Toms River Moves To Repeal Redevelopment Plan At Chaotic Council Meeting

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Township Council descended into chaos Wednesday night in a four-hour meeting that included a councilman being briefly thrown out, screaming matches and name-calling, and an 80-year-old woman being forcibly removed from the meeting by a police officer when she didn't leave the microphone as quickly as the council president wanted.

The meeting started with presentations ahead of Veterans Day and to Christie Raleigh Crossley, gold medalist in swimming at the Paralympic Games in Paris.

After the niceties, the meeting quickly turned angry as the council was asked to vote on the introduction of two ordinances would make significant changes — one to repeal the downtown redevelopment plan, the other to move multiple departments under the authority of the business administrator.

Councilman Tom Nivison sought to table the first ordinance, the repeal of the downtown redevelopment plan, saying he needed more time to review the proposed ordinance. Councilman David Ciccozzi said the agenda was only presented to the council at 10:35 a.m.

Neither of the proposed ordinances were attached to the agenda for the council to review, Councilman Jim Quinlisk said.

Councilman Justin Lamb said the proposed ordinance was reviewed at the agenda meeting held Oct. 17. The agenda meeting is limited in attendance to less than a quorum of council members under the Open Public Meetings Act.

Nivison said the discussion of the downtown redevelopment repeal only lasted a few minutes out of a 90-minute meeting, but Lamb insisted it was discussed for 15 minutes.

Lamb said the proposed ordinance to repeal the redevelopment plan was a response to what voters wanted. As Nivison started to reply — a reply granted by Council President Craig Coleman — Mayor Dan Rodrick interrupted, saying, "There is a vote."

Nivison responded to Rodrick's interruption by saying he was going to make his statement, just as Lamb had done. But as he started to say, "This doesn't mean I'm for 15-story buildings," Lamb interrupted by saying, "Could have fooled me." Rodrick interrupted as well, echoing Lamb by saying "Could have fooled me too."

That infuriated Nivison, who replied to Rodrick, "Really? Just like you fooled everyone for the last year."

The argument quickly escalated, with Rodrick calling Nivison a con artist and a sellout, and Nivison pointing to Lamb, Councilman George Lobman, Coleman and the empty seat belonging to Council Vice President Lynn O'Toole saying, "Puppet, puppet, puppet, puppet. Look at the strings."

Coleman then threatened to have Nivison removed when Nivison kept trying to repeat that he wanted more time to review the ordinance. The motion to table the ordinance introduction failed.

Rodrick said the repeal was necessary because the plan would have allowed for 150-foot buildings that were not wanted by residents and other elements of the redevelopment plan, including one that would allow for PILOT agreements — where developers would make a lump-sum payment in lieu of paying property taxes (which would rise) yearly — hurt the town.

During the vote to introduce the ordinance, Quinlisk said repealing the downtown redevelopment plan would set the town back 30 years, as efforts to turn it into a hub of activity had been under way for years. He insulted Rodrick, saying he wished they could turn the clock back 30 years to Rodrick still living in Jersey City.

Rodrick said the repeal was necessary because the plan would have allowed for 150-foot buildings that were not wanted by residents and other elements of the redevelopment plan, including one that would allow for PILOT agreements — where developers would may a payment in lieu of paying property taxes yearly — hurt the town.

"You and your friends voted for this, and we are repealing it, and you're angry because you're in the pockets of developers and special interests," without offering any details to support the accusation.

"You're out of your gourd," Quinlisk said.

Rodrick then turned to Nivison and said, "Shame on you. You said you supported repealing this."

"Every word out of your mouth is a lie," Nivison yelled, "just keep lying."

"Everything you do here is to make you look big. Every appointment is for you," Nivison yelled.

"You're a con artist," Rodrick yelled back. "You told people you were against this and you're for it."

"I'm against everything you stand for," Nivison yelled. "Everything you stand for is not for the people. Everything you've done so far in your time is bad for the town."

"So you want the buildings," Rodrick retorted.

"No I don't want the buildings," Nivison replied, adding he voted to table the ordinance only to have more time to read it and understand it.

"You're a con artist and a sellout," Rodrick shouted in response. "You're with the people you ran against. You're a sellout."

At that point, Lobman got up and walked out of the meeting, and Coleman asked the police officers on duty to remove Nivison from the meeting. As Nivison was leaving, Lobman's wife walked out of the meeting room, stopping long enough to yell at resident Phillip Brilliant — a Rodrick critic —saying, "you will get yours," referring to Brilliant criticizing the town's hiring of Lobman's daughter to handle social media for the township.

After a brief recess, the council returned, with both Lobman and Nivison returning to their seats.

The pause wasn't enough to calm the meeting, as the next ordinance introduction, which would reorganize several departments, drew equal opposition and a motion to table it.

Quinlisk said the proposed ordinance was supposed to be 22 pages, but he was not able to view it because it had not been provided to the council.

"All I have here is the title," he said.

"Everybody had this at the agenda meeting," Lamb said, interrupting Quinlisk.

Quinlisk continued to ask why the proposed ordinance was not presented to the council in the agenda packet for review before the introduction vote, saying eight hours before the council meeting wasn't sufficient time.

Rodrick insisted the information had been available at the agenda meeting.

Assistant township attorney Peter Pascarella said the reason the draft of the proposed ordinance wasn't available before Wednesday morning was that he had been away the previous week and had only begun drafting the proposed ordinance on Monday.

"Then what's the rush to get it on the agenda?" Quinlisk asked.

Rodrick, acknowledged by Coleman, said the ordinance was simply a matter of streamlining and making sure titles across the various areas were in alignment with other areas in the town's government. According to the title, it would move four departments — Community Development; Health And Human Services; Recreation; And Parks, Buildings And Grounds — under the supervision of the business administrator, changing department heads to division leaders.

Rodrick said the changes would not cost the town money.

"This codifies what's been going on forever," Rodrick said. "All it does is make it consistent with the law."

Quinlisk asked permission to ask a question, and when Coleman acknowledged him, said to Rodrick, "I have a very difficult time believing it's that simple. If it's this simple why all the secrecy?"

Rodrick and Pascarella interrupted him, saying there was no secrecy, with Pascarella saying there would be plenty of time for Quinlisk to review it as the vote was for the introduction only.

Rodrick then insisted he had tried to speak to Quinlisk multiple times and that Quinlisk did not respond.

"You're so annoying and unintelligent," Rodrick said to Quinlisk. "You think this is a conspiracy to what, call someone a division leader instead of calling them by another title? You think that's a conspiracy, Jim?"

"We'll go with yes but I don't know because there's nothing" Quinlisk replied, with Rodrick interrupting before he could finish, raising his voice and saying, "You don't know because you're an imbecile."

That comment drew complaints from the audience, and Coleman could be heard saying "Why does he do that," but he never addressed Rodrick directly over the insult.

Quinlisk did, however, saying, "You know you're feeling it when you have to go with name-calling."

"You're an idiot," Rodrick said.

As audience members yelled out, Coleman then threatened to have them removed, but Rodrick said "let's just move along."

Neither of the introduced ordinances were available on the township's website as of 1 p.m. Friday.

There were some smaller contentious moments as the council discussed resolutions on the consent agenda, including one giving approval for the township to pay for hotels for people currently living in the woods while the Department of Community Affairs works to get them into long-term housing.

Rodrick said the administration had found $2 million in funds received from the federal government under the American Rescue Plan Act, and would be using that money to pay for the hotel stays. He did not say where those hotels are located.

You can watch the full council meeting on the township's YouTube channel.

At 8:48 p.m., the council then went into an executive session before moving to officials' comments and public comment. The resolution to move to executive session was not read out loud, so it was unclear what was to be discussed in the session. The council also did not give any idea how long the executive session would last.

It was a departure from past councils going back at least 10 years, where executive sessions were held after public comment.

At 9:30 p.m. they returned to public session. While some people in the audience had left the council meeting in the interim, at least 30 people still remained waiting to speak.

Lobman got up and left the dais before public comment could start. O'Toole was not present in the council chamber but attended by phone.

One who waited to speak was Susan Payne, the Democrat who initially ran for the unexpired term representing Ward 2, the seat that had been held by Rodrick before his election as mayor. Payne withdrew her candidacy and was replaced on the ballot by Zach Dougherty, a 23-year-old Toms River native. Dougherty is challenging William Byrne, who was a registered Democrat until March, when he switched parties to run for the seat as a Republican.

Payne used her time to praise Dougherty as a candidate. When she reached the end of her allotted three minutes, she asked for another minute to continue. Coleman granted the minute, but at the end of it she continued for a few seconds more. Coleman tried to silence her, then asked a police officer to remove her from the room when she wouldn't stop speaking.

The officer told Payne to get moving, but would not allow her to retrieve her purse. She started walking toward the door but paused slightly and put her hands on her hips. The officer said in an irritated tone, "Are you mocking me?" Payne said she was not, but the officer yelled, "Get out. Get out now," and then officer grabbed her arm, saying, "get out or get arrested." Video of the interaction can be seen below.

The meeting ended a short time later.