Toms River Councilman Rodrick Censured For 3rd Time

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River Councilman Daniel Rodrick been censured for a third time by the township council, this time for taking a photo of a member of the public and sending it to a social media site, where it was altered to "improperly and unethically smear a citizen rightfully in attendance," officials said.

The council voted 6-1 (with Rodrick voting no) Tuesday night to censure Rodrick and demand his resignation over the photo taken at the Aug. 25 council meeting. The vote came after the council twice called a recess as Rodrick shouted over attempts by Township Attorney Anthony Merlino to read the censure resolution into the record.

The photo was taken from Rodrick's seat at the dais, and altered in a way described as "disgusting" and "awful, awful things," and created the potential for costly litigation to the township, Merlino said.

"Mr. Rodrick's behavior is a disgrace," the resolution said, adding "all people have an inviolable right to attend meetings ... without being personally vilified by a public official."

"No member of the public should come to a public meeting and expect to be photographed by a member of the governing body and expect to have that photo released to anyone," Councilwoman Laurie Huryk said during the vote.

Rodrick was censured in 2019 over campaign rhetoric leading up to the mayoral primary, which the resolution described as having "overtly anti-Semitic overtones" and censured again four months agoafter officials said he leaked information from an executive session that could have opened the town up to litigation.

As he did on the two previous occasions, Rodrick repeatedly shouted over other members of the council and Council President Maria Maruca. After admitting that he took the photo and sent it to a social media site, Rodrick began attacking the man, Richard Ciullo, accusing him of publishing "nude cartoon caricatures of children" on another social media site. Rodrick then attacked Mayor Maurice Hill, accusing him of "liking" the site's posts.

Ciullo, who was present for the council meeting, thanked the council for the censure vote but ignored Rodrick's accusations.

Neither of the social media sites in question were named during the meeting. The video of the council meeting is posted on the township website. The censure discussion begins at the 1:07 mark.

Rodrick also accused the council of censuring him to distract from the council's decision to sit down with the Justice Department to discuss a possible settlement of what federal authorities say are zoning regulations that place an undue burden on religious worship. The Justice Department notified the township last week that it will sue if the township does not change the zoning ordinance that requires a minimum of 10 acres for a house of worship, as well as making other changes.

"You can censure me five times and the people will still know you're liars," Rodrick shouted as Councilman Matthew Lotano tried to speak while voting on the censure. As Lotano again called for him to resign, Rodrick retorted: "I'm not resigning. You should be so lucky. You don't represent the people, you represent special interests."

"You're all going to get recalled," he said, again shouting down Lotano.

Councilman Terrance Turnbach called Rodrick's accusations a smokescreen.

"Every member of the public should be able to come in (to the council meetings) and not feel they should be shamed," Turnbach said.

Councilwoman Laurie Huryk said Rodrick's claim that the township was doing an about-face on the zoning rules — which were a contentious issue during the 2019 mayoral campaign — was ignoring the reality of the situation.

"We have an impending federal suit," she said. "It's not Mayor Hill's plan. ... We have a letter that the attorney general has been authorized to sue Toms River."

"There was no conspiracy. There was no machination about secretly changing things," she said.

Rodrick has been a persistent source of friction since he was elected to the council. He ran as a Democrat with Huryk and Turnbach in 2017, and was in conflict with the Republian majority from the start. Six months after he was elected to the council he switched to the Republican Party.

But even as a Republican, Rodrick has been in conflict with the rest of the council. The conflict ramped up in early 2019 after he decided to seek the mayoral nomination, creating a three-way race with Hill and Joseph Coronato, the former Ocean County prosecutor. Rodrick finished third in the primary voting.

He was rebuked in May 2019 and censured two weeks later, the result of claims he made during the primary alleging plans for a 6,400-home development at the former Ciba-Geigy site were in the works. The planning board approved a solar farm on the site in October 2019. The June 2019 censure also addressed campaign literature that implied Hill was cozy with the ultra-Orthodox community, the Asbury Park Press reported. Those claims have continued since Hill's election as mayor.

Most recently, when the council was set to consider a bid for a piece of township-owned property on Hinds Road in August, Rodrick claimed Hill was steering it to a specific bidder at a price below the value.

The council ultimately rejected the sale, but Rodrick has continued his attacks on social media.

"Given the value of the land, the sale price, and the circumstances surrounding the sale, I believe this sale should be investigated," Rodrick told the Asbury Park Press, adding that he has discussed the issue with the state's Criminal Justice division.

It was Rodrick's Aug. 11 council meeting shouting that prompted Turnbach to call at the Aug. 25 meeting for civility, even as Rodrick was taking the photo of Ciullo. Turnbach was photoshopped into one vulgar version of the photo posted to social media.

"That photo was sent to social media websites and photoshopped into awful, awful things," Turnbach said.

"Each one of us took an oath of office. We placed our hand on the Bible" and pledged to serve the entire town impartially, he said. "There's nothing impartial about the conduct of Councilman Rodrick that night."

Rodrick, in text messages to Patch, said he took the photo of Ciullo to prove Ciullo was the person behind a Facebook page named Sure News Network, which has been attacking Rodrick, Rodrick's friend James Roland, and Shore News Network over the past few months.

Rodrick said he sent the photo to the media; Shore News Network then posted an altered version of the photo to Facebook. The altered photo has since been removed.

This article has been updated to include additional comment from Rodrick and a link to the council meeting video.

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This article originally appeared on the Toms River Patch