TOMS RIVER – Mayor Dan Rodrick may have scheduled a meeting on Valentine’s Day, but there was very little love shared during the occasion held in Town Hall.
The meeting that began at 2 p.m. had a lengthy public hearing period featuring around 20 people who came before the microphone calling for the controversial ordinance involving police staffing to be tabled and reconsidered.
The police personnel ordinance deletes two captain positions; the people in these jobs are retiring this year. Mayor Rodrick said that the $700,000 saved from those two positions would fund a year-round ambulance over the bridge in the beach areas of town.
The mayor said this move is in response to residents waiting as long as 30 minutes for an ambulance.
The vote went as expected with Council President Craig Coleman, Council Vice President Lynn O’Toole and Councilman Justin Lamb, a Lavallette police officer, Councilman George Lobman and Councilman Thomas Nivison voting yes.
Councilman Jim Quinlisk voted, “hell no” and Councilman David Ciccozzi also opposed the ordinance. Both stood up at one point calling the meeting illegally advertised (towns have to place ads in newspapers to tell the public about meetings). They called for the meeting to be dismissed but were outvoted.
This meeting served to replace a January 31 Zoom meeting that was plagued with technical issues, and an anti-Sematic remark that ended the session after a half hour.
The publication of the ordinance for the meeting served as an issue of controversy itself as critics of the ordinance have questioned whether the notice was adequate – calling it vague and over simplistic.
“I was totally unaware of the meeting date and only learned about it the same way everybody else did, through an ad in the newspaper,” Quinlisk told Jersey Shore Online.com last week.
Councilman Lamb disagreed with Quinlisk and Ciccozzi saying, “if the meeting wasn’t advertised how is it that we are all here?”
Rodrick attended the meeting and faced a loud backlash from the audience, many of whom sported blue Support the Toms River Police T-shirts.
Speakers were critical of the mayor and the council members who voted for the ordinance saying the measure was not well researched and other alternatives could be used, such as grants.
Resident Paul C. Williams (who ran for council last year unsuccessfully) took offense to the mayor interjecting comments early in the meeting and spoke from the audience. Coleman had a police officer remove him from the meeting as a result, saying he was being disruptive.
Jillian Messina, the police department’s former information officer presented several charts explaining what the captains and other supervisors do.
She pointed out what she said were flaws in the mayor’s plans as the audience cheered. Later in the meeting following the vote she reclaimed them noting she wished to show them to people would actually read them.
Police Chief Mitch Little tried to speak before the vote was taken and came up from the audience. However, he was told he would have to wait until later in the meeting as a 90-minute limit was placed on the public comment period for each of the ordinances that were on the agenda and the police staffing ordinance’s time had elapsed.
Resident Phil Brilliant and other supporters of the township police department held a press conference in front of town hall an hour before the meeting to express their discontent for the ordinance and for Rodrick himself.
They expressed the view that Rodrick has been making decisions based on inaccurate information since taking office, lacking transparency and the public’s concern for their health and safety. They also accused Rodrick of trying to silence the voices of the public through initiating Zoom format meetings and setting live meetings at unusual times.
In a separate interview with Rodrick, he has called Brilliant’s movement political theater.
