Fiery Debate As Montclair Renews Controversial Fire Contract: Videos

MONTCLAIR, NJ — A sharply divided Montclair Town Council narrowly approved a controversial deal that will renew a shared service agreement with Glen Ridge for fire department services on Wednesday.

The council voted 4-3 to approve a 10-year contract with Glen Ridge during their meeting, which saw heated arguments from both sides. Glen Ridge will have the option to renew for another five years after the 10 years is up.

Glen Ridge’s current contract with Montclair for fire suppression services and the use of George Washington Field expires this year. Bids between the two towns were “extremely close” when the previous contract was hammered out in 2012, Glen Ridge officials previously said.

Montclair submitted a bid for a new contract on Aug. 17, which was authorized by their peers in Glen Ridge. That bid doesn’t include a proposal for use of recreational facilities and field, which was part of the previous agreement.

See details about Montclair's bid here. See the Glen Ridge resolution that authorized the agreement here.

According to data in the township's bid, here’s how much Montclair will get each year of the contract:

• 2023 – $850,000
• 2024– $911,111
• 2025– $972,222
• 2026 – $1,033,333
• 2027 – $1,094,444
• 2028 – $1,155,555
• 2029 – $1,216,666
• 2030 – $1,277,777
• 2031 – $1,338,888
• 2032 – $1,400,000
• 2033 – $1,461,111
• 2034 – $1,522,222
• 2035 – $1,583,333
• 2036 – $1,644,444
• 2037 – $1,705,556

The resolution authorizing the contract on Montclair’s end got “yes” votes from Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller and council members Robin Schlager, Lori Price Abrams and David Cummings. It got “no” votes from council members William Hurlock, Robert Russo and Peter Yacobellis.

Earlier this year, town officials in Glen Ridge announced they had also reached out to Bloomfield to see if they were interested in providing fire services. But Montclair’s neighbor reportedly didn’t end up submitting a bid, Glen Ridge’s borough attorney recently told Montclair Local.

SUPPORTERS: ‘WIN-WIN SITUATION’

Supporters of the new deal included Mayor Spiller, who called it a “win-win situation.”

“After working with Glen Ridge for a number of years, we know exactly what our annual costs are to provide fire service and protection,” Spiller wrote in an op-ed to Baristanet. “By engaging in a shared services agreement, Montclair receives dollars that far exceed our incremental cost associated with providing fire services to Glen Ridge. Our lone costs are fuel, maintenance, and vehicle depreciation; not one additional firefighter is employed to service Glen Ridge. Therefore, the net gain for Montclair taxpayers is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, every single year of our agreement.”

The mayor released another statement about the deal after Wednesday’s vote. He wrote:

“I want to thank everyone who participated in the robust dialogue surrounding the Montclair-Glen Ridge fire agreement. Montclair residents can always be counted on to engage in thoughtful discourse on issues impacting our community. The agreement we reached with Glen Ridge, and moved forward with last night, will bring in funds to Montclair, reduce costs to taxpayers, and enable us to make critical investments in our township – including in our professional fire department. I’m confident this agreement will help ensure Montclair stays safe and financially sustainable for years to come.”

Another supporter of the new contract, Montclair Fire Chief John Herrmann, said that pulling out of the deal with Glen Ridge would be “penny-wise and pound-foolish.” As the fire chief wrote in an op-ed to Baristanet:

“It is true that Montclair’s cost to provide fire suppression service to Glen Ridge is quantifiable. Using 2019 as an example (since it was pre-COVID), and using FEMA reimbursement figures for apparatus maintenance, fuel and depreciation and using current wage and benefits figures, it cost approximately $113,955.97. That breaks down to $46,166.01 for apparatus and $67,789.96 for personnel (including benefits). Again, those are actual costs using FEMA reimbursement rates and using salary and benefits figures. Given Glen Ridge’s contributions to Montclair under the agreement, the revenues minus all of our costs resulted in approximately $772,062 in net revenue for the Township in 2019.”

Herrmann was one of several local firefighters to show up at the meeting and speak in favor of the new contract. They included retired fire chief Kevin Allen, who argued that the numbers “sound like a pretty good deal” to him as a local taxpayer (article continues below).

CRITICS: ‘THEY NEED TO PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE’

But the new deal with Glen Ridge has also seen stiff criticism from people who say that the township isn’t paying its fair share to Montclair – especially considering inflation.

Councilman Yacobellis previously said the proposal is a bad deal for Montclair taxpayers.

“We can’t afford to subsidize fire services for Glen Ridge anymore,” he said last week. “They need to pay their fair share.”

“If enacted, we would be ignoring the guidance of our own financial experts and locking ourselves into a 10 or possibly 15-year contract (this gives Glen Ridge an option to renew for five years), where we are drastically underpaid for the services that we provide,” Yacobellis said.

He added:

“According to our own finance team, our total annual costs for fire services for Montclair and Glen Ridge is approximately $17 million, counting both operating and capital costs. We also know that Glen Ridge represents approximately 10% of our fire department’s service calls. If you wanted to look at this as just a straight proportion, their share would be $1.7 million.”

Councilman Russo also put out a statement about the proposed deal, calling for a review of the shared services agreement and asking his colleagues to delay the approval of the contract.

Russo, a former mayor and deputy mayor in Montclair, pointed out that there were doubts about the previous contract with Glen Ridge when it was greenlighted in 2012.

“We understandably had to win the council approval of Glen Ridge to continue a contract which I, as mayor, had helped negotiate without any bidding competition in 2003,” Russo wrote. “When the contract I negotiated in a positive relationship with Glen Ridge ended in 2012, we were being compensated at the rate of nearly $1 million. That dropped to hundreds of thousands lower under the new contract bid in competing with Bloomfield.”

Former Planning Board member Martin Schwartz was one of the people to speak against the contract on Wednesday.

Schwartz – like several others at the meeting, including Councilman Russo and Councilman Hurlock – said that he wasn’t criticizing the service level of the Montclair Fire Department, only questioning the fiscal sense of the town’s deal with Glen Ridge. (Listen to his full comment in the video below)

“This controversy tonight and vote is about one thing: how much money Glen Ridge pays for what is effectively an insurance policy of shared services … government services that both communities use,” Schwartz said. “It’s about whether we will continue to subsidize our next-door neighbor and again, let them pick our pockets – not paying their fair share … a fair share of all our actual economic costs going forward.”

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