City Structure & Processes

It is my belief that in setting up the city government structure and processes we should be allowed to assume the best of intentions of the elected officials. This minimizes complexity and eases daily operations. The tradeoff is increased opportunity for abuse. As long as we do our duty and apply restrictions via oversight we don't need restrictions via legislation.

Pennichuck Water Special Committee Meeting Summary

The Pennichuck Water Special Committee was held yesterday evening. At the same time there was an Infrastructure meeting upstairs talking about the Legacy Playground. Therefore, the PWSC didn't get televised live. It should be on soon. Here are a couple highlights:

We began with a very educational overview and tutorial on the Pennichuck Corporation and how it is regulated by the NH Public Utilities Commission (PUC). I am finding it very useful to keep in mind that Pennichuck Corp does not set their rates and can't get reimbursed for every conceivable expense. The Directors and Chief Officers must make sure that what they do fits within the rules established by the PUC.

Also, I find it useful to keep in mind that the Directors' considerations are for the benefit of the finances and healthy operation of the company.

The Board of Aldermen are limited in the amount of influence we have on the operation of the company, again as directed by the PUC as well as standard operating procedure between shareholders and directors. The BoA, however, have special authority to approve all bonding requests by Pennichuck.

In the case of their consideration to move the distribution operations out of Nashua at Will Street and instead develop property in Parcel N the BoA will have to approve that via a Resolution.

I clearly stated that it is my belief that there is another option and that they should take more time to consider an alternative that is financially sound and keeps the distribution facility in Nashua.

Pennichuck Water Special Committee

A Pennichuck Water Special Committee is scheduled for Monday February 3rd at 7:00 pm in the Nashua Aldermanic Chambers at City Hall. There are at least four topics we expect to discuss among ourselves.

- Pennichuck Corp is considering moving its distribution facilities out of Nashua and replacing it with a location to be developed on land currently termed Parcel N in Merrimack.
- The annual share...holder’s meeting which generally occurs in March is being considered to be held in June.
-Several long term loans from the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds totaling $3.4M are being considered.
- A recent financial summary showed a financial loss by Pennichuck for the most recent quarter.

Legacy Playground

R-14-001, the resolution to put the Legacy Playground on the West side of Greeley Park should be referred to the Infrastructure Committee at tonight's full Board of Aldermen.

Boston has the Public Common and the Garden. They are located downtown across the street from each other just a block away from the Esplanade and its famous Hatch Shell which hosts the Boston Pops on the 4th of July.

The Bo...ston Common is filled with facilites for the public to enjoy: ball fields, ice rink/swimming pool, playground, all kinds of things. The Boston Garden is kept free of all that, for the most part. The Garden has the Swan boats in the pond and couple statues but they uphold the picturesque tone.

By analogy we have the west side of Greeley Park (The Garden) and the east side of Greeley Park (The Common). The east side of Greeley Park has the band shell, the ball fields, horse-shoe courts, things like that. Down the hill on the east side goes a paved road to an area which can fit more cars with access to a place more suited for a new playground.

The west side of Greely Park indeed has the swing set, the small wading pool, and the barbeque grills but it seems more like The Garden with its picturesque massive trees and open space. At the top of the hill on the west side behind the stone house is an area that is prime open space which hopefully will remain that way.

Now is a good time to really think about the purpose of Greeley Park. I'm confident we can make it both functional and pretty as long as we are thoughtful about where we put what.

Legacy Playground

The first item on Tuesday's agenda for the full Board of Aldermen is a resolution to allow the Legacy Playground into Greely Park. It currently has seven sponsors. I am not one of them.

Nearly every park in America has a swing set or something like that. In fact, one of my first accomplishments as Alderman representing Ward 9 was to get a swing set installed near the baseball fields along Shady ...Lane at Kirkpatrick Park. So at the very least I am not opposed to replacing the current swing sets at Greely park with something more modern.

But this has much more to do with simply installing a swing set in Greely Park. The group which is sponsoring this idea claims to have done an unbiased survey of other locations. However at a September 2013 Board of Public Works meeting we hear: “We aren’t interested in other sites, unless there’s some very important reason we should consider them,” said Tricia Casey, Legacy Playground Resource Development Chair.

At the December Public Works meeting held at the City Hall Auditorium the presenters were unable to answer whether the bathrooms at Greely park were actually handicapped compliant - this after claiming minutes earlier that that location was the only location in the entire city that met their requirement regarding bathrooms. Had they done a detailed analysis one would think they could have answered that question definitively. (As it turns out those bathrooms are NOT ADA compliant and they are closed nearly six months out of the year.)

And as early as November/December 2012 - before the money was raised to pay for the project - there were detailed architectural drawings of the playground in Greely park with no equivalent plans at other locations.

Clearly this project was pre-destined for Greely Park.

I am for modernized play equipment at Greely Park that serves the needs of the community. I am not for a monument honoring a group of people who have misled the public.

Appointed Chairman of Planning and Economical Development Committee

By now you most likely have read that the Board of Aldermen survived Sunday's inauguration.

I am the Chairman of the Planning and Economic Development Committee for this term. Joining me on that committee will be Aldermen McGuinness, Melizzi-Golja, Sheehan, and McCarthy.

As I was quoted in the newspaper last Friday I plan to actively investigate many topics. For instance: jobs, commuter rail, land use, urban planning, etc. I will be contacting many (if not all) of you to exchange ideas. I will draw on others experience and subject matter expertise as I attempt to moderate the discussion and lead the team.

Hayden Green's Request for a waiver (and refund of fees already paid) for School Impact Fees

There are a couple items for consideration at Monday's (not Tuesday's) Board of Aldermen meeting. One of them is the Hayden Green project's request for a waiver (and refund of fees already paid) for school impact fees. My leanings are to vote to reject this waiver. I recognize that the new development is targeted for seniors and therefore it is unlikely that the development will have a large impact toward increasing a need for school capital projects.

I certainly don't want to let the sour history of this project get in the way of decision making of this request. That sour history is this project is the one associated with Parcel F, the last tract of undeveloped land previously owned by Pennichuck Corp, the land that was sold the very day before the city closed on its purchase of Pennichuck.

The Pennichuck Proxy Ordinance

None of our three major news outlets in Nashua covered this but my "Pennichuck Proxy Ordinance" was passed in the last Board of Aldermen meeting. If you scroll down my posts to Jan - March of this year you will find several postings I made explaining my position on this. We have accomplished our goal. Each year the proxy from Pennichuck Corp for the annual shareholders' meeting will be discussed i...n the Board of Aldermen. More importantly because it will be on the agenda you will be able to make use of the portion of the agenda allotted for "period of public comment for items expected to be acted upon today." The by-laws of Pennichuck seem clear to me that the Board of Aldermen through its usual process acts as the "Sole Shareholder." This Ordinance insures that you, the taxpayer and owner, have a fair opportunity to offer your opinion.

The Moriarty Amendment

The back of my palm card which I hand to someone at their doorstep says I have "Protected the taxpayer with The Moriarty Amendment."

The one sentence description is that this amendment saved the taxpayer from a future cost estimated at more than $10,000,000 and it also protected the residential nature of the neighborhood surrounding the city's landfill and along all of West Hollis St.

The detailed description is as follows:

This past spring of 2012 a resolution was proposed to the Board of Aldermen to purchase three parcels of land along West Hollis St that abut our city's landfill. The total purchase price was approximately $700,000. (It's been a while so I have forgotten the exact price. But, for the sake of understanding the purpose of this amendment the exact price is not important.) When I received the resolution in my Aldermanic packet a purchase and sale agreement was attached. There was no explanation or justification for the purchase.

The resolution was referred to the Infrastructure Committee of which I am a member. The mayor, as the prime sponsor of the resolution, attended the meeting and gave a list of reasons to purchase the land. The main reason was something of the sort of "based on its own merits." One of the reasons mentioned was the possibility to relocate all of the city's Public Works facilities there.

One by one I considered each of the reasons given but found none of them to be individually sound enough to justify the purchase. I asked many questions and requested supporting documentation such as drafts of the many ideas proposed. No further documentation was provided. No details were given.

One of my duties at my regular job is to write proposals for technology development projects. It is common to provide 20 pages of justification for a $1M project. It is also common to provide 50 pages for a proposal for a $10M project. I didn't expect a 20 page proposal to justify this purchase but I did expect to be given at least a single page in addition to the purchase and sale agreement. No such document was ever provided

The Infrastructure Committee recommended Indefinite Postponement. At the following Board of Aldermen meeting there was a significant discussion. Since the purchase would require a supplemental appropriation that meant it would take 10 votes to pass. It failed to pass. Eventually it was tabled.

Later that fall, many weeks after the new fiscal year had began, the resolution was taken off the table. At this point the land was put on the capital improvements list and thus the mayor claimed that it no longer needed 10 votes to purchase it. Some of us argued this point but lost. During that meeting there was again significant discussion. After each of the Aldermen stated their positions it became clear that it was going to pass. So I thought that it was worth doing something to protect the citizens and the taxpayers. About a month earlier we had a public meeting at Mid-Dunstable School. In my view, about the only valid reason that we could all agree to purchase the land was to protect the residential nature of the neighborhood.

So I made a motion to amend the resolution so that the city may not do any development or construct any buildings that are outside the residential zoning of the surrounding neighborhood. The resolution was tabled and we adjourned for the evening.

During the next two days I lobbied for my amendment. When Thursday arrived it seemed that the majority had taken a liking to it. The mayor even endorsed it in her opening remarks. It passed 14-1.  In the end I could have voted against the actual resolution as one final hard-headed "NO". But that would have been disingenuous to my colleagues who agreed to work with me on this amendment. I voted for the final purchase of the land.

I couldn't save the taxpayers the $700,000 it took to purchase the land but I think I saved them $10,000,000 it was going to cost in future expenses to relocate "the barn" to this spot. And this resolution truly continues to protect the residential nature of that neighborhood because had that barn been relocated there, there would be a convoy of trucks driving in and out all hours of the night during snow storms, not to mention the Public Works traffic during normal working hours.

Shortly after I lost a few of my most conservative supporters because of my final "yes" vote. Over time they have returned as supporters of mine. I am proud to list this on my palm card as an example when I risked taking a personal loss while I stood for principle against special interests in the defense of all the citizens of Nashua.

Biography of Dr Daniel Moriarty

Please visit my web page
www.aldermanmoriartycom
I no longer maintain this blog.
Dan Moriarty, Daniel Moriarty, Alderman Dan Moriarty

You almost certainly know one famous person from my home town of Atchison, Kansas: Amelia Earhart. It's unlikely you know that she grew up on the same street as me although obviously not at the same time. I like to tell people that I grew up in the inner city - inner city Atchison, Kansas, population 13,000. Typical of most mid-western towns the streets are laid out in a grid and there's an alley between every street. My neighborhood is 1/4 acre zoning so the houses are surprisingly closely spaced for being in a state with so much open space.

Atchison looks very similar to Nashua's North End with all its Victorian homes. My mom's house was (still is) a medium sized Victorian with a big porch in front. Since Atchison was settled in the 1760's it is filled with many impressive homes made of stone and brick, one with a set of gargoyles on the roof keeping watch. The house I grew up in is still there, same phone number since before I was born. A symbol of stability and reliability that has contributed to my personality.
Atchison residents are mostly blue collar, with the largest employer being the steel foundry along the river, formerly owned by Rockwell. Their claim to fame is having the ability to make the largest (at least while I lived there) single-pour castings: tank turrets, railroad trucks, etc.The second largest employer is Midwest Grain Products. Allegedly they produced more alcohol than any other location in the country, used in low-cost beverages such as vodka and gin that comes in plastic jugs and the grain-mash would be used for livestock feed.

I went to Central School (public) from K-5 and walked to and from home since 1st grade. Imagine these days letting your 6 year old walk home from school, make a snack, and wait for you to return home from work. note: never in my life did I have a key to my house because we never locked our doors. We often toss our car keys on the floor when we get out to go shopping. I spent the weekends with my dad who travelled during the week as a sales rep in the casting industry. My mom worked full time to support us five kids first as a waitress then for most of her career keeping the books for payroll at Rockwell. There were days I was home sick from school watching educational TV on PBS. My mom would call from work to check up on me (which annoyed me to no end). Now days that would be frowned upon but the whole arrangement instilled a sense of personal responsibility.

My dad was a sports nut and as such I first started competing in swimming when I was 6 and "retired" when I was 11. After that it was baseball, football, basketball, and soccer. Eventually I managed to stop playing basketball which I was never any good at and wrestled instead. By the end of high school it was just cross-country in the fall and track in the spring. I ran every single day for three years and managed to get 11th at the state champs in the 2 mile (10:02) and 4th in the 4x800 relay (8:17). The next day I hung up my shoes and essentially didn't run again until the summer before my 30th birthday.

...because while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology my main focus was academics. There were times during the latter parts of the semesters when there weren't enough hours in the week to get everything done. So, we would skip lectures in order to get the homework done. Quizzes were a treat because it meant there was no eight hour homework assignment due that week. I was in electrical engineering which was the largest department at the Institute. I remember one class being so oversubscribed, (MIT had a policy that you could go to any class you wanted without ever having to get on a wait list) that the professor decided to crank up the difficulty of the homework until the students began to drop out of the class. Eventually through attrition he got the class down to a manageable size. (6.013, fall junior year.)

Aside from the obvious technical training, probably the single biggest thing I learned from MIT was what I call their "No Excuses Policy." If there was an assignment due on Monday and a gigantic snow storm left two feet of snow on Saturday morning making it next to impossible to get to the lab, the assignment was still due. You were supposed to know the storm was coming and start early. If there was any conceivable way the work could get done it shall be done. At the same time the students could apply this policy on the administration. There better be benches and test equipment available. The electronics better be available, and same with the teaching staff. The 'Tute gave us infinite resources and flexibility to accomplish our work and expected nothing short of perfection.

After getting a doctorate in applied physics in the department of Nuclear Engineering, my first job was in Los Angeles at TRW, an aerospace and security company. After two years I returned to New England to join the MIT Lincoln Lab, then four years at a telecom startup. Most recently, 9 years at BAE Systems where I am now. This is a great place to work: almost no corporate politics, a meritocracy, plenty of resources, driven toward deliverables. It's a lot like MIT; but, without the competition between peers. In my role as Alderman I often resort to my experience at my current employer as a guide of how things should function. At the moment I envision myself retiring here at BAE Systems.

I have one real hobby: racing triathlon. It's almost a profession since I train about 10 hours per week (150 miles on the bike, 25 miles running, 2 hours in the pool). My first race was in Hyannis, Mass in 1999. Since then I've competed in about 50 triathlons from sprint, to Olympic distance, to half-Ironman. I've raced three times for Team USA at the Age Group World Championships: Gold Coast, Australia; Budapest, Hungary; and Beijing, China. My best ranked performance was 10th in my age group at the Beijing World Champs.

My four kids keep me busy every other weekend and a few weeks a year. Amelia is now 12 and after a  great first season of track is back to ballet. Rebecca, 10, is interested in gymnastics and saving money. Charlotte, 10, likes ballet and has a goofy sense of humor like her brother. Owen, 7, just finished his first season of T-ball. The girls, especially Amelia, are amazing artists.

Nashua suits me. It has everything I need and no traffic. But, I do miss the thunderstorms of Kansas' springs.