Hill, Rodrick Challenge Coronato In Toms River GOP Mayor Primary

TOMS RIVER, NJ — The Toms River Regular Republican Club may have chosen former Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato as its candidate for mayor of Toms River, but two Republican members of the Township Council are not having it.

Councilmen Maurice Hill and Daniel Rodrick both have announced they will challenge Coronato in the Republican primary on June 4. Current Toms River Mayor Thomas F. Kelaher is not seeking re-election, the New Jersey Globe reported.

Coronato was chosen by the candidate screening committee of the Toms River Regular Republican Club on March 16; Hill said the committee voted 10-9 for Coronato after interviewing Coronato, Hill, Rodrick, Virgil Demario, and former councilman Kevin Geoghegan.

Hill on Friday distributed a letter noting he was resigning from the Regular Republican Club as of Monday, April 1, over the handling of the candidate selection process and his request for a vote of the club membership on the candidate to run for mayor.

"I feel this process has been not been conducted in a fair and an impartial manner," Hill's resignation letter said in part. Hill additionally said he has submitted a petition to run in the Republican primary in June.

Rodrick, meanwhile, said he filed a petition to challenge Coronato and now Hill as well for the GOP spot on the mayoral ballot.

"Party officials refused to endorse my candidacy, because I refused to support their plan to develop the Ciba-Geigy Superfund Site," Rodrick said. "Instead, they chose to endorse land use attorney Joe Coronato, who made a career out of getting developers what they want."

The former Ciba-Geigy site is at the center of an ongoing tax appeal battle between Toms River and BASF. Rodrick said the plan involves efforts to connect developer Jack Morris with BASF, and provided copies of emails showing township Business Administrator Don Guardian had put BASF officials in touch with Morris, who is a prolific developer in Ocean County and owns or is involved with a multitude of properties.

"It's highly unethical for the township to be connecting a single developer with a landowner without doing a (RFP) Request for Proposals," Rodrick said. "And, it's even more unethical for the township to connect BASF with a developer in the midst of a tax appeal."

Hill, too, is critical of the endorsement of Coronato because of Coronato's work as a land use attorney and his connection to development projects in Toms River.

"He was the attorney who received the initial planning board approval for the project now known as Riverwood Chase and Cox Cro Crossing," Hill said. "He also was the attorney of record when a 15-acre parcel off North Bay Aveue was approved for a clustered development of 15 homes on half acre lots when the zoning called for acre lots."

Hill said with overdevelopment continuing to be a critical issue for the township, efforts to preserve open space must continue.

"I have been an outspoken advocate for preserving open space," he said, noting that in the last two years the council has preserved more than 60 acres for open space in the northern section of Toms River and preserved the last horse farm in town on Cox Cro Road. "In addition the council revised the master plan in 2017 eliminating residential development on the Route 9 corridor from North Maple Avenue to Route 571."

Hill said the Regular Republican Club froze campaign funds that were donated to support the campaign of Kelaher, Hill, Brian Kubiel and George Wittmann when they last ran for election, rather than distributing them to the candidates to then distribute to other candidates as they see fit. Hill said the suggestion was opposed by George Gilmore, the head of the Ocean County Republican Club, on the grounds it could be challenged in court.

The freezing of the funds is "forcing me to run a bare bones grassroots campaign," said Hill, who served as Ward 3 councilman for two terms and then two terms in an at-large seat. "I offer myself as a candidate who has the honesty, integrity and the leadership skills to lead Toms River. I feel we need an alternative to Mr. Gilmore’s handpicked candidate, Mr. Coronato, who has an impending civil lawsuit for wrongful termination. We deserve better!"

Rodrick, who was elected in November 2017 as part of a Democratic slate, switched to the Republican party in July 2018. He campaigned heavily on the overdevelopment, he noted.

"I promised the residents of this community that I would stop overdevelopment," Rodrick said. "These greedy lunatics want to develop an area the size of Hoboken on the site of the Toms River cancer cluster. I will not let that happen."

He said BASF is claiming in its tax appeal that the Ciba site is worth just $5 million, and that the council has been led to believe BASF will win the appeal, forcing Toms River back $20 million.

"Considering what was done to this township and it's residents by Ciba, the whole notion that we owe BASF $20 million is disgusting!" Rodrick said.

Hill said the civil lawsuit claiming wrongful termination by Coronato of Michel Paulhus, the former Ocean County assistant prosecutor, needs to be resolved and Coronato "fully exonerated" before he could support him as the mayoral candidate

Paulhus recently filed a lawsuit that claims Coronato fired him after Paulhus raised concerns about potentially criminal behavior by John Brogan, who was closely involved with Coronato's efforts to get heroin addicts into drug treatment and recovery programs. Coronato has rejected those claims and said Paulhus made the accusations as retaliation for being fired from his job in the prosecutor's office for what Coronato said was creating a hostile work environment.

"While I will vigorously support our nominees for the Township Council-at-Large seats I cannot support Mr. Coronato’s nomination for Mayor of Toms River until such time his impending civil litigation is resolved and he is fully exonerated of all charges," Hill said. "Therefore I am placing my name on the primary ballot as a republican candidate for Mayor of Toms River. I want to give the registered Republicans of Toms River another choice for the position."

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