Toms River Council Meeting: Zoom Link, How To Participate

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Township Council is set to have public hearings and final votes Wednesday night on four ordinances, including the controversial ordinance that would eliminate two captains' posts from the police department.

The meeting is set for 7 p.m. and will be held via Zoom instead of in person, a change announced Jan. 24.

Residents can join the meeting by telephone or by computer, on a smartphone or on a tablet.

To join on a computer, tablet or smartphone, you must download the Zoom app. Once you have the Zoom app installed, click the meeting link (find it here) then follow the steps to join the meeting.

To join by phone, call either of these phone numbers: 305-224-1968, or 309-205-3325. Both are numbers in the United States. When it asks for the meeting ID, enter: 895 0815 9869.

The Zoom meeting has a maximum capacity of 500 participants, Township Clerk Michael Cruoglio confirmed Wednesday.

Cruoglio said there is no time limit from Zoom on the meeting but the length of the meeting will be up to the discretion of Council President Craig Coleman.

All participants in the meeting, except for those speaking, will be muted, he said. Unmuting for residents to ask questions will be handled by the IT department at Coleman's discretion, Cruoglio said. He said the council members will be joining the meeting individually, and not meeting together in one place.

The agenda packet for the meeting (see it here) includes the final reading on the police roster ordinance, the ordinance to remove the adoption fees for the Toms River Animal Shelter, along with ordinances that will abolish the public works department and move roads and sanitation under the township's administration department, with parks, buildings and grounds moving to the recreation department.

The move to Zoom has sparked a backlash from residents who oppose the ordinance that would remove two captains, a police officer and the media relations position from the roster of police department positions.

Mayor Daniel Rodrick has insisted the removal of those positions, particularly the captains’ positions, is necessary to cover the cost of hiring eight new emergency medical technicians to increase ambulance service and reduce response times across the township.

Two captains are set to retire shortly, and in a letter to Toms River residents, Rodrick said the salaries, pension contributions and health benefits for the two cost Toms River about $700,000. He says Police Chief Mitch Little and Deputy Chief Patrick Dellane are all the department needs to manage the lieutenants and sergeants under them, along with the 112 police officers who would remain.

Rodrick reiterated that statement Wednesday morning in an email to reporters that blasting the compensation of Little and the command staff, comparing their salaries including pension payments and health benefits to the salary figures (without pension or benefits costs) for Toms River Regional Schools Superintendent Michael Citta and the commissioner of the New York Police Department.

"Police officers in Toms River make more money than officers in most towns in New Jersey," he wrote. "The captains retiring this year make more money than the Commissioner of the New York City Police Department, more than the governor of New Jersey and more than the superintendent of the New Jersey State Police."

Rodrick, in a letter mailed to residents last week, also said he approved the hiring of “seven police officers.”

Little, in a letter posted to the department’s Facebook page on Friday night and distributed to local reporters, refuted several points in Rodrick’s letter. Little said he and the command staff supervise a department that includes not only the sworn police officers but the EMTs (listed as community service officers), the special law enforcement officers who are Class I, Class II and Class III officers, and a number of civilian personnel — more than 330 people in all. Read more: Toms River Police Chief Refutes Mayor's Claims On Police Staffing

Little said the seven officers Rodrick approved are not patrol officers but Class I SLEOs, who are not permitted to carry a firearm and do not have arrest powers.

Rodrick insists the department is not being cut back.

"We need more emergency officers and police officers in cars, patrolling our neighborhoods and fewer officers pushing papers behind a desk at headquarters," Rodrick wrote. "I invite the chief to come to his senses and return to the negotiation and do his part and not to have a tantrum because he’s being asked to tighten his belt, like all of the other departments in our town. Nobody is being defunded and he knows this. The unions knows this."

"The budget for the police department is being INCREASED in 2024 in order to accommodate the rising salaries, health benefits and pension payments being made by the township as an investment into the police department and its officers," Rodrick wrote. "No, this is about a few police officers not getting promotions."

Previous coverage:

• Rallies Planned By Opponents Of Toms River Police Captains' Cuts
• Toms River Police Chief Refutes Mayor's Claims On Police Staffing
• Councilmen Demand Controversial Toms River Police Vote To Be In-Person
• Toms River Council Moves Jan. 31 Meeting To Zoom
• Plan To Cut Police Positions Sparks Outrage In Toms River