NASHUA — After what one alderman described as a “masterful political manipulation,” city officials on Tuesday again tabled a controversial land deal for three parcels abutting the city’s landfill.

Board of Aldermen President Brian McCarthy said only eight votes were needed — as opposed to the original 10 votes — to approve the acquisition of 836, 844 and 848 West Hollis St. for $650,000.

“I am very unhappy about this change in the plans and the change in the rules,” said Alderman-at-Large Barbara Pressly, claiming a way was found to manipulate the system to get a lower voting requirement and likely approval.

As a result, Pressly stressed that a restriction should be made that would prohibit anything from being built on the site, with the land kept as a natural buffer for the neighborhood.

As aldermen attempted to make an amendment to this suggestion, a motion was approved with a vote of 8-7 to table the issue.

The proposed legislation was previously tabled for four months after it was introduced this past spring.

Some aldermen have said the land should be used to provide a buffer to the landfill and prevent development in that area.

But Mayor Donnalee Lozeau raised the possibility of consolidating the city’s four public works garages to build a new facility on the West Hollis Street land. No formal plan has been drafted.

According to Dorothy Clarke, the city’s deputy corporation counsel, the original proposal to purchase the land required 10 votes, or a super-majority, because the account being utilized was not in the mayor’s fiscal year 2012 budget.

Aldermen-at-Large David Deane and Jim Donchess argued the $650,000 purchase would exceed the city’s spending cap, which would require an affirmative vote of 10 members.

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