The latest legal battle involving Camden’s EMR

EMR’s Camden scrap metal recycling facilities, located in a majority Black and Hispanic neighborhood where nearly a third of residents live in poverty, have been the site of 14 fires since 2020, according to the New Jersey Office of Attorney General. Some of these fires have sent dangerous pollution into the surrounding neighborhood, forcing residents to evacuate their homes and leaving some with lingering psychological distress and concerns about their health.

After a two-alarm fire at EMR’s scrap metal shredder in May, the city suspended the site’s junkyard license.

EMR then sued the city, claiming it had violated the company’s right to due process. A judge allowed the facility to restart in July after taking fire safety precautions. The city has since withdrawn the license suspension, but the two parties are still sparring in court over whether the company suffered damages due to the work stoppage.

A ‘better neighbor’ fund that hasn’t reached neighbors

EMR established a fund with the Community Foundation of South Jersey in October 2023, according to a summary of the fund included in the company’s July letter to the city.

Balzano said the company created this fund, called the EMR Camden Community Investment Fund, to “become a better neighbor.” The company initially tried to start its own nonprofit but was unsuccessful, he said, later opting to house the fund at the Community Foundation.

“We didn’t know what we were doing, frankly,” Balzano said.

EMR started the fund with a donation of over $524,000 in October 2023 and has made donations of between $30,000 and $95,000 to the fund most months since then. No disbursements were made from the fund prior to the signing of the 2025 agreement between EMR and the city. Balzano said this was because the company wanted to allow the fund time to grow before spending it.

The city’s lawsuit argues that the fund started in 2023 cannot be used to satisfy EMR’s obligations under its later agreement with the city, because the two funds are governed  differently. Grantmaking decisions for the fund created by EMR’s 2025 agreement with the city are to be made by a committee with representation from the city, EMR and Camden residents, while EMR’s 2023 fund is controlled solely by the Community Foundation of South Jersey, with grantmaking recommendations from EMR officials, the city’s lawsuit notes.

Balzano said the company’s plan to satisfy last year’s donation commitments using a preexisting fund was “part of conversations with the city” when the deal was written. He said elements of the agreement, including the involvement of the Community Foundation of South Jersey in managing the community benefits fund and the donation amounts, were based on the existence of the earlier fund.

“They [city officials] knew that,” Balzano said.

Tambussi, the lawyer representing the city of Camden, disputes this.

“That’s just not accurate,” Tambussi said. “And the language of the MOU does not support that.”

A lawyer representing the Community Foundation of South Jersey declined to comment.