TOMS RIVER, NJ – Toms River Mayor Dan Rodrick today spoke publicly for the first time about a failed effort to recall him led by Toms River MUA Commissioner Phil Brilliant. Brilliant, whose business, Brilliant Environmental, had declared bankruptcy, has been under fire for months over his position at the Toms River MUA, where he collects full-time healthcare benefits for working just one hour per month.
While Brilliant claims to have ‘almost enough’ signatures for the recall, the mayor says like other ventures Brilliant is involved, in, it’s all a sham. Smoke and mirrors. A list ditch effort to keep his position and his free benefits at the MUA.
Here’s what the mayor had to say:
It’s time to set the record straight. For months, we’ve heard wild claims about a recall effort against my administration, with organizers saying they were close to 17,000 signatures. Let me be clear: this effort was a hoax from the start. They never came close to that number.
Private investigator uncovered illegal signature collecting
To get the facts, I hired and personally paid for a private investigator to attend every signing event. His findings were clear: almost no one showed up. The organizers were so desperate that they allowed the investigator to sign for people who weren’t present at every location—which is illegal.
There is video evidence of recall committee members admitting they were nowhere near that number of signatures. If they had 17,000, they would have had to visit nearly every other house in Toms River. But no one came to your door or mine.
The petition was run by the Toms River swap, in an effort to stop Rodrick from draining it
This recall was only meant to discredit my administration and create the false impression that we lack public support. In addition to the recall committee’s lies, the press constantly spreads falsehoods, as I discussed in my last email.
Rodrick stands on his record of delivering on his campaign promises to stop overdevelopment and cut wasteful spending in government
The facts speak for themselves. My administration has done what no other governing body has done in NJ. We reduced the municipal budget by 9%, cutting $11 million in wasteful spending annually. We paid down millions in debt. We stopped 10-story towers and repealed zoning plans for a city of high-rise apartments downtown.
We also achieved a major victory over the State of New Jersey on affordable housing by reducing our new construction requirement to just 184 units, using creative deed restrictions and $9 million from our trust fund—money that would have otherwise been seized by the state..
As promised, we eliminated the burdensome certificate of occupancy ordinance that was preventing residents from selling their homes. We cut red tape, stopped overdevelopment, and have kept taxes flat every year I’ve been in office. Our next budget will also have a flat tax.
Petition aligned with New Jersey’s liberal media who didn’t fact check or dispute false claims made by Brilliant
It is because of these successes that we are under attack—from the liberal media and so-called Republicans from the prior administration who want to regain power. They raised taxes, filled our town with high numbers of affordable housing, and wanted a city of high-rise apartments downtown.
Recent polls show my administration’s approval rating at 66%, plus or minus 3.5%. If the recall committee had even a fraction of the signatures they claimed, they would have submitted them to the clerk. According to their own members, they had less than 1,000 signatures.
Opponents employed CNN/DNC style attack campaign against Mayor, but it failed
The reality is, these individuals—and their media allies—attack me for the same reasons they attack President Trump: anyone who doesn’t play by the establishment’s rules becomes a target. Listen to the language they use: they accuse me of creating chaos, call me a dictator, a bully, and accuse me of interference—just like Trump. They’ve even photoshopped me as a Nazi, just like they do to our president daily. They use all the language of the Democrats because that’s what they are—Democrats masquerading as Republicans. That’s why they have fought me on every cost savings measure I have implemented.
It was all just a hoax
This entire recall has been a hoax, perpetrated to delegitimize our accomplishments and our conservative record. I will continue to fight for you and for the truth.
-Mayor Daniel Rodrick
Toms River
