Mayor James Donchess (left) and Chief Financial Officer John Griffin field questions from residents during the annual budget hearing at Nashua High School North on June 17. Courtesy photo/Nashua Community Television

NASHUA – Mayor James Donchess withstood a torrent of criticism over the city’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 totaling $456.1 million.

During the annual budget hearing on June 17, Donchess said the new amount represents an increase of 3.7 percent over last year’s budget.

Some of the larger department budgets include $182.2 million for the Nashua School District, $40.4 million for the Police Department, $32.3 million for the Fire Department and $15.1 million for the Department of Public Works.

“We’ve certainly been affected by the global inflation,” said Donchess.

He also said the cost of healthcare benefits has gone up by $4.6 million.

“This is typical,” he said.

Donchess said funding was added to this year’s budget to provide firefighters with regular cancer and health screenings. More money was also put into city transportation to cover a reduction in federal funding.

Regarding personnel, he said a cyber security engineer has been added as well as a housing services officer for a total of $154,161.

In addition, Donchess said the Police Department has had great success with Leah Elliott, who was hired as the department’s community social worker and responds to non-criminal situations.

Following the mayor’s presentation, Laura Colquhoun of Greenwood Drive said that based on her calculations, the city’s budget had increased by 7.13 percent rather than 3.7 percent.

“I think you better review your figures,” she said to Donchess, adding that she has been researching the city’s budgets since 2015. “I’ve done it the same way forever.”

Donchess said a “number of supplemental appropriations” were made during the past year. However, those appropriations were included in the 3.7 percent increase.

Paula Johnson of Westborn Drive said she found the city employee salaries in the back of the budget book rather than being listed with their respective departments.

“This is more like a summary book,” said Johnson. “It doesn’t break everything down.”

In response, Donchess said Nashua’s budget transparency has gotten better over the years.

“We’ve tried to improve the accessibility of the budget,” he said. “It used to be just a bunch of numbers.”

Johnson also said the aldermen were wrong in voting to give themselves a $4,000 raise, calling the action “self-serving.”

Christina McKinley of Southgate Drive asked how employee raises are determined. She said that according to her research, raises in the private sector are awarded based on merit. However, this is not the case with municipal positions where raises appear to be automatic.

“Those increases should be based on performance,” said McKinley.

Laurie Ortolano of Berkeley Street asked if Gary Perrin, the city’s right-to-know administrator, would be moved to the City Clerk’s Office rather than staying in Administrative Services.

“He’s not accessible to any of the people because he’s behind a locked door with no phone number and doesn’t communicate with anyone,” she said. “His whole purpose is to get information to the public.”

Donchess reminded Ortolano that the city has fulfilled its legal obligation by accommodating her numerous right-to-know requests.

“Ms. Ortolano, these issues have been raised in the dozen lawsuits you’ve brought against the city,” he said, adding that the courts determined that the city provided Ortolano with more than 100,000 documents. “We keep winning the cases and you keep bringing them.”

Donchess also said the best place for Perrin is in Administrative Services.

Ortolano maintained that she was only asking a question.

“There’s no need to get snarky about it,” she said. “You didn’t have to do your little song and dance to get to that answer.”

In addition, Ortolano said her right-to-know requests to the Board of Aldermen continue to be ignored.

“You have an obligation to respond,” she said. “It’s not a pick and choose game, it’s not a discrimination game.”