TOMS RIVER – A new year, a new mayor, and (soon-to-be) four new council members marked a new direction for the town, the results of a tumultuous election last year.
Councilman Daniel Rodrick was sworn in as mayor during the January 1 reorganization meeting, and his running mates joined the council: Craig Coleman, Tom Nivison, and Lynn O’Toole. Rodrick becoming mayor left a vacancy on the council, and his replacement will be named shortly.
After being sworn in, Rodrick thanked his running mates, family, and said he was “humbled by the support we received.”
Before November’s general election, he won the Republican primary in June, besting three other candidates, showing a GOP that was fractured.
“It’s time to bring everyone together in Toms River,” he said. He then said that his tenure will be different from his predecessor’s, where there was “eight years of the township rolling out the red carpet for developers.”
On that note, he was appointing six new Planning Board members, replacing those who voted in favor of the downtown apartment plan.
The council also introduced a new ordinance that would rescind an inspection needed for a certificate of occupancy and another ordinance that changed the Public Works chain of command.
“By tomorrow, half a million dollars a year in political jobs” will be gone, he said. “Just wait until you see what we do in the first 100 days.”
Coleman, who was chosen to be the council president, was previously a principal at the Ocean County Vocational-Technical School. He said that his team will be looking at further ways to cut taxes and make government more efficient.
He also expressed a desire to make the Toms River waterfront a destination, a place where people would visit, enjoy entertainment and other amenities.
Nivison, the owner of Silverton Farms, said he had been involved in other businesses in his days but this was his “first foray into the business of government. I’ll be listening and learning so every decision benefits the people of Toms River.”
O’Toole, president of adult community Holiday City Silverton Phase II, said she’ll bring concerns of the senior community to the council and will try to “bring back services that have fallen by the wayside.”
Certificate Of Occupancy
One of Rodrick’s campaign promises was to repeal an inspection needed before granting a residence a certificate of occupancy. The meeting when he was sworn in also contained the first reading of this repeal. An ordinance needs to have a second reading, at another meeting, before going into effect a certain number of days later.
Councilman Justin Lamb, who often votes similarly to Rodrick, praised repealing this “fundamentally flawed” ordinance.
Two councilmen were left over from the previous leadership of Mayor Maurice “Mo” Hill. They didn’t want to get rid of the inspection.
Councilman David Ciccozzi said he would rather lower the fee than remove the inspection.
“The real estate people were saying ‘caveat emptor’ – let the buyer beware,” he said, expressing that the inspection protects future home buyers.
“It’s also a safety problem” to have bedrooms and garages that police and firefighters don’t know about, he said.
Councilman James Quinlisk also talked about the safety issues, from the perspective of a volunteer firefighter. Firefighters need to know what they’re getting into, and having illegal bedrooms and garages could mean the difference between life and death.
O’Toole said that she has seen that new home buyers are being penalized for construction that the previous owner did 20 years ago.
The first reading of the ordinance passed. The second reading will be at a future meeting.
Lack Of Transparency?
Quinlisk and Ciccozzi also took issue with what they said were changes in how the meetings will be run that haven’t been detailed.
They said they got the agenda for the meeting an hour before it took place, and weren’t able to study it or find out what some of it meant. For example, the change in Public Works chain of command. It deletes the chapter of the township code called “Public Works” and appears to place it as a division of the township administration.
“How can we vote on this…when we have no clue what it is?” Quinlisk said.
Again, the change in Public Works passed the first reading.
Township Council meetings have a part called the Consent Agenda. This is a list of things that generally don’t have much debate about, so they can be voted upon in one motion to save time. If someone – on the dais or in the audience – has a question, they could request that it be pulled out to be discussed separately.
This time around, the Consent Agenda went to vote without allowing the opportunity to pull items out or discuss them.
Ciccozzi and Quinlisk took issue with this because they wanted to discuss these issues – such as council meeting dates – before agreeing to them.
“I’ve heard that public comments will be down to three minutes and there will only be one meeting a month…There are a dozen things on here that are so suspicious,” Ciccozzi said.
Coleman said that the time of the council meetings is being moved from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. because people have complained that 6 p.m. is too difficult. The amount of time each member of the public is allowed to speak is going to be reduced to 3 minutes (from 5), but when everyone has had a chance to speak, they can come up again.
Rodrick said that he and other people reached out to Ciccozzi and Quinlisk to appraise them of the changes but they didn’t respond.
Downtown Apartments
The plan to build apartments downtown was brought up several times during this meeting.
Ciccozzi said that Rodrick campaigned on stopping the building, but construction is down in Toms River. The big developments were approved more than a decade ago.
As a member of the Planning Board for 12 years, Ciccozzi said he’s reported to the township about how there are fewer applications for development. However, the town is beholden to Trenton and its requirements to build a certain number of affordable housing units.
Rodrick countered “Trenton didn’t give property away for $1. They didn’t give a developer (a payment in lieu of taxes plan). You did.”
New Appointments
The following appointments were made as part of the Consent Agenda:
- Tax search officer: Carl Dileo
- Purchasing agent: Cassie Capparelli
- Special municipal prosecutors Anthony Merlino and Peter Pascarella
- Municipal prosecutor Kim Pascarella
- Conflict prosecutor Bonnie Peterson
- Municipal court administrator Keturah Coronato
- Township administrator Scott Tirella
- Director of engineering Wendy Birkhead
- Director of Health and Human Services Laura Picurro
- Recreation director Jonathan Solanis
- Labor counsel Jean Cipriani
