Uh good evening, everybody.

It's uh now seven p.m.

and we'll uh start the city council meeting for October twenty seventh, twenty twenty-five.

And uh look to the clerk to do a call order.

I apply to the flags of America and to the Republic for which the stands one nation under God and justice for all.

Thank you, Councillor.

All right, mayor.

Now I will go to the clerk and ask for uh actually I should say who was here tonight.

We have Katie Katie No, I want to mess up the last name.

Help me, Katie.

Madam Clark.

Yeah, Madam Clerk, that works too.

We have our uh city manager here, and we have Glenn Smith here who is the finance director, and Madam Clerk will ask you to do the roll call.

So councillor Cheney.

Here, Councillor Susie, President, Councillor Hoffman, President, Councillor Hayes, Councillor Bogart.

Here, Councillor Fouch.

Here, Mayor St.

Clair.

Here, thank you.

Uh I jumped right ahead on that staff there.

So we do we have a proclamation tonight?

We don't.

No.

Okay.

So I'll look for a motion to accept the meeting.

Uh the minutes from the previous meeting.

So moved.

Okay.

No objections.

No.

Okay.

Uh all in favor, bridge your hands.

Six sip.

Thank you very much.

I do not believe we have any consent and action items for tonight.

No.

Well, this is moving right along then.

So is uh for uh item nine.

Any citizens here for comments on matters not on the agenda?

Excellent.

We have somebody coming up.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Councillor Patrick Wood, Chairman of the Human Relations Committee.

Um after our last meeting of the Human Relations Committee, we established a subcommittee to plan a community event to talk about the issue of homelessness.

And we have this event scheduled for Wednesday evening, November 12th at 7 to 9.30.

Um basically the the question is what do we know about homelessness in Laconia?

It'll be at the high school uh in the auditorium.

It will be videotaped.

Uh Lakes Region Public Access uh will be doing that.

Uh we'll have a panel uh consisting of representatives from um the police department, the fire department, city council, counselor Cheney is on this uh planning committee.

Um perhaps the mayor or the city manager also there.

We'll also have uh Kathy Bowler from the housing authority.

We'll have somebody either from mental health uh center or um navigating recovery.

Uh we're gonna have Peter Espanos, the county commissioner.

Um so we're gonna ask this uh event to be publicized uh on a countywide basis because the issue of homelessness, as you know, is not limited to the city of Laconia, nor is the solution supposed to be limited to the city of Laconia.

So they're going to be involved.

We also have members of the uh business community, uh Kara Chase from uh legacy New Hampshire, the real estate company, uh Peter uh sorry Paul Lang uh from Belmont who grew up here in Laconia, it's going to be part of the uh panel uh as well.

And we're working to try to get somebody from uh the courts also to be at uh the panel.

The proposal is we'll have a short presentation from each of the panel members talking about some of the things that they don't they do, what they're aware of, what their concerns are, and then open it up to the public for questions and answer.

So it should be a very interesting uh evening.

And um the goal is to listen and learn and hopefully uh we'll ask people when they get up to speak not only to rest their exist or state their state their concerns and their fears, but also try to think about a solution or something that might help alleviate their fears and concerns.

So we want this to be an opportunity for people to express their concerns, but also to think about ways to deal with some of the problems.

As we know, homelessness is a multifaceted issue.

People are homeless for many different reasons.

By the same token, there's no one single solution either.

There are many, many different solutions to different parts of it, and that's what we need to hear from people about and try to think of ways to find those solutions.

And try to think of ways to find those solutions.

So November 12th, 7 o'clock, Lakoni High School.

If you have any questions.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Pat.

If I could get you to remove that, please.

Yeah, probably not, but thanks for asking.

Well, I there's there's no rule that it says.

You're absolutely right.

It's just courtesy.

I understand that.

I'm not removing the very courtesy person.

I'm not removing my hat, but thank you very much for asking.

I appreciate you asking.

I I love the transparency.

Thank you.

Hey, not a problem, brother.

So, anyways, um, we you can give us your name.

Oh, sorry.

My name's Doug Robinson.

I was actually gonna do that when I present it.

Hi, Doug.

How are you doing?

It's nice to see who you are.

Yeah.

So, anyways, um, how many of you guys know what Kratom is?

Or H or 70H.

Um at every convenience store, Walmart, Kmart.

It's your fifth level of opium.

Um, what it is is they're taking a plant plant-based material and they're changing it into um a synthetic drug.

They're marketed as mood altering, pain relieving, sexual enhancement.

Uh, you name it, they market it.

There's no reason they can't because there's no rules against it.

Uh 14 states throughout the country have now banned this, Florida being the last.

Franklin was the first town in our state that also banned this drug.

Um, I'm here tonight to kind of just do a little proposed ordinance.

Um, it's not official, there's nothing to it other than some stuff that I wrote up.

Got some information about that.

Sir, you can just hand those down.

Um, I guess that's that you look at it.

Um weigh it, and if it's something that we want to tackle, I would love to have it tackled.

I think that we have uh smokers haven't down the road here.

They sell that to people that are 18 years old.

Everything else in that store, you need to be 21 to buy.

Um, it's a problem.

So I guess ask that that's what I'm here to do tonight, just kind of present this and hope that you know we can look at it seriously and maybe make some headway on something like this.

That's it.

Okay.

Well, I don't know what that means, sir.

It means thank you.

Ah, see, words matter.

Thank you.

Same same as a symbol.

Is there anybody else who would like to uh address the council at this time?

All right, thank you.

Um presentations tonight?

Public hearings, anything along that agenda?

No, no.

Okay, we'll go down to uh okay, Mr.

Mayor.

We were just notified that we are having some YouTube issues.

Um Glenn's working with IT trying to figure out what the problem is just so you know.

Is this something that has been are we waiting for a new system?

No, I don't know why this is the new system's been installed.

This is nothing, those the new system that we did in this that they're not connected to each other.

And will this be the will people be able to watch the meeting after, like in we don't know if it's recording, we're not we're not sure.

Okay, uh I will say over the weekend they started the process of switching up front fiber network, and I suspect that just because the timing is related to that, but we'll find out.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, well, that that's a bummer.

Um, I guess we'll go to uh 15.

And first of all, I'd like to say that obviously this uh pumpkin fest was done very well.

Uh I'm sure that councillor Susi and the rest of the councils and the city manager will have some comments on that, but everything went really well, and uh that's pretty much all I'll say on that.

I was very happy about it though.

The um we have the election this coming week from tomorrow, and so I would encourage everybody to do their due diligence in paying attention to who's running and uh all the uh different facets that go along with that.

If you have any questions about uh the stuff here at the count at the at the city level, make sure you come in and see the clerk and you can ask for minutes from previous meetings, and you can uh certainly reach out to any of the counselors.

And I also want to just do a uh little shout out for signs.

I hope everybody's able to get their their election signs, their political signs down within a couple days after the uh election.

So we're not seeing them out there for several weeks.

I don't know if there's a uh if there's a uh city ordinance about that.

We use the state.

We follow the state.

We follow the state that and that I think is two weeks, uh something like that.

The week after election, right?

Friday, the week after the election.

Okay.

So hopefully it's a lot of signs out there, a lot of signs out there.

So that'd be great.

And that's pretty much all I have to say.

Any council comments uh tonight.

Councillor Cheney.

Uh I would like to echo your comments about Pumpkin Fest.

I think Councillor Seussy and uh city staff did a tremendous job.

Uh I've been years ago to Keene's pumpkin fest, and this competed nicely.

What a great crowd.

Uh what a great bunch of vendors.

I think just everything about it was one possible exception.

That would be the apple pie eating contest.

Everything else went very smooth.

Um in any case, I seriously I want to finish top six.

You know, the crack numbers out of six.

Um that's his fault.

Um the other thing I want to bring up tonight, Mr.

Mayor, is I uh as a result of conversations with friends and in fact a family member.

Um several months, I've noticed there's discussions about staffing levels at the hospital.

And uh I would like to ask that the mayor and the city manager have a meeting with the hospital to discuss the possibility.

There's a large group of migrant nurses and practitioners and whatever who come in for six months or or a year or whatever at a time.

Um and it occurred to me uh that maybe we could enhance the the project by giving them space in the hospital, because there are significant portions of the hospital that are no longer used, and we could give rooms to those nurses or others, which would increase their wages because they wouldn't have to pay for a room somewhere else in town.

So any case, I there may well be reasons why it can't be done.

There may be even better things to think about, but as this council knows, I'm very concerned about um Laconia Hospital and and where it's going and where we're gonna be in May of next year.

So if we can get together with or if we can get the mayor and the and the city manager to get together.

I I spoke to the manager earlier today about this.

I think he does have some comments, but I really hope we can do something to try and encourage more staff to come to Laconia and work on a part or full-time basis.

That's uh that that would be a good logical question for sure.

Yeah, I was just we when we talked about it.

Um, you know, we have been discussing with an attorney our concerns over um the hospital contract which expires, and we know that there's been publicly discussed.

Um so my first thought is I'll reach out to him and at least have broach that conversation about how he feels we should best have that discussion, but it's certainly something we can do.

Counselor Susi.

I just want to expand upon what counselor Cheney and yourself had to say when it comes to pumpkin fest.

I want to really say thank you to city manager for putting together the team that he did that was led by Amy from Parks and Rex, and and a short period of time they had to work this on.

I think this was originally started in April.

Okay, and think about it.

You know, put together what you saw over this over that day, um, and doing it all in what five or six months, putting it all together, and it was awesome.

It was meant to be for families and was really targeted to be for families.

Sure, the weather helped us.

It really did.

You always pray for halfway decent weather, and it was great, but not just that.

There was no um no incidences of any kind, a minor medical here and there, but nothing that's and it was great.

I mean, everybody had a good time.

All the vendors that I spoke to uh were great.

I mean, we get there at 5 a.m.

and we didn't leave till after eight.

It was a long day, but it was well worthwhile.

And when you go down Plaza Street, you see all the food trucks, and you have five or six people deep almost all day long, and then again on Main Street and along with our stores.

I know Sun, I saw Gabe there, the sun does a fantastic job in exposing it, but over time, next year, and we're gonna have our um a meeting tomorrow.

And I think it's already been said next year will be two days.

That's right on the um you see that published here and there, and um we can bring it up a week earlier, maybe a little bit warmer, but it's it's awesome, okay, and it really shows Laconia for what Laconia really is.

The City of the Lakes, a great place to live, a great community, fantastic people, and nothing that should be as you keep hearing here and there and everything else uh stepped on.

We're a great community, and I I love being here.

Thank you.

Can I just add, Mr.

Mayor?

I meant to mention the fact.

If I came downtown about 10 30 Sunday morning, you would have no idea that Pumpkin Fest had had occurred the night before.

Well, I wonder who was responsible for that.

We thank them.

Uh okay, go ahead, Eric.

Yes, sorry.

Continue talking about Pumpkin Fest.

I I also think it was really successful.

Everyone I talked to had really positive things to say about it, and I think, especially in the current configuration where it really feels like you are in downtown during Pumpkin Fest, and it's not off to the side, or in the City Hall parking lot was fantastic.

All the business owners I talked to, you know.

I think it's it did a really good job of driving business and people downtown to frequent our stores, and I think you know, at the end of the day, that's really what this event is about, you know, not just doing something for the community, but but doing something for the for the local businesses and the downtown area.

I think it was it was fantastic and successful.

So thank you to everyone who was involved.

Thank you.

Uh Cosmory Angels.

Just quickly.

Um I just want to thank the city manager for his leadership.

I mean, it was above and beyond to pull this all together, especially with all the departments.

And my only other comment was my wife was involved being a vendor, and she couldn't say enough about how helpful the fire department was when they were taking down their tent and everything that they assisted them.

So thank you for your leadership.

That's what leadership is about.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um start with uh I echo everybody else's compliments on uh pumpkin fast, but uh my real comments are uh Mr.

Mayer, I'd like to uh uh add a comment to item 21b, uh which is the mayor's appointment of the Laconia Human Relations Committee.

I request that it be removed from the agenda based on the following reasons.

One the actual item does not reflect anything within the council's rules on how the mayor can reappoint anybody to any special committee.

The only thing, if I may finish the uh under the rules, I could not find any rule in the document that reflects the reappointment of anybody to any special committee.

The only rules I found pertaining to mayor's committees is it they all end at the end of the year, period.

But you don't know how they get there.

No, you can appoint.

Well, okay.

You can appoint.

But what this is is reappointment, and in this case, we do not have a rule that allows for the reappointment now.

Well, Steve, before you get down the road too far, I'm just trying to be clear about this.

So the mayor can appoint, but can't reappoint.

That's correct, to a special committee.

Special committee, a special committee.

With when with uh my only thing I have experience with is the motorcycle week association.

The mayor of the city committee.

It's not okay.

That's what you're saying.

The difference is a city committee.

The difference is that now I'm gonna give you an example of a special committee.

The mayor, the previous mayor, made it uh a special committee to discuss North Main Street, the 10 acres and the possible development of North Main Street.

They had their meetings, they conclude had their conclusion, and they came to it, and the committee ended.

The mayor made all the selections for everybody on there.

And the way it is stated in the council rules, is a committee should a committee should only run for one year, and it's based on that there is a purpose.

A C A being singular purpose that this committee is supposed to be working on.

And once that purpose has been achieved, then the committee is dissolved.

In this instance, the committee in question will some sign at the end of the year, and then a mayor then can reappoint a committee, and then appoint members to the committee.

The committee has to have a purpose that the council itself does not fulfill, or is too complicated and too time consuming for the council to fulfill.

So that would be the council's decision.

No, in this instance, the council.

Let me finish.

I know the council does not have any word or say so.

And the reason why I bring it up now is the way this is written is we don't get a comment on this.

The mayor just says, I appoint all reappoint all these people, and it's done.

Well, by this, this does not provide authority to reappoint anybody to any special committee.

You can appoint someone.

Let me well I'm just one thing.

Okay.

I yield just for a second.

It's to do with this.

Um we're out of procedure.

This should have been done when that came up, and the proper procedure.

Procedure you get the able to discuss.

This does not allow council to discuss because this is not a council committee.

Right.

This is a mayor-only committee.

I get that, but we're out of order.

This should have been done at the beginning of that item.

And then what I would like to see be done is to have it tabled.

And how and wait a minute, and how the city manager find out the information that needs to be found out.

If we're out of procedure, come up with the procedures that we should be following.

I would agree with that.

And I was what I was going to say, Council Borger, was that I would refer to the city manager.

Uh I agree with uh councillor Felch about tabling it, and I would refer it to the city manager to uh dig in to make sure that everything is being done properly.

Um I guess through legal or whoever.

Unless you have a comment on it now.

No, that's right.

If you table it, we'll take care of it.

I would like to, if we table it and when we take care of this, I would like to know which rules that are gonna apply and not just the city manager do.

I would I would like to know that.

So note it.

Okay, so then at this point, then I will make a motion if that's appropriate to you to do it now, or just no, let's wait till we get to it.

Okay, okay.

Because I also in closing committees are supposed to have a purpose, and in this instance, there is no purpose.

Well, that's always a matter of opinion, of course, and that's why I would rely on the six members of the council.

It's not an opinion, it is a procedure.

Then I will wait to again to we'll table it and we can discuss that.

We'll get to that, and then you guys can uh figure it out.

Yeah, this was one of those committees that was formed.

We went back to try to find exactly we're a little over 20 years that that this committee has been formed.

20 years, yeah.

It goes back a very long time.

Um wasn't always so if you don't reappoint anybody, they don't just go away.

So they they stay within this is from legal, so they stay within their within their rights to do anything, just like as Mayor Hosmer appointed this group here by you coming in, it doesn't go away.

The seat actually fills the positions, not a person.

So we have done some years over the over the course of the 20 plus years, it's been reappointed um generally on the the beginning of the January meetings, other times it hasn't been.

So certainly if if we if you table it, we'll we'll spill out the entire process for you.

Um it's relatively simple, but we'll spell it all out, and then you can go from there uh at your next meeting.

Okay, and if I well, let's wait till we get to there and then we can ask some more questions.

Is that all, Council Bowler?

Yeah, yes.

Okay, thank you.

So, Mr.

Mayor, if I can just jump in real quick, we are streaming now.

Okay, thank you.

And and uh they'll be able to watch this delay the the rest of it that happened before.

And the entire meeting will be available tomorrow.

Transparency with a capital T.

I like that.

Thank you.

Councilor Felch.

So back to the positive with the pumpkin festival.

I definitely want to shout out to the city manager, Amy Levisick, Nancy, Joya, Councillor Sucy.

Um also shout out to Bank of New Hampshire for letting us use that parking lot, the radio and TV, and a paper for all the advertising they did for this thing.

And also a note to the public that it is going to be two days, October 16th and 17th.

Yep, those are the days.

No, it's Friday and Saturday after Columbus Day.

Huh?

Saturday's okay.

I was told Friday.

But okay.

You guys can't.

That's beside the point.

Um just a great job by everybody, the city employees, everybody that was involved, and the laser light show at night was awesome.

Um great job.

Okay.

Uh all right.

I guess that's it on uh council comments.

So any committee reports tonight.

Okay, seeing none.

Any liaison reports.

Okay, well, now we'll go to uh item 19.

Citizens request a comment on current agenda items.

Councillor excuse me, I'm sorry.

Patrick Wood, uh word one.

Um I read what I could about this uh resolution 2025 33, and uh I I'm hopeful that you're gonna have this public hearing uh on this matter, but I just we will I am really puzzled as to how this could happen, and all of a sudden there's this demand for 800 and some thousand dollars uh on the school district.

Uh yeah, we'll talk about it when we get done.

I have all right, thank you.

I don't know if it's a good answer, but it's the answer.

But it's an answer anyway.

Yeah, I mean, it just boggles my mind how something like that could happen.

Somebody must have missed a switch, it feels like here.

Anyway, that's my question.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay, we'll go to 20 city managers report.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, yeah, I I will certainly say thank you for your comments about me with Pumpkin Fest, but it wasn't me.

It was the department heads, it was Nancy, it was the employees that kept the place clean, it was uh fire and police and DBW and parks and planning and licensing and everybody else that did the work.

Uh um, you know, I I certainly as as you know, as manager when in those departments couldn't be any more proud, but I I appreciate your comments to me, and certainly your comments to uh to the employees will be heard.

Uh including your packet tonight is the uh projects update.

I'm just gonna hit a few of them, um, but they're all in there.

Um morningside drive, Lark Wood, windmill, all those areas up there off the old North Main Street.

Um they're gonna have a first coat or a uh um binder coat in the next couple weeks, and we'll be talking next year.

No real changes on most of the other stuff.

Uh Hilliard Road, the preliminary design for that culvert is uh in January, so that will be moving along very well, and we'll finally get that uh the plan done and the and the construction that's the uh culvert towards the end of Hilliard Road.

That uh uh if that little area washes out, we lose access to both the old section of Hilliard Road that goes out to Parade Road as well as the houses that are down in there.

So um, this is a this is a project with DOT with FEMA, with um there's some grant money involved in that, so that that's what we're doing with all that.

The Opeachie loop continues to be worked on, should be done by mid-November.

Um Saki River Basin project.

Uh, we've talked a few times um about an LSR that's gonna go out to try to rewrite how we pay into or how much that we have to pay into by percentage uh the Winnipeg Saki River Basin program as one of the 10 communities.

Um to add on to that um and to support the LSR.

We've um we're going to be in it's in your packet tonight for one of our discussion points, but I'll just mention it real quick now.

Um we have a letter of concern from all the communities that we want to send out just to lay out so we're continuing to build those building blocks of our concerns as to why why we're moving along with an LSR, why we're moving along with some of these changes.

So uh that you'll you'll see that in your packet tonight.

Um we got a question about some blasting up on wet White Oaks Road.

I did talk to uh fire department today.

Um they do expect that to go on for a couple more weeks, um, and it is part of the uh sewer extension project that's going on up there.

Um it is all permitted, and um when I talked to the uh deputy chief today who handles all that, he said uh um should be a couple more weeks worth of blasting.

Wiz Beach Restoration, we have an RFP out.

I know this is one that's dragged on for way too long.

Uh but we do have an RFP out uh to try to work on.

We like we talked about in the past, we did work on a uh uh we did work with a um uh a shoreland scientist out of UNH uh came up with a few ideas, um, but now to really try to figure out what that would cost and what that would entail, um, we do have an RFP out.

Um, so we should be hearing back from that really soon.

Uh and again, that wouldn't fix the problem on the beach.

What it would do is prevent it from getting any worse, and then we could the other half of that would be how do we make any repairs to get some of that sand back onto the beach, and so that it's really two-part process.

Uh, the master plan next uh tentatively scheduled is that the guaranteed schedule yet?

Okay.

Um, November 13th, 5 p.m.

City Hall, um, here in the chambers will be the next master plan steering committee.

So obviously it's a public meeting.

Uh and lastly, in the the state school update, the one thing I will say that on the website uh under planning uh is the traffic study.

Um it was done.

The Pillsbury Group contracted a traffic study.

Um please don't try to print it.

It's uh it's about a thousand pages long.

Um it's it's so detailed that you know it's hard to wrap your brain around it.

So what we did was um we hired a third-party company that we use quite often in the city for traffic studies to really go through that and break it down and and to make you know on our end of it, so we we're seeing what we need to see uh a traffic study.

That one we've just received.

We haven't even had a chance to go through it yet.

Once that happens, that'll become public as well.

Um did just gotta take a little time between the engineers to work through the talking points on it and to make sure it's you know ready to go out.

Um, but that's on there if you want to take a look at it.

Um it's uh like I said, it's very intense.

Um, but uh, but it is on there.

The unemployment rate, uh though that hasn't changed.

Um we that just hasn't been updated.

That's not us, it's just we don't have the updated information yet on that.

Um, and the last thing I have for you is on the last page of my report uh is our CPI number.

We're getting getting towards the end of the year.

Um three more uh three more months to put into it.

But as of right now, we're annualizing out um at 2.68% uh CPI, which as I say all the time.

But if you're new to listening to it, that's one of our factors that go into the tax cap calculation.

That is all I have for you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right, we'll go to new business.

And that would be uh 21A.

That's a resolution 2025-33, authorization of a supplemental appropriation of the amount of 757,000 dollars for the purpose of covering the cost of a special assessment levied against the school department with funding to come from unencumbered fund balance.

So we had the same conversation when we talked about um our health insurance from the city side.

Um the essentially there's two ways the municipalities can purchase uh health insurance uh in the school's the same way.

Um you can either go out and find a third party, we could go to a local um Bob's insurance company and get our insurance in just like any of us could do, or go into a buying group for lack of a better term, a buying group where there's a lot of municipalities involved and it lowers your rate.

Makes sense.

Um the school for many many years has been with school care.

Um the city side of us, uh, we don't we're not in the same insurance as them.

The city side just switched to school care in the current fiscal year that we're in now.

Part of the problem we ran into last year, which is why there was some assessments was these companies were um have been mandated by the state to keep 12% um of their contributions in their bank.

That's essentially what they have to keep.

The only way for them to do that was to put assessments which are allowed to do onto the member communities.

Um each of the member communities it based on their um what they currently pay.

I saw numbers anywhere from just over a million dollars to five, six hundred thousand dollars, depending on who you were.

We were just under 900,000 for the city or for the school department, rather.

The city's not affected on the city side because we weren't part of them last year.

Um so the school department had some leftover insurance money that they're gonna use, and then as part of their fund balance um from the end of FY25, which came out at 1.157 million.

Um they're gonna use a portion of that towards uh paying off this assessment.

Um which you know we're certainly fortunate that we're in that position and not trying to figure out where to come up with 900,000.

So uh that's where this stands.

This does need to go to a public hearing and um uh before you can approve it, but that that's where we stand unless Diane has anything to add to it.

Sure.

So um insurance pools sometimes work in your favor if they have excess revenue, you get money back, which we have in the past over the last 25 years gotten some of those things back, which we roll back to our employees so that they pay less of a of a percentage for their insurance.

Um this time last year, school care had a meeting.

The question was asked because of interlocal trust having an issue.

How are you guys doing?

How's your reserves?

Our reserves are great, nothing to worry about.

We believe them.

Uh unfortunately, uh the claims that were um during the 24-25 fiscal year outweighed the revenue, so they had to go into their reserves.

So they used all their reserves plus a negative of 4.5 million dollars.

So they had to make up 30 million dollars for their reserves.

Our portion as the school district was 2.9% of that.

2.9% of 30 million dollars is 874,000, which was our assessment.

London area got two million, Concord got a million, Hanover got a million.

I mean, a lot of everybody had to pay.

The lowest amount was a small town, I can't remember the Stark or something like that for a thousand dollars, but everybody in the pool had to pay to make up um the amount.

I'd love to say that I was clairvoyant in not spending our whole uh budget and revenues, so we would have this amount of money to uh put towards that assessment, but I was not.

I was watching the news and seeing these school districts that were you know short a million, short four million, short five million, and when I saw that we had excess revenue, I was like, we gotta hang on to that just in case a special ed bill comes out of the blue or something like that, never thinking it was going to be the insurance assessment.

Um could I get you just uh in case people don't know who you are just to say who they have to do?

Oh, sorry, Diane Clary, business administrator in Laconia School District.

Thank you.

Sorry.

This is this is a one-time situation, correct?

Well, I would love to say that this will never happen again, but now that it has happened, I will in my budget process um have a contingency in case this does happen again.

Um, because there's no guarantees that they're you know going to have claims high again.

We don't know.

So there is you plan on staying with the same insurance company?

Uh we do plan to there's only two pools in New Hampshire right now, uh, health trust and school care.

Health trust has a little bit of a different business model where they wouldn't assess us per se, but they're in their rates are much higher.

So you have to weigh out do we want to go to health trust and never have an assessment or something coming back to us because that has happened in the past too, because they don't give back or do assessments, but they're in their rates are good six, seven, eight percent more than school care is, you know, so you have to kind of weigh it out.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Council Cheney.

Uh Mr.

Claire, uh, I I recall you and I had a conversation.

Wasn't there another 300 and some odd thousand dollars we had to offer also cough up this year?

Uh well, we don't have to cough it up, but our the state um adequacy number, the final adequacy number for this school year was cut another additional three hundred and seventy-four thousand dollars.

So we're really in a tight budget for 2526 for sure.

And uh I've definitely put the brakes on a lot of things um going forward for this year so that we can make up those things.

Um but that's just the the funding in New Hampshire right now is you know, adequacy is based on.

I think I've explained it to you guys before, is based on a couple of different things, but the big factors that go into it is your tax revenue that you get and your free and reduced bunch.

Um both of those things weigh into what your adequacy number is, and of late, we have a lot of new building in Laconia, so our tax revenue is up and our free and reduced are down, and they both negatively impact adequacy.

So council Susi.

Go back and explain the adequacy.

I assume what you're saying, and I shouldn't say the word assuming.

I expect what you're saying is that you planned on one number, and then it was changed.

Right.

So um they give us an estimate in the fall based on our beginning of year school numbers, which is our you know, enrollment, our free and reduced, our special ed students, et cetera, et cetera.

Um, but at the end of the year, we do our final numbers.

So the final numbers are what they end up you know giving you.

Um so the change between our beginning year and end of year affected us negatively, uh, 374.

So that was voted on by the legislature.

Yes.

So that was a surprise to you on not planned on.

I was not planning on that.

But I mean, there's always a give and take of uh of some monies, but not not that much.

Not that much.

Were we the only we're not the only district this is statewide?

Statewide, everybody is uh facing similar things.

So that was okay.

So it was a surprise to you that the legislature said pay up.

Well, it was a surprise to me that our numbers affected it that much.

Um, and you know, as I said, a lot of factors go into it.

I mean, the spreadsheet is a mile long on how they determine how much you get, but the two big factors that affect us most is our tax revenue and our free and reduced lunch.

Thank you.

Councillor Cheney.

Uh uh I seem to recall now that you are explaining this that there already was a one point something million dollar yes adequate.

I knew that one that you would already we already uh adjusted our budget for so the state had set had said you needed to come up with one point something seven, was it?

Yeah, I think it well one point five, and you know, if you remember last year we cut positions and you know, we cut our budget, we did some uh moving of funds around to to make that work.

Yep.

Thank you very much.

Anyone else?

Thank you.

We want to stay for the other one.

Yeah, they're gonna run through these three motions.

You might and then you can stay up there for the next one.

What if we just skip to her?

Well, just run through these three real quick and then we'll get to all right.

These three motions and then we'll get to her.

All right, if that works for you.

Yep.

So I lost my motion here.

Thank you very much.

All three of them.

Okay, so we got three proposed motions here.

First one is to uh move the waiver reading of resolution 2025-33 in its entirety.

And to read by title only.

So moved.

Second.

Councilor Hoffman, uh, second of that.

All in favor.

That's six in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Next, I'm gonna move to conduct the first reading of resolution 2025-33 authorization of a supplemental appropriation amount of 757,000 dollars for the purpose of covering the cost of a special assessment levied against the school department with funding to come from the um incumbered fund balance.

So moved.

Okay, that's moved by uh council of second by uh council no council of Bogart.

So by council of Borgart.

Uh any all in favor?

No discussion.

That's six in uh the affirmative, thank you.

And now we'll move to schedule a public hearing on November 10th, 2025 during the regular city council meeting to gather public input prior to adoption.

So moved.

Um by uh councillor Felch, seconded by Councillor Susi.

All in favor, that's six to nothing.

Thank you all very much.

And thank you, Councillor Henry.

Well stand by.

Okay, so now without objection, we'd like to bring up uh move 21 F to now to this uh location.

Any objection to that?

No, no, I was okay.

So uh we'll just go ahead and do that then.

So that is uh this is uh resolution 2025-34 resolution relative to the request of the Laconia School Board to transfer 400,000 of uh fiscal year 25 fund balance to the capital reserve funds.

So that is uh this is uh resolution 2025-34 resolution relative to the request of the Laconia School Board to transfer 400,000 of uh fiscal year 25 fund balance to the capital reserve funds uh so uh that was the additional I think uh Kurt said uh our fund balance was one point one something so this 400 would 300,000 we would like to put back in our facility uh reserve fund, which if you remember we kind of emptied it out to do the high school renovations, so kind of build that one back up, and we've kind of made a promise to add 100,000 dollars if we have it each year to the uh New Hampshire Stadium turf fund so that when the turf needs to be replaced, we can have that money in reserve.

Okay, uh questions, counselor Susi.

How much do you have in that turf fund balance right now?

Right now there's 200,000.

We've been doing it for two years.

It right now an estimate to replace it as 600,000.

So in another four or five years, we'll have the funds to do it.

Thank you.

After the public hearing on this one, next, if you approve to send it to a public hearing and you pass this, uh it has to go to uh the trustees as well before we can actually put it in, but they won't make action take action on it until they see your your vote.

One quick question.

Any other questions?

Go ahead, counselor felt.

How long it's supposed to be for that field to last before it has to be replaced.

So we're at the uh border of its life expectancy, but uh coach cousins does an excellent job of maintaining it, so it's going to last a few more years.

So but by the time we have the funds available, it it will be need to be replaced.

Any other questions?

One other question, but uh go ahead.

Go ahead, just a comment.

Uh I think it's an excellent idea and and in future looking to create such a fund as this, and so I just wanted to thank you all for being forward thinking.

Happy to I'd like to ask you.

You only have to watch television for about five minutes to realize you guys are doing an outstanding job compared to some of your other school districts.

Yeah, thank you and thank the superintendent for this.

This is sitting right back there.

Counselor Susi.

Right, that brings up a point.

I know that whenever you see the whether it's Friday night football, uh, all of these other different tournaments.

It seems like a lot of the schools or districts use Laconia for their playoffs, yeah.

For their playoffs, and does Laconia get any revenue from that?

They do.

They do.

It goes to the athletics uh reserve fund that they have at this at the school.

Shouldn't that go to also some of this?

Yeah, well, we'll ask Craig if he wants to let go of a little bit of that.

I mean as Greg.

No, Craig.

Craig.

He's Coach Cousins, he's kind of uh has the controls of that.

And the other part of that is when there's playoff games, NHIAA will pay for the staff and for the facility when it comes.

I'm just trying to find a way that some of that could be used to help recoup the repair and maintenance of the that's all.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much.

Oh, do you have another question?

No, I just have one other comment.

Uh now that I know the superintendent's here.

I want to point out she embarrassed me Saturday by doing much better at the pilot.

Lisa, yeah.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay, uh Kirk, do you have anything you want to add to that?

No, I'm good.

Any other comments anybody?

Okay, we're gonna move to waiver we reading of resolution 2025-34 in its entirety and to read by title only.

Councilor Cheney is uh made the motion a second.

Counselor Haynes.

Any discussion?

No, all in favor.

That's six votes in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Okay, now I'll move move to a first reading of resolution 2025-34 relative to the request of the Laconia City, excuse me, Laconia School Board to transfer 400,000 of fiscal year 25 fund balance to capital reserve funds.

Look for a uh motion uh move by counselor Hoffman and seconded by Councillor Susi.

Any discussion?

All in favor.

That's six in the affirmative, thank you.

And now I'll move to schedule a public hearing on November 10th of 2025 during the regular city council to gather public input prior to any action being taken.

Look for a motion for that.

Council Felch, second, councillor Bogart.

Councilor Bogart.

Any uh discussion?

All in favor, raise your hands.

That's six in the affirmative.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay.

So now we're gonna go to 21B, the mayor's appointment of human Laconia Human Relations Committee members.

So we've already discussed this a little bit.

Um do we need to discuss?

Okay, go ahead, Councillor Susi.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Council Bogots are just a couple of quick questions based upon Absolutely.

Thank you.

Is what is the purpose about pushing it off?

Yeah, it sounds to me like if I heard this right, you want to move this so it becomes at the end of the year.

In other words, if the mayor wants to make a committee, he's gonna now wait till the end of the year.

Is that right?

It's not what I want.

It's what the council rules indicate and state that all special committees, no exception, end at the end of the year.

There is no provision within the rules that I can see that indicate that any reappointments can be made to a committee that is gonna end at the end of the year based on the rules.

I speak for a moment, please.

Please.

Okay.

Could not the council, if they wanted to make a decision to either amend the rules or override the rules and make that a committee appointment now.

Could they or could they not?

You would first have to set aside the council rules and make a motion to set aside council rules to do that outside of council rules.

So you the answer would be yes, you can once you set aside council rules.

Okay.

The reason I ask is I think it's a very important committee.

Okay.

We should not take, I don't want to, I agree with what you're saying when it comes to the rules.

I just don't want to make have anybody impression that we take the human relations committee lightly.

Okay, I think what Pat Wood and his team has done pretty darn good, and we've got to keep it in front of us.

I was just trying to get a complete explanation from you and for what the city manager will bring later on on what we could do.

That's all.

If I may respond, the all special committees are supposed to have a purpose.

There is nothing that I interpret in the rules, no matter how long this committee has been running, that says it could just be a generic committee that does not report to the council.

So all I'm trying to indicate, as was explained earlier, I don't know of anybody who's given this committee directions from the city council.

I have asked this question earlier of the city manager, and no one is given this committee oversight from this council.

No one's given them the direction that is needed.

So all I'm trying to say is that all special committees should operate under the rules of the council rules, have a purpose, and when that purpose is done, then they should end.

And if the mayor so chooses to set up another special committee for another purpose, then that is to his liking.

I'm not questioning that fact, because that is covered here.

All I'm saying is we have a committee that is not operating under the guidelines of the council rules.

And based on the council rules, a there are no reappointments.

You can only, once a committee ends, you can only reset up a special committee.

And apply for grants and do the things they're doing.

They've created subcommittees.

They're now doing whatever they wish, not based on any direction that I'm aware of, because I've not heard the mayor in a public meeting say, I wish this committee to work on this.

So all that is happening is based on the committee itself becoming self-determined without any counsel or mayor oversight.

That is my conjecture that I am saying, and that we should look at the rules.

I can't fix the past, but I can sure address the present and make sure that we as a council and a mayor are working within the guidelines that we all adopted this matter of fact.

It was spring of 2025 that this was fully updated to accommodate another special committee.

So I'm not disagreeing with your what I was saying to start with, and I didn't have to keep you know, is that the council though can turn around and suspend the rules or whatever you wish and make an appointment again.

That was it.

That's the end of my check.

Councilor Hoffman.

Well, I think given the history of this committee in the city and and I mean there's multiple events every year that they organize.

Um maybe Councilor Bogart's right, maybe this should uh not be a mayor's committee and it should be a permanent committee under the purview of the city council, and then these appointments can be referred to the uh appointments committee.

Interesting way to look at it.

Councilor Felch.

So one quick comment.

I think human relations is definitely a reason for a committee and a purpose, um, a very important purpose.

Um as far as what councilor Hoffman said, could the council make this a permanent committee like the historic committee?

Yeah, I don't see why not, but I would I would uh I I my recommendation as after the discussion would be to table.

We can take those couple different options and and and do that up that way.

Uh one one point just uh I said it earlier, but just to clarify if this is tabled, it doesn't change their ability to do the work that they're currently doing.

That's correct.

So would we we we would uh be looking to table this till the next meeting?

It's up to you guys on the yeah, because that would give you two weeks to uh yeah, the way I would do it is if for some reason it couldn't be put together in two weeks, we would just I would just have to tell you that you know push it back.

It's one more meeting, but I don't see why we couldn't.

And perhaps then the counselors uh that have uh questions or comments about this could reach out to their fellow counselors and uh or the city manager and uh bring these points up and uh discuss it with each other.

Um that would be good.

Council Bogart, you had something you want to ask to say.

No, it sounded like we covered everything, and I was gonna make a motion to table because once the motion is made, we cannot discuss it no more.

So I was just waiting till all discussion has been stated.

Okay, so if you can hold off a second.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Council Susi.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, and Council Bogart's.

I I think Council Hoffman has a fantastic observation that as chairman of the appointments committee, we would be ready to move as soon as people fill out the applications and all.

I think it would be great to make it a permanent committee going through that process.

Okay, I don't think that would be very difficult to do.

But we want to go through the process.

I agree with you, table it, come back to the next meeting.

The question that I would have is um if that's what where the council goes with this, would there be any hang time where the uh human relations uh group would be in limbo?

Uh I think we could make it so it isn't.

I mean, again, I have to go back and look at I I'll have to go back and look to make sure we're doing the process correctly, but so I mean I can't answer it off the top of my head, but would make it so the community we could certainly make it so there's no in-limbo time when it transfers from the current way it's built out to whatever the new part uh model looks like.

Okay, and I would hope that uh any current members of of the uh committee would uh if they have any commentary on this that they would reach out to counselors uh or the city manager, I got you, Steve.

Okay, uh, will um you know to reach out and get their comments in kind of important the air for everybody.

Did you have something?

Yes, go ahead, Mark.

Yeah, just uh Kurt, I would hope you just check with legal counsel.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Okay, absolutely.

Okay, Councillor Bogart.

I just wanted to say that is uh uh uh counselor Hoffman brought up a valid option because then it would bring that committee under the direction of the council.

And and that would solve the issue of them just doing whatever they wish.

So that is a valid option that is present uh based on things.

So your idea when you say that you you're talking about you would you would expect the member of the council to attend these meetings, like a liaison type liaison type thing?

I would think so.

I think if we're gonna do it, it would be like one of these committees here that are in the rules, which then would be appointed because the mayor makes all appointments to all committees.

And then it would set the structure of it such that uh the committee will work under the function of the council.

Excuse me, Mr.

Mayor.

Go ahead.

Uh counselor Soucy.

Right.

The mayor doesn't make the appointment of our committees.

If the committee is set up as a like a planning board, things like that.

The people who want to be on the committees come before the appointments committee, go through a process, that the person, then we take the version's application and resume you might say, bring it to the council, and the full council votes on that person, not the mayor.

You have done that, you participated in that.

Right.

Then that is a process.

Right.

That's the process that I'm talking about that you participated in before, and I would hope that you'd support that.

Oh, I as I just said, that's even better.

Okay, that's right.

You know, because it gives the power to the committee to the whole council to provide the direction.

And what a load off the mayor's back.

Counselor Hayes.

What direction would you expect the council to give, the human relations committee?

I I don't know.

I've never been asked.

Okay.

I'm all set.

Yeah.

All right, thank you.

All right, you want to make a motion, Councilor Bogart?

Yes, I make a motion to table this item until such time the mayor, I mean the city manager has been able to come up with all options and be able to present them at that time.

And if he feels he's ready to do it in two weeks, I'll leave that up to him.

Well, let why don't we make a motion to table it to the next meeting?

And if it's still not ready, then we can make another motion to table it to the meeting after that.

At least we'll have an end and end date in the case.

That's fine.

Yeah, you don't have to take it off the table at any meeting.

It'll just keep going.

Right.

Okay, so a second for that motion to table it.

This agenda item.

Is there a second to table?

Okay, seeing nobody seconded it, then that motion fails.

So where do we go from here?

We continue with the item.

Gentlemen, if we continue with the item, I must contest that this item does not meet the rules of the council rules, and therefore you do not have authority to reappoint any of the based on the rules.

Yeah, so I will make the legal challenge to this.

I would make I would make a motion to either vote to table it or we just don't do anything and move on, which is essentially table again.

But I I just after all your discussion, I think it's cleaner if we table and move on.

So with that said, I'll I'll second that motion.

No, let's have let's hear it again.

We gotta have the motion again because it's already died.

So go ahead.

I make a motion that we table this item until the next meeting.

Okay.

Then I'll second.

Seconded by Councilor Felch.

Any more discussion.

Okay, all in favor, raise your hands.

That's six in the affirmative third passes.

Thank you very much.

Okay, moving on now to 21C.

This is a request to investigate methods to improve the ability of the Taylor home residents to enter and leave their private development.

Okay.

Um go ahead.

Yeah, Council Susi was asked uh for us to look into the exits at uh Union Arab from Taylor Home Drive, which uh empties out pretty much the entire Taylor Home Complex on you on to Union Av to see if there's something we should be doing with either signaling or some type of traffic control setup.

I have talked to uh to uh director Anderson about it.

Um we've had a very limited conversation, but we both agree that if we're gonna have this conversation, um it just needs to go to public works committee so we can break down all of the specifics so we can know if we something we want to bring back uh to the full committee or full council rather.

Councillor Susi.

Thank you, Mr.

Mr.

Manager.

Mr.

Mayor, what I'd like to do is request that we pass this along to the public works committee, and I'm gonna request that the public works committee have the meeting on this at the tailor home.

Okay, and what do you have a date in mind?

No, that would work that out with the uh chairman of the public works committee and city city manager in the public works.

Yeah, my office takes care of the setting the dates for all those right.

Okay, I would ask that that date may that date goes way overboard making that public because that will affect everybody in the city, not just the Taylor home people, but everybody uses Union Avenue.

That's correct.

Yeah, they have a conference room that we have we have.

But I I'm not talking about the conference.

I want that date to make sure that date's well publicized.

Transparency, thank you very much, Councillor Hayes.

I we want a real transparent date.

I know it's a very significant problem from there for their situation.

It's 485 residents there, and using that one exit and entrance does create a situation both sides.

I mean, from traffic on Union Avenue and the traffic people coming in and out.

Everybody has a problem on Union Avenue.

It's a busy street.

Uh okay, so that do we we don't need a motion on that?

We're just a we do need a motion.

Paul made the motion, I'll second it.

Who made the motion?

I made the motion that's a good question.

Council Susi.

So you've made that motion.

Okay, you'll second it.

Uh no discussion.

All in favor, raise your hands.

Six in the affirmative.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Councillor Susi.

Okay, so now we're on 21D.

This is a request of approval to send a letter of concern to the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services on the management of the Winnipesaki River Basin program.

Yeah, it's pretty much says right there.

We we've got concerns.

Um we know that we've been talking about the financial concerns of this, which is really the crux of it.

Um all ten communities are bringing this back to their legislative bodies uh to sign off on this letter.

Uh it supports the uh the way that the uh LSR is written.

Um it it just it it it shows our concern.

Um we have a our advisory board uh is very active.

The Winnipeg Saki River Basin Advisory Board is very active.

They do a great job.

Um we need to push along our concerns a little bit harder.

Um this letter it's attached.

Uh and if you approve us sending these letters of concern, um I will sign on behalf of the city.

That's what the motion is.

Okay, thank you.

Uh do we need a motion on that?

Yep, that's right there.

Yeah, that we can't do that.

Mr.

Mayor, I'll move that the city council approved the draft letter of concern and authorize the city manager to sign a letter.

Second.

Okay, that's been moved by uh councillor Cheney and seconded by Councillor Susi.

Any more discussion?

All in favor, raise your hands, please.

That's six in the affirmative.

Thank you very much.

Okay, so we're on thank you.

We're on a 21-8.

It's a proposed amendment to the wage and compensation plan.

In last year's uh or the current fiscal year budget, uh, you approved a project manager position within the planning department.

Uh this prior to us be even though it's been approved prior to us setting any wage compensation plan, anything like that, we have to bring it back to the council.

Um, same way we do raises and and all that.

Uh that's what this is here.

So it had to be posted for 10 days for the employees to see.

Uh, we had no uh negative comment about it, and now it goes to to the council for you guys to see the number you see there is uh both salary and um anticipated benefits package.

Um and that's for a full year, even though we're only paying out six months of this fiscal year, that's for a full year.

Um that's what you have on there.

Council of Susi.

Is this been posted uh publicly?

Yeah.

As soon as you approve this, it'll be uh advertised.

We had to wait.

Thank you.

Yep.

Thank you, Mr.

Any other questions or on this or comments?

No.

Okay, well, I'll move to approve the proposed amendment to the wage and compensation plan as presented, which will take effect January 1, 2026.

So moved.

Uh it's been moved by uh counselor Felch.

Okay.

Second by Councillor Bogart.

All in favor.

That's six in the affirmative.

Thank you very much.

Okay, so that brings us to unfinished business.

Do we have any unfinished business?

The clerk looks like she has some unfinished business.

Do you have any unfinished business?

No?

Well, before we get there, I just again want to remind everybody that the election is next a week from tomorrow night.

And if you're going to vote, bring somebody else with you.

And I'm hoping that the electronic board signs will reflect that.

Mr.

City Manager, that the uh election is.

I noticed that today coming down here, it's reminding us not the Texan drive.

Yeah, that's we've reached out to the PD today to ask them to change out to the election.

Okay, great.

That that would be wonderful.

Again, and again, I'll remind everybody, please take the signs down.

And uh thanks again.

Um director of public works, West Anderson, for doing a really good job cleaning up.

That was great.

All right, that's it for tonight.

We'll have adjournment at 811.

Thank you all very much.