TOMS RIVER, NJ – Amid the chaos inside town hall in Toms River, tempers flared, as Phil Stilton, the public information officer and police public information officer was allegedly seen yelling at Business Administrator Jon Salonis and Township Attorney Peter Pasquerella on Monday.
Well, at least that’s the story going around town today, but I sort of know somebody inside town hall who knows exactly what happened. That person is me.
Last summer, Dan Rodrick asked me if I would be his public information officer if he won his election. I said, “Absolutely not”. He kept asking me, I kept saying no. I told him initially to keep Mo Hill’s PIO because he at least did a good job herding the media. When I realized that was not possible, I told him to ask some of the good reporters in the area, Jean Mikle from the Asbury Park Press or Daniel Nee at Shorebeat, those two are super-qualified for the job. I even suggested Karen Wall, even though she has some kind of issue with me, she could probably do that job.
“No, I need you,” Rodrick told me and I told him I couldn’t because I already had a job. Eventually, he told me everyone else had turned him down and he had nobody and he needed somebody with my experience in the media. He didn’t want an inexperienced person because he had big plans to improve the township’s messaging, newsletter, and branding. I bring almost 30 years of media experience from all angles, printing, publishing, management, writing, startups, digital media, etc.
After he won the election, he continued to ask me, and I continued to say no, which turned into ‘Let’s talk’. I told him, I don’t need the job, but if he is serious about doing the right thing, I would consider helping, but I wanted the minimum salary by ordinance and I needed flexibility to do the job and to make sure my business successfully continued.
We agreed on terms and I said yes. Heck, I have been yelling from the outside for years that government is horrible inside and out, and I can do it better. Now, here’s my chance to not only prove it, but give back to the town where I grew up and make a difference. Make an impact. I thought it would be a good opportunity to put my money where my mouth always is.
Then it happened quick. The firings, war with the chief, war with the media, war with pretty much anyone and everyone. I didn’t sign up for that. I was quite shocked. I honestly felt like we were the conquering heroes walking into Paris during World War II and instead of smiling and waving back at the people waving American flags and showering us with thanks, the mayor was just randomly executing people in the street.
But that’s a story for another day.
Full disclosure, Mayor Dan Rodrick and I were very close friends. At least, that was my understanding.
The mayor and I have had some major disagreements over what is going on at town hall, but at the end of the day, I agree, it’s his show, he won with 70% and I totally had nothing to do with it. He’s totally the boss.
While I can’t go into specifics about many of the disagreements, because they truly are confidential township matters, the one I can talk about is what happened last week. We had two major traffic accidents and since I was appointed Police PIO, which I might add, I was not involved in the decision-making process on that ‘appointment’, I embraced it because I felt the show had to go on. I was never asked my opinion about firing Jillian Messina or assuming the role of police PIO.
I knew I would not be doing the things Messina did. I won’t be scheduling fundraisers or meeting with businesses, or raising money for the police foundation. But the mayor is the boss and if I am the police PIO, you better believe I will be the best police PIO that ever happened to Toms River. The show must go on.
The chief and I had met, we had a great conversation despite the ongoing things happening in the town hall and we devised a perfect system to start getting daily press releases regarding police incidents in the town. I had always had a great relationship with the chief and we mutually agreed that the relationship would continue despite all of the other distractions going on for the good of Toms river.
We did this for three days. It worked great, the media was thanking me, and people in town were thanking me. People in Toms River were finally seeing what was going on in their neighborhoods. Police blotter reports were going out every single day. That hasn’t happened since the days of Ralph Stocco and former Chief Mastronardy but with no disrespect to Messina. I thought initially that we could bump up the volume together when I took the job. I was scheduled to meet with Messina the day before she was fired, but I had another engagement I had to be at, so I had to reschedule.
Then, the mayor put the brakes on it. He told me not to keep sending police press releases out to the media because it is making the police department look good, and he’s at war with the chief. He accused me of conspiring against him with the chief, saying that I am afraid to go against the chief and the department with him.
I was never afraid. I made it clear to him that his fight with the police department was not my battle.
A month earlier, the mayor stood up at town hall and said “I have a PIO, we don’t need a police pio”. I didn’t agree with it. While I agree that the previous police PIO did not put out enough press releases, she did other things to help the department, which I was not at all willing to do, coordinating fundraisers, etc. But that didn’t matter. It was just another sporadic political decision by the mayor.
Fine, you don’t want police press releases, I won’t do them.
No, you will do them, and you will send them to me for approval and I won’t approve them, the mayor said.
What?
So I kept doing them every day. They kept sitting unapproved.
“Don’t send them out,” the mayor said. He repeatedly reminded me I was an at-will employee who could be terminated at any time. I kept telling him, I run a successful business and don’t care if that happens, so much for teamwork making the dream work.
It all came to a head last week. On Friday, Toms River had two major accidents. One on Hooper Avenue with downed electrical wires and road closures. The other was a serious crash on Route 9 with major injuries, road closures, and miles-long traffic backups.
“Dan, we need to get these press releases out, it’s now a matter of public safety, it’s not about the chief,” I advised the mayor. At first, he said no police press releases, but I insisted and worked with the Police Department and chief to make sure they got done.
I gave the mayor the releases and he was visibly upset and muttering about me never following directions and having oppositional defiance disorder. He is an expert on that he told me, because he sees it in the classroom all the time.
I told him whatever, they have to go out, it’s our responsibility as stewards in the town to let people know what is happening.
Reluctantly he gave the green light, but only sent the releases to the Asbury Park Press and Toms River Shorebeat, as he was upset with recent coverage from all of the other local news outlets.
I wanted to make sure we weren’t violating anyone’s freedom of speech, so to protect the mayor from his action, I went to township Attorney Peter Pasquerella to show him a brief on the matter I found on the internet. The town attorney said nobody’s freedom of speech is being infringed upon.
To me it was still unethical, being that it was a matter of public safety, but like the mayor always says, he’s in charge and I executed his order to only send the release out to two outlets.
I then published the press release on the township website as a public safety message. When the mayor found out about it, he ripped into me, telling me he was going to fire me if I kept disobeying his orders, and that I needed to follow his orders from now on.
He ordered me to remove the accident releases from the township website.
That exchange got heated because he ‘went there’ and I reminded him that on many occasions he has been completely out of order with me. He reminded me that I was just the hired help and replaceable.
Then calls started coming in from other news outlets, Patch, NJ 101.5, The Lakewood Scoop, “What is going on? Why did you only tell the Asbury Park Press?”
I was ordered not to take their calls and to ignore their emails, meanwhile, there was still a cleanup on Route 9. I advised the mayor that his tactic was going to backfire and create more unnecessary drama for the town. He didn’t care, he’s the mayor and he got 70% of the vote in November.
Friday ended for us in a major firestorm and disagreement that ended with “Shut up and do your job or you’re fired” essentially.
Over the weekend I reached out to the mayor and business administrator and let them know that I had worked 10-11 hour days the last week and according to my job description, I am entitled to ‘flex hours’ to accommodate long days. I said it would be better if I worked from home on Monday because I knew where I was, and I knew where the mayor and business administrator were.
The minute I got inside town hall, the mayor and B.A. began immediately micromanaging me, treating me like a child. So I shut the office door, packed up my stuff, and left. I didn’t resign. I didn’t quit. I was in the office for 45 minutes or so and got nothing done because the mayor and B.A. were more interested in giving me a hard time and I guess wanted to get me back in line. I needed to go somewhere I could work and get the tasks for the day done.
Why did I pack my office up? Because I knew that me exercising my right to use my flex hours would mean the mayor would fire me and I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of making me pack a box and get escorted out of town hall.
As I got ready to leave for the day, outside my door were the B.A., Mayor’s Secretary, and town attorney laughing and joking and having a great time. At the same time, these people are saying I’m not doing my job, so the absurdity of it sealed the deal. I’m working from home today, I’m not putting up with another minute of it.
As I left the office Jon Salonis, followed me out and asked me to come back in and talk to him, I refused, and he began lecturing me, and, let’s rewind. I grew up in Toms River. When I graduated high school from Toms River North in 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The day after, I enlisted in the U.S. Marines. I came ‘of age’ as a U.S. Marine, and let’s just say, as we say in Marines, sometimes people just need a good adjustment and I gave the b.a. the adjustment he needed.
I got on the elevator to the basement and left for the day. When I got home to finish my work, all of my accounts had been locked out.
Am I fired? I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to wait and find out, but if I’m not fired, things will have to change in town hall. No more lying, no more hiding, no more deception, no more asking me to do unethical things.
The ball is squarely in the mayor’s court at this time and the people of Toms River deserve better than what they are currently getting.