City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire Economic Development Commission, 1 Apr 2022

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From YouTube: 4.1.2022 Economic Development Commission

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4.1.2022 Economic Development Commission

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April, I guess we will call to order uh the april first meeting of the city of portsmouth economic.

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Development commission um thanks everyone for being here just to give everyone a heads up.

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This morning, we're going to try to run through our agenda a little more expeditiously than we might.

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Have we're hoping to close the formal portion of our meeting a little closer to 8 30 and spend the.

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Rest of the morning, recognizing nancy carmer she'll be joining us at 8 30 and thanking her.

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For all of her service that she's, given to the city and the community and her in her long tenure.

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That she's had here and all the changes that she's seen. So um sorry. If it feels like we're.

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Running through things quickly, I know we've got a good meeting and a fair amount to maybe cover.

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Do we notice the city assessor going to be joining us 8 o'clock, 8 o'clock? Okay, perfect! So maybe we'll.

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Jump around a little bit, but first order here is our minutes from our march 11th meeting.

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Did you have those that could circulate sean or I know we? I did yes, okay, great.

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Do I have a second, I just noticed the one comment, the the date says february 11th, and it should.

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Be march 11th at the top of the minute, so just something new and I'm not reflected.

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As being intended, we should fix that a little personal okay, I could vouch for ben. He was here.

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Great so with those changes do I have a second second all in favor, and he opposed.

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Great so first we've got on our agenda today is the business retention and expansion.

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I know uh alan and bob has been continuing to make headway. Alan. You want to walk us through sure ann.

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Brazwell, india, as well um a quick update. We have got a what I think is a a final cut of the.

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Of the survey that we've run through, um we just need to give one more one more read, and then we.

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Need to connect up with the unh folks to have them take a look at it and start the process. uh There's.

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A there's a question sean we probably need to discuss um when we talked with nancy about it. Last.

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There was some budget money from put aside for this year, but probably not.

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Enough to cover the full load, and so I think there was some planning to pull from the next.

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Fiscal year, so we should discuss that which will work with drive timing and you can work.

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Out those details and if you've got the draft so any comments back bob's already come back and.

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So we're pretty pretty clean on it so great. That is where we are hope to get that survey done and.

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You know funding you know pending funding, we could probably get it done in the next 60 days. Great and.

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Is that I know it's in word format. Is that going to be yeah? It's going to be elected, it's going to.

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Be an electronic it's going to be an electronic survey and right now the notion is to go out to.

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All the businesses and what business contacts we can. There was an open item to check with the.

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The state to see if we, the attorney general's office, to see if we can get an.

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Updated list of contacts for businesses in the area great.

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Good thanks alan um look forward to getting that rolled out, so the next we've got our sustainable.

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Cities I know uh tom, you had a good update for us last month with some some changes. I know.

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Or I guess I'm curious to hear if you guys have continued to meet or might want to broaden the.

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Kind of purview of of what you're, looking at in the scope of sustainable cities beyond the.

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Just the e.v: well, uh we have not met. um I decided not to burden nancy in her last month.

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Of employment so we'll be doing that sometime in the next month before our next meeting.

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I did have one homework assignment, uh somebody I think was vince or someone sent out a call. The.

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Folks, who are doing the charging station in rochester on a private uh enterprise basis.

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So I did that spoke to victoria perez she's, one of the two owners of the place. I'm sorry.

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I also noticed I'm hiding outside the camera, but I spoke with her at length and she explained that.

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I think I might have mentioned this last time that she's.

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She and her partner have purchased a piece of land right near right, adjacent to the.

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Walmart shopping center, which is just off one of the route 16 exits in rochester.

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They are planning and they've received their municipal approvals for a stand-alone.

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Electric charging station there will be no store, no coffee shop or any other type of amenities.

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There'll just be four level three and two level two charging units.

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This was this is she's looking at this is solely the purpose of extending this.

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Arteries of charging stations separate from what the state is doing, but.

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She's a ev owner and she and her friends who similarly have electric vehicles.

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Suffer from the same sort of fear of of running out of electricity at some point.

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In the middle of nowhere so she's she's going after the on-again off-again highway.

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Customer the only amenity beyond the charging stations will be a canopy so that people.

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Will be shielded from the weather during uh inclement, winter and and rain during the summer.

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Her uh I I questioned her about the selection of the powering and that type of thing and learned.

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Actually, quite a bit about uh charging stations that I wasn't aware of before.

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She says that and she's done a real, deep dive on this before she made her her business plan, but.

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She said there are, there are charging stations that go from 50 kilowatts to 350 kilowatts.

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The sweet spot she says is about 150 and that's what she's putting into her her station. uh She.

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Says there is no uniformity in and, and the amount of the kilowatt has a lot to do with the battery.

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uh Capability of the cars she said ultimately, you'll most cars will be have batteries they'll.

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Be large enough, therefore, extending their distance that you want to have a 350 kilowatt, but right now.

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She thinks most people should plan to have about 150, because that has the greatest.

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Number of current vehicles out there, but have the capacity at some point essentially with the.

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With the infrastructure to go to a 350 kilowatt capacity, she has priced it out at.

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Thousand dollars per unit for the 150 kilowatt uh units, in her case there was no need to have.

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The uh extra um transformer, because the uh what she referred to as a phase three electric power.

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Transformer was installed in that walmart when it was built out, so she's been able to hook into that.

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Without all the costs that we've heard from peter rice is sort of the biggest burden.

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Of doing this and she's her marketing plan figures out that she will need 6.5 hours a day in in.

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Charges and uh she's also figured out that uh it, although it's based somewhat on the size of the.

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Battery and and the amount of the uh kilowatt that it's going to take an average about 30 minutes to.

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To essentially fill up or get to about 80 percent of capacity, and so at that she in.

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Order to break even it's, she has to get sounds like about 13 charges a day for every unit and.

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Apparently she's, uh based on that business plan, she's got private funding or you know.

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Or bank funding for that, so uh this is sort of the example that I was saying we needed to find of how.

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Private enterprise would sort of tie into this. She did say that she did talk to the people at.

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The state about the volkswagen trust, but she was too late in the process, so she didn't.

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Even apply for that and then the last comment she made when I was exploring it, whether is that.

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She's been approached by two other property owners about partnering on something like this.

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So she's actively under consideration, I asked her if she had been approached by any municipalities.

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For doing some type of a private public partnership- and she had she said she had not, but.

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She would entertain something, or at least have a dialogue on it, because.

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She I think she really wants to go all in on on this electric vehicle charging.

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As a as a business plan, she also said that I asked her if she would be willing to.

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Talk to this group or some other group in portsmouth, this is an example of how this is done.

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From a private perspective- and she said she would be happy to do that so.

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I noticed on our agenda. We were talking about potential visitors if we wanted to.

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Have her come down and spend a half hour going through this process, you'd be happy to do that.

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The only other comment I I don't think this had come out.

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When I was here last time- but I I think about two weeks ago,.

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I read a news article where starbucks and volvo are partnering on a pilot program.

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To install uh 60 install charging stations at 60 starbucks between denver and seattle,.

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To see if primarily it won't be limited to volvo, but it's really.

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Underwritten by volvo to see what the usage would be as a location for for uh charging stations.

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Again, the idea being, if somebody gets off and has a half hour to charge if you've got a starbucks.

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Coffee, next to a chance that they'll buy one but again that's another example of how the private.

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The the sector without having to have government grants is going to come into play.

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Okay, so pretty fascinating. I think it would be great to have her potentially in as a speaker.

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And kind of understanding what other potential she's heard from anyone in in portsmouth. But.

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Knowing, if there's other private owners working on this already in the community, it's good to.

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Know as the city is working on planning within our municipal lots too, mr chair, if I can, we.

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We just notified the council and, and folks will start to see the impact when we start to.

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Reconstruct the bridge street parking lot. But what we're doing there is laying the conduit.

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And taking care of all the subsurface work to when we are able and can fund it.

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Place the the charging stations there in the far corner, that's by the corner of maplewood and.

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Deer may pull it in here may put in. I should know this yeah that corner yeah.

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I think the only other question is would we want her to come and speak in front of a joint session.

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Maybe with parking and transportation safety or if there are other boards or folks that could benefit.

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From her speaking to us, I think it would be good to either have a joint session or invite them to.

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The edc meeting yeah that's a great suggestion. I also wonder zoning wise if it's a private.

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Lot I mean, I think in rochester it's probably unique. I'm not sure that there's many.

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Vacant lots that would be primed for development for that use in town. But if, if they're prohibited.

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From doing so on on other private lots, apartments or another interesting thing to.

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Touch upon, but I think um who's, the city councilor on parking traffic and safety andrew bagley.

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I do believe too the redevelopment of the berg- I don't know if this was brought up philosophy and.

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The burger king lot, um the common man they plan to put eb chargers in there, too, cool.

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Yeah, I think someone had mentioned that, but I hadn't heard that for certain decks.

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Cool all right thanks tom, um so next we have the land use subcommittee update. Sarah has that.

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Group met since we met as a subcommittee, so I can talk about our subcommittee and.

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Assistant mayor kelly is also on the same subcommittee, so she can supplement anything.

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I forget one point of information is that the land use committee will be meeting in.

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This room immediately after edc meetings, starting in may so just just to let folks.

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Know so that means that my updates are, our updates might be delayed by by a month or so.

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So when we met we're part of the supported market um subcommittee, which looks at incentivizing.

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Affordable housing and workforce housing and there were five areas uh that we had had to look at.

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So one was understanding for the governor's budget where there might be allocation for.

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For housing, I did not follow up on that, so I don't know if there's anything specific.

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Mentioned in the governor's budget, um not specifically, but I'm working very closely with.

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uh The senator and the 100 million dollar pledge um and that's kind of a joint venture from from my.

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Side of this and the legislative subcommittee absolutely I'll, have updates on that too. The.

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Second point was to revisit the housing committee that was founded under uh councillor perkins.

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Quoca's tenure to see, if that can be revitalized, re-staffed and refocused on addressing some of.

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The issues that we're looking at in the land use subcommittee. The third item was around a airbnb.

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Study to understand the economic impact, there are some some legislation at the state level.

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Which I think we've talked about here as well, to get an understanding of whether enabling.

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You know air airbnbs in a community what the impact is on housing and what portsmouth.

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Stance might be, and that's probably another crossover with the legislative subcommittee.

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The fourth item was to look at the downtown impact for the 17 rsa 79e, which is a state law that.

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Encourages investment in downtowns and village centers. We were going to be looking at opportunity.

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Zones within the city of portsmouth or perhaps city-owned properties that could be targeted.

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For for development or selection for affordable housing locations.

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And then the fifth item was to look at enabling legislation.

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To permit accessory dwelling units so to basically be able to apply without.

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To be able to be granted access to have an accessory dwelling unit without having to.

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um Without having to apply for by exception, and then the sixth item was looking at fee,.

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And lou research, so when developers have the opportunity to um to put forward a house.

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Development property, where there is additional density, you know they oftentimes have to either.

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Offset um by contributing to an affordable housing, pool or more more green space, so we wanted to take.

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A look at who is taking advantage of those um of those opportunities and where, where those.

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Investments are going. Is there anything else? I would say off that we um we had a great public.

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Comment where a resident was talking about how developers have been able to double dip on those.

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So they um are able to, you know, use green space to not only get height but also density density.

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um And so figuring out um how we can potentially stop that in or in lieu um trying to fund our we.

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Have a housing trust that is empty, so trying to figure out ways to fund that. As sarah mentioned.

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So those are the the five areas that we have so a lot of a lot of thoughts, a lot of ideas.

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And then I do expect when we get back together in our first meeting in may that we'll formalize some.

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Actions great and I can reach out to um counselor monroe and try to get updates on the other. On the.

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Regulatory side, and so we can make sure that we get those updates in here too. Thank you.

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Great good work on that keep us posted, I think, would be interesting and maybe at some point I.

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Guess if you guys think it would be helpful for for kind of a bigger discussion between.

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That group and ours, or continue to report us report out from the subcommittee. But I think.

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If there's opportunities for us to understand what recommendations are coming forward,.

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Or might be put before the council great thanks, so I see that our our guests have joined us.

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From the city, if anyone else didn't have anything for the land use, I.

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I know we've had you not scheduled until eight, but if you'd like to join us a little earlier welcome.

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We have two empty chairs, you guys just wouldn't sit near each other.

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Great, so thanks for joining us, it's the city, assessor roseanne, maurice lentz and emily.

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Goldstein, I thought we thought it might be a good time to have you both before the commission to.

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Maybe talk a little bit about the upcoming revaluation that I I know was announced last week.

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I think if you had anything, formal it'd be great to run through that or we're happy to kind of.

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Explain well nothing really formal, yet we're right in our analysis phase but everybody's been seeing.

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What's been going on in the market, obviously, the residential market has moved at a much faster pace.

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Than the commercial market, although the industrial market is very hot, our class b office market.

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We're trying to figure out what to do. We have been talking to many other tax, reps and brokers.

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About what's been going on out in the market and they're saying right now that there's high vacancy.

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In that class b market, maybe some class a but not so much um so they're trying to figure out what.

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They're going to do with that space and from what I've been hearing is. Their intention is to try.

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And make that space smaller to attract many office environments where they're still.

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Having people remem work remotely, but having a base for them, and we have already seen that.

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Trend happening before covid, but I think that trend is going to be more prevalent right now.

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Our in the city, right now, the apartment rental market is just through the roof.

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You they can't get enough of it, so, as I'm sure, as you've seen with.

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Applications coming in that the intent to try and build more of those type of structures in the city.

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To attract because portsmouth is so attractive, especially to that young urban.

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Individual and then also to the retiree that has a really good nest: egg that they can afford.

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The quality of life that portsmouth gives them in that downtown area, so those are the two things.

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That we're really seeing um in portsmouth plus the waterfront property, whereas right after the.

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Recession, nobody really would touch it because of its expense. Right now, it's very attractive, great.

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I think a couple questions that that I know I had were when the last revaluation, like the city-wide.

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I know there was an update that was done on some properties a few years back. But could you speak.

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To when the last time was that there was a full revaluation done and kind of the timing in between.

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And then also comment, maybe on the the total.

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I know the the tax rate is going to be set based on the budget, but I think it's helpful.

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For this group to understand you know, taxes may be going. Upper assessments are likely going up.

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But what does that truly mean in terms of the tax burden for homeowners, and also, I kind of.

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Have some follow-up questions but I'll hold off on those okay? So our last statistical revaluation.

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Which is basically a full revaluation without the measure and list was in 2019.

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And then we were, we typically do an update in between revaluations, but because of covet.

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In 2020, we chose to step back and just wait and see because everything was really going.

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Fast at that point, but it didn't slow down so in 2021 um we were scheduled.

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To look at it again, but we were right heavily in the midst to covet and again we said well, let's.

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Sit back and wait and you did see a lot of other communities. Do the revaluations, but unfortunately,.

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The market hasn't changed, so they're going to be doing more revaluations, yeah or next year, yeah. So.

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We chose to wait and see. I think it was a good plan for portsmouth to wait and see.

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Because, hopefully, this market will stabilize a little bit and our values won't take off as much.

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It typically when the budget is set, people will say it's the budget, that's causing the tax rate.

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Increase or the tax increase and nine times out of ten, that's true, but not right. Now in portsmouth.

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These market values are going to be causing the majority of the increase in taxes, not not the.

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Budget interesting, and could you comment on? Do you know what the breakdown was between the commercial.

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Values and the residential values in 2019. I think I believe it was 58 to 42 58 residential 42.

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Commercial, now, that's not to say there won't be an increase in commercial property values. There will.

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Be but the majority of the increase is going to be on the residential side, so we're not sure how.

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Much of a shift but we're predicting there will be a tax impact on the residential properties.

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More so than the commercial, but but we have to remember also that our large apartment type.

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Complexes are in that commercial base same with the industrial, so they've been pretty strong, so.

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They might help absorb some of the shift. Sure and hotels would fall in that bucket as well. Hotels,.

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Will fall in that bucket right now, the hotels, um I'm not sure in portsmouth we're pretty strong.

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With our hotels but throughout the state, they've been still having issues yeah, there have been.

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Some places that have been severely impacted by covid and what that means for people traveling and.

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Staying in hotels and that occupancy portsmouth is not really one of those places. People still like.

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To come here, there's a lot to do outside, which makes people feel good about going and traveling.

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And doing things during covet so it hasn't been the same kind of impact, but there are still hotels.

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That are out there struggling with the occupancy and even keeping up after the shutdown in 2020.

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Thanks, I don't want to monopolize tom. I have two unrelated questions.

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The first is: we've had one broker regularly tell us that there is a lot of empty space out.

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At peas, but the space is still under leases are those taxed at the current lease value.

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The income generated by those leases, or are they already factored in the.

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Well, it's the basis, it's the vacancy that factors in so every year, especially during revaluation.

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We look at what the current leases are and they may be under a lease. That's three or five years.

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Old, but we have to look at the current lease rate and then what the vacancy rate is. So, if.

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They were renting at a much higher rate and they're obligated under contract to pay it.

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Even though it may have gone down a dollar a square foot, we look at that dollar square.

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Foot less not what they're originally paying. We have to look at what the market is doing right.

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Now not what the market was doing before coven, okay, just to follow up on that. So.

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If a tenant is still paying under its lease, but it's not occupying the space anymore.

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They're paid on on the lease value at that point: they're paid on the market value so um regardless.

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Of whether they're occupying the space or not, if that is being rented and under a rental agreement,.

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To a taxable entity they're paying either the airport district tax or the non-airport district.

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Tax, which is the full tax rate and under the income approach, it's whatever they're, paying.

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So I, what I'm getting at is that it's the income which approaches whatever the market.

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Is is bearing not what they're paying it's based on the market, so, if they've signed.

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New leases within the last two years we're going to look at new leases versus old leases.

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But but maybe I'm not being articulate enough on this, but I'm just going to understand if.

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If, if there is a lease in place, whether it's a three-year lease or.

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Was signed 10 years ago and that's generating 25 a square foot.

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But that space is empty because the company has shrunk or gone off site. uh That's still.

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Does that rent that they're paying define the market? No? Because it's a prior because.

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It's a prior market uh transaction, so we would have to look at the current market transaction.

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But if but if it's showing us there's no difference, then yes, we would still look at that.

J

And I think uh just to go along with that. The vacancy is what an investor would.

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Expect to absorb as a cost. So if someone were to purchase it at this point in time in this market.

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What would they expect to absorb as a vacancy cost, so it may have been lower at one point in time and.

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Now someone coming in to purchase that building may see a higher absorption of that vacancy rate.

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So that may impact it more than what you're seeing as a lot of vacant space, even though they are.

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Paying what is that investor expecting to absorb as their vacancy, which may not be as great as what.

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We're seeing for people not occupying the space, so in other words, you may be getting the twenty five.

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Dollars per thousand it was five percent vacancy you're, still getting the 25 dollars per thousand.

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But investors got to look at the vacancy, which is now 10 and that reduces the market value of the.

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Property, I was going to ask you so the market, the vacancy factor, is 10 now or is it higher.

D

It depends on the property depends on the property, we're seeing that we've been getting.

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Some information from brokers that class b offices at 10 percent.

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My own really, the question is: we've had many discussions over the last few years here about.

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Trying to deal with the comment that is often made by sometimes anti-development crowds.

D

That the sorry that the um that the cost that the new tax revenue that's generated by.

D

New development is not doesn't offset the added cost to the city, and I I think that.

D

Analysis largely comes from people say: well, our taxes keep going up every year. How come.

D

All this new development hasn't stopped that so I'm not asking you to respond to that, but mike.

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We've tried to figure out a way of gaining the data to figure out how much extra tax revenue.

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Has been generated sort of the before and after so if you had a site that was developed, downtown.

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In 2010, if we looked at what that site was valued in 2009 and how much it generated in income, then.

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In taxes then, and then we look at in 2021, we could suggest that this is the added tax revenue and.

D

This is how it's impacted the tax base. My question to you is: is that data easily extractable from.

D

Your records, or is that something that somebody has to go through and look at every tax card.

D

For each property to try to figure out what it was assessed at in 2009 or whatever the year.

D

Was before the building was put up well, there's another factor that has to be calculated in there.

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And is the market value impact, so it costs more to build than to buy. Obviously, so when.

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A developer comes in they're, calculating over a holding period, based on that cost. How much.

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They're going to recapture in the market, so it's cost, it's called discounted cash flow analysis. So.

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They know it's they're not going to make any money up front, but over a 10-year holding.

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Period, that's when they're going to make their money. So when somebody says portland.

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Has got all this development? How come our tax rate isn't going down? Well, they is going up.

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Well, it's not just that development, it's the market, value of those properties. That is also.

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Impacting their taxes, it's a very difficult thing to prove. um Have you ever done? It.

J

So what I would say is, I think, there's a kind of two-fold impact here. What you're talking about is.

J

The impact from a vacant, maybe a vacant site to an improved site and then what that impact would be.

J

Over time and if you could understand how much of a market increase every time a revaluation.

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Was done, that might be an easier thing to understand because you could get back to.

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2009 values and then get through that of how much added value that could be over a period of time.

J

Every time the market increases, like we've, seen as long as I've been around the city.

J

Every time we see that it impacts every property in a different kind of manner. So the way people.

J

Purchase commercial property is different than the way someone might purchase a condo downtown.

J

And so those things complicate what would seemingly be a simple calculation but to.

J

Your point, if you were looking for that data on a specific property, it would have to go tax card.

J

By tax card to understand what the initial value was pre-development to the post development value.

J

And then calculate the market increases over time over time.

D

uh Not the prolongedness to others. I know at a limited time, but.

D

So it would be easy if, if I'm guessing with a undeveloped piece of property, because you.

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Actually have a value for the land to sell separate for many improvements on it right and.

D

And so I could. I could trace that if I took a tax card from that property in 2010 and now in 2022.

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The land value is even though 2022 has a building value. Now on it, I could trace the the change in.

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The value or the assessed value of the land, and that would be my base for both 2010 and 2022.

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It would be the added value of the building on it, so uh you could trace that.

J

Land value from land value to land value and what that impact on the you know the land.

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Itself is worth, but the building costs change as well over time, so the land value changes in the.

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Building values change so and those may change at different rates, depending on what's happening in.

J

The market is land harder to come by. Does that make it a scarcity? Would people pay more for it.

J

Now versus then, and as we know, building costs have gone up now, but they haven't gone up at.

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The same rate over that period of time and every year during the budget, I give an estimated growth.

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Number to the finance director granted is just an estimate, but it would give you a good idea.

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Of how much growth the city has and how that impacts, the budget and the tax rate and then.

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You can look at those during revaluation years because I give that number before revaluation and.

I

See what that potential growth number was and then how much value was added during the evaluation.

I

So if you're trying to figure out based on just the budget that impact you might be able to do it.

I

That way, also and that's something the finance director can probably put together based on.

I

What I give her for growth estimates? What would that report that you give differentiate between.

D

New construction and all and pre-existing growth basically is new construction. Okay,.

D

Well, that might be working thanks tom sarah kind of in that same line. I think if we.

G

Bring it up at a high level, we, I don't think the city has historically done a a good job of talking.

G

About um commercial contributions to the overall uh tax rate versus residential, so are there some.

G

High-Level metrics, where we can look at number of units changed over time. A percentage of revenue.

G

Contributions changed over time so that we can better educate folks to understand that. Yes, there.

G

Is more development, but it is also offsetting residential costs, even though those residential.

G

Burdens may still continue to increase, and what do you mean by units? Because we don't track.

I

Tax per unit, whatever metric you're able to develop so is it.

G

New development number of properties, total revenue, high level, easy to understand, metrics for folks.

I

I think that would be something that you would want from your planning department.

I

They would be able to gather information from us, but I give them a lot of information.

G

I'm not saying that it's that's you that needs to provide it. I'm saying the city in general needs.

G

To do a better job of providing this information- okay, everett yeah. I think sarah to your point when.

K

We did we did some exhaustive studies around the parking garage and the demand for parking and also.

K

um What the additional supply did for commercial development and and one of the and there was there.

K

Were a number of slides and charts done, and one of them was what was what was the city's impact.

K

Commercial impact on the tax base and what it showed was that portsmouth had the lowest.

K

Burden on residential taxpayers of any city in the state, so there were like 13 cities quote cities in.

K

New hampshire and portsmouth was, by far the least now included in that you know, john vancouver would.

K

Have said well that includes the schiller plant before it get revalued, but in any event- and I.

K

Think to your point, sarah right: I don't think that story gets told well enough. You know right because.

K

Tom's question: you know why uh you know taxes keep going up. We do all this development. Why are what.

K

We know why aren't our taxes impacted, you know, I don't think it's a revenue issue. It's really.

K

Kind of probably as much on the expense side right, there's a lot of a lot of issue there, but.

K

Portsmouth had the least as a city had the least impact on residential uh taxpayers, the lowest cost.

K

Per day we still have that hanging around. I don't know that was you know, 2017. I'd love to know.

L

That's still the case yeah, I don't know it was very it was. It was pretty compelling yeah. I think.

I

Everyone, this is what I tell everyone is like. We have 1300 commercial properties, making up 42.

I

Of the property values in the city of portsmouth, that means your just that statistic alone.

I

Tells you that the commercial properties are offsetting the residential taxes.

I

Right now, that's exactly what I think we need to get this yeah. I would just kind of thank.

A

You for perfectly uh laying out what I wanted to mention this morning was. I know, we've talked for.

A

The last couple of years about sort of trying to capture some of this data and putting it in a form.

A

That's meaningful for us and that would then be meaningful for residents and counselors.

A

I know one of my plans after hearing about the revaluation coming up was to sort of reconstitute.

A

The data subcommittee and I know jacob- has an interest in joining that and I think, as part of.

A

That we would try to put together data requests that we've tried to outline and all the things.

A

We've talked about and work with planning and with the assessment department to try to.

A

Call out some of that that I know are concepts we've been trying to address, but that exactly.

A

Hit on what you've all just mentioned and try to capture right, I think before we let nancy run away.

K

She had she created that deck and I represented the city council great and I think you might have.

K

Spoken to that city council right she's, already wrongly yeah she's coming back this morning,.

A

She knows where everything's going right, but that deck is there someplace.

A

I had a couple questions: that's that's great jacob, um just kind of switching gears a little bit um so.

L

Just from a historical context, when you typically see something like this and kind of focusing on.

L

Like the residential and specifically the rental market, do you see any kind of statistical changes.

L

Within the rental market year over year, given these kind of changes or just stayed pretty.

L

Steady well, I've been here 20 years, so I've definitely seen a change in the rental market.

I

It's it's not affordable to the average person anymore and you can't afford a house. So it's not.

I

Just in portsmouth, you hear it throughout the nation at this point or act more so.

I

In the northeast than anywhere else, um you could just see by the amount of requests for.

I

um Rental property to be built in the city of portsmouth, that the demand is there when I was.

I

Talking to a contractor that was building out on daniel street and at that time it was condos.

I

Everyone condo counticano and he stopped, and he said I make more money off of renting properties.

I

Than I do off of selling them, so that is still true today and if you just look at the average.

I

Two-Bedroom downtown portsmouth is between three thousand and thirty-five hundred dollars.

I

And some of them are almost five thousand dollars, so they're not going to build condos more.

I

Than they're going to build rental, property or they're going to build a rental property.

I

And if the market changes they will convert them to condos, it's very easy to do.

L

And then maybe from a commercial side and maybe a question maybe for ben is, do you see kind of your.

L

Companies that are renting downtown do you see them complaining about kind of higher rental costs.

L

Or something like that, is it more challenging for someone to come into town and start a business due to the rent um of the individual spaces? um I you know I I I've. It's always been the case.

B

As long as I've been here, which is six years now, so I don't quite have the depth of knowledge, but.

B

Downtown is an expensive place to do business from a storefront perspective to an office.

B

Perspective and there's an expensive place just like it is on the residential side.

B

So um yes, you've heard that if, if you, if you do not have a high performing shop, particularly from.

B

A retail standpoint downtown, you will not make it. um You cannot limp along with, like.

B

Average sales in this city and being still having some seasonality to our business less now than we.

B

Have previously but some seasonality, you know you, you have to be able to perform those summer months.

B

So everything matters staffing matters your hours matter. You know all these things play.

B

A big role into that so sure we hear those comments, um but I think it's a well-known.

B

Fact now I don't think anyone gets surprised by that anymore. It's it's well known and they.

B

Know that going into it, so it's it's the cost of doing business and you're also seeing a change in.

I

The downtown also, whereas before you never really heard of office coming downtown last three years,.

I

Big demand for office space in downtown, and especially now because of the large office.

I

Space not being as attractive versus being downtown, where you have parking garages and.

I

The ambiance of the city they're, trying to attract people to work for them and that's an attraction.

A

Thank you. Thank you. I would just add to your comment about uh the housing downtown. I mean 10.

A

15 years ago, there really wasn't the inventory and kind of apartment complexes or large buildings. I.

A

Think it was mostly predominantly kind of existing rentals within older homes that were multi-family.

A

But not nearly that scale, and I think that has just accelerated and I think just hearing the the.

A

Pricing kind of underscores all the other things we were talking about with affordable housing and.

H

um I think it's also important, and I can't remember the statistic off the top of my head.

H

I think it's around 51 percent of our residents are renters. Is that correct? I have, I don't know.

I

I don't know absolutely yeah, so I think that's also. I know from a council standpoint when we.

H

Talk about there's always the great debate of you know: renters, don't pay their tax burden and.

H

That's x, y and z. um I always like to bring up the number that which is it's a foolish notion.

H

But they do pay their taxes yeah, because the landlord is going to make good recapture. That.

I

Cost and a lot of emails that state that, um but I think it's also it's an important metric.

H

To to put out there to to the population, you know when you're looking at western yards and in the.

H

The hate that you say back in the day, port rock place god and all of these things that.

H

It's 51 percent of our residents live in those types of those types of units.

I

I don't see that going away any time too soon, either.

A

um I guess anyone else have questions for our guests. I just one more question.

A

When will the revaluation be complete, will it be for the upcoming I'm planning on having a.

I

Work session with the city council to go over what, where the changes are, I like to do that so.

I

They will be able to see the impact in certain areas, because not everyone's going to go up.

I

The same the impact on commercial properties versus residential properties, where that shift.

I

Would be so that will happen sometime around august. I believe the timeline is to have it.

I

Complete and hearings done end of august beginning of september and then the tax rate set, hopefully.

I

In october, great, thank you. Do we have time for one more question, are we running behind or.

F

I think we can make one more quick one, a little bit of a piggyback on tom tom's question and.

F

It's just a little more academic, so we see developers stand up in front of the planning board.

F

For their site plan review, I'm talking about taxes and that offset that tom was mentioning.

F

This kind of an academic question, but how was that? First asses assessed value, determined.

F

On new construction, like something big like a hotel, so it's in stages. If it's vacant land, we.

I

We look at the development approvals for the site and we'll value that and then it's based on.

I

Every april 1st, the level of completion of that structure and that's how it's valued so that's.

I

What happens is everyone says, sees all these permits coming in the big huge amount of money.

I

And everyone has to remember that it's over time that they're taxed until they're fully complete.

I

So you're not going to get that big windfall when they first come in it's slowly over.

I

Time and usually what two years it's taking for a big complex to become fully complete.

I

So you're not going to recap, you'll see that a little bit every time affecting the tax rate.

A

Great good question: thanks andy.

A

All right well, thank you both for joining us. We appreciate your time.

A

Okay, so we've got a few items here on our new other business ben. You are uh beat off. Do you.

A

Have any yeah sure um I'm actually going to share a presentation and do my best to do justice to.

B

A presentation that darcy knowles shared at our tourism summit, which was uh a week ago, can I ask.

E

Some of the the computer folks in the room. How do I show the full screen and get that nonsense.

B

So at that summit um you know darcy shared she's, doing our creative work for the arts.

B

And culture marketing campaign and she shared some high-level um overview of that campaign.

B

And uh sean and and folks asked me to share that with you today, so the essence of the campaign is.

B

That the arts community and the culture community is at the very um heartbeat of our community here.

B

In portsmouth it is, it is in our soul, it makes us tick it it lives in us and in the mantra that.

B

We've been going with is feel the beat. So if you want to go to the next slide, perhaps.

B

You can yeah, I kind of covered that as I was stalling, so the mission is to promote.

B

And highlight the arts and culture venues and and community here in a post pandemic world.

B

To encourage people to attend in-person events and to come back out into our community.

B

So the the process that we went through was uh several discovery and feedback sessions. This is.

B

With a subcommittee of the arts and culture committee, along with the full arts, arts and.

B

Culture committee work with the staff of the chamber collaborative with the blue ribbon.

B

Committee and in the marketing team and a lot of discovery and question and answer periods with.

B

The arts and culture community you can keep going uh so the result is a brand specific.

B

Campaign that will be is, has been launched and is out um in a as a short-term pilot project.

B

It started a couple weeks ago and you'll see advertisements in local paper on sunday, you'll see.

B

Some of it, you will see because it's targeted for the portsmouth market, some.

B

Of it is geo-targeted outside our community, so you will not see that.

B

It's always tough to like share the marketing that you do, that you're not supposed to let people see.

B

Locally, it's it's tricky and it's a fully integrated marketing campaign.

B

I mean keep going so overall. This is the the brand we came with uh that. The the heart of portsmouth.

B

And and art being highlighted in that word heart, I'm showing that it really is the heart um we came.

B

Up with this brick um heart uh concept, a little nod towards our historical brick markets and in.

B

Brick, brick community downtown, but we really tried to capture all the various aspects of our arts and.

B

Culture venues in this logo, which was not an easy task because it's a it's a very diverse community.

B

There's a lot of different aspects to it, but at the center of that is uh the heart and and that's.

B

Why that that heart icon sits at the bottom of that that will be um throughout our campaign.

B

Keep going in the the true essence of it is we want people to go out. We want people to go out.

B

And see shows we want people to go out and go to museums. We want people to go out and have culture.

B

And enrich their lives through that, so this is the the campaign model that we have uh come up with. Go.

B

Out in portsmouth- and I think it's very cute- it's very catchy and you'll see how that plays out here.

B

In the next couple slides um it will so we have a dedicated landing page you'll see that in a second.

B

There'll be print digital. All these ads coming together, there's a tv commercial. We can share.

B

It it's really come together quite nicely. This is the landing page that you'll see. So, if you go to.

B

The website there go portsmouthnh.com heart or heart of portsmouth.com or.

B

We bought like 20 urls, so if you type heart of portsmouth anything, it's probably going to pop up.

B

So but it brings people right to this landing page that that top photo is a slider. So you you see.

B

Several different arts and culture venues: uh we've we've put together a monthly giveaway for people.

B

To go out- and that's really I'll talk a little bit more about that. That's really a way to capture.

B

Email addresses for folks and to better market to them again in the future.

B

It's an example of a print ad we're not doing a lot of print just because print's, expensive and.

B

This is well funded, but you know we want to get the most for our dollars, so we are doing.

B

A few print ads, I believe, six print ads total. This is an example of what that would look like.

B

Digital ads along the same theme, these will be online and various forms different different.

B

Different outlets- this is, I think, you could click on that link and it'll play the commercial. This.

B

Is our uh 15 second uh commercial that was put together? This is going to be used on streaming.

B

Platforms, so if you go to your hulu or something like that, you will see um see this ad pop up.

B

Or or um a bunch of other places as well, I don't know if I can, because I haven't logged in, I think.

E

You can probably click just make this go away. Yeah there you go it's down there at the bottom.

F

Feel the bee portsmouth's heart and cultural scene is truly the heartbeat of our seaside community.

M

Follow the beat on exciting live entertainment and cultural events that will lift your experience and.

M

Enrich your life, we're ready for you! This spring, come out and experience the heart of portsmouth.

B

So a quick little spot to get people excited, get them to come to.

B

The website and learn more about it. Oh boy, I'm putting you through the paces this morning.

B

Now I just killed that you gotta go back to the the there. You go perfect. There we go. We got this.

B

Very good, uh so this is that giveaway. I talked about people come here. They just fill out a quick.

B

Little interest quick little demographic form, a couple clicks. They put their email address in.

B

We're giving away a night out in portsmouth every month through this process, but really the only.

B

Goal of this form, although it's nice to get some of this information, is to get their email address.

B

So that we can better market to them in the future, so so we just started this process. I actually have.

B

No idea how many have been submitted- I was just I should look that up, but hopefully that's.

B

Getting some good attention for us keep going so here's where you'll see it um you'll see a.

B

Seacoast media group online and in print google display youtube facebook instagram. That's the.

B

Streaming service, I told you about so, if you're on hulu video on demand roku any of those platforms.

B

You'll see that 15 second spot coming across as long as you meet all our demographic and.

B

Geo fencing and all those fancy things I don't really understand. Yeah, it's really creepy, um so.

B

That's the last slide yeah. It was the last slide. So that's the the campaign that is underway.

B

um It launched uh probably about three weeks ago now and it's definitely a ramp.

B

Up it'll it'll slowly um be getting out more and more over the next couple weeks.

B

So we're excited about that. Hopefully it's going to bear some some great uh return for our arts and.

B

Culture, community and uh it's been really good in addition to that, we had a wonderful tourism summit.

B

Thank you to the city manager and mayor for speaking at that. That was a great event that.

B

Was a week and a half ago now I've had a wonderful business after hours last night, so everything is.

B

Kind of off and running for the chamber in the springtime it's very busy time of year for us.

B

I will just mention between now and our next meeting is restaurant week.

B

I think that was mentioned earlier today. If you uh like to dine out, it was a good time to get out and.

B

Enjoy some restaurants, so that is the 2016 to the 30th. I think, if my memory serves me correct so.

B

But get out and there you go. No, that's that's. That's hit the decks that the nexus is coming.

I

In may so we'll talk about that another day. Yeah! That's a good one! Council, lombard yeah! I would.

N

Just add um one of the things the council did vote on on the last meeting was to help prescott park.

N

The non-profits in prescott park by reducing their fees uh by one-third um so just.

N

A little bit of help to those arts and culture organizations- okay, thank you. Tom.

D

And will this site allow a viewer or user to hook into different venues in portsmouth yeah, the the.

B

There's two big buttons on the site and one says: explore venues or something along those lines.

B

That that brings up a list of uh all our arts and culture venues, both members and non-members of the.

B

Chamber are included there, and that was quite a task for our staff. Our system is not meant to.

B

Display non-numbers, so we had to do quite a bit of, like you know, reconfiguration of our site to allow.

B

Non-Members to be on it, it was never designed for that. So we worked through that so that took some.

B

Time, and so they are hopefully all up there if anyone sees anyone missing or anything like that,.

B

Just let us know it's, it's not intentional that we just you, know it's hard to get everyone on.

B

The list so great thanks, um no one, has anything else for ben we'll ship to city council update.

A

Either of our counselors have anything they want to do you can do it.

E

I like to just add in there: okay: well, let's grab the mic. Please.

N

um Council uh did a number of uh things in the past meeting.

N

One of them was to adopt various resolutions uh changing the uh the value of a person's assets.

N

To qualify for tax relief that- and there were three resolutions that included.

N

One was for disabled, one was for just elderly, one was for disabled and one was for the.

N

Disabled veterans, so those are all, I think, very good resolutions that.

N

um It's very it's helpful to the people. The other was we had a vote on the discussion from.

N

The parking and safety committee safety and parking is missing, whatever it is about using.

N

Some of the loading areas and turning them into parking spaces at off hours.

N

That's going to provide an additional, I think, 22 spaces, so they did a study to.

H

Look at eliminating some load and zones I.e. If you look at the one on bridge street that.

H

Really never gets used and say the one in front of cuppa joe at commercial alley. That's.

H

Not really used after 3 p.m, so after 3 p.m, it will turn into spots. Bridge street, I believe, is being.

H

Eliminated and then throughout the city- and some won't be touched at all- that are high functioning.

H

Ones so that should bring around 22 spots. Is that a permanent change or I I can speak to that yeah.

E

It's a permanent change until the other changes that pts brings to the council are memorialized.

E

In one effort called the omnibus, so yes, it will be it's a it's. A temporary permanent uh solution and.

E

I I I only want to correct you because it's a better correction. We get 39 parts. Oh yes,.

E

Out of this conversion, so we'll see how this works, and then the council will be asked in august to.

E

Memorialize all the changes, pts recognized if it's one of the flyers went out this week and.

F

The signs will be up either late this week or early next week, that's great and then I guess.

N

The another significant thing was that we accepted money from arpa for the wastewater infrastructure.

N

Thing of you know almost 2.1 million dollars and I think to touch on one of the things that.

H

Vince first said about the elderly credit. We all. We all hear you know that we want elderly.

H

Our elderly long-term residents, we have to stay in their home, and so I believe- and I wish I was here.

H

The asset limit was what 137 it was. It was, it was pretty low and if you're drawing off that monthly.

H

And that's your only source of income, besides say social security, um so we raised it up to. I believe.

H

Half a million for asset level and then income level, I believe, was raised not too too extreme.

H

A few a few thousand dollars um and we'll have right now, it's hard for us to know and with the.

H

Other two resolutions: how that will affect the tax burden for everyone else, um obviously, by the time.

H

Assessments are done, and you know after a year, so we'll know kind of what that that means for.

H

The rest of the group, but I believe when you look at the veteran tax there was, I think it's very it.

O

Was like it was like point zero three cents per for the mill of of where it affected us. So it was.

H

Very very low on all three of those resolutions, but the council really felt it was important to a.

H

As we look at elderly long-term residents and then our veterans and our disabled veterans- and so we.

H

Were kind of just for the veteran taxes fill in in the gaps of the people that weren't affected great.

N

Good, that's it! Thank you. Thank you very much. Unless you have.

A

uh We've more the outdoor dining request, approval update. I know that's been.

A

Solved shawn: do you wanna just real quick as of two o'clock yesterday, ten restaurants have been.

F

Approved for outdoor dining there's another uh 19 outstanding, so a total of 29 have applied to date.

H

Do we know what the numbers were, the last two 49-ish in 2020 and 51 or 52, and I think one never.

E

Fully laid out the outdoor dining tuscan in 2021, so there's they're they're coming in more and.

E

We're going to do, we want to talk about what you and I talked about last night.

H

Yeah um I I asked this: um the city manager we had, I think, had an initial drop date of april.

H

4Th um but apparently the jersey barriers for the jersey barriers. But upon talking to some.

H

Of the restaurant owners, um I think we're going to send out a whole view, a viewpoint to see if people.

H

Want that delayed a little bit, um I think it will show good faith to to our retailers, to our other.

H

You know some of the more acrimonious people in the community. um You know that they're not going.

H

To just be dropped and sit empty, I think we've had a little bit colder of a spring than the previous.

H

Two years, I think, with indoor dining still open, um although we we all know that there are people.

H

In our community that are still not comfortable going inside, um so we'll send out that and kind.

H

Of potentially push it back, would we say two weeks we can message this and view permit to the.

E

To the food service folks and get a sense of what might work, it would be good from a coordination.

E

And logistics standpoint to have dpw do this once or in one effort, so uh we'll get a sense of where.

E

People are at um when we ask them in view. Permit now we'll work with staff to make that happen.

A

Great, then did you have something well, that was my question. I have talked to a couple. Restaurant.

B

Tours that know they don't plan to start outdoor dining until may and they plan to finish it at the.

B

End of september- and they just have written off the colder months on the outside. So I didn't know.

B

What ability was to to delay those deployment of those barriers so that we're not just taking.

B

Up space to take up space, but it sounds like it's not really best practices, perhaps but.

E

And ann weidman would want us to know that planters.

E

Can go out the third week in may to be planted, so they'll be placed and planted at that time again.

E

By the eco club and the fabulous volunteers, great, thank you, okay, so the next we have.

A

Is the proposed june 3rd meeting just putting it on everyone's radar? I believe we're going.

A

To have that, as our annual meeting out at pease get an update from the.

A

Chairman and I think, there's some some topics pertinent to edc that are are going to affect the.

A

Community that are being considered out there, so I think, that's a timely meeting, so I hope everyone.

A

Can join us for that. I think we can probably run a little more quickly through the next couple. I.

A

Would just ask everyone be thinking about future potential presentations? I know we talked about.

A

One this morning, as we kind of lay out the roadmap for the second half of the year, curious to hear if.

A

There's other groups, besides the one we typically have in for periodic updates. If, if there's any.

A

That come top of mind, just I would say, send an email out to either sean or myself and we'll start.

A

To circulate through those and try to get that laid out soon and then we've got other business.

A

If anyone has other questions, a quick thing that we, the meeting or the tour of the makerspace, was.

N

An excellent thing and um we uh we learned a lot and that's a that's a that is a little.

N

Incubator space for business and um it's very it's a very worthwhile thing and also then the.

N

Other thing is that paul breen is going to address the city council on the 18th of april 18th meeting.

N

So everyone's welcome to come. There'll be no public comment to him. It'll come after.

N

Public comment, but um there's obviously uh questions from the council right. Thank you.

A

So I we have public comment here. I know we're expecting guest of honor.

A

Shortly she's here, I've asked her to come in and these folks.

E

I don't know if they'd like to provide public comment there because of nancy.

F

Great well, let's uh we also have one joining us on zoom I'll bring her up as well.

A

Thank you all for joining us.

O

She's living her best life.

F

Thank you. Stop.

A

So I'll just say that I have a book here that sorry I have a book here uh that we're giving.

A

To nancy, as a gift, I would invite everyone to come have a chance to sign it. They'll have some.

A

Pens before she leaves- and I would just invite anyone as we go around the room before we close.

A

The meeting, if they want to share a few words about maybe their time with nancy and how all.

A

The work and service that she's given to the city has affected them over her tenure. Here. I think the.

A

City has seen a tremendous amount of change and she's been instrumental in so much of that and.

A

I think does things big and small and and does all of it effortlessly and selflessly. So I think.

A

Much of the city success that that we all enjoy today is a testament to all the work that she's.

A

Done with so many of us throughout the entire community, so I know I'm very appreciative and.

A

Know others have many stories and and anecdotes or comments like I shared with staff that.

P

um I was thinking about the 400th anniversary next year and then I.

P

Looked at how many years I've been here- and I was horrified that it's nine percent.

P

No millennial would believe that.

A

So I'm going to bring the book over next to nancy, so.

C

I'm a weeper, so all I'm going to say is I'm going to miss you more see. I knew I was going.

C

To do that more than you'll know, I appreciate your friendship, your collaboration, um our occasional.

C

Fetching to one another over silly things that are going on and wish you nothing, but the best.

C

For the future, I think we'll still see each other. Thank you so much. Mr chair, can I call.

E

Up nancy pearson who's joined us on the zoom, so she can join love it. If you did hi nancy hi nancy.

M

Hi everyone, hello good morning, friends good morning. I just wanted to say that.

M

uh Nancy and I have known each other over a decade now and if it wasn't for nancy, I don't actually.

M

Think I would have gotten involved in in our local government politics beyond art speak, but she was.

M

Such a champion for not only the work of um of art speech, but just a just good decision making she's.

M

So darn practical she's so easy to work with and she just made the whole process uh welcoming and.

M

Enjoyable and I, and when I decided to actually get more involved in city government, I I sat down with.

M

Nancy, to get a real understanding of how things would work and she's just invaluable she's a.

M

Wonderful kind person she's one of the worker bees, I'm a worker bee. I appreciate that in her.

M

And what a gigantic hole she's going to leave, I don't envy the person stepping into her.

M

I shoes I just adore you on every level and I'm so happy for you to take this well-deserved break.

P

Thank you nancy. It was great great times working on the on the cultural community. Here it's great.

P

To have chris here as well, I think she was really instrumental in inspiring me to really.

P

Understand that part of this unique city so- and I just want to tell you that sean my successor.

P

He's up to the challenge, I think he's he's he's he's wonderful. He said the other day. He said after.

P

One of the farewells, the endless fairmont wells he said he said, I'm gonna need prosthetics for the.

P

Shoes to philly kept saying so you know he's he's going to do really well here and it's been really.

P

Great for me to have an opportunity to you know: do some crossover work with him the last few years so.

P

So when are you coming back, you look very relaxed in the background is killing me. It's raining here.

M

Here we go I'm coming back on wednesday. I'm coming back on wednesday cannot wait to come home great.

E

I'll go quickly, mr chair, because I've had a couple chances at this apple, um but we had a staff. Thank.

E

You and farewell for nancy on monday and the city attorney had a lot to say, but one of the best.

E

Things that he said was how wonderful the universe is that brought all of us to to be in with, and.

E

Among and learn from nancy, so that was hard to say um and uh that I've got a quote for nancy, because.

E

I like quotes now um don't cry because it's over smile because it's happened. So thank you. Thank you.

K

Well, I can't believe nancy, it's been over 20 years and we started on the padlet board together and.

K

Then uh you know, I think, 22 years for me on the edc and your support and guidance and.

K

You know really when people think about nancy, at least in my view,.

K

You know it's her, it's her ability to collaborate and be inclusive everyone, and if, if you spend.

K

Time with nancy she makes everyone else feel important right. So it's her humility.

K

uh I'll just miss so much and you're, just you know incredibly valuable to all of us. Thank you.

K

Thanks everett, um I want to thank you nancy for helping to onboard me and everybody.

G

So you always took the time to to get to know everybody and and all roads, uh two portsmouth.

G

Seemed to lead through you, it was amazing how many conversations now you're going to make me cry.

G

How how often you'd come up in conversation- and the last thing I'll add is- I was looking.

G

For retirement cards and they're, all about relaxing and enjoying yourself and.

G

I can't imagine you just sitting back and doing nothing, so um I'm happy for you for.

G

Your next adventure, because I know there will be adventure. Thank you thanks. Sarah.

D

I think I've been involved in.

D

Boards, over 25 or 30 years, and as well as appearing in front of a.

D

Number of boards and commissions over the years- and I have to say that I have found.

D

The staff of the city to be the most enjoyable informed, caring people that.

D

That have experienced anywhere, and I put you right up at the top of that list. um My biggest regret is.

D

That it's only been the last three years that I've had an opportunity to work with you. I knew.

D

You before that, but not in any any real sense, and uh it has been a pleasure being on this commission.

D

While you were, while you were here- and uh um I I kind of got a sense that this was coming in the.

D

Past year, because, as many know, I retired at the end of july- and I sort of announced it earlier in.

D

The year and virtually every month, she'd say so. Are you getting ready for that retirement.

D

And, what's it like to be retired, and so until you finally reveal that I started having this feeling.

D

That you were going to tell us that, so I wish you all the best in whatever you decide to do next.

P

Thanks tom, like tom, I would echo the sentiment that I'm envious of everyone. Who's got to spend.

H

All this time with you, I haven't only really known you in this capacity of the last few years, but.

H

It's a very full circle moment for me, having grown up with with wrestling with the boys high school.

P

With my my sons, yeah, and so um I just know how much of a loving caring person you are outside.

H

Of this community, but also amplified within this community, and for me it's a very um bittersweet.

H

Moment um coming into the council and all of that it was so exciting to work with so many.

H

Staff members that have decided to retire so well, I'm so grateful, don't take it personally.

H

You guys were worn out, I get it, but I'm so excited for this next adventure for you and thank you.

H

And um you know, as a as a younger woman, to see the leadership that our city is built around women is.

H

A really powerful example: I'm really happy to see you be here in the city, because I I know.

P

You know, I know a little bit of your history and and all the remarkable things you did to so to.

P

See you in the position you are here is yeah. I just I continue to wish you you the best. It's.

P

I I think it's it's going to be wonderful, so I'm you know calling me whatever. I will.

F

I'll jump in like nancy pearson mentioned them. I'm very confident I wouldn't be here.

F

Without uh nancy carmer here- and uh it's been great to hear really good.

F

Advice and inside city hall and outside city hall advice as a commercial broker.

F

So our overlap, I think it's it's probably been five or six years on that and I'm really really.

F

Grateful that that's been able to happen, and also think you know, thanks for the onboarding keeping.

F

Me in touch with, what's going on with this group and um wasn't neces, wasn't here every month.

F

So so much great gratefulness to be with to have been working with you thanks.

B

I think this is the third opportunity.

B

We need fresh content, um but uh the uh you know I was sitting here listening to everyone's remarks.

B

And and all the emotion um I just was struck by uh just how genuine of a person you are.

B

And how you care about this community deeply and you you just bring a very pragmatic and.

B

And thoughtful and caring approach to it and uh without without the ego or anything like that,.

B

You just want what's best for this community and it's been a pleasure to be part of that.

H

Expand well I'm another person who um actually looked forward to working with you having been.

N

On the htc for a number of years, I I met with the city manager and you know, knew you across the hall.

N

And I also have just heard wonderful things from my wife ellen feinberg about you um forever.

N

And so I was ecstatic to be on the edc, because I would be able to work with you.

N

But- uh and I guess I'm sorry that you're leaving, um but I also think it's wonderful your.

N

Contributions to the city have been amazing. I know that if not directly, indirectly and we'll miss you.

P

I'll miss you guys, so I've probably worked with you or known you for the least amount.

L

Of time among anyone here so- but I know that five years ago, when I first reached.

L

Out about getting involved with the edc, I was 21 22 years old or knew nothing.

L

You know we chatted, you were so welcoming so easy to talk to and some people I just said hey you.

L

Know brushed off a 22 year old, no experience, but truly the first experience of city government was.

L

Talking to you, and so now, five years later here, I am done all these different things. So I really.

L

Appreciate all that you've done and uh you know helped many people like me and everyone around.

L

Apparently, to you know in city government great thanks, hi nancy. It's been great.

F

Working with you for the last three or four years outside of city hall and as advertised.

F

This is the end of my third week. This is an amazing opportunity for me, I don't say this.

F

Often, but I'm I'm honored to follow you into this role. Thank you I'll. Just add that I I couldn't.

A

Agree more with just about everything everyone said and a couple things in particular resonated. I.

A

Like jacob too, at one point was a pretty ambitious young guy, who probably had no business being.

A

On the edc and true nancy fashion, um you know she she was welcoming and very supportive and.

A

Throughout always, just wants the best for everyone who she interacts with whether it's.

A

Businesses, whether it's people, I think she just supports everyone and encourages them in such a.

A

Genuine way, I know I've experienced that, and I think everyone else in this room probably has too.

A

So there's I could go on and on. I think all of us could, but thank you so much for all you've.

A

Done for me and for the city, I have some words from dana levinson. He couldn't be here that I.

A

Thought I might share with everyone we kind of asked dana for some of a bit of a highlight reel.

A

And some of the major events that that you've sort of overseen during your tenure and.

A

He's shared some of those in some kind words, so I'll just run through um run through what.

A

He shared first and foremost, nancy has always been even keeled, objective, proactive and a great.

A

Listener she's been a consensus builder and a positive ambassador for the city.

A

She set a high bar for ethical and professional leadership of the edc. She was responsible for.

A

Developing and nurturing important relationships in the greater seacoast, particularly noteworthy, is.

A

The close working relationship with the chamber, peace, development authority, great bay, unh and.

A

The small business development center she was a key player in the save the shipyard effort.

A

She worked tirelessly on parking issues. I think all of us so glad to be shedding that.

A

And she was also instrumental in the sheridan garage effort.

A

Another uh another effort was the way finding our shared bicycle program. Years of planning to.

A

Upgrade the corridors into the city market street extension, islington street and route 1 many of.

A

Those which we all enjoy now you're helped develop and promote the three-legged stool.

A

Approach to economic development, between our commercial, cultural and historic and retail.

A

Legs instituted an annual project and priority outline for the edc, with annual reviews, as the.

A

Performance so I know there's many other big and small projects, but I just wanted to.

A

Share that dana's kind words which I think again resonate with all of us. I just want to invite our.

A

Members of the public, if anyone wanted to come share, you're welcome to do so come on up.

E

I'll give up my chair gladly, and I would also add that valerie roshan wanted to.

E

Be here either in person on video she couldn't, but valerie sends her love and her best wishes.

Q

Well, I was uh before that laundry list. I had something slightly different to say, but I think.

Q

I'll say it anyway: uh some of us got were together earlier in the week with nancy to.

Q

Help the blue, rib, the arts and culture committee understand what we originally.

Q

Did for the culture plan, which was now almost 24 years ago, when we started that which was when.

Q

I first started working with nancy long before I was a counselor and the reflection on.

Q

The cultural plan several members of the committee asked you know: how did the how.

Q

Was the plan done where we have accomplished so many things over time, because.

Q

You know that was a time. People have a hard time remembering what it was like, but you know.

Q

We didn't have 3s, we didn't have the loft, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't, we didn't have pmac.

Q

We had really very little and we were coming out of a fairly negative time for culture, so.

Q

People asked um you know what was it that has had it endured for 25 years, which was.

Q

Never the intent, you know it's the kind of thing you should do. Every five years.

Q

And in thinking about it we said well, it was such a relentlessly positive experience. You know coming.

Q

Back to think everything about it was positive and several people have weighed in since then.

Q

Saying uh yes, and you know my hope that I said was that I would hope that this cultural plan, which.

Q

Is about to launch would help be a reset for the city, because we're coming out of just relentless.

Q

Negativity of all types- and we forget that we've been there before and we've come out of it and.

Q

We've gone into positive uh times with positive people and nancy kind of was emblematic of that. So.

Q

What I was going to say is somehow nancy has been with the city all these years and has only ever.

Q

Been part of positive projects, but I don't think that's really true when, when I heard dana's list I.

Q

Think nancy has just brought a positivity to each project that has enabled people not to get weighed.

Q

Down in the in the negativity which you know, I and probably many of you simply cannot understand.

Q

In a city that we're so lucky to live in and be in, um and so I think this cultural plan reset would.

Q

Be something I know you'll want to be involved with, so I can't see you fully retiring. It's.

P

It's true, thank you. Chris, go this way sure good morning nancy good morning cliff, uh so when, when.

R

I was uh looking to get a little more involved in city government. I heard from a lot about uh about.

R

You caliber of person in the government from my friend tom ferrini and and I was getting elected. I.

R

Was thinking about boards and commissions and jack playlock asked me to serve on the edc and I said.

R

Oh, that's great. I can work with nancy carmer, but then I I went and looked at when the meetings are.

R

And I'm I'm kind of a nocturnal guy, I'm a nighttime guy. I just stand it's harsh and I said.

B

Oh really, every friday I mean the first friday of the month, and so I was always pulling in here.

R

Screaming in on two wheels right about when the meeting started, but it was always worth it because.

R

We got to do really good work and I appreciated everything that you did and the next term up.

R

I insisted uh as much as I could with the next mayor uh that I continue to serve in the edc and.

R

That was one thing he was able to agree with me on, so that was that was helpful and I appreciated.

R

That- and I did I talked I would I always talked to people about what I enjoyed working in the.

R

Portsmouth government was the high caliber of competent, intelligent, passionate, dedicated people.

R

And I don't think anyone represents that better than you. So good luck, thanks cliff! I'm I'm glad.

P

You had two terms on the on the edc. That was great, and uh just you know one of the great things that.

P

I got to do one of the tasks sean will get to do. This, too, is keep attendance of the the edc members.

P

And you got a star because you met you made every meeting, even though you came in on three wheels.

S

Well, well, um scared! I I should tell you, as a citizen of portsmouth,.

S

We live in a city and I live in a city that has been made wonderful by nancy carmer and I am part.

S

Of the brigade of people who were brought into city government in public service by nancy, carmer.

S

And I wouldn't have known so many things after six years on the economic development commission.

S

If I did not work with nancy carmer, besides all of the characteristics you've mentioned I'll just.

S

Reiterate how very smart she is how well she understood the economic data, how good she was.

S

At understanding how politics and economics work together, superb high level government.

S

Official could work in any government on the planet and be a fine fine addition.

S

So I refer to her at times. She may not know this as the great nancy carmer.

S

Because if we didn't have people like nancy and our government, we would not be who we are, and you.

S

Know a lot of us in an economic environment. Think of our private sector involvement.

S

And I work in the private sector and spend some time in government.

S

People who work in government have a much broader mission than many people who work in.

S

Business as broad as some businesses missions may be, and we can think of the mega examples.

S

The mission of government is really broad and I learned.

S

From nancy carmer that on an economic development commission, you can understand.

S

How a population feels about what goes on in its city? One last thing I did enjoy and after I got.

S

Off the economic development commission because of the chinese screen of john bohenko, I was no.

S

Longer interacting as much with nancy, but I did anyway and um one of my favorite things.

S

While I was on the commission would be to just look at her deadpan and say you know, we really.

S

Need to talk more about parking, you very much for your many years of hard work. Thank you, tom.

O

I you know so much has already been said and I we don't need to rehash it. You've.

O

Probably heard it four different meetings so far in the last day, and uh I just want to add.

O

In addition to my time on, council and edc and and experiencing nancy in that way,.

O

Nancy was also a peer of mine, like my job was somewhat similar in a partnership through my.

O

Various roles, so I really got to experience nancy from a different perspective and see her at work.

O

Serving our residents and our entrepreneurs and our business owners here in portsmouth.

O

And advocating for portsmouth in new hampshire and doing all those good works and she's always done.

O

An amazing job- and it was my great pleasure to be a partner with you when I could- and I really hope.

O

To be catching a coffee or lunch or beer sometime soon to catch up, all of the above. Thank you. Josh.

P

Oh, my gosh hi head hi, hi nancy, um so nancy, um so I started on the edc.

L

um Until I moved out of town sorry, I loved being on the commission, we drove you out 7 30 meetings.

P

And just you know, everyone stole my thunder, but uh I just thought.

L

You know you're so positive, professional, smart you're such a great ambassador to our city.

L

I just can't you know, thank you enough for what you've done and just pleasure working on.

L

All those parking issues with you as well way back when so thanks the best wishes and uh thank you.

P

Have a great retirement, it's great! It's great! Having you on the edc, come back to the city.

P

And keep serving yes could happen. Well, nancy! I'm happy! You solved all the parking issues.

T

Any longer I, unlike uh most everyone else here, has only been able to work with you for.

T

A short time um and.

T

And those that have heard me speak about the city, I've, I've, I've fallen in love with.

T

The the phrase of the city of the open door- and um it means a lot uh to me.

T

But it comes into greater clarity when I, when I think about what you've done for the.

T

City and that's keep the door open for many many decades. There was ample opportunity in parts of.

T

Our history, whether it was he's shutting down whether was the fight to keep the shipyard, and I.

T

Thank you very much for the t-shirt that says mission accomplished, save our shipyard.

T

Whether it was recently with covid or the tech bubble bursting on the e coast,.

T

um There were so many times that that we've had to reinvent ourselves, and I think when.

T

We were chatting recently, you said you're nearly at 10, we'll round up to 10 of the entire history.

T

Serving portsmouth and for a 400 year city, that's an impressive track record that takes more than.

T

um A mild interest that takes a passion and we've been the beneficiary of your of your passion to.

T

To continually to reinvent uh and help portsmouth realize what it is tomorrow, which is a culmination.

T

Of what it was yesterday, but but not not just that, so there was a poem that um I I found.

T

uh On the back of a uh a letter or a a pamphlet that the chamber produced a hundred years ago,.

T

Next year- and I would like to read that to you now, because I think it embodies uh much of what.

T

You have been tasked with doing for for so long. So if you don't indulge the mayor reading a poem.

P

I would love that so time, wags on relentless still on heeding the wailing the plaintiff.

T

Pleading of the old days, yet we must admit that if the town grows old, it likewise too grows new.

T

That was benjamin collinswood portsmouth, so I appreciate all the work that you've done to help.

T

Realize that we are an old town by forcing us sometimes, but always helping us.

T

To grow new, so for that, I thank you for your service to the city of portsmouth. Thank you.

P

Mayor wow, do you want me to say something I I wasn't. First of all, I wasn't prepared to.

P

To be surrounded by all of you, remarkable people, and it's really you people that have you know kept.

P

Me going here and kept me passionate about the city and, in fact run the very businesses that.

P

Make this place unique and I have the best job in the city. I don't have to work for um a board.

P

That that's regulatory, you know we're policy and it's it's! Those regulatory.

P

Boards, where I think, some of the really difficult challenges that maybe chris was talking about.

P

Or some of those elected boards that that you know that maybe sometimes show um you know the.

P

Darker side of where we are, but um it's always been a pleasure working with this group, because.

P

We get to think about as the mayor just kind of pointed out. We get to think about. You know.

P

What we are representing from the past, but how we want to make this place better for the future.

P

And that that means making us a world-class city progressive. I know you know tom's doing.

P

A lot of work on his subcommittee slash working group um on making us a really smart city and.

P

It's just this place continues to amaze me that um you know we we're able to kind of.

P

You know deflect the the downturns that we've seen keep keep a shipyard running. You know in in.

P

In this day and age, it's just it's just spectacular in my mind and um I I really do.

P

I I was saying to people before it's like this is a really hard job to leave.

P

And uh but I'm it's time for me to kind of do the next adventure, as sarah said, you know, and.

P

And put these younger people that are that are around us today, you know and I'm I have no idea.

P

Honestly, thank you for saying that all of you I, I really had no idea that I influenced people to.

P

Be part of government and for those that it was a bad experience. I apologize.

P

I remember when tom tom told me he's going to run for council.

P

Do you remember I do I was like you really? No you. You should really think long and hard.

P

You know how much time that takes do you know how much dedication, but you.

P

You were hopeless, that was the path you were on. You know before I met you so.

P

um Debatable but I'm I am proud to work with people that you know started somewhere in one.

P

Of the one of the commissions or boards, and um and entered and into government, and have really made.

P

It a great place to work, so um I I appreciate nancy being on this, and I appreciate dana's.

P

um And you know you people coming out on a friday morning april, 1st first.

P

Early in the morning, I really do appreciate that and we'll we'll just finally remember everything.

P

That we've we've all worked on together. It's been, it's been memory lane for me, cleaning out.

P

35 years of files, in the day of electronic files, I really felt like a dinosaur, but it was kind of fun.

P

Reminiscing about the laundry list that dana enumerated and uh this commission has done.

P

Remarkable work really remarkable work and I think, there's been some frustration, be.

P

Because we're more of a policy board and we're more of a visionary board and.

P

It it's it's harder to, you know, make a big splash or make make certain projects happen, but.

P

um If you look at it in a longer lens, as many of you have said, we've worked on some really good.

P

Things that have changed the face of the city, and so I wish everybody luck going forward and.

P

Don't be a stranger, I'm not I'm not going far. So. um Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody.

A

So we are fortunate to have some coffee and beverages. I think we'll adjourn the meeting here. If I have a motion by nancy.

A

Second, great meeting is adjourned. I hope you can all join us and hang out and chat.

A