NJ Firefighter Sues Over Promotion Denial

A volunteer firefighter has filed suit against the Borough of Allendale claiming that elected officials wrongfully refused to confirm his promotion to assistant chief. Michael Pina filed suit against the borough, the director of emergency management, the fire chief and the fire administrator accusing them of an assortment of claims ranging from age discrimination to violations of the US Constitution.

Pina, who serves as First Captain of the with the Allendale Fire Department, was elected assistant chief by the membership of the Allendale Fire Association in late 2022. Pursuant to the Allendale Borough Code, the association membership elects fire officers and the Borough Council confirms the membership’s choices for fire chief and assistant chief. Quoting from the complaint’s citation of the code:

• § 26-8. … The Chief and Assistant Chief shall be elected by the members of the Department, shall hold office for one year and shall be chosen by ballot at the annual meeting of said companies as hereinafter provided; the election of said Chief and Assistant Chief shall be confirmed by the Borough Council before they shall be entitled to hold office.
• § 26-9. Temporary appointments pending confirmation by Borough. In case the Borough Council shall refuse to confirm the election of any Chief or Assistant Chief, the Mayor of the Borough shall appoint a Chief or Assistant Chief to hold office until such officers are elected by the companies and confirmed by the Borough Council.

According to Pina, the Borough Council has always confirmed the membership’s choice for officers. However, in this case the council refused to confirm his promotion. Pina, age 25 at the time of the election, attributed the council’s refusal to (1) his youth, (2) his apolitical position on borough politics, and (3) because he had earlier complained about bullying and harassment. The member who had been elected to take his place as First Captain similarly had complained about bullying and harassment. Quoting from the complaint:

• After plaintiff made protected disclosures involving harassment and bullying like behavior his election to the promoted position at the AFD was effectively denied by the defendants unlawfully due to retaliatory motives centered on plaintiff’s previous protected disclosures.
• Defendants at a minimum perceived the plaintiff was making protected disclosures against them and their confederates in the employ of defendant Allendale and the AFD.
• After plaintiff was duly elected, the defendants in early 2023 sent plaintiff a communication that the defendants were refusing to honor the plaintiff’s duly won election, and instead were not going to change the Table of titles on file as of 2022.
• Defendants notification that plaintiff would not be presented to the voting body to be confirmed was a violation of the defendant Allendale’s Borough Code and bylaws and ordinances and was an un precedented move not made ever or in the remembered past of the AFD.
• The notification threatened plaintiff and another duly elected person that their promotions to 1st Captain and to the Assistant Fire Chief position would be nullified with no due process or explanation, and further that the notification coldly made clear that the plaintiff and the other individual affected were required to immediately embrace their demise and agree to stay on AFD in their present positions or they were to be terminated from employment.
• The other aggrieved employee was also deemed or perceived by defendants to be a supporter of the plaintiff in the workplace as to his previous claims of being harassed and bullied by the defendants in the workplace.

The complaint does not follow the more commonly used pleading guidelines, and is rather difficult to follow. However, it appears to allege age discrimination under NJ state discrimination law; hostile work environment; retaliation; violations of the First, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments; and a violation of New Jersey Constitution’s freedom of expression clause.

Northjersey.com has some additional details on the suit. Here is a copy of the complaint: