, and June resulting in 153,000 plus  250,000 just so we're on the same page of that.   and we are doing from an accounting practice.  We're not taking this out of contingency,   but reappropriating uh this from a uh a  um from the legal side of this. So that's   uh that's one. Um two, it is I mean I don't know  my dad convinced me not to be a lawyer. Sometimes   it feels like that would have been a good gig. Um  but um he also said you know you get the advice   you know advice is worth what you pay for it. Um  this is high stakes um situation where Portsouth   has a lot of funds uh that can be going after or  sought after by um folks. Uh we've asked before,   we will repeat again. Uh we are not sharing the  legal costs of PHA. Can we reconfirm that for the   record? Yes, we can. They have their own council.  They're a separate entity and they're being sued   as a separate entity. So um it's a um it's it's  difficult. Uh we also um uh pulled up the um the   uh we mentioned uh the McIntyre. Uh one of the  best things we did in the McIntyre was put the   litigation on hold. And that meant we stopped  spending as much money on the damn McIntyre  

because we didn't have to spend going through  discovery depositions. We did that to work out   uh something. Would I, you know, love to not  spend money on this? Great. that I want this   um you know summary judgement to be successful  and so we need to be able to spend money   uh on this. I think um the conjecture on whether  or not there is um the uh a owner um uh and the uh   uh the property that uh they purchased and this is  um not something that um I think is really worth   the uh conjecture around. That was a difficult uh  situation. We as a city um they went through the   court process and the court process found that  that house was or that property was going to be   foreclosed on. uh the sheriff served them. Uh that  given that um it's difficult enough to defend this   um this lawsuit and prepare for u that but speaks  to the fact that there are many people that are   looking to sue the city on many issues. And  this one where we are very confident that we had   nothing to do with this is incredibly frustrating  that we have to spend as much money on this   um as we have. That is the re that is just the uh  the um the reality that we exist as a city and you   know I will go back to uh my father's advice and  that you know advice is worth what you pay for   it. Uh we entrust the city uh attorneys uh to put  us in the best financial uh position that we can.   I would hate to spend slightly less and lose this  case uh and end up spending uh a lot more uh than   to spend on legal counsel. I wish it was free.  I wish there was an unlimited amount of lawyers   that could do this. Uh but that is not the world  that we get to live in. Councelor Cook. Um thank   you your honor. I debated whether or not to say  anything about this. Um I may be the only one on  

the dis I'm not sure who um very early on in  after college I worked as a parallegal and I   worked in complex environmental litigation  and I worked on cases similar to this one   um with multiple um parties involved. They often  last eight to 15 years. One of the cases I worked   on was over 20 years and they had full-time  staff. I was full-time staff on on a case. Um,   and I was not the only parallegal. So, there were  three or four of us and a few attorneys. And so,   unfortunately, these types of cases are just very  expensive and they require a lot of expertise,   a lot of research, a lot of work. Um, it is I  would financial malfeases on the part of the   council to not defend the city on a litigation  like this that could cost a significant amount   of money if we didn't um hire attorneys that had  the expertise to handle this type of litigation. Any other comments before Councelor uh  Taber? Um wouldn't it be fair to say that   the one of the the crux of the case is that  the plaintiffs feel that um the property was   misrepresented that that there was old toxic  material there that that they weren't informed   about. They were partially informed but not  fully informed. Um and if that's the case,   is there Is there any way that um the former  owners can just it would seem to me that the   former owners would be on the hook for liquidated  damages rather than the city. Um you know,  

as as the mayor says, there's there's no clear  provable trail back to the city in this case.   Um, so the Copeland's, the former owners are,  you know, one of the parties in this lawsuit. Um,   and as I said, along with the real estate agency  that was involved in the transfer of the property.   Um, and you know, it is well known that they  operated an automotive salvage yard there. And   um but despite that um people can sue you  for anything at any time and it takes a lot   to defend a suit like this particularly when  you're looking for records from the late 60s   and early 70s to try to prove negative that  we weren't involved. So it's taken a lot of   time and effort for them to get to the point  where they could file a motion for summary   judgement. They are very optimistic about  but of course there are never any guarantees. Any other comments, questions council has for the  city attorney? Seeing none, we will have a roll   call vote. Assistant Mayor Kelly, yes. Councelor  Cook, yes. Councelor Taber, yes. Councelor Bllock,   yes. Councelor Baggley, no. Council Maro,  yes. Councelor Flynn, yes. Councelor Hopkins,   yes. Councelor Mayor McCran, yes. Thank you,  June. Next up, city manager items, which require  

action. Thank you, your honor. The first item is  a request for authorization to expend funds from   the Lower State Street Pocket Park, known as uh  the J. Smith Trust uh as managed by the trustees   of trust funds. The city is looking to complete  maintenance improvements to this park. This park   for uh historical for your benefit was donated  by J. Smith and a trust for its maintenance was   established. There's close to $100,000 in  that trust and uh the Department of Public   Works is estimating the opinion of cost for the  proposed improvements to be $26,000. Your honor,   I'd move to authorize the expenditure of up to  $26,000 from the Lower State Street Pocket Park,   J. Smith Park Trust, to cover the cost of  maintenance improvements to the park. Second, any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed?  Second item is a request to schedule first reading   of an amendment to chapter 11, article 2, section  11.216B. 216B relative to sewer use changes. Uh as   we discussed in our previous work sessions related  to the the study of a modification to the water   uh the water sewer rate model. We are looking to  allow for the adoption of fixed fees for sewer.   And to do that we need to create an amendment  to the existing sewer use ordinance. This minor   amendment will allow for the implementation of  the fixed fees recommended in the rate study if   the council adopts those fees as part of the  budget approval process in June. Your honor,   I move to schedule first reading of the amendment  to chapter 11 article 11 or is that yeah uh   section 112.216 B relative to the establishment  of sewer fees at the April 6, 2026 city council   meeting. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I.  Any opposed? Item number three uh is a request to  

schedule a community power work session per the  request of U counselors previously discussed at   a previous meeting. We've pulled the Community  Power Coalition of New Hampshire folks and both   they and New Hampshire consumer advocate Donald  Crease will be able to participate on Monday,   April 20th at 6 PM. Your honor, I move to schedule  a community power work session on April 20th,   2026 at 6 p.m. I second that. Any discussion?  Councelor Begley. Thanks, your honor. Um, as you   know, I I requested this. Um it looks like based  on the latest data rel released by community power   on March 2nd about 2,950 residents of Portsmouth  are going to be switched to community power this   month. Uh which would have started I believe on  March 1st and we're now at the March 30. Isn't   it the deadline March 31st to switch up? It's  month to month. Oh month to month. Okay. Maybe   councelor Taber knows. I thought it was during the  month of March that changeover was happening. Is   it the month of April? Yes, the utility bills are  staggered depending on when your meter read date   is and the switchover started right before the  start of March through March. Um, and because of a   couple logistical issues, those postcards were not  mailed uh until today uh alerting people of this   change. I do think and I'll bring forward a motion  to the next council meeting. We should consider   a just a blanket mailer to all residents of  Portsmouth explaining their options and the pros   and cons of the choices. It looks like it'll cost  around $2 to $3,000 to do something like that,   but I'll put that as a motion in the next  uh council meeting. Council postcard issue motion on the floor is uh still this work  session. Um appreciate uh city manager reaching   out to uh the consumer advocate Donald Crease  um and excited that he's going to be joining  

um would note that um you know the website is  a little tricky only because it looks like it   frames an existing another portal. I know that  might be a security issue. Um but if we could   figure you know make that easier um and uh  you know work to make that I think that is   um joined by all is to make it easy to switch  gives the most power to uh the consumer. But   this is a work session so we will discuss that  and a lot of other things. All in favor? I. Any   opposed? Uh item D, your honor, is a request  for access easements for water services for   51 and 53 Chevrolet Avenue. This is uh property  that's since been converted to the condominium   association honoring previously requested  access easements be granted. Your honor,   I move to authorize the city manager to accept and  approve the access easements for water services in   a form substantially similar to the easement  deeds contained in the agenda packet. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed?  The last item is a request to dispose of a   fire engine. It's an old fire engine. It's  20 years old. The make model is listed in   the packet. The fire engine was replaced  by a 2025 E1 pumper which was only taken   uh into delivery by the department  about a month and a half ago.   And at the February 10th, 2026 meeting, the  board of fire commissioners, the commission   moved to proceed with disposal of the older  engine. Your honor, I move to authorize this   vehicle be put out to bid in accordance  with finance department policy. Second, I would like just to note that fire chief is still  here um as he waits uh for anything having to do  

uh with the fire department. Brought that one up  and appreciate that. All in favor? I. Any opposed?   All right, we are on to consent agenda where  there are no items. Um, presentations and written   communications. First, email correspondence. Your  honor, I move to accept and place on file. Second.   Next, a or all in favor? I. Any opposed? Next, a  letter from Robert uh Graham on designated agent   for Banfield Realy LLC and Green Valley Realy LLC.  Your honor, I move to accept and place on file.   Second that. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any  opposed? Uh appreciate again the uh appearance of   New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanland.  Um on to uh letter or items under my name. Um   uh we had the uh we had already brought up uh  my letter uh to the honorable David Scanland,   New Hampshire Secretary of State. Um we have um  actually because uh he uh requested this uh a   move to appoint acting city clerk. So um we wait  a motion on the clerk pro tempmporary. Your honor,   I am honored to make the motion to move to appoint  June H. Phil as acting city clerk clerk prompor to   the city of Portsouth effective March 17, 2026  to serve until a permanent city clerk is hired.   This appointment is made in accordance with the  city charter section 4.2, New Hampshire RSA 48   col 8 and New Hampshire RSA 66965 to fill the  current vacancy in the office. Second um and uh   before it's vote um and nothing uh take away from  uh June um I do want to take another moment uh to   thank Kelly Barnaby. Um it's really difficult  to put into words um what uh she has meant  

uh to to me personally. Um and uh that pales in  comparison to what she's meant uh to the city.   Um but all of what we do um whether or not it is  um these uh meetings and we follow the charter or   uh our uh elections um it is easy to see um how  a lot of this just works on the fact that um the the I want a better word than the pomp and  circumstance here, but just the um the   the day in and day out uh the the practices that  we build both from statute uh and from charter uh   build a legitimacy to a government that operates  within the confines of our shared imagination of   what government could do. I think that we have  noticed over the last uh certainly in my lifetime,   the last decade, it's been rough in terms of um  not treating each other with civility. uh looking   at um one another as an enemy, saying, "Why do I  have to follow that rule?" Well, Kelly was always   somebody um and continues to be to this day.  Um that uh acted in a way um that was dignified   and brought a sense of service to the role that  is really hard uh to replace. Um Kelly, you are   missed. Um and uh many uh in Portsouth love you uh  incredibly much. Um and I appreciate all the time   you took uh with us. There's never a right time  uh to say any of that. Um but given that um it was   brought up today reminded me as we welcome June  uh to this uh to this role that it is important to  

um take the time and um remind ourselves what  the best part of government is. Um And that's   the face that greets you uh when you need help uh  either voting, registering, all of the things that   government actually does. And it is very little  what we do uh on this day. So um I know that that   wasn't about June who was fantastic and we will  uh love working um with June um in this role. uh   but wanted to make sure that my feelings towards  Kelly were not um in any way misrepresented uh as   uh somebody that gets uh that was honored to  sit next to her for uh the better part of uh six   years. All in favor? I any opposed? Next, the repo  uh reappointment uh appointments to be considered.   Reappoint of Jackie Kelly or Jacqueline uh Kelly  uh Pitts. Um wait, hold on. Oh, I uh re Yeah. Uh   reappointment of Jacqueline Kelly Pitts uh to the  recreation board. Your honor, I move to reappoint   Jacqueline Kelly Pittz to the recreation board.  Second. We're not voting. Oh, these are voting.   Oh, sorry. No, June put it there. She told me  that I was considering it as it was going to   like this and so great job. Already doing a great  job, June. I apologize, council, but as we know,   these are just considerations. So, the appointment  will take place at the April 6th meeting. So,   I apologize that on there. All right. So, these  are to be considered. both uh just getting excited   uh Jacqueline Callie Pittz to the recreation board  at the following meeting. And you know if you   have any misgivings about Jackie, please bring  them up to me or if you're brave enough to her   directly herself. Um it will be I'm not. No, she's  fabulous. The um uh the consider the appointment  

of Angus McDonald to the Portsouth Housing uh  committee and the appointment of Oliver Chag to   the Portsmith Housing Committee. So those will  come up at the following meeting. Um there are   on to uh grants and donations which we have moved  through and now the city manager's information.   Thank you. Quickly uh in in providing a response  to uh the request about housing action plan and   how we plan to achieve that by July. Uh planning  and sustainability director Peter Britz provides   the narrative in our packet. Essentially, we will  um work with existing staff and reallocate some   of their responsibilities and incorporate such uh  valuable pieces of information as the 2024 places   to live dialogue, the set of recommendations  gathered by the housing committee and as well as   the recommendations from progress portsmith. So,  we will be sure to meet that deadline of July. Um,   item B is, uh, something that city attorney moral  and I recently discussed, uh, which was a way to   simplify the minute taking. And, uh, we wanted  to make sure we still stayed in full compliance   with state statute. And, uh, if you have any  feedback on the revised way to take minutes,   which is essentially turning an action sheet into  a memorialization of the minutes as well. Happy to   take your feedback now or at any point in time.  Um, and the new parameters are something that   June's already put into practice with the most  recent set of minutes that you approved. Uh,   in terms of an outdoor Yes, there are questions.  Council Cook. Um, thank you, your honor. Um, uh,   while I think that the new style of minutes is  um, they're easy to follow, reasonable. Um, I   am a little bit concerned about um the linking to  YouTube channel and how long the city can retain   all of those videos or how long we will be able to  retain them on our YouTube channel um for future  

reference because right now if somebody goes back  they to look at minute you can go back 50 years   and look at minutes and kind of get a really clear  picture of what happened in a meeting that wasn't   recorded. So I'm wondering how that will work in  the future. I can certainly find that out. I don't   have the answer to that question. Councelor Taber,  uh, just two thoughts on it, too. I remember with   the work flaw, we had to go back to city council  meetings from the 1960s and interpret the intent   of the council. And it was very valuable when we  were having that deliberation that the minutes   captured some of the discussion. um and the  exchange of the land for some residual parking   space guarantees um which set up that whole  deliberation. So, you know, I just I think we need   to bear in mind that future councils need to know  the intent of some of these things. And the only   other thought I have is um minutes are searchable  and YouTube videos are hard to search. So you   know as we get into an era of having artificial  intelligence learn a body of knowledge be it our   minutes or something. The ability to be searchable  is right. We can certainly make strides to provide   timestamps within the the video recording. I  know we've talked about that. Yeah, I was going   to bring up um Did we ever get the answer for  um transcripts from the YouTube videos? Again,   it's something that I've been able to access from  state meetings. There's a little button up top   that clicks. I know we asked the question and I  apologize. I don't know the answer, but we cannot  

do a transcript in the in the way that you're  thinking. So, what I think the the compromise   could be is a way to time stamp when the various  items came up in the in the video recording. Why?   Yeah, I guess I do have a question on why don't  um it is unique in that the uh our city um um our   city meeting or our city videos are unique in that  they aren't able to be transcript like many other   YouTube channels are. Is this a license issue that  we have? Because I I have a lot of concerns if we   are moving to YouTube and a third party and  we're not retaining these videos on site and   we would not have access like I mean it's great  to think that YouTube will last for well I don't   want YouTube to last forever probably but like the  idea that it would is it's hard to put our um it's   hard to put our uh official records in the cloud  to a third party that we do not have um ownership   over. Let us give you a report back at the next  meeting. Your honor, I just went to our March   2nd meeting and you can get a transcript now you  can. Yeah, I think that's new though. Okay, good. Sure. I don't know if I can do it again. All  right. Uh, we'll get a report back on that. Um,   I've got a couple more quick ones if I can just  get through them, guys. We'll just get through the   last two. In terms of outdoor dining, the portal  opened last week and as of this afternoon, a total   of six applications have been received. And of  note, there are no changes from last year on the   requirements for outdoor dining. Uh we've also  attached a in the packet a flyer promoting the   uh draft the draft master plan openhouse set for  April 22nd at 6 PM at Community Campus. Uh we will   have a consultant and our staff there to to share  the draft plan and to take additional input and uh  

requested by councelor Taber at the February 2nd  meeting. Please find attached the human resources   director's uh report back on existing vacancies  and anticipated retirements. We will roll that   into the upcoming budget conversations. Thank you.  Excellent. Anything else? Um just before we break,   I would like to just uh um just commend the  the the high school men's uh basketball team   on a great run. Um just a fantastic show and  it's uh it's tough to see that uh that team   uh come up a little bit short uh but know that a  lot of those guests are back. Council thank you.   Um I just want to inform the council and everybody  um that the cinema Richard is uh happening March   26 to April 2nd. U Mayor Siketi is coming over  from Santon Carelo. Um but UNH and Portsmith have   um worked together, collaborated. Um so there'll  be some films shown up at UNH. There'll be some   um shown here. I know they're showing the  um film on the North End. Um they're showing   they're doing one at the press room and they'll  have a live band in the silent film. Uh which I   thought was cool. Yeah. Uh but just a lot of um  fun things, art, cinema. Um but all collaborating   with our friendship city center card. We love  it. Cool. All right. Chella as my daughter   says. All right. Uh wait a motion to adjurnn.  So move second. All in favor? Hi Portmith.