Concord City Council Approves $41 Million In Borrowing For A New Police Station — Without Full Financial Info

CONCORD, NH — After tabling a vote for a new police station on Bouton Street at the former Concord Group Insurance building two weeks ago, Concord city councilors approved a limit on borrowing Monday night while, at the same time, voting to approve the project without any specific financial payment schedule.

During the two weeks, councilors conducted additional research, toured the current facility, and spoke with officials about the project. Several noted more than 12,000 hours of study had been put into the project during the past two years for a project that has been discussed, in many ways, for two decades.

Mayor Byron Champlin explained a motion to approve the plan to build a new police station for $45.5 million was tabled on Nov. 10 at the end of the public hearing phase. Now, he said, councilors were in the discussion phase of the project.

Judith Kurtz, an at-large city councilor, requested the ability to add an amendment to the proposal, reducing borrowing for the project by around $4.5 million to $41 million, without delaying or redesigning the project.

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City Manager Tom Aspell said he could return to the development team and undertake additional “quality review engineering” to produce a better cost estimate. Kurtz asked Aspell for specific ways to drop the borrowing. Aspell said he could use community reserve and unfunded balance funds, along with $1.4 million, and planned to issue three loans across the project. With these funds, about $4.5 million could be cut from the cost estimates, he said.

“These are not bid prices,” Aspell warned, “that we went out and got. This is our construction manager working with those.”

Aspell said, though, the figures could be “maneuvered,” like they had been done in the past with the community center and other projects.

“I can’t guarantee it,” he said, “but I’m pretty confident. We’ll do our best.”

Ward 9 City Councilor Kris Schultz asked Kurtz why she was proposing such a slight reduction, rather than delaying the project for further study. Kurtz said the need was clear and necessary, and she felt the figure struck a balance between reducing costs and having staff complete the project at a lower cost.

A voice vote then approved the amendment.

After approval, Schultz said she was “blindsided” by the motion to lower the cost and like the budget catastrophe earlier this year, when councilors had no prior information. She thought, too, the public should have a say on the lower cost.

“We’re, yet again, deferring to staff to make magic happen,” she said. “I don’t feel comfortable with that.”

Schultz said everyone understood a new police station was needed. But it felt as if it was pulled out of a hat at the last minute. She felt there were enough votes to approve the project. But the residents of Ward 9 had serious concerns about the price tag. Schultz also said there needed to be more ways to find savings and to “shift the burden to those who could most afford it, which would be the wealthy.” While the cost reduction was impressive, she added, it was not enough.

Nathan Fennessey, another at-large councilor, said he also “really struggled” with the proposal’s cost, “a big price tag,” but understood the need for a new station.

“(The current station) doesn’t serve the needs of the community,” he said, “or our police force.”

Fennessey also hinted at issues with the building — saying it was not quite what councilors were told it would be when they were presented with the due diligence report previously. He added the cost reduction helped, and he would support it.

Ward 8 City Councilor Ali Sekou commended the work put into the project and the reduction of the cost since he could not support the $45.5 million proposal, but would support $41 million. But he said he also needed to see the finances and the tax increase on the bonding.

Ward 3 City Councilor Jennifer Kretovic called out Sekou, Fennessey, and Kurtz for not getting in touch with her, taking offense to an insinuation by Schultz that the votes for the project were already there or there was lobbying within the council. Ward 1 City Councilor Brent Todd, Ward 2 City Councilor Michele Horne, and others also did not discuss the project with her, she said. She said the city had talked a lot about diversity and equality, but ignored a lack of standards for officers who were women or domestic violence victims, and often face their batterers in the same hallways of the stationhouse. Kretovic also chastised community members who said they had no time to consider the proposal, even though the information had been publicly available since October. She also said the original price of the building was $52 million. Kretovic called the financial pressures residents were feeling real. At the same time, she claimed the state was cutting education funding and had downshifted retirement costs for more than a decade. The longer the city waits, the more it will cost.

“I think our female staff in that building deserve something better,” Kretovic said, adding that mechanics, parking staff, and others were working in a constrained building with a lot of limitations.

Todd, too, heard from residents and was distressed that wages in the city were not keeping up with costs. No city, though, he claimed, could make the cost of living more affordable for wage earners or those on fixed incomes.

“We certainly can’t force employers to pay their workers more,” Todd said.

Todd also said he would work with the Tax Exemption Policy Committee to find ways to reduce property tax impacts on the elderly and others. The city also has limited income while also facing uncontrollable rising costs, he said. Spending, Todd said, needed to be reduced, and he would start by tackling nonessential services, just as residents would in their household budgets.

Karen McNamara, who represents Ward 4, said she was concerned councilors would propose reducing space at the police station, which would lead to more problems. She rattled off several safety issues that could arise without properly designed administration, investigatory, and evidence spaces. McNamara said that whenever it rains, the evidence room used to house documents floods because the building was constructed on a spring. She noted the Stephen and Djeswende Reid murder evidence was stored on top of pallets to keep from getting damaged during the flooding.

“We already have a problem,” she said, adding her vote to the yeas.

Fred Keach, another at-large councilor, also supported the project, saying there was no doubt in his mind it was needed. He called the current facility inadequate, unsafe, and long overdue for replacement. At the same time, Keach added, he was aware of the city’s financial challenges, brought on by spending by the city and the school district. But delaying the decision would have the same effect as canceling it.

“The need for a new police station is clear,” he said. “I have listened closely to the objections raised and, while the financial is substantial, I am not persuaded that we should halt or delay this project. The cost of not building is ultimately greater than the cost of the building.”

Jim Schlosser, the councilor from Ward 7, said he was torn about the project, calling it the most difficult decision he had to make as a councilor. He understood the “immediate, current need” of the department and the burden on taxpayers. According to the study, Schlosser said, only 13 percent of the square footage was based on future growth. But climate change, AI, an aging population, and other future issues might need to be addressed by the police.

“Residents might not appreciate how undersized the current police station is,” he said.

Schlosser appreciated the flexibility of some of the space, which can be redesigned for different uses later, as well as fire suppression equipment in case impounded electric vehicles catch on fire. Cutting space, Schlosser added, would save less money than expected, and a redesign would increase the proposal’s cost. Schlosser said he, too, would work with the Tax Exemption Policy Committee to find ways to reduce the impact of property taxes.

Sekou spoke for a second time and apologized to Kretovic for not returning her call.

“I’m not angered at all,” she replied.

Sekou thanked staff and said the police department was needed, but the question was what and how much, adding, “I heard, loud and clear, from Ward 8 residents, ‘We cannot afford any tax increase’.” He said every project deserved scrutiny, and savings needed to be found. For him, a $4.5 million reduction made sense. He also challenged the notion that a beautiful building would help with retention issues.

At-Large City Councilor Amanda Grady Sexton also supported the proposal and commended the staff, noting more than 12,300 staff hours went into the proposal during the past two years. She said supporting the project was an easy vote and not extravagant at all compared to other recent projects in the county.

“These are just the real numbers of construction today,” Grady Sexton said. “Concord is not exempt from market forces or inflation — we are simply late to the game with this project. Frankly, we should have moved forward with this 20 years ago.”

Women who work for the department are changing their clothes in hallways, she said, and there was no lactation room. The building, Grady Sexton said, also did not comply with state and federal laws.

Horne said she supported the police department and previously voted for pay increases and retention bonuses. But she heard from voters in her ward, including many who were economically disadvantaged and could not afford to live in the city, who do not want to pay for a $41 million police station. Horne said the response from residents in Ward 2 was “loud and clear” about property taxes and the proposal. She called for containing spending, “which was beyond our means,” and raising more revenue in other ways. Commercial and retail properties, she said, had 2.3 percent in negative growth during the latest reevaluation, while property taxes rose 5.1 percent for the fiscal year.

“We cannot just keep spending money and expect the homeowners and renters to shoulder the cost,” Horne said.

Champlin also supported the proposal, saying most of the things he was going to say were sent more eloquently by others. While considering the project, he thought about the bomb threat at U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander’s office on North Main Street Friday and how police immediately went to the scene, putting their lives in danger. Those officers, now, Champlin said, deserved the council’s support for a proper facility.

“These are the people we need to take care of,” he said, “just as much as we had to worry about PFAS-free equipment for our firefighters. We really need to think about a safe and productive work environment for our officers.”

Champlin said more space was needed due to new investigations, such as cybercrime. Scammers against city residents had reached more than $2 million, including against a woman who is now homeless, who sold her home and was scammed by criminals outside of New Hampshire. Officers needed the equipment and space, Champlin said, to expand their law enforcement. He, too, had heard from taxpayers, and “thought very, very hard about this,” as did others. But part of economic growth and development was a safe community. Concord, he said, was one of the safest in the country. But to keep it that way, officers needed to be properly staffed and equipped.

The proposal was approved by voice vote.

Ward 5 City Councilor Stacey Brown did not participate in the discussion or vote due to a conflict of interest.

Public Testimony

According to the council packet, 18 community members emailed councilors between Nov. 7 and Nov. 10 regarding the project.

Only two supported the new police station. One letter writer was neutral, while another asked for more study. One woman questioned the cost of renovating the building and doubling its size.

“(Former owner) Steve Duprey certainly knew what he was doing when he sold us this albatross,” she said. “No wonder he is a multimillionaire.”

Most of the notes raised affordability issues in the city and a myriad of projects on the horizon, including $31 million (not including interest) for Memorial Field, the quarter-of-a-billion-dollar middle school, and the new Beaver Meadow Golf Course clubhouse, which was approved earlier this year.

A handful of residents raised the issue of spending the money on more social programs and defunding police angles, with one writing in bold text, “I don’t think we should be investing in more policing and especially not more buildings,” since a new building will not “address the root causes of crime.”

Incomplete Financial Data

While councilors understood the need for a new police station given its limitations and age, and set a borrowing limit for staff, they voted to approve the project without any specific financial information.

Even before the public hearing on Nov. 10, the whole financial payment schedule was not available for councilors, the public, or the press. Estimates of the amount taxpayers will pay in interest for the project were also unavailable, despite councilors noting the public was informed about the hearing in October.

In Champlin’s newsletter on the Friday before the public hearing, he stated the first payment for the police station would be around $155 annually on a $400,000 assessed home. That price would rise to around $336 annually and then taper down from there. Champlin said the impact would “steadily decline” after fiscal year 2030, but he did not have the numbers available.

And neither did city officials.

Patch requested a spreadsheet of the full payment schedule, similar to the data submitted to the public and the press during the golf course clubhouse vote. Patch also asked why there were multiple loans instead of a 30-year note for the entire amount, which would be closer to $180 a year on a $400,000 house: City staff proposed borrowing $45.5 million at 3.5 percent, which would lead to about $28 million in interest being paid by taxpayers. So, the project’s actual cost under the Nov. 10 proposal was $73.5 million with traditional, one-lump-sum borrowing. Across 30 years, about $2.45 million would need to be raised annually. The city’s valuation exceeds $5.1 billion. To get to $2.45 million annually, about 48 cents per thousand would need to be passed onto taxpayers, or about $190 a year on a $400,000 home.

Another request for the data was made on Nov. 10. Executive Assistant Sue Stevens-Grenier said the data would be presented at the meeting. But during the meeting, only a few years of the financials were shown, like what Champlin offered in his newsletter.

The mayor and several city councilors were asked to request the information, but none had the information or provided it to Patch.

On Nov. 14, city staff were again asked for the complete financials, but the request was ignored until Nov. 17, when Stefanie Breton, the public information officer for the city of Concord, sent the same presentation made on Nov. 10, without the full payment schedule.

Patch requested, again, the full payment schedule, but the request was ignored. The full schedule information was also not included in the updated agenda sent by the city clerk on Nov. 21, and it was neither sent to the press nor posted online before Monday’s meeting.

Based on rough estimates of publicly available or presumed data, borrowing $41 million at 3.5 percent yields $25.3 million in interest, for a total project cost of $66 million.

Across 30 years, about $2.2 million would need to be raised annually. With city’s valuation at around $5.1 billion, to get to $2.2 million annually, about 45 cents per thousand would be needed or about $180 a year on a $400,000 home.

All the figures do not include design, permitting, and construction administration costs previously appropriated, about $450,000, and do not include the $4.1 million acquisition costs for the building.

The total cost of the project to city taxpayers is actually about $70 million.

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