Starting Thursday, Nov. 10, a petition will be circulated throughout Voorhees in support of the township’s plan to dissolve and consolidate Voorhees Fire District №3. The petition will last approximately four weeks and needs at least 5 percent of registered voters before going back to the governing body.
Township Committee has investigated claims of mismanagement, both safety and fiscal, by the International Association of Firefighters Local №3249 Union representing the township’s firefighters and EMTs against the fire district’s Board of Commissioners.
The Voorhees Township Fire District is a separate entity managed by a local board of commissioners with residents electing members directly, unlike most municipalities in New Jersey, where fire and EMT services are run as a department under the township government.
Stuart Platt, an attorney speaking on behalf of the governing body, said the allegations came to their attention earlier this year.
“Earlier this year, it came to the governing body’s attention from firefighters and first responders, both active and inactive, that there are serious problems with the commission,” he said.
Union Chief Keith Kemery, International Association of Firefighters Local №3249 president, said the mismanagement has been going on for years, and they passed a resolution of “Vote of No-Confidence” within the past few months.
“When we adopted a ‘Vote of No-Confidence,’ the board of commissioners sent a threatening letter to the union basically saying we need to rescind the vote or they were going to take legal action,” Kemery said. “The union’s attorney sent a response back saying we’re speaking First Amendment’s right, and the public needs to know these safety issues. They tried to threaten us.
“We’ve consistently had difficulties with the fire district, board of fire commissioners mismanaging and trying to blame their mismanagement against the public employees employed by the fire district. It came to a point where now it’s crossing over to now it’s negatively impacting our service and safety to the public.”
Kemery said one of the issues is the district not meeting the standards set by the National Fire Protection Association with less than the minimum number of four personnel for each apparatus, and the response times to emergencies are slower because of it.
Another issue the union has is not promoting firefighters who had passed the required test to become a fire chief.
“They disregarded the fact that it had a fire chief’s list,” Kemery said. “There was somebody sitting to be appointed as fire chief, and the board disregarded that list of who passed the required fire chief exam and promoted a captain who had only been captain for three months to deputy chief on a provisional basis pending the exam.”
Tom Hanney, chairman of the Board of Commissioners, said they “took a leap of faith” by promoting Michael Wharton to captain and then deputy chief, but said he’s been “outstanding” at getting the fire district back on track.
“We did not promote some of the other folks who on paper looked very qualified because of their conduct and treating of other people were not qualified,” he explained. “Wharton came in and treated everyone extremely respectfully. He put in a lot of administrative changes that have been great in terms of making sure everybody was on the same page and has been very good with the budgets and schedules.”
There are also allegations of fiscal mismanagement. In 2010, the district had a surplus of $2 million, and the by the end of 2015, that total dwindled to $303,000. Platt said the district is “living above their means.”
“He (Wharton) worked 80 to 85 hours a week over the last 18 months getting the department from a very poor standpoint to the standpoint it is now with a completely balanced budget,” Hanney said.
The township began an investigation and evaluation of the information it was presented with and hired fire and safety expert Harry Carter.
Carter, based on his five decades in the fire service, including years in a leadership role with the New Jersey Association of Fire Commissioners, said the Voorhees Township Board of Fire Commissioners was “perhaps the most poorly managed fire district” with which he has interacted.
“Their inability to manage staff, provide adequate financial resources, develop adequate operational resources and provide proper equipment has led to the point where I must recommend that Voorhees Township Fire District should be dissolved.”
Carter went on to say his opinion is supported by the letter from the union representing the career firefighters and EMS technicians, which also called for the dissolution of the fire district.
Hanney says Carter’s investigation is outdated because “all of the things mentioned or talked about as being said by these individuals have been resolved.”
“They started investigating nine months ago and we were still in a confused mode,” he said. “We had a lot of things we were still trying to work out budget wise. We had debt and a lot of things to be concerned about. However, over the past 18 months, and the last nine in particular, all of those items have been addressed and have been completely resolved.”
The union disagrees and is ready to move forward with the township’s decision to consolidate the fire district.
“We’re at a point now where we have just given up any and all hope that the board of fire commissioners will do the right thing when it comes to administration, the fire dispatchers and its services,” Kemery said. “We totally support the township assuming control over the fire rescue and EMT services.”
Platt stressed that Voorhees residents and their safety comes first.
“The main goal here is to make sure that Voorhees residents, their property, their businesses and the first responders are safe,” he explained.
