TOMS RIVER, NJ – Toms River Mayor Maurice “Mo” Hill is working to protect many of his confidential employees from the inevitable chopping block. In Toms River, for generations, new mayors pick and choose their own ‘cabinets’ to run major operations centers of the township.
When Hill took office, he fired people and hired close insiders to run the town for him. When Dan Rodrick takes office in January, he can do the same. The mayor picks Confidential employees and gives positions based on where new mayors want to concentrate their efforts. They work at the discretion of the mayor and can be terminated by the mayoral successor.
Having a person in charge that you can trust has always been important. Hill appointed dozens of close allies to help him run the township during his term of office.
Now, he is trying to protect his confidential employees from losing their jobs in January. After several questionable actions by Hill, including allowing Business Administrator Lou Amoruso to return to a job he abandoned four years ago without council consent, Mayor-Elect Dan Rodrick told Hill to stop trying to protect his friends hired under a single-term expectation to be given lifetime township jobs.
Rodrick sent Hill and his team an email last week asking them to cease shuffling employees. Rodrick feels that he promised the residents of Toms River to cut waste in town hall, and Hill is ensuring he can’t.
The incoming mayor added that he would use reduction-in-force actions to terminate any new jobs created by Hill to protect his closest insiders from termination.
Rodrick has not said he would fire anyone but said as the incoming mayor, he soundly defeated Hill in the primary election in June and won by a 70% margin in the November general election, it should be his choice to see who stays, and who goes. Rodrick said voters’ huge win was a mandate that they trust him to do what needs to be done in town hall.
Mo Hill says he’ll do what he wants, because he’s still the mayor.
“No, you’re not the mayor yet,” Hill told Rodrick in the APP article. “If there are openings we need to fill, we are moving forward.”
As for Lou Amoruso, who former Mayor Tom Kelaher once demoted, Hill said he just wants his job and likes working for the town. Amoruso abandoned his public works director job under Hill nearly four years ago to take a job as business administrator.
“He wanted to project himself if there was a change of administrations, and he wanted to go back to the public works job,” Hill said.
“I enjoy working for the town,” Amoruso told the Asbury Park Press. Whether or not he can legally pick and choose his own job in town hall could be a discussion for the council to have, and possibly even the courts.
Throughout the campaign and his six years in office, Rodrick has criticized Hill’s political appointments and excessive spending.