Fire unions call for acting chief's resignation
BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer

EDISON - The two unions representing Edison's paid firefighters jointly released a statement Dec. 1 calling for the resignation of acting Fire Chief Norman Jensen. The unions represent all of the township's 140 paid firefighters.

The two unions, locals 1197 and 2883, said that Jensen's resignation is a matter of life and death and accused the acting chief of doing a poor job in overseeing the township's firefighters. Specifically, the complaints focused on management issues and ethics, calling Jensen incompetent.

President of Edison Local 1197, Robert Yackel, a retired firefighter currently employed by the state Department of Labor, listed several specific reasons why the acting chief, who has been in the position since May 2006, should step down. He cited changes in the dispatch protocol, elimination of the fire ground supervisor position, issues with the training of new firefighters, and what he perceived as Jensen being too close to the administration as reasons why he felt Jensen should step down.

Township spokesperson Jerry Barca defended Jensen, saying that the acting fire chief has instituted a number of positive reforms in the township that keep the residents safe, while saving money at the same time. He also said he thinks the firefighters of Edison do a great job in protecting the residents and emphasized that the conflict is with the union itself.

Yackel, talking about the changes to the dispatch protocol, said that emergency medical response has flagged since Jensen took over, claiming that first aid squads are contacted before trained emergency medical technicians (EMT) are, which he said wasted time.

"Now they try to get a first aid squad if they can, and just waste a lot of unnecessary time," said Yackel.

Barca disagreed that medical response time has suffered under Jensen, saying that there have been four new EMTs hired and more ambulances added to the fleet. Barca also said that Jensen implemented a first response program using the closest available fire apparatus to respond to medical emergencies.

"Chief Jensen has implemented a first responders program with the closest available fire apparatus to emergency medical calls such as heart attacks," said Barca.

Yackel also cited the elimination of fire ground supervisor positions around the Menlo Park Mall, JFK Medical Center, Roosevelt Hospital and near the train station as a reason the union was upset, saying that these people help coordinate emergency responses as the first people on the scene.

Barca said that is a false statement and that it hasn't happened.

Yackel also said that recalling additional firefighters has become more difficult since Jensen's tenure as acting chief began, saying that currently there is no system in place to recall off-duty firefighters. He said the department has recently implemented radio pagers for such a purpose, but that there have been significant technological hurdles in adopting them.

"We have no in-place system that works; they have a telephone pager, but they don't work, and the dispatcher sometimes calls the wrong people. And so they went to these radio pagers, but they're not in service, and it's been two years now since they were told to do it," Yackel said.

Barca said the radio pagers are still being programmed and that in the meantime, the telephone pagers currently used for calling additional firefighters still work. Yackel, though, said the telephone pagers are adequate.

The issue of training also came up, with the union saying that the training captain was abolished under Jensen, leading to inadequate training for new firefighters. Barca said the training captain is an assignment, not a position that can be abolished, and that all Edison firefighters, volunteer or paid, receive adequate training before they are allowed to work as firefighters.

The union president also said that issue had been taken with the acting chief 's management style, which he said was too close to the administration, and did not represent the firefighters. He noted that while the union had initially supported both Jensen and the current administration, as time has passed, they have needed to reconsider their stance.

"He obviously forgot what he learned from being here for 25 years. Now he does what the mayor tells him; the mayor is dangling the carrot. He's been acting chief for two years, and that's politics. You do as I say or you're not going to get appointed chief," said Yackel.

Barca said the union is simply fighting positive fiscal reform in Edison and noted that the township's firefighters are paid, on average, $85,000 a year.

"What you have here is a fire union that's used to getting everything they want, including one of the most generous contracts in the state of New Jersey. This fire department is being held accountable in a new era of fiscal responsibility, and Edison taxpayers should not be distracted by a fire union fighting positive reform," Barca said.