TOMS RIVER, NJ – Toms River Mayor Daniel T. Rodrick said today that he will not be swayed or intimidated by the senior police officer’s Fraternal Order of Police union’s tactics to get him to reverse his decision on hiring eight emergency service officers to replace two retiring police captains.
In a letter to residents of Toms River Township, Rodrick listed the salaries of the union’s officers, some costing the township as much as $300,000 per year when you factor in salaries, healthcare benefits, and a $61,000 annual pension payment.
“Nobody is being fired. No cops are losing their jobs,” Rodrick said. “They are getting their raises this year, there’s no defunding. To the unions, this is about promotions and money. To me, this is about saving lives and cutting down the time it takes to get an ambulance to a medical emergency.”
For years, residents of Toms River came to township meetings month after month to ask for better EMS coverage in the township. Residents complained that the for-profit Silverton EMS could sometimes take as long as 30 minutes to respond to a call.
Rodrick announced he would take the $375,000 annual salaries of two retiring captains and re-invest their expenses into eight police department emergency service officers, or community service officers and staff an additional ambulance for emergencies around the clock.
Today, Rodrick said, “It’s over. It’s done.”
The mayor pointed to an ordinance that limited the number of captains, lieutenants, and sergeants the department can staff, adding that the ordinance only sets a cap on the amount. It doesn’t mandate a certain number of high-rank officers he said are ‘desk jobs’.
An effort to fight Rodrick, he says is being led by the police union and a small group of people allied with former Toms River Mayor Maurice Hill.
The opposition is led by a bankrupted business owner who has a patronage appointment with full benefits for just a few hours of work each month, awarded by the former mayor.
Phillip Brilliant, a close ally of Hill’s is leading the charge publicly. Brilliant was appointed to the Toms River MUA several years ago by Hill after a controversial town hall meeting that involved claims of political threats and patronage.
Brilliant, who had recently filed for personal bankruptcy later thanked former Mayor Hill for giving him the position that comes with a salary and full-time benefits to attend a once-per-month meeting. Last year, Brilliant wrote an op-ed in the Toms River Times newspaper thanking the mayor and admitting that he accepted the medical benefits package. Brilliant said he penned the letter saying Rodrick would “come after him”.
Brilliant’s five-year one-day-a-month position with full benefits at the MUA expires in 2026,
Instead, he went on the offensive along with Dana Tormollian to launch a recall petition against the measure to try to stop the police ordinance from going into law. Tormollian ran unsuccessfully against Rodrick in the 2023 election getting just a few hundred total votes.
“I’m not going to be bullied by special interests or friends of former Mayor Mo Hill,” Rodrick said. “We are hiring eight new emergency service officers. We’re going to put saving lives over a few police promotions. Mo Hill left us with a $3.5 million budget shortfall and 30-minute wait times for ambulances. I’m fixing that.”