Spring Lake Heights Takes Next Step Toward Dissolving Fire District

Residents wanting to address the impending dismantling of the Spring Lake Heights Fire District might get to do so at the borough council's Aug. 15 meeting.

That's the scheduled date of the public hearing on a newly introduced ordinance to formally dissolve the fire district according to state law. But what gets talked about in Spring Lake Heights that night depends largely on what gets talked about in Trenton five days earlier.

The borough is still waiting to hear from the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) about its pending application to dissolve the district. If no decision comes from that agency's Local Finance Board, or if the application is rejected, Democratic Mayor Frances Enright says the Aug. 15 public hearing on the introduced ordinance could be postponed.

"It's a maybe," Enright said on Monday after the council voted 4-2 along party lines to introduce the ordinance.

By state law, the council must hold a public hearing on any new ordinance before adopting it. The governing body must also pay to advertise notice of that hearing in local newspapers.

However, if the Local Finance Board does not approve, or even discuss, the borough's application for the dissolution during its next scheduled monthly meeting on Aug. 10, the public hearing would be on hold.

"We can't really set the public hearing because the Local Finance Board hasn't acted," Enright said prior to the roll call to introduce the ordinance.

But acting upon the advisement of Borough Attorney John Lane, the council's GOP majority voted to go forward with the new ordinance that would officially abolish the independent district.

Disagreeing with Enright, Lane said he crafted the ordinance in anticipation of the Local Finance Board's approval of the borough's application on Aug. 10.

The introduced ordinance will also be forwarded to the Local Finance Board for its review and expected approval, Lane explained. The board must greenlight the pending borough ordinance before the council can vote to adopt it.

The borough submitted a state-mandated application to abolish the fire district to the DCA in late June. The Local Finance Board, operating as part of DCA, must then review all the financial documents detailing the district's budget, debts, assets and other information before it can sanction the dissolution.

Enright's Democratic colleagues on the council unsuccessfully tried to persuade Lane and the GOP majority to wait until the governing body had the go-ahead from the Local Finance Board on the pending application before introducing the ordinance.

"We can't really adopt this ordinance until the Local Finance Board dissolves [the fire district]," Councilman John P. Brennan said.

Brennan went on to accuse the GOP majority of fast-tracking the process as a means of currying political favor with tax-weary voters.

Instead, the council ought to delay acting on the ordinance until the Local Finance Board decides if the council had met the criteria to move ahead with the fire district's demise.

"I have the overwhelming sense that the council majority has this need to dissolve the fire district without following the proper procedure," Brennan said.

"Now we're being asked to adopt an ordinance that is contingent upon another board dissolving this district," he added.

Councilman Tom Vorbach warned against setting the public hearing date--and then spending public funds to advertise the scheduled date--without even knowing if the hearing could take place that night.

"We're putting the cart before the horse," Vorbach said. "This council tends to be hasty."

Both Vorbach and Brennan also objected to moving ahead with the ordinance because the council has yet to figure the fire district's financial needs into its own budget. Once the district is dissolved, the Spring Lake Heights Independent Fire Company will be funded by a line item in the council's annual budget.

"They are going to be underfunded," Vorbach said. "We're going to force [the fire company] to do fundraising."

No one from the public addressed the planned dissolution during the meeting's open portion.

The fire district has filed a civil suit against the borough government in Monmouth County Superior Court to block the dismantling.

The council voted via resolution on May 2 to begin the dissolution after holding public meetings on the issue on that date and on April 25. That decision came after more than 200 of the borough's 3,636 registered voters signed a petition asking for the public hearings and a council vote on the issue.

The fire district's last budget narrowly gained voter approval when it came up for a vote in February.