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The city of Camden has sued EMR, a scrap metal recycling company with five facilities in the Waterfront South neighborhood that have been the site of repeated fires, claiming the company violated an agreement to provide grant money for community initiatives.
A memorandum of understanding signed between the city and the company in August 2025 in response to a massive fire at EMR earlier that year required the company to pay an initial $1 million into a community benefits fund administered by the Community Foundation of South Jersey, plus $450,000 each year for five years. The money was to be distributed to nonprofits working in Camden for community improvements or medical, environmental, educational and scientific initiatives.
But the company has only deposited just over $783,000 into the fund since the agreement was signed last August, according to a document filed in a separate lawsuit by the New Jersey Office of Attorney General against EMR.
The fund’s balance totals close to $2.3 million, according to a fund summary provided by EMR to WHYY News. Most of that money was deposited by the company before the agreement was signed, according to WHYY News’ analysis of EMR’s court filing.
William M. Tambussi, a lawyer for the city of Camden, claims EMR is merely repurposing money donated to the Community Foundation under an earlier arrangement with the nonprofit from 2023.
“For them to say that money that they have been depositing in this community fund in 2023 somehow applied to the initial payment language that’s in the MOU of 2025, it doesn’t pass the smell test at all,” Tambussi said in an interview Friday.
In its complaint filed in New Jersey Superior Court Friday, the city of Camden says EMR’s actions amount to “bad faith and a material breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” The lawsuit follows a letter Tambussi wrote to EMR in July informing the company that the city believed it had violated the agreement.
EMR rejects this characterization. The company’s lawyers wrote in a letter to Tambussi in July that EMR has fully satisfied its obligations for donations under the agreement. EMR provided a copy of the letter to WHYY News.
EMR USA CEO Joe Balzano said in an interview before the city filed its lawsuit that city officials knew of EMR’s plan to fund the grants required under the MOU with this existing fund when they negotiated the agreement. Tambussi denies this.
“Personally, I find it offensive that we’re worrying about semantics when there’s people that have an actual need, and we’re trying to distribute money to it,” Balzano said.
Kristin Schrum, a mother of two young children who lives just blocks away from EMR’s metal shredder, said the company should donate the full amount outlined in the agreement, without counting donations made before it was signed. Schrum has evacuated her home multiple times due to fires at EMR facilities.
“Past contributions were for past fires, not the one that triggered the MOU,” she said. “EMR should give the full amount.”
