Toms River Night-Mayor: Resignations, backlash continues
Trouble continues as Mayor Dan Rodrick's balancing act between full-time teacher and full-time Mayor angers residents, town employees.
TOMS RIVER/MIDDLETOWN - Sources close to town hall have disclosed to Central Jersey Newswire that Toms River Business Administrator Scott Tirella and his assistant Loring Dunton will be resigning, believed to be effective today. We do not yet know the cause of the resignation as neither were available for comment.
Rodrick’s command of Toms River has fallen merely a month after being sworn in as Toms River’s chief executive, despite his best attempts to erase his ticket’s anti-Lakewood — to others, seemingly antisemitic— campaign. Per the same source, other resignations are to follow in response to his backlash against other Toms River employees.
Privately, Rodrick has reprimanded Police Chief Mitch Little to remove a statement to the public regarding Rodrick’s proposal to eliminate essential staff from the Police Department. Fearing a well-attended public meeting, Rodrick moved tomorrow’s Town Council meeting to Zoom, leaving Toms River residents frustrated at the downward spiral the town has experienced.
Community members speaking to CJN have called Rodrick a coward, one going so far as to call him the “Night-Mayor” - symbolic of both his perceived reign of retribution on Town Hall and a shot at his day job.
A full-time teacher at Middletown’s Thorne Middle school by day, Rodrick has been caught taking his township vehicle to work. Rodrick’s balancing act as a full-time teacher and full-time Mayor comes under continued criticism from the community and is expected to be an issue brought up at tomorrow’s night’s Zoom meeting.
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