SECAUCUS -- Three firefighters in Secaucus who had been accused in a civil lawsuit of being involved in the alleged harassment of two former gay residents were not reinstated to the volunteer fire department at a council meeting Tuesday night. However, amid protests, one of those firefighters was given the job of superintendent of the Department of Public Works.
A contingent of gay activists attended the meeting because there had been talk of reinstating the volunteer firefighters to the department. They had been named in a civil suit that the town lost last year, resulting in a multimillion dollar payout to the gay couple who said they were harassed while living near a firehouse.
The three men were never charged criminally, and resigned from the department rather than face an administrative hearing.
Before Tuesday's council meeting, new Mayor Michael Gonnelli, himself a volunteer firefighter, told the gay activist group Garden State Equality that the three men did not want to be reinstated at this time.
However, he did not mention that one of the men was up for a promotion.
Charles Snyder Sr. had worked for the Department of Public Works since 1974, and had served as assistant superintendent since 2005, according to a newspaper report.
Gonnelli, who himself formerly served as superintendent of public works, was among those backing Snyder's promotion.
The only council member to vote against it was John Shinnick, a political foe of Gonnelli's administration.
The council should have understood this. Shame on them for reverting to the good ol boy system rather than using common sense. Our leaders seem to lack an ethical compass.
I would bet that some sort of reorganization of departments will occer to save us even more money in the future. Recreation, DPW, Finance and hopefully all others.
Again, if Elwell’s Dems thought it was the right thing to do a few years back and John Shinnick didn’t care for the last three years why was this such a big issue last night? Politics is the answer.
The decision to put Chuck in a position he qualified for and if you remember Mr. Hudson County himself, D. Drumeler (Shinnicks close friend) did the posting process, was the right thing to do. The purely poliical thing was to create an issue and invite the press and the Garden State Equility Group and make a mockery of this town, yet again. Thank you John and it was funny how last night Maddy Michaels hubby was there, Trombetta was there, Makarski was there, Swibinki was there, Albi was there. All were there to orchastrate the SHOW and start the plan that will continue through out this election year.
And also please remember that it was the last administration that failed to impose sensitivity training as per a Secaucus Reporter article during the last election or elthics reform, which in my opinion covers training employees. This is something TBS promised in their platform and I say lets give them time to accomplish this, then knock them if they don’t. They said this long before the carefully orchastrated SHOW had it’s political season premier last night!!!
Perhaps I am too idealistic for Hudson County.
But the matter should have been discussed before hand.
The fire department is different.
The three firefighers dishonored their positions and resigned. That should be the end of it.