Guttenberg files lawsuit to potentially leave North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue

The Town of Guttenberg filed a lawsuit last week to potentially leave North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue after allegedly attempting to seek arbitration for being overcharged annually was unsuccessful.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

The lawsuit, filed in Hudson County Superior Court on Thursday, is seeking a declaratory judgement compelling arbitration after allegedly being charged well over the $1.5 million agreed upon in the municipal services agreement in 1998.

“While Section 7.2(b) contemplates a set $1.5 million annual payment by Guttenberg
to the NHRFR, the five Municipalities agreed in Section 7.3 that in the event the costs of participating in the NHRCC in any future fiscal year were to exceed the approximate $29.1 million cost incurred for the year ended June 1998, the $1.5 million to be payable by Guttenberg for the future year in question would be subject to an increase equal to the percentage of increase experienced by all of the Original Parties,” suit asserts.

The court filing, which also names the municipalities of North Bergen, Union City, Weehawken, and West New York as defendants, also cites a clause in the agreement that says any disagreement can be settled before a Hudson County arbitrator.

Dating back to October, John Schettino, counsel for Guttenberg in this matter, sent four letters to NHRFR seeking arbitration, but none of the letters received any sort of response, according to the lawsuit.

” … Guttenberg has reviewed the payments made by the participating Municipalities and determined errors were made in calculating their payments, with the result that for several years the other participating Municipalities paid significantly less than what was required under each effective version of the Municipalities’ Shared Services Agreement up to and including under the Present Agreement,” the town alleges.

“Additionally, Guttenberg has demanded NHRFR return to Guttenberg its firehouse
located at 6801 Madison Street (the ‘Firehouse’) that Guttenberg contributed to the joint venture to coordinate Fire and Rescue Services, but NHRFR has refused to do so although NHRFR returned property contributed by other Municipalities to them.”

As a result, the town if seeking an order declaring that the costs and expenses must be settled in binding arbitration, as well as the return of their firehouse, located at 6801 Madison St.

They are also seeking counsel fees and costs of suit, as well as any other relief the court deems just and equitable.

Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner, the chair of NHRFR’s Management Committee, said Guttenberg remains steadfast in seeking their own volunteer department, something that he hopes changes in the foreseeable future.

“Guttenberg is determined to have a volunteer department, which we think is dangerous and I think it’s foolish, but that’s their choice. Officially, no one’s ever brought up the concept of a volunteer department on the board, we’ve only heard about it through the actions of the mayor and council,” he said over the phone today.

“We think their calculations are wrong and they never voted against the budget until this year. There’s a disconnect between what they say and what they do. If they want to go to arbitration, no one has any problem with that, but going through superior court isn’t the way to do it. We hope they reconsider when we go to arbitration because we think every penny they spend on fire safety is worth it.”

Zitt said that the town has been having preliminary discussions with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, who does not review the NHRFR budgets, and their initial findings indicate that Guttenberg should be paying $1.9 to $2.1 million a year.

They’re currently paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.7 million annually.

Hudson County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Espinales-Maloney has scheduled oral arguments in the case for September 13th, the court docket shows.

The town has floated the possibility of exiting the shared services agreement with their four neighboring municipalities for over four years.

Back in July 2020, the Guttenberg Town Council approved a resolution establishing an exploratory committee looking at transitioning from being a part of NHRFR to a volunteer fire department in town once the current agreement lapses.

While that agreement ended this year, the NHRFR board approved a new 25-year agreement last year, with a five-year clause implemented for any of the five municipalities to withdraw from the deal if they so choose.

Guttenberg Mayor Wayne Zitt, who signed under oath that that allegations in the complaint are true, said back in April 2022 that Guttenberg was getting the short end of the stick to the benefit of Weehawken.

“Weehawken is exploiting an outdated budget formula for the department used to calculate annual payments made by each of the five member communities,” claiming that $618 million in tax-exempt properties is not included in the NHRFR budget he said at the time.

Turner said at the time that Zitt was “incredibly misinformed” and that removing Guttenberg from NHRFR would endanger the town’s residents and also cost West New York about an additional $500,000 a year.

Come next year, Zitt and Turner will be on opposing sides politically.

Zitt is running for re-election on Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop’s ticket as part of his Democratic gubernatorial run. Assemblyman Julio Marenco (D-33), a close ally of North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco, is also on the Fulop slate.

Meanwhile, Turner, West New York Mayor Albio Sires, and state Senator (D-33)/Union City Mayor Brian Stack have backed U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5) for governor, despite not being a declared candidate, and are expected to run an opponent against Zitt in June.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from Guttenberg Mayor Wayne Zitt.