TOMS RIVER, N.J. – Mayor Dan Rodrick has promised to veto a Toms River Township Council measure that would have extended an expired police promotion list, siding with Police Chief Guy Maire in a dispute that has exposed new divisions within the township council majority and the police department.
The disagreement centers on a proposal from council members aligned with former Mayor Maurice “Mo” Hill to extend a three-year-old list of officers eligible for promotion. The list includes two officers who scored lowest during the previous testing cycle — a move Chief Maire and Mayor Rodrick say would unfairly disadvantage more qualified candidates preparing for the next round of exams.
“This list has never been extended before,” Rodrick said. “It’s an attempt to force my hand to promote friends of certain council members over better-qualified officers. That’s not in the best interest of the department or the township.”
During the vote, Councilman Craig Coleman, Harry Aber, and Councilwoman Lynne O’Toole sided with the mayor and voted against the ordinance. The township council will vote tonight on a second reading of the ordinance.
Chief Maire said maintaining the expired list would delay new promotional testing for another year and undermine the fairness of the process. “There’s a group of sergeants eligible to take the next promotional process for lieutenant,” Maire said. “It’s not fair to them or to any officer who has been preparing for these exams based on a set schedule.”
Rodrick said Council President David Ciccozzi and others supporting the extension met with township attorneys and administrators at the urging of Anne Hammil Pasqua, a local attorney and president of the unofficial local Republican club tied to Hill.
“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,” Rodrick said.
Ciccozzi defended the council’s action, arguing that allowing the list to expire would delay promotions for months while a new testing process is completed. “By letting this expire and re-doing another test, it would take like another year to get that list and complete that examination,” Ciccozzi said.
Maire rejected that reasoning, saying the department is ready to move forward with a fair, timely testing process.
“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.”
Rodrick said his veto ensures that promotions remain based on merit, not politics.
“I believe in fair competition,” he said. “If everyone who takes the test is guaranteed a promotion, then the process means nothing. Those officers can retake the test and earn their way up — that’s what’s fair for the township and for the department.”