'Circus' at Toms River council meeting cutting police jobs as speakers get booted

TOMS RIVER - Township Council members voted 5 to 2 Wednesday afternoon to adopt a controversial police staffing ordinance that cuts two police captains' positions to fund eight emergency medical technicians' jobs.

Councilmen James Quinlisk and David Ciccozzi voted against the measure, while Council President Craig Coleman and council members Justin Lamb, Lynn O'Toole, Thomas Nivison and George Lobman voted in favor.

The council took action at the start of a raucous meeting that lasted more than four hours and included angry exchanges between Mayor Daniel Rodrick, who favored the ordinance, and two of his critics. Rodrick has repeatedly said that a lack of EMTs is a "life-and-death issue" and that cutting the captains' jobs will save $700,000 in salaries and benefits, allowing the township to fund the new first aid responders.

"The constituents in my ward have been crying out for ambulance service for some time now," said Lamb, who represents the barrier island area. "… The last mayor, Mayor Mo Hill, refused to respond."

'Totally wrong': Protesters slam Toms River plan to replace police captains with EMTs

The mayor has claimed that some residents have waited up to half an hour for an ambulance and that the police department should be able to function just as well with fewer "desk jobs."

Two captains are retiring and the township will not fill those open slots, Rodrick noted. "No one is getting fired," he said. The number of patrol officers is also being reduced from 113 in the previous ordinance to 112.

At the start of the meeting, Quinlisk and Ciccozzi tried to get the council to adjourn, with Quinlisk claiming the meeting was illegal. During the vote on the ordinance, Quinlisk asked police Chief Mitch Little to speak.

"We are in the middle of a vote," Assistant Township Attorney Anthony Merlino said after Little had come to the microphone to speak. The vote continued, and the chief did not speak. The ordinance was passed.

Little spoke to the media after the meeting and said, "The first and most important thing is, we've won. Even though we have lost this little battle here, I think we've won, because it shows the amount of support our community has for us."

What the chief has said: Toms River cop chief slams mayor's plan to cut police captains' jobs

'You sit on a throne of lies'

Two residents, Paul Williams and Philip Brilliant, were escorted out of the meeting by police; Williams after he repeatedly shouted out from the crowd that Rodrick was "out of order," for speaking without first being called on by Council President Craig Coleman, and Brilliant much later in the meeting, after he got into a loud argument in which he and the mayor exchanged barbs.

Brilliant later sent an email to council members and the media, apologizing for his outburst, which came after he mentioned a letter in which he had called on Rodrick to resign following the chaos of the township's last public meeting, held on Zoom. Rodrick said he was not resigning, and asked Brilliant if he planned to quit his position as a commissioner on the Toms River MUA and also mentioned the bankruptcy of Brililant's environmental firm.

"You are obsessed with me," the mayor said. "You need to get a hobby."

"You are the mayor! You have to show some respect!" Brilliant yelled.

Coleman, who had struggled to control an online Zoom meeting of the council Jan. 31 which ended abruptly after a resident started making antisemitic remarks, this time instituted strict rules on comments, limiting the public to five minutes of comments' each, and setting a 90-minute time limit on the police ordinance hearing.

Coleman was forced to frequently bang his gavel as residents broke into applause and shouted at council members and Rodrick. At one point, a woman yelled out, "You sit on a throne of lies!"

As the meeting wore on, Coleman was also forced to cut off Rodrick, when the mayor began responding to those making comments without asking the council president's permission to speak.

"I have never seen anything like this circus that I have been too," Toms River resident Julie Adamek said. She said it appeared that at the Jan. 18 meeting and this meeting, that "the new people on the council had already made their decisions before the public had even commented. … Nothing registered about what the public was saying on those particular issues."

Before the meeting began, a small gathering was held outside town hall by organizers of a petition drive to either rescind or force a referendum on the ordinance. Brilliant, one of the leaders of the drive, said the group has collected about 2,000 of the 5,000 signatures they are aiming for.

Toms River police fight: Mayor's opponents won't surrender in battle over cop jobs

Brilliant and several others in attendance criticized scheduling a special meeting for 2 p.m. on Feb. 14, which is Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday. The agenda for the meeting was also not available on the township's website; paper copies were distributed in the meeting room less than an hour before it started.

The large majority of the more than 200 people in attendance at the meeting were opposed to the police department cuts, noting that Toms River's police department, which includes 335 police officers and civilian employees, would be left with fewer supervisors than departments in surrounding towns.

The cuts have also been criticized by Toms River's Policemen's Benevolent Association and the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents superior officers. In a letter to residents posted on their social media sites last week, the two police unions said the average response time for an ambulance in 2023 was 7.9 minutes, and the average police officer response to a first aid call was 6.7 minutes.

'It was a hot mess'

Retired Toms River Police Capt. Jeff Kettig noted that an early retirement incentive offered by the state in 1992 had led to a slew of retirements in the police department, and Toms River's governing body had decided to reduce the command staff from a chief, two deputy chiefs and four captains to a chief and two captains.

"It was a hot mess," Kettig said of what happened after the cuts were made in the '90s. "… Training wasn’t done, overtime skyrocketed. … I was a sergeant then, I made a lieutenant's salary because of all the overtime."

He said the township could be opening itself up to more police-related lawsuits if officers are not properly trained and supervised.

'Fools go it alone': Two of new Toms River mayor's appointees quit after month on the job

"You’ve always complained that you were blindsided, no one would give you input, you were surprised by a number of things," resident Anthony Serchio said to Rodrick. "I am just surprised that you are not being more communicative. … I am sure we could find a way to come up with $600,000."

Serchio said he would be willing to pay more in taxes to fund additional EMTs while keeping the captains' jobs.

The council voted on the ordinance in spite of Rodrick saying last week that he had rescinded police promotions, making such a vote unnecessary.

Rodrick reiterated Wednesday that the EMTs are needed now. "Are we going to pay for that by raising taxes and break a promise that this newly elected council made, and that I made," he said, referring to his campaign pledge to cut spending and not raise taxes. "...We are reining in spending....Everything continues on in town hall and services continue as they always have."

Council members seemed to bristle at some audience members' statements that they are controlled by Rodrick.

"I have never seen this kind of discourse in my entire life from a public body like this," Lobman said. "… This is bad politics at its worst."

Lobman said he understood the rationale behind Rodrick's decisions. "Nobody here is looking to cut a policeman out of a job," he said.

"When I was asked to consider taking this job, I only took it because I have no ties to anybody, any company, anything," Coleman said. "I am a resident of Toms River, too, and whatever the outcome of this is, it’s going to affect me and my very sick wife."

"I never would have voted for something that I thought would hurt her or me." he said, his voice cracking.

Earlier in the meeting, Quinlisk and Rodrick sparred when Quinlisk questioned Coleman about the qualifications of one of the appointees to a township job.

"You have been here for two years and you don’t even know what you are looking at," Rodrick responded. "You are so used to voting for whatever (former Mayor) Mo Hill wanted that you don’t even know what you’re voting on. … Can you tell me who was in the position beforehand?"

"It is the president’s meeting, sir," Quinlisk said, referring to Coleman's position on the council.

"I do not know. … but we are going to vote on it," Coleman said.

Winteringham Village resident Carlos Almanzar, who had urged the council not to adopt the police staffing ordinance, went to the microphone again to urge more communication among the council, mayor and members of the public toward the end of the meeting.

"The shenanigans that are going on, how is it looking?" he asked. "We look like little kids."

Jean Mikle covers Toms River and several other Ocean County towns, and writes about issues related to Superstorm Sandy. She's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle,  jmikle@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Toms River council cuts cop jobs to pay for EMTs at 'circus' meeting