Concord City Council Priorities For This Session: Fiscal Responsibility, Economic Development, And Housing

CONCORD, NH — As it does every two years, the Concord City Council spent about 90 minutes discussing its priorities for the next term.

The original priority setting session was canceled due to a snowstorm.

For the second term in a row, the priority setting session was more formal, like a regular city council meeting. In the past, meetings were more casual — chairs and tables were arranged in a circle. A brown bag dinner was brought in. There was often joking, joshing, and smiling between councilors.

While there were no fireworks like seen last month, the discussion was not as casual as in the past.

Mayor Byron Champlin passed around a draft, which was a little more than a page, focusing on six sections: Fiscal policy; public safety, health, and community wellbeing; economic and community development; housing stability and human services coordination; high performing organization; infrastructure and asset management; and environmental responsibility and renewable energy management. Each section had more clarifying comments. Under economic and community development, for example, was the following:

“Establish Concord as a welcoming destination for businesses and families with vibrant arts and events in downtown centers. Expand the tax base by responsibly investing in key infrastructure such as water, sewer and roads in targeted areas of the city. Protect neighborhoods from blight and deterioration that negatively impact area property values, and encourage residents and business owners’ efforts to maintain the physical environment through standards set in local ordinances.”

Champlin said he wanted to update the list and tweak it to make it not as broad as the past, while also keeping “a higher level of strategic goals and priorities” that are addressed “by city administration at the tactical level.”

There was broad agreement across the council that fiscal policy and economic and community development should be the council’s top priorities. From there, it appeared housing, public safety, and community well-being were also important.

Fiscal Policy, changed later to Fiscal Responsibility and Communication, included balancing the budget, minimizing the impact on the tax rate, preserving the city’s bond rating, and maximizing use of federal and state funding.

Ward 5 City Councilor Stacey Brown suggested councilors take advantage of the free training from the New Hampshire Municipal Association.

Ward 1 City Councilor Brent Todd said the list was a good one and a great starting point. He reviewed past priority lists, which he found heavy and well-organized. Todd also asked City Manager Tom Aspell about the timeline for reporting updates and other issues.

Jennifer Kretovic, of Ward 3, said the city needed to have more than a checklist.

Nathan Fennessy, an at-large city councilor, said he thought there were too many items on the list, stating, if you have three things on your list, you don’t have any priorities, although he thanked Champlin for putting together the list. Of all the items, fiscal policy, economic development, and infrastructure were the top three.

Amanda Grady Sexton, another at-large city councilor, agreed, saying the city needed to be hyper-focused on fiscal policy.

Ward 9 City Councilor Kris Schultz agreed with the fiscal policy but also said the human services and housing should be second. She believed paying taxes would be harder this year and the city needed to find more tools in the toolbox.

Judith Kurtz, another at-large city councilor, appreciated the “focus areas” of the list, but also felt there was a lot on the list. She called for streamlining the list and said the city had been doing many things successfully for a very long time. Looking for growth and directing staff were where the energy needed to be.

Grady Sexton said a more focused list of priorities with a second companion document, with updates, might be the way to go.

“Sort of a hybrid approach,” she said.

Ward 6 City Councilor Aislinn Kalob did not agree with reducing the number of categories. She said communication about the next budget and reevaluation should be included with fiscal policy.

Ward 2 City Councilor Michele Horne agreed with Fennessy and agreed with focusing on fiscal policy but also wanted the housing and human services moved up on the list.

Ward 8 City Councilor Ali Sekou agreed with many of the other comments but said city residents needed to be educated about all the things officials were doing.

Brown requested the adoption of a “capital improvement plan,” like other communities, with a list of projects spanning four to six years rather than 10. Other communities, she said, based the project list on need. Brown said during the past years, there were “massive, multi-million-dollar projects that I feel like we could have avoided if we worked with the school (district) and had a true capital improvement plan to anticipate these projects and save for them.” The plan, she said, needed to be a part of fiscal policy. Brown also said residents needed to know about abatement opportunities soon, as the year's deadlines were fast approaching.

Champlin said the topic was raised during a recent event featuring City Manager Tom Aspell. He added the city had a 10-year “capital improvement projects” list, as Brown knew.

Brown replied, “So, we’ll have a true plan.”

Aspell countered, “I don’t understand anything you’re saying.”

Brown repeated herself and said there were many projects all at once during the past year.

Ward 10 City Councilor Jeff Foote agreed with Fennessy, calling the three lists critical to the community. He said many members of the community were concerned about the increase in taxes.

“It should be our highest priority,” he said.

Foote said better focus should be put on the planning department, which had “instability over the last 10 years,” including five planners. There needed to be consistency and stability in the department.

Ward 7 City Councilor Jim Schlosser circled back to the federal and state funding and complained about cuts and downshifting of pension costs to municipalities. He said some towns could not develop, for example, new housing, due to the loss of infrastructure funding. Schlosser called on councilors to join an action network to secure better state funding.

Jennifer Kretovic of Ward 3 agreed with Foote and said a letter from the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce focusing on removing barriers to development was important. The city's primary source of income was property taxes, which required the greatest effort to increase revenue.

Grady Sexton agreed with the framing of fiscal policy and economic development but thought tax policy should be mentioned.

Kurtz suggested a small-business ambassador program involving businesspeople, city officials, and others to assist potential entrepreneurs.

Fred Keach, another at-large city councilor, said some downtown business owners are ready for the next stage in Concord. Landlords, too, forego renting their spaces out to just anyone. Main Street was such a success, Keach said, people would like to see it stay that way.

Mark Davie of Ward 4 said fiscal policy needed to be tweaked to secure his support for first place. He was also curious about why “support an environment of transparency, clear public communication, collaboration and teamwork” was wrapped together with “high performing organization” and employee retention.

Champlin said the city organization should be attractive for people to come and work in and communication was critical, too, including the need for 21st Century communication. Old forms of communication are changing, and new vehicles are emerging, he said. He pledged support for Concord TV, which was funded by cable access fees, but cable services are winding down.

Davie said it was “not a big deal” to have them together in the same category, but he found it “interesting.”

Champlin said city staff would come back to the council with an ironed-out list.

Champlin said fiscal policy, economic and community development, infrastructure, housing stability, and human services coordination were the top priorities for councilors.

Later in the meeting, Kretovic said employee retention was “extraordinarily important,” while Schultz said there was a segment of the population not directly connected to the city. She called for a bigger exclamation point on connecting the economic and “pocketbook issues” the public was facing. Keach said treating staff with respect was important, too, and they needed to value the staff, “and that has not always been the case around the table during the past two years, and I really want to see that change.”

Kalob said city communications were critical, especially given the services the city offers. There was an issue with a neighbor being unable to afford buying the purple bags for trash pickup, she said, and learned the city welfare office could assist that person. The “brand of Concord,” Kalob said, really stuck with her during orientation. She said Concord was also “an idea in people’s minds.” Kalob added, “Just remembering that Concord is a concept, too, and communications touches that.”

Aspell said the councilors were having “a great discussion,” but added just because issues were not listed in the priorities, it did not mean an item would not be done. An example was the skate park at Kiwanis Park, which falls under several priorities, such as infrastructure and community wellbeing, but is not listed as an actual item.

“Without saying, don’t worry too much,” he said. “Don’t worry too much… I would focus on two things: What are we doing now that you do not want us to focus on anymore? The other thing I would say, if there's things we're not doing, that you want us to focus on, hammer away on that, put that in there, and we'll make sure that gets built into the budget and gets built into the reporting structure of what it is.”

Champlin brought everyone back to four key primary goals: Fiscal policy, economic and community development, while Horne suggested changing it to fiscal responsibility and communication. Others agreed with thumbs ups and nods.

Todd spoke about adding the master plan to the list, while Schlosser said it was an overarching priority to get the pulse of this community and its aspirations and vision. He suggested a preamble to the priorities and also wanted the master plan included. Kalob mentioned historic preservation, and Champlin said he planned to add it to the community development aspect's protected neighborhoods. Schultz and Kretovic also said comments raised by residents should be included in the priorities. Schultz also suggested having more opportunities for open forums with residents.

Renter’s Caucus Offers Ideas

Four city councilors, Schultz, Sekou, Kalob, and Davie, identifying themselves as a “renters’ caucus,” offered two pages of commentary and ideas they would like to see addressed in the new term.

“The goal of the Renters Caucus is to give a voice to the roughly 43% of all Concord households who are renters — who occupy single-family homes, subdivided multifamily homes, larger apartment complexes, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), and everything in between,” they wrote. “Homeowners’ concerns are well-represented on the City Council, but renters face unique challenges. It is our hope to bring visibility to these issues, contribute to the conversation on alleviating the housing crisis in Concord, and be a supportive resource for our community through education, communication, and advocacy.”

The group also said there were concerns among renters, including the current economy, the lack of a “healthy” vacancy rate, considered to be around 5 percent (currently, the county has a 0.1 percent vacancy rate), and other issues.

“Renters, at the whims of the low-supply rental market, contend with absorbing their landlord’s property tax increases and have few protections under state law: a rental increase can come at any time for any reason, and no-fault eviction is legal in New Hampshire as of last year,” they wrote. “These factors affect our workforce and how our residents are able to contribute to the local economy; this market makes the city less attractive to commercial developers, strains our social services, and worsens the crisis of homelessness.”

Three priorities offered by the councilors included identifying tools available to residents to protect renters. Some of those ideas might include expansion of rent assistance programs and homelessness prevention aid, stronger eviction protections at the local level, the right to counsel during evictions, rent stabilization programs, enacting a “rent freeze,” implementing an eviction diversion program, identifying the impact of private equity on the rental market, and identifying predatory landlords who engage in mass eviction or other harmful practices.

Using interim zoning — since a new master plan will be at least four years away, might address known challenges, they believed. These issues include parking, signage, compliance with state regulations, aesthetic preferences, price points, and the configuration of housing units, such as ADUs.

The development of a resource inventory and communication plan was also a request. While the welfare and human services employees were applauded for their work, the renters’ caucus said it was important for the city to take an active role in informing residents about available assistance and resources for those who might be struggling.

“These resources must also be easily accessible, widely available across many platforms, and translated into languages most commonly spoken in Concord,” they said.

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