The 4-3 vote halts $8.55 million in borrowing authority as council members demand street names and cost estimates before approving the debt.
The Toms River Township Council tabled a $9 million paving bond on Aug. 12, halting Mayor Daniel Rodrick's administration's authority to borrow $8.55 million for road work and capital improvements after residents and council members demanded a project list that did not exist. The 4-3 vote leaves the township without this specific bonding authorization.
The ordinance, listed as Item 7 on the council's Aug. 12 agenda, would appropriate $9 million for paving, other capital improvements and equipment. It would authorize up to $8.55 million in bonds and notes, with a $450,000 township down payment. The ordinance classifies the work as general improvements to be undertaken by the township, with no portion of the cost specially assessed against properties that benefit. It does not identify particular streets, projects or equipment purchases. The measure passed first reading 6-1 on July 8, with only Council President David Ciccozzi voting no. The Aug. 12 tabling halted final adoption.
The township solicited bids for its 2026 paving program in May and awarded the contract on June 10, according to HigherGov, a government contract database. The solicitation required bidders to sign a mandatory Project Labor Agreement with the Monmouth & Ocean Building and Construction Trades Council. Rodrick's administration did not say at the meeting whether the bond would fund that contract, expand the paving schedule or pay for other capital needs.
On July 14, Ashland Contractors filed suit seeking to invalidate the solicitation and void the awarded contract, according to the New Jersey Globe. The Manasquan-based firm alleges the PLA violates New Jersey's Project Labor Agreement Act, the Local Public Contracts Law and the New Jersey Civil Rights Act. The complaint also alleges violations of the United States and New Jersey Constitutions, the National Labor Relations Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and claims the agreement places disproportionate barriers before minority-owned contractors.
Ashland, based in Manasquan, counts United Steelworkers as its bargaining representative. The firm submitted bid questions on May 21 and a formal protest on May 27; the township would not delay the June 2 bid opening, according to the New Jersey Globe.
Councilman Clinton Bradley moved to table the measure, and the council divided 4-3. Council Vice President Thomas Nivison, Councilman Robert Bianchini and Ciccozzi backed the motion. Councilman Craig Coleman, Councilman Harry Aber and Councilwoman Lynne O'Toole wanted the vote to proceed.
The four members who voted to table wanted street names and engineering estimates before authorizing the debt. The administration wanted flexible bonding authority it could tap as needs arose.
Resident Janet Laing told the council she had visited the Township Clerk's Office before the meeting seeking the project documents referenced in the ordinance and could not get a breakdown. She also questioned how the ordinance arrived at an average useful life of 18.333 years for the improvements without identifying the underlying projects or purchases.
"If I were sitting up there, I would never vote to spend $8.55 million on anything I didn't know was needed," Laing said at the meeting.
Township Chief Financial Officer Dorothy Gallagher told members the measure amounted to a standing capital authorization, not a project list. The administration would identify work and return for individual approvals before drawing funds. Township Attorney Peter Pascarelli said adoption would not move $8.55 million into day-to-day coffers or trigger immediate borrowing. "The town's not actually, at this point, encumbering $8.5 million of debt," Pascarelli said at the meeting. "It's just giving us the ability to bond." He said the ordinance would establish legal capacity to borrow later for qualifying capital work.
"I think kind of everyone's envisioning that the township is going to have $8.5 million in its general operating account," Pascarelli said at the meeting. "That's not what this is."
"It's an open allocation, and a bond ordinance is not like the budget; it doesn't lapse at year-end," Gallagher said at the meeting. "It stays open until it's either canceled by a governing body or spent."
Bianchini said the ordinance would stay open beyond 2026 if the money were not spent or the authorization canceled.
"We're giving you a blank check for $8.5 million, and then you're going to come to us and ask us if we want to do it, maybe 2027 or whatever," Bianchini said at the meeting. He told the council to name the streets, get engineer estimates and then ask for the money. "Why don't we get an RFP for the paving projects, put the streets together, get an engineer's estimate, and then we can come back as the council, decide on it and do it that way?" Bianchini asked at the meeting.
Ciccozzi said the council could approve financing once the administration had a specific project in hand.
"They could spell it out in detail from A to Z, 'this is what we need it for and this is what's going to happen,' and then we could vote on it," Ciccozzi said at the meeting.
After the vote, Township Business Administrator Jonathan Salonis disputed the four members' understanding of municipal capital procedures. He told them they should "read up on the processes by which municipal governments run" and accused them of "making stuff up," according to the meeting record. Ciccozzi cut off the exchange and moved to the next agenda item.
The township already holds significant unused borrowing capacity, though it has drawn down that pool over the past year. Its audit for the year ending Dec. 31, 2025, reported $25.078 million in authorized but unissued general-capital bonds and notes, down from $32.906 million a year earlier. The township issued $15 million in bond anticipation notes during 2025 against existing authorizations.
The township's 2023-2028 capital program, adopted with the 2023 budget, identified recurring categories of need: paving, drainage and related infrastructure projects; equipment replacement; improvements to township facilities. That planning document does not establish which, if any, of those categories or projects the August 2026 ordinance would have funded. The four members who tabled the ordinance want to see which of those projects the administration intends to fund before they sign off on the debt.
Rodrick said the administration pitched the bond to support road paving, infrastructure repairs and public-works equipment, according to Shore News Network. He warned that the delay would leave the township with fewer options when equipment fails or emergency purchases become necessary.
"This is a public safety measure, paving roads, our parks, and repairing and replacing equipment," Rodrick said, according to Shore News Network. "That's what they're voting against? Who does that?"
The tabling blocks this specific $8.55 million authorization. The meeting record does not clarify whether the township can draw on its existing $25.078 million in authorized but unissued bonds to fund current paving needs. No one has scheduled the ordinance for another vote.
The council can revive the ordinance at any future meeting without reintroducing it.
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Sources
• David Wildstein, "Contractor sues Toms River over mandatory union labor agreement on paving project," New Jersey Globe (July 14, 2026)
• HigherGov, "2026 Toms River Paving Program," HigherGov (May 2026)
• Jersey Shore Online, "Council Holds Off On Borrowing $9M, Cites Lack Of Info," Jersey Shore Online (August 13, 2026)
• OpenPublica, "Toms River Township Council Meeting Record," OpenPublica (August 12, 2026)
• OpenPublica, "Toms River Township Council Meeting Record," OpenPublica (July 8, 2026)
• Phil Stilton, "Toms River Council Votes Down Critical Road Paving and Park Repairs Proposed by Mayor," Shore News Network (August 13, 2026)
• Township of Toms River, "2023 Municipal Budget," Township of Toms River (March 22, 2023)
• Township of Toms River, "Audit Report for the Year Ended December 31, 2025," Township of Toms River (April 1, 2026)