By Allison Steele
The Philadelphia Inquirer
TRENTON, NJ — The New Jersey Commission of Investigation has called for an overhaul of how the state’s fire departments purchase fire trucks, saying the process is rife with conflicts of interest and wastes tax dollars.
Fire-truck sales are often manipulated by vehicle manufacturers so that communities cannot tell what they are getting or how much they should spend, according to a report released yesterday by the commission.
The commission investigated 80 purchases of trucks across the state during recent years, including some in Moorestown and Cinnaminson.
In some communities, the report found, fire officials steered truck sales to companies that they worked for, allowing them to make commissions on the sales.
“The backdrop for all of this is a complete dearth of meaningful and effective government technical assistance and oversight,” the report stated.
The report recommends that the state, through the Department of Community Affairs, oversee purchases of trucks through New Jersey’s Cooperative Purchasing Program, which provides guidelines for municipalities buying equipment.
The regulations would aid departments without the expertise needed to compare the cost and design of various trucks, said Lee Seglem, assistant director of the commission.
“A large part of this problem is that these communities lack the expertise to put together an accurate representation of their needs,” Seglem said.
Phone and e-mail messages left for officers of the New Jersey State Fire Chief’s Association were not returned yesterday.
New Jersey’s 700 departments use more than $1 billion worth of fire equipment. The commission, an independent watchdog agency that investigates abuses of public trust, looked into the purchase of trucks after receiving complaints from a few municipalities, Seglem said.
In almost 75 percent of the 80 cases it reviewed, the report said, the manufacturers’ purchase proposals were designed in ways that made comparisons to other companies’ vehicles impossible and discouraged other companies from bidding for the contracts.
The process virtually guaranteed that the manufacturers would be awarded the contracts, the report found, regardless of whether another company could have filled the town’s needs for less money.
That is what happened in Moorestown in 2001, according to the report. A truck salesman provided the district’s Board of Fire Commissioners with design specifications that favored his company, according to investigators. Though a half-dozen sales representatives looked at the town’s request for proposals, only the company that drew up the plans submitted a bid. The company sold two trucks to the town for a combined $1.3 million.
Fire-truck manufacturers also frequently failed to provide municipalities with itemized invoices, the report found. Their lump-sum bills often included unapproved add-ons such as sales commissions, factory-inspection trips, or advertising materials such as hats and T-shirts bearing the manufacturer’s logo.
In one case, a company claimed to make a donation to a charity golf tournament in a fire department’s name. In reality, a salesman and three of his friends billed the city $3,500 to cover their tournament entry fees, the report said.
In other municipalities, the report found that fire officials manipulated the truck sales, arranging for manufacturers they worked for to provide trucks to their departments.
In Cinnaminson, the volunteer fire department’s chosen truck manufacturer shifted over the years to mirror the manufacturer that Ed Miller, a member of the fire company, worked for. For one of those sales contracts, the report said, Miller earned a commission of more than $10,000.
Miller told the commission that he saw no conflict of interest in his dual roles because he was never in a position to vote on department purchases.
Miller was vice president of the fire company until 1998, but said he did not hold a significant position in the department in the years after that, when he acted as a sales representative.
Miller told the commission that in the years he arranged truck sales, he could not remember whether he ever told fire company officials or the borough administration that he was a sales representative. He said fellow firefighters knew he held both positions.
The state ethics statute is not clear on whether firefighters, either in paid or volunteer companies, must recuse themselves from participating in the process of buying equipment, according to the report.
The law also does not address whether firefighters who seek to sell equipment to their own fire companies must file financial-disclosure forms and register with the state. The commission recommended that the law be amended to address those ambiguities.