Police Chief Suspended In Toms River

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River Police Chief Mitch Little has been suspended for two days, multiple sources confirmed to Patch on Monday evening.

Mayor Daniel Rodrick and Little both declined to comment on the matter.

"We don't comment on employee matters," Rodrick said.

"It's a personnel matter and I am not at liberty to discuss it, " Little said.

Lt. Peter Sundack is the senior officer in charge while Little is suspended, Rodrick said Tuesday.

The suspension, which sources told Patch was over an administrative issue, comes amid continuing tension between Rodrick and the police department over the mayor's decision to eliminate two captains' positions in the department.

The conflict became public in mid-January, when Rodrick unveiled plans to eliminate the two captains' positions, along with a patrol officer and the public information officer position and to hire eight emergency medical technicians with the money freed up by the salary eliminations.

After Rodrick sent a letter to all residents in the township defending his decision to make the cuts and publishing the salary and benefits information for the police department's command staff, Little refuted the claims in a post on the police department's Facebook page. Little's post was removed about 12 hours later. Read more: Toms River Police Chief Refutes Mayor's Claims On Police Staffing

The conflict escalated when Rodrick said he would cut the captains' positions with or without the township council taking action on the ordinance. The council passed the ordinance but recently rescinded it, after a group of residents succeeded in getting a recall petition certified to force the council to repeal it or put it to a vote of the residents.

At the March 27 council meeting, Rodrick repeated his stance that he will not backfill the two captains' positions, and has labeled the ordinance recall effort politically motivated.

Little's suspension also comes on the heels of Rodrick and the township being served with a notice of a lawsuit filed by Jillian Messina, the former public information officer for the police department, alleging retaliation in her Jan. 19 firing from her position hours after she spoke publicly at the council meeting. Messina urged Rodrick and the township council to take another look at cutting the captains' positions, and also defended her work for the department, which Rodrick has repeatedly dismissed as "just a couple of press releases."

"Messina's position was unnecessary and cut as part of an overall reduction in Mo Hill's outrageous $600,000 plus public relations budget. Any claim to the contrary is false. The position was eliminated and will not be refilled. Her lawsuit has zero merit," Rodrick said.

Messina's lawsuit, which was served on the township on Thursday, includes a sworn affidavit from Little that says he was told by Phil Stilton — then the township's public information officer — that Messina had been fired because Rodrick was angry at Messina's father, Joseph Nardini.

Stilton made a similar comment about Messina's firing in a comment in a public Facebook group on April 5. The comment was deleted a day or two later.

Rodrick ran the campaign of two school board members who challenged Nardini and board member Jennifer Howe in 2021, a battle punctuated by a campaign text message that accused Howe and Nardini of allowing pornography on the school district's website. Rodrick has denied being the source of the text message.