The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the conduct of East Orange Fire Chief Andre Williams after numerous firefighters came forward in a letter alleging that he engaged in “multiple incidents of harassment, retaliation, discrimination and criminal activity.”
That investigation is on top of another investigation by an outside counsel the city hired to address the firefighter complaints.
The investigation by prosecutors was confirmed this week by City Council member Amy Lewis, who chairs the council’s public safety committee and is the body’s liaison with the police and fire departments. The prosecutor’s office would not comment on the existence of an investigation, said spokeswoman Kathy Carter.
Lewis said she would support placing Williams — who joined the city’s fire department in 2003, was named chief in 2017 and makes $153,700, according to state data — on leave while the investigations remained ongoing.
The prosecutor’s office investigation was triggered by a complaint one firefighter made to the city’s police department, which forwarded it along to prosecutors, according to Lewis. But for months, firefighters have aired grievances about Williams. In a nine-page letter addressed to Mayor Ted Green dated Sept. 27, presidents of the two firefighter unions in East Orange outlined complaints by 11 members of the approximately 200-member paid fire department.
“This letter provides only a snapshot into the traumatic experiences of current Deputy Chiefs, Captains and Firefighters under the leadership of Chief Williams,” wrote Captain William Kingston and firefighter Garrett Winn, the union presidents who authored the letter. “To date, there has been an alarming number of members of the East Orange Fire Department that were victimized and intimidated while working in fear of retaliation from Chief Williams.”
The mayor’s office declined to comment, citing personnel matters, and all other city council members either did not return calls or emails, declined to comment or deferred any comment to the mayor’s office.
Reached by phone Thursday, Williams told a reporter he would call back but did not reply to two subsequent voicemails and a text message.
The letter includes a range of allegations, some of which had already been reported to the city’s human resources department, the firefighters said.
One firefighter, who was in a same-sex relationship and also took leave from work to serve in the U.S. military, was singled out because of her sexual orientation and came under fire from Williams because of her military service, according to the letter.
“She needs to do more fire fighter work and less military work so all her problems can go away,” the letter quotes Williams saying.
At least two firefighters alleged Williams resisted promoting them, with one saying Williams filed administrative charges against him before beginning the promotion process so that the firefighter could be skipped over. The letter alleges that in the other case, Williams, who is Black, resisted promoting the firefighter, who is white, saying: “There is a black man in power now. I am not promoting any of these white boys.”
The white firefighter was ultimately promoted but then was “systematically harassed,” the letter said, including by being pressured into buying a ticket to a promotional event “as indirect payment for his promotion.”
Another firefighter who filed a complaint against Williams was persuaded in a closed-door meeting to drop his complaint in exchange for having administrative charges against him dropped, according to the letter. The firefighter held up his end of the deal, but the charges never disappeared, and his pay was docked more than $2,000, according to the letter.
Another firefighter, who had concerns about a rodent infestation within a firehouse, was sent to serve on a busy rescue truck after someone sent a photograph to Williams depicting an unsent email that the fire firefighter was drafting to the city’s public safety director about the unsanitary conditions.
“It is well known within the department that Chief Williams has openly made a mockery of the incident,” the letter said, with Williams making comments about how the firefighter was “wishing he would have kept his mouth shut, but now he’ll be too busy on Rescue to talk.”
The letter also alleges Williams agreed to buy property from a city auction with a group of firefighters with the intention of transforming the building into a bar-restaurant. But once the city denied those plans, Williams stopped making his portion of the payments, according to the letter. A firefighter filed an ethics complaint with the state’s Department of Community Affairs alleging Williams did not disclose his ownership of the property on a public financial disclosure form.
One of the firefighters, Akeem Cunningham, a former “firefighter of the year” within the city, said speaking out cost him his job. He had been on approved leave from work, he said, but after he raised complaints against Williams, the chief declared him absent without leave. He said he hopes to get reinstated.
“Cunningham feels as though he is under attack, having been wrongfully terminated in retaliation for exposing illicit practices within the management of the East Orange fire department,” his attorney, Timothy Smith, said in a statement. “The fact that he has gone from being honored as firefighter of the year to being railroaded off the job is outrageous.”
In a statement, Kingston and Winn, who authored the letter, said going to the city’s human resources department has thus far not provided their union members with any recourse. And, they said, none of their members have been contacted by the city’s outside investigator.
The outside counsel, Victor A. Afanador of Newark and Philadelphia-based Lite DePalma Greenberg & Afanador, LLC, was assigned in September, before the mayor received the letter, according to city spokesperson Connie Jackson. Afanador did not respond to voicemail and email seeking comment.
Kingston and Winn wrote in the letter that they either want Williams placed on paid or unpaid leave until the investigations are complete, or they want their members who feel harassed to be able to take paid leave.
Lewis, the council member, said wouldn’t support placing firefighters on paid leave, as having firefighters out isn’t in the best interest of the city.
But placing Williams on leave? “I support that, 100%,” said Lewis. “If the majority, who is the workforce, feel the same way, I think we have to take the catalyst out of the area and deal with it.”
She said she was concerned that some of the acrimony was spilling out to fire scenes — moments, she said, when “there should be no distraction.”
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Josh Solomon may be reached at [email protected].
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