ENGLEWOOD, N.J.—An attorney representing nine of 15 firefighters offered employment by Englewood—whose employment offers were then rescinded April 11 by former City Manager Ed Hynes—filed a civil-action lawsuit May 22 against Englewood.
The action followed an emotional City Council meeting May 21 where five Engelwood firefighters urged the city council to avoid a court battle and bring the group on board to help protect the city.
The lawsuit names the City of Englewood, Hynes and Interim City Manager Jewel Thompson-Chin as defendants.
Moreover, City Council members voted 4-0—with Michael Cohen absent—to approve a residency preference ordinance for city police and firefighter positions, which the rejected firefighters’ attorney called “violative of state statute.” Attorney Michael Prigoff also asked council members to define “the established testing and/or protocol” for such positions, which was not detailed in the ordinance.
City Council members also voted 4-0 to terminate its contract with Hynes—replaced by former Tenafly Borough Administrator and interim City Manager Jewel Thompson-Chin—for a total payout of $117,024.26 owed for severance, vacation leave, sick leave, and terminal leave.
As city manager, Hynes was in charge of offering employment to the 12 firefighters—which later turned out to be 15 firefighters who were offered positions—and then rescinding those employment offers due to what he called an unapproved city budget.
Nine firefighters file suit
Prigoff, of Englewood, attorney for nine rejected firefighters, said a lawsuit would be filed in Superior Court, Hackensack, May 22 for the city’s refusal to hire nine individuals still interested in employment as city firefighters.
The firefighters suing the city include Michael Cangro, Carlos Canizales, Kenneth P. Corrigan, Michael Kraus, Steven Longa, Thomas Martin, Michael Rawson, Jonathan Reitz, and Sebastian Rollo.
The lawsuit accuses the city of breach of contract, racial discrimination, and compensatory damages for not fulfilling a legal promise to hire them, which caused financial hardship for all those denied employment.
The lawsuit contains examples of two letters sent to firefighters from Englewood. One on April 5 offered employment as a “probationary firefighter” who will attend the Fire Academy and a subsequent April 11 email from the city manager stating “at this time, the city cannot offer you employment as it is currently preparing its budget for the fiscal year.”
Prigoff said a couple firefighters not hired were former residents and all prospective firefighters were told to resign from good jobs because they would be hired as city firefighters.
He said the ordinance should not be adopted because it “arguably would apply to any appointments made from this list now.”
City Attorney William Bailey declined to comment on whether the ordinance applies to the current list, but the ordinance takes effect “upon passage and publication as required by law.”
‘There’s no good reason’
“There’s not a single reason that in good faith you should not honor the contract that you entered into with these men. They’ve given up [jobs], they’ve made life-changing decisions, they’ve incurred substantial damages and there’s no good reason for not appointing them in accordance with the promise that was made,” said Prigoff.
He said “you could put these [men] out on the street now” without sending them to the fire academy due to each hire’s extensive certifications and on-the-job experience and “this city would be a lot better off.”
He said the city now has an “unconscionably low” staffing for firefighters, which he said Mayor Michael Wildes noted during a prior budget hearing.
Prigoff said the firefighters were given “conditional offers of employment” that each accepted in writing and the prospective firefighters were given physical and psychological exams and background checks prior to a start date of April 15 at the Bergen County Fire Academy.
The firefighters received offers of employment from the city in January, said Prigoff, and attended a full-day orientation April 8 where they were all fitted for gear, signed employment papers, were given entry key codes, received badge numbers and were told by city officials to leave current jobs and prepare to enter the county fire academy, said Prigoff.
He said one day before they were scheduled to begin at the academy the firefighters received an email from then-City Manager Hynes stating they would not be able to attend the fire academy due to a lack of an approved city budget.
“I understand why this ordinance has been suggested,” Prigoff said, opposing the city’s new residency preference ordinance, which passed 4-0.
“After it appeared my clients were scheduled for appointment because they excelled in the selection protocol that the city adopted, people came before the council and communicated the fact that ‘why are we appointing 12 white boys who don’t live in Englewood?’ and as a result of that, we believe, the former city manager has been suspended and is being terminated. [He] sent these letters on April 11 to my clients,” charged Prigoff.
Five firefighters who were scheduled to be hired addressed City Council members.
“All of us received an email from the former city manager that our conditional offers were rescinded due to ‘budgetary’ reasons and ‘sorry for the inconvenience,’” said Sebastian Rollo.
“It was more than just an inconvenience. The excuse for our dismissal was far from the truth,” said Rollo.
“The truth is the fire department is severely understaffed and running well below minimum operating levels. The truth is the fire department has had nine retirements since the beginning of the year and has had even more since 2018,” charged Rollo.
‘Lives of residents at risk’
He said “the lives of residents, as well as first responders, are being put at risk every single day as a result.”
Rollo said despite what residents have claimed at council meetings and on social media, all firefighter tests were conducted fairly, mostly by outside contractors and residents were given a six-point bonus on the written exam.
He asked why people were not concerned previously when other firefighters were hired from the current list of firefighter candidates.
“The remarks made about unfair tests, residency and race continued for months and still continue to this day,” said Rollo, noting the firefighters would be filing a lawsuit and that “you don’t have to be from a city to still care about its community and have a positive impact.”
Increased overtime costs
Rollo said understaffing was resulting in “extensive overtime costs”—a charge apparently validated by a later budget discussion where city officials revealed a preliminary 2019-2020 budget had appropriated $960,000 for increased overtime—up from $500,000 in 2018’s budget.
Rollo said they preferred to fight fires rather than city hall.
“We have not done anything to deserve this treatment, embarrassment, and more importantly, this blatant discrimination. We want to resolve this and work for the city. We want to serve the community to the best of our ability. The truth is we want to be firefighters for the City of Englewood,” Rollo said.
Michael Kraus, of River Vale, said he left his job as a New York City police officer when he was told he would be hired as a city firefighter. He has worked with Englewood Hospital emergency medical services and volunteered as a firefighter in Tenafly.
“I’ve had to move back home with my parents, struggle to pay bills, hire a lawyer, be embarrassed. I never expected that my life would be ruined because of this political nonsense,” said Kraus.
“As city officials I’m sure you realize how your decisions and actions are impacting lives. Do the right thing, right now; we just want our jobs,” he said.
Carlos Canizales, a firefighter suing the city, told the council there was no budgetary reason not to hire them.
“Since my termination, my whole life has crumbled, and my dream was crushed. A lot of issues have arose regarding the hiring of myself and my brothers. Videos have been released and citizens have been outspoken how African Americans or residents were not hired. The reality is that there is no budget issue, 10 firemen retired making more than double our starting salaries,” he said.
‘Because of our skin color’
“The truth is that this is not a minority or residency issue or budget issue, because I’m standing here in front of you. I’m Hispanic, was a resident and my family has a business in town. Our jobs were terminated because of our skin color. How would you feel if this happened to your son or daughter?” concluded Canizales.
Michael Cangro, of Tenafly, said he was “devastated” by the letter rescinding his hiring.
“The truth is that budget appropriation is nothing more than a red herring to not hire us in response to the outrage from some residents and groups such as the Jabari Society and the NAACP. There have been numerous retirements of top pay employees in the fire department just this year and there are more firefighters on their way out which would easily minimize the tax burden to pay for the necessary staffing,” said Cangro.
At previous meetings, Lt. Joseph Hoyle, an African American firefighter with the Jabari Society—which represents black firefighters nationwide, and Junius Carter, president of NAACP’s Bergen County chapter based in Englewood, have called for firefighter tests to be thrown out and for a residency preference to be implemented to offer residents an opportunity to be hired as police officers and firefighters.
The City Council had discussed a residency preference ordinance last year but postponed introduction then on advice of its labor counsel.
Following several council meetings earlier this year where certain residents—including Hoyle and Carter—raised issues with too many firefighters and police officers being hired from outside Englewood, members renewed discussion of a residency preference in police and fire department hiring.
Tom Martin, a Wyckoff resident, said he and his wife planned to move back from Delaware so he could accept an offer from the city Human Resources Department to be a city firefighter.
He said they moved to Delaware after he had applied for the Englewood firefighter job, placed in the top 30 candidates, but did not hear from the city about the job for years.
He said he still “holds out hope that I’ll be given the opportunity to live out my dreams in this city.”
Several residents expressed sympathy with the firefighters during public comments and other residents suggested they get used to discrimination as African Americans have had to deal with such insults daily on a much larger scale.
Resident Diane Jansen said Englewood’s police and fire departments “should also reflect the diversity of the city” and “a promise was made whether it was supposed to be made or not.”
She suggested that city officials turn the situation into a win-win scenario. “Can we make it right for everyone as well as make our uniformed services more diverse?” she asked.
Following the meeting, Wildes, who could decide to veto the residency preference ordinance, said that was unlikely because the council could overrule it with a “super-majority” vote of four or five in favor.
Council members and Wildes listened as Prigoff and the five terminated firefighters spoke but offered little comment or response.
Bailey declined comment on the fired firefighters’ lawsuit.