File photo
From left, Irvington Fire Division IAFF Local 305 President Alex Lima stands with Lt. Mike Scott at Christian Pentecostal Church on Friday, Feb. 23, after Mayor Tony Vauss’ fourth annual State of the Township Address. Scott and several other Irvington firefighters were officially promoted at the ceremony. He also served as the Irvington Fire Division FMBA president and Lima’s vice president.
IRVINGTON, NJ — What a difference a year makes.
Last year, members of the Irvington Fire Division’s International Association Firefighters Local 305 expressed concern Mayor Tony Vauss would retaliate for the union’s lack of support for his salary deferment plan to close a $3.25 million 2015 Calendar Year Budget gap. Although the township’s other employee bargaining units agreed to give back two paychecks in exchange for avoiding layoffs and keeping their jobs, the firefighters union voted against it.
Shortly after that vote, the township began reviewing all firefighters’ employment histories to determine if anyone had lied about criminal records or convictions on job applications. Lying on a job application or failure to admit driving privileges had been revoked can warrant employees being brought up on charges or even fired.
Vicki Martignetti, the wife of Irvington firefighter Carmine Martignetti, sent an email to the Irvington Herald last year, accusing the Vauss administration and Municipal Council of not meeting its contractual responsibility to pay medical bills for current and former IFD members, including her $49,325 debt for a surgical procedure. Municipal Council President David Lyons responded by saying the township is responsible for paying municipal employees’ health and medical bills and he volunteered to personally help her resolve the billing issue.
Vicki Martignetti said she reached out to Lyons to take him up on his offer, but he didn’t do anything to help her. Lyons said that wasn’t true and promised to look into re-establishing the council’s Insurance Commission, to get a handle on Irvington’s third-party insurance carrier and make sure no other township employees would endure what the Martignettis had experienced.
This year, Lt. Carmine Martignetti was among the firefighters promoted at the fourth annual State of the Township Address, along with Deputy Chiefs John Durish, Joseph Delsordo and Michael Torsiello; Capts. Joseph DeLorme, John Horbacewicz, Craig Spirko, Evan Jones and Patrick LaGuerre; and Lts. Kevin Franz, Peter Laimann, Patrick Donaghy, Glenn Sheaffer, Louis Ferdinandi, Kevin Daniels, Peter Sykes, Danny Cruz, Keith McKoy, Michael Scott, William Childs and Ronald O’Dowd.
Scott is a former IAFF Local 305 union president and vice president, but his promotion now makes him part of the Superior Officers Association union. Current IFD IAFF Local 305 President Alex Lima said 2018 is the year to let bygones be bygones and embrace a spirit of unity, cooperation and teamwork.
“This promotion means a lot to us,” said Lima on Friday, Feb. 23, at Vauss’ fourth annual State of the Township Address. “We were in need of members being promoted. We also were told by the mayor that he’ll be putting on new hires soon. This will bring us up to a state where we can protect the citizens of Irvington as the mayor wants us to do.”
Lima insisted any bad blood between the IFD and administration is a thing of the past.
“There was no strife. The mayor needed something. My membership decided not to go along, but we’re back on the same page with the mayor,” said Lima. “We’re willing to work together with him. We’re on a good relationship, as a boss-employee type of relationship, as it should always be in this township of Irvington. ‘One Team One Dream’.”
In addition to his regular duties, Scott founded the township’s annual Cancer Walk. He served as IAFF Local 305’s president for two years, including 2014, when Vauss was elected mayor, but lost out to Lima in 2015, amid concerns from his fellow firefighters about fiscal issues and alleged lack of upward mobility when it came to careers and prospects for promotions.
Scott stayed on and served as Lima’s union vice president in 2016 and 2017. He is now part of the IFD IAFF Local 2004 union, which represents Irvington fire officers. That union is led by its president, Capt. Kaimu Suggs.
Suggs could not be reached for comment about the recent IFD promotions by press time, but Scott did respond.
“It feels good. It was a long time coming, but it happened,” he said at the State of the Township Address. “It was a bumpy road, but we all came together and tried to make the right thing happen. The town needs to be led. Everybody can’t be a follower. You need to have some people in leadership, to make sure things are running right in the town. These promotions were long overdue. We had a lot of positions that were open. He made that happen.”
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