A special meeting of the Toms River Township Council scheduled for Tuesday afternoon has been canceled due to a lack of quorum, halting a last-minute effort by Mayor Daniel Rodrick to change the township’s insurance coverage ahead of the annual reorganization meeting.
Rodrick had sought council approval to pursue a change in the township’s insurance carrier, moving away from the Ocean County Joint Insurance Fund. The mayor has criticized the fund’s $1 million liability coverage limit for lawsuits, arguing that it constrained the township’s ability to settle two ongoing legal cases stemming from the previous administration. He has said the township should carry at least $4 million in coverage.
In September, Rodrick announced his intention to shop for alternative insurance coverage and cited what he said were $6 million in savings achieved by withdrawing from the Central New Jersey Health Insurance Fund. That claim was later challenged by Conner, Strong and Buckelew, the brokerage firm that manages the fund.
In a letter to council members, Township Business Administrator Jon Salonis said the proposed insurance change could save the township approximately $500,000. Salonis also argued that council action was necessary to ensure uninterrupted coverage until the township’s reorganization meeting, scheduled for noon Thursday.
Outgoing Council President Justin Lamb said, however, that council members had not been provided with sufficient information to evaluate the proposal. “No one has cost comparisons,” Lamb said in a phone interview with Patch on Monday.
Lamb said the meeting was canceled because a quorum could not be reached. In addition to Lamb, council members Tom Nivison, Jim Quinlisk and David Ciccozzi indicated they would not attend the special meeting.
In a joint statement issued Dec. 23, Nivison, Quinlisk and Ciccozzi criticized Rodrick’s decision to call the meeting, describing it as “an apparent disregard for the procedural requirements set forth in the Toms River Code” and an action that “undermines the integrity of the governing process.”
The three council members characterized the timing of the meeting—two days before the reorganization—as a “manufactured crisis” and “self-inflicted,” arguing that the mayor failed to take timely action to renew coverage or join a new joint insurance fund.