The latest legal battle involving Camden\u2019s EMR<\/p>\n
EMR\u2019s 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<\/a>, forcing residents to evacuate their homes and leaving some with lingering psychological distress and concerns about their health.\n<\/p>\n After a two-alarm fire at EMR\u2019s scrap metal shredder<\/a> in May, the city suspended the site\u2019s junkyard license<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n EMR then sued the city<\/a>, claiming it had violated the company\u2019s right to due process. A judge allowed the facility to restart<\/a> 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 The city has since withdrawn the license suspension, but the two parties are still sparring in court over whether the company suffered damages due to the work stoppage.\n<\/p>\n A \u2018better neighbor\u2019 fund that hasn\u2019t reached neighbors<\/p>\n 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\u2019s July letter to the city.\n <\/p>\n Balzano said the company created this fund, called the EMR Camden Community Investment Fund, to \u201cbecome a better neighbor.\u201d The company initially tried to start its own nonprofit but was unsuccessful, he said, later opting to house the fund at the Community Foundation.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what we were doing, frankly,\u201d Balzano said.\n<\/p>\n 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.\n<\/p>\n The city\u2019s lawsuit argues that the fund started in 2023 cannot be used to satisfy EMR\u2019s obligations under its later agreement with the city, because the two funds are governed\u00a0 differently. Grantmaking decisions for the fund created by EMR\u2019s 2025 agreement with the city are to be made by a committee with representation from the city, EMR and Camden residents, while EMR\u2019s 2023 fund is controlled solely by the Community Foundation of South Jersey, with grantmaking recommendations from EMR officials, the city\u2019s lawsuit notes.\n<\/p>\n Balzano said the company\u2019s plan to satisfy last year\u2019s donation commitments using a preexisting fund was \u201cpart of conversations with the city\u201d 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.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThey [city officials] knew that,\u201d Balzano said.\n<\/p>\n Tambussi, the lawyer representing the city of Camden, disputes this.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just not accurate,\u201d Tambussi said. \u201cAnd the language of the MOU does not support that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n A lawyer representing the Community Foundation of South Jersey declined to comment.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest legal battle involving Camden\u2019s EMR EMR\u2019s Camden scrap metal recycling facilities, located in a majority Black…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7980,71318,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-295472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-camden","tag-environmental-impacts-of-a-scrapyard-loom-in-camden","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}