Incoming administrator anticipates fire district consolidation
HAMILTON » With Democrats gaining control of town council, consolidating and improving Hamilton’s big government fire service may be the biggest task Republican Councilman Dave Kenny faces as he prepares to take over as the next municipal manager in GOP Mayor Kelly Yaede’s administration.
Kenny, a three-term Hamilton councilman and longtime civil trial attorney, has been nominated by Yaede and unanimously confirmed by the current Hamilton Council to replace the retiring Business Administrator John Ricci effective Dec. 26.
“It’s been an honor to be a councilman for 12 years,” Kenny, who declined to seek re-election this year, said Tuesday in an interview with The Trentonian. “I look forward to moving the township in the same direction as the mayor has, which is fiscal responsibility … and keeping the township safe.”
In his final weeks in office, Kenny and his GOP colleagues passed a non-binding resolution in a 5-0 vote last week recommending the incoming council to consolidate Hamilton’s nine autonomous fire districts into a township-wide municipal fire department that promotes volunteer service.
When Democratic Councilmen-elect Jeff Martin, Rick Tighe and Anthony Carabelli Jr. get sworn into office on New Year’s Day, they alone could pass an ordinance that either consolidates Hamilton’s disjointed fire service into a municipal department or into an independently governed single district that services the entire 40-squaremile township.
“All five of us reached a conclusion that a municipal department is the better option in order to control costs and plan properly for capital expenses,” Kenny said.
Hamilton Council President Dennis Pone, who lost re-election this year to a fourth term, said council passed a non-binding, proconsolidation resolution at a special meeting last Thursday to “voice our opinion formally” on the hot-button issue of Hamilton’s antiquated fire service that currently comprises nine autonomous districts each governed by five elected commissioners who all collect taxpayerfunded salaries.
Serious efforts to consolidate Hamilton’s bloated fire service began in October 2015 when the township’s two firefighter unions began collecting petitions. Indeed, the actual process of fire district consolidation involves a series of time-consuming steps.
With the petition-collection process already completed and certified, the next step for Hamilton’s fire service to be unified under one entity would require Hamilton Council to pass an ordinance on first read by a simple majority vote and then submit a proposed fire budget to the state’s Local Finance Board for review. Upon securing state approval, the council could proceed with passing a pro-consolidation ordinance on second read.
Pone said the current council did not have enough time to implement fire district consolidation this year and said it would have been “patently unfair” to the township’s newly elected Democratic leadership if the current council had introduced a pro-consolidation ordinance during the lame-duck session.
In terms of Dave Kenny getting confirmed last week as the next business administrator of Hamilton’s municipal government, “He is absolutely perfect for that job,” Pone said. “I think it was a surprise initially, but I can’t think of a better person for the job to fill that role.”
Kenny in the coming days will resign from Hamilton Council and officially begin working as business administrator after Christmas, he said, adding he will continue to be affiliated with his law firm but will likely handle a very limited attorney caseload when he begins working as Yaede’s full-time business head. Kenny recused himself from voting on his own appointment but easily received confirmation to the post in a 4-0 vote by his colleagues Pone, Ralph Mastrangelo, Ileana Schirmer and Dina Thornton.
The business administrator, subject to the approval of the mayor, prescribes and enforces rules and regulations for the efficient management of Hamilton Township’s government, according to the township’s website.
Hamilton Democrat Joe Tighue submitted a recent letter to the editor opposing Kenny’s appointment to business administrator. “Simply put this is too important of a position to be given to a person simply on the basis of politics,” Tighue wrote in a Trentonian letter that urged Yaede to “search far and wide to find a qualified replacement before Mr. Ricci leaves at the end of the year.”
Hamilton Democrat Vinnie Capodanno applauded the appointment. “Dave Kenny can go right into that job, and he can do a fabulous job,” said Capodanno, a former township councilman. “He’s very well qualified to be the business administrator. I’d be the first person to say something if he wasn’t qualified.”
Capodanno’s confidante Antonio C. Gambino, who formerly ran unsuccessfully for Hamilton mayor as an independent candidate in 2013, on Tuesday said he was “not too happy about the appointment” of Kenny as the township’s next business administrator. “I don’t think it was a wise decision by the mayor,” Gambino added.
But Yaede defended her nomination of Kenny as a natural successor to Ricci, 67, who has served as an administrator under bipartisan legislative bodies in Hamilton and at the county level during his nearly 40 years of public service.
“The continuity of sound government from my administration shall continue with the appointment of Councilman Kenny to business administrator,” Yaede said in a recent statement issued by her office. “John Ricci has earned bipartisan respect throughout his career. Our entire community owes a debt of gratitude to John Ricci, who has served with honor and distinction. At the same time, we eagerly await Councilman Kenny’s service as our incoming business administrator.”