The Toms River Municipal Utilities Authority acknowledged that six appointed officials are enrolled in medical plans but says locating records showing the legal and policy basis for those benefits could cost Shore News Network as much as $1,400.
TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Shore News Network investigation into taxpayer-funded health benefits for appointed members of the Toms River Municipal Utilities Authority has hit a roadblock after the authority demanded as much as $1,400 to search for records that could establish how commissioners became eligible for the coverage.
SNN filed an Open Public Records Act request Sept. 9 seeking the ordinances, resolutions and board policies authorizing medical benefits for commissioners, the authority’s current eligibility policies, its insurance agreements and a list of part-time employees and commissioners receiving medical coverage.
In its Sept. 18 response, the MUA confirmed six appointed officials are enrolled in medical plans, but refused to provide the legal documentation that allows them to receive free healthcare plans for attending a single one hour meeting per month.
“The TRMUA does not have any part-time employees that receive medical benefits,” Executive Director and records custodian Bernard Rutkowski wrote. “However, there are (6) Appointed Officials enrolled in Medical Plans.”
Those officials are Charles Valvano, Phillip Brilliant, Kim Pascarella, James Braaten, Sam Ellenbogen and Katarina Sevastakis.
Current Vice Chairman Tariq Siddiqui was not included on the MUA’s list of officials enrolled in medical coverage.
The Toms River MUA manages township sewer service. It does not manage municipal water service.
Records needed to answer legality question carry $1,000 to $1,400 price tag or court order
What the authority did not provide were the records SNN sought to determine precisely why those appointed officials are eligible for the benefits and under what legal authority the coverage is being provided.
The MUA said records responsive to portions of the request date back more than 75 years and are not digitized, claiming they do not have access to the documents that show the commissioners are indeed legally entitled to such benefits packages.
Rutkowski estimated that manually searching archived material to find MUA commissioner policy documents would require 25 to 30 hours and cost between $1,000 and $1,400. Shore News Network has filed a complaint with the GRC as the documents requested are simple policy documents that should be readily available.
The authority said the work would take another 30 to 45 business days. If SNN elects to proceed, the MUA wants a 50% deposit before beginning the search, with the balance due before the records are released.
The requested records include any ordinance, resolution, formal board action or policy expressly authorizing health, dental, prescription or vision benefits for MUA commissioners, as well as agreements with the authority’s health insurer establishing eligibility rules.
Those documents were also denied by the authority under the Open Public Records Act.
Those documents are important because the question is no longer simply how expensive the benefits are. The question is whether each appointed commissioner receiving them satisfies the legal and contractual requirements for enrollment. Toms River Mayor Dan Rodrick has cited a municipal ordinance that caps commissioner benefits at $2,000 per year.
MUA distinguishes commissioners from part-time employees
The authority’s response draws a distinction between its employees and the political appointees who govern the agency because on one hand, it says no part-time employees receive medical benefits, but on the other hand it provides free healthcare for less-than-part-time commissioners.
The MUA’s own website currently lists five regular commissioners and two alternates on its Board of Commissioners, although the MUA records clerk only identified six members. The 2026 MUA budget certified by the state of New Jersey also reflects 7 commissioners.
Commissioners generally meet once each month to conduct authority business. They are appointed by the Toms River Township Council rather than hired as traditional full-time employees. This year, the township council re-appointed Phillip Brilliant, a Mo Hill appointee who led a failed recall effort against Mayor Rodrick while Rodrick was pushing to end healthcare for Brilliant and his fellow commissioners.
Township code caps commissioner ‘total’ compensation at $2,000
The current Toms River Township code governing the MUA states that each authority member may receive compensation of no more than $2,000 per year for services as a commissioner.
The ordinance provides an exception allowing additional compensation if a commissioner is separately appointed as an officer, agent or employee of the authority. None of the commissioners fit that requirement.
That unresolved issue became a political fight earlier this year.
On May 13, the Township Council considered an amendment that would have made the language explicit. The proposed ordinance stated that MUA members “shall not be entitled to health benefits” unless they were also appointed as an officer, agent or employee of the authority.
The official Township Council minutes from that meeting show that the ordinance was tabled before adoption by anti-Rodrick council members Tom Nivison, Robert Bianchini, Clinton Bradley, and David Ciccozzi.
The proposed language therefore never became part of the township code.
Former Governor Chris Christie banned healthcare benefits for commissions and boards under the state healthcare plan, but the Toms River MUA has a loophole. It uses a private insurance plan not connected to the state plan.
MUA has provided health coverage to commissioners for years
The practice is not new.
As far back as 2011, public reporting documented Toms River MUA commissioners receiving taxpayer-funded medical, dental and vision coverage in addition to their commissioner compensation.
The issue resurfaced sharply in late 2025 and 2026 as Mayor Daniel Rodrick pushed to eliminate the benefits as part of his overall cost-cutting agenda inside town hall.
SNN has previously reported on the continuing dispute, including the Township Council’s decision in May to table the ordinance that would have expressly barred commissioners from receiving health benefits unless they separately qualified as an authority officer, agent or employee.
Rodrick has argued that the benefits violate existing compensation restrictions. MUA commissioners and their supporters have resisted efforts to eliminate the coverage.
No court ruling establishing whether the current benefits are lawful was identified in the records provided by the MUA.
OPRA allows special charges, but they can be challenged
New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act does allow government agencies to impose a special service charge when a request requires an extraordinary amount of time or effort.
But the state’s Government Records Council guidance on OPRA fees says such charges must be reasonable and based on the actual direct cost of completing the work. The state says the calculation should generally use the hourly rate of the lowest-level employee who can complete the request. At the rate of $20 per hour, those records should cost $700, but SNN disputes that estimate, believing the records should be readily available as they dictate policy for the MUA, its employees and commissioners.
The documents that could show how those pieces fit together are the same records the authority now says will require up to 30 hours of staff research, as much as $1,400 in fees and potentially 45 additional business days to obtain.
SNN’s investigation remains ongoing.