SLH Fire District Threatens Lawsuit to Stop Planned Dissolution

As a taxpayer, Jim Merriman knows that if the Spring Lake Heights Fire District files suit against the town it serves, he and other residents could bear the legal costs of a municipality essentially suing itself.

However, as assistant chief of the Spring Lake Heights Independent Fire Company No. 1, Merriman believes the fire district, a separate entity from the fire company, has no other choice if it is to survive imminent dissolution by borough officials.

It’s all a matter of public safety and ensuring that firefighters can buy the expensive equipment they need to do the job according to Merriman.

“We’re all taxpayers here, so in a way we’re suing ourselves,” Merriman said after Monday night’s borough council meeting. “But we have to do this to keep the proper thing going.”

During the meeting’s public portion, Merriman told the council that both the fire district and fire company would file a civil suit this week in Monmouth County Superior Court to prevent the dismantling of the 24-year-old fire district.

The council voted to abolish the fire district on May 2. Since 1987, the district has
operated under its own voter-approved budget apart from the municipality.

Once dissolved, the fire district’s budget would be placed under the umbrella of the annual municipal budget. In short, borough taxpayers, already saddled with local, school, and county taxes, will have one less government entity to support.

The fire district and fire company expect to file suit because borough officials have not yet answered two separate letters requesting a meeting of the two opposing sides, Merriman told the council.

 Those letters, addressed to Borough Attorney John Lane and dated May 25 and June 10, were written by the fire district’s attorney, Jay Sendzik of Brick.

“We haven’t heard anything from the council,” Merriman said. “We’ve heard nothing from anyone.”

Holding a copy of the June 10 letter from Sendzik, Lane reminded Merriman that the most recent letter was less than one business day old.

Neither the fire district or fire company has cooperated with the council’s numerous requests for certain financial information either, Lane continued.

Specifically, the council has sent certified letters and emails since early May asking the fire district to send a copy of its current budget, copies of its building lease, and an itemization of its debts and assets.

“We’ve made lots of requests for information,” Lane told Merriman. “Since May 25, I’ve been asking for a budget.”

The state’s Department of Community Affairs (DCA) mandates that borough officials provide all of the fire district’s financial documents before it can begin the dissolution process.

“We haven’t received a shred of anything,” said Councilwoman Patty Cindea, who oversees the council’s finance committee.

Nonetheless, Merriman criticized the council for not meeting with the fire district and the fire company to negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement.

“I have presented an option. We’re trying to find acompromise,” he said.

 Not all Heights residents want to abolish the district, he added.

“We have a petition with over 1,100 signatures in favor of having the fire district,” Merriman said.

Mayor Frances Enright took charge of cooling off the increasingly heated exchange between Merriman and Lane.

“Let’s just leave it between the two lawyers,” Enright said.

To date, the fire district and fire company have only provided a copy of their most recent audit according to Cindea. All of the financial documents were to be delivered to the borough offices by mid-May. That deadline has since been moved back to mid-June.

Spring Lake Heights voters approved the fire district’s last annual budget in February. The borough is one of a handful of New Jersey towns to support a separate fire district. A local grassroots taxpayer advocate group led by former council candidate John Lewis has previously rallied to abolish the district.