TOMS RIVER, N.J. –A veto by Mayor Dan Rodrick backing Police Chief Guy Maire could settle an ongoing dispute between the chief and several members of the Toms River Township Council who are aligned with former Toms River Mayor Mo Hill and his political club.
That dispute concerns extending the list of officers in line for promotion despite their finishing last in the most recent phase of testing, three years ago, according to both the chief and Mayor Rodrick, who are on the same page regarding the matter.
That list has never been extended before, and Rodrick says the council’s action is intended to promote a police officer with ties to that faction of the council, which is not in the best interest of the entire police department.
Toms River Police Chief Guy Maire said the council’s decision was unfair to the department because it would require him to wait another year before the department could test for promotions to detective, sergeant, and lieutenant.
Chief Maire backed the mayor’s decision to veto the extension, saying the move to keep the existing list in place would unfairly impact all of the officers preparing for the next round of promotional exams.
“The short reason, in my opinion, is that it’s not fair for the officers who are eligible to take the next promotional process,” Chief Maire said. “There is a group of officers, sergeants, who are eligible to take the next promotion process for lieutenants. I don’t think it’s fair to them. It’s not fair to the officers who want to take a promotional exam when it is set for a certain time period; it’s not fair to extend it.”
The two officers on the now-expired list finished last in testing among all officers during the last testing phase, three years ago.
Rodrick said this is a move to force his hand to promote one of their friends over other qualified officers.
According Rodrick, Ciccozzi met with the Township Attorney Peter Pasquerella, Township Attorney Johnathan Penney, Chief Maire and the Business Administrator Jon Salonis on the advice of Anne Hammil Pasqua, a lawyer and president of the Mo Hill-aligned unofficial Republican Club and sister-in-law of former Councilman Matt Lotano.
“They want to put the people who scored the lowest on this test to the front of the line ahead of the officers who can do the best on this test,” Mayor Rodrick said. “There are dozens of people eligible for these tests, and we need to promote the most qualified officers.”
“It would be fundamentally unfair to all of the officers who are now eligible to take upcoming promotion tests. It is my understanding that this is being contemplated for the sole purpose of ensuring that certain officers who remain on existing lists would have to be promoted,” Rodrick said. “It would be fundamentally unfair, particularly to the officers who were at the top of the sergeants’ list — that were promoted several years ago — and have now become eligible for the lieutenants’ test. Extending the list would benefit the people who placed the lowest — at the expense of those who placed the highest.”
Councilmen opposed to Mayor Rodrick, who aligned with former Mayor Mo Hill, voted in favor of extending the list by one year, a decision Council President David Ciccozzi said was necessary, even though Chief Maire disagreed.
“By letting this expire and re-doing another test, it would take like another year to get that list and complete that examination with a new list,” Ciccozzi said.
Chief Maire disagreed with Ciccozzi’s plan saying it would instead make more qualified officers wait longer for promotions.
“I believe in fair competition,” said Rodrick. “Why have a test or a list at all, if everyone who takes the test is going to get promoted. Those two officers can retake the test and maybe even score higher this time around. This is what’s fair for the township and the entire police department, even though it may not seem fair to Council President Ciccozzi.”