{"id":1956,"date":"2018-05-09T02:59:29","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T06:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=1956"},"modified":"2018-05-09T02:59:29","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T06:59:29","slug":"toms-river-council-president-wont-ask-wittmann-to-resign-over-patronage-e-mail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2018\/05\/toms-river-council-president-wont-ask-wittmann-to-resign-over-patronage-e-mail\/","title":{"rendered":"Toms River Council President: Won’t Ask Wittmann to Resign Over ‘Patronage’ E-mail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"George

George Wittmann (Campaign Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Responding to a round of tough criticism by a Toms River Democratic party leader, the Republican council president said he would not back a request to oust one of his colleagues from the dais.<\/p>\n

Councilman George Wittmann, who was not present at Tuesday\u2019s council meeting, came under fire by Teddy Price, president of the Toms River Democrats, over an e-mail he accidentally sent to all township employees. The e-mail asked if anyone in \u201cthe club,\u201d purportedly the Republican Club, had been notified of a possible job opening at town hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite frankly, it\u2019s possibly illegal,\u201d Price told council members. \u201cYou know it\u2019s despicable what he did. Do you hire anyone who isn\u2019t in the club?\u201d<\/p>\n

In an e-mail that was leaked to the Asbury Park Press<\/a> last week, Wittmann is quoted as writing: \u201cWe should discuss this at our caucus meeting to see if anyone is interested in the club.\u201d The job was apparently in the law department, and the \u201cclub\u201d referred to the Republican organization. Wittmann accidentally sent the e-mail out to the township\u2019s entire staff instead of Council President Brian Kubiel.<\/p>\n

Kubiel, a Republican, said he would not ask Wittmann to resign over the e-mail, after Price pressed him on whether he would do so.<\/p>\n

Price, after speaking, handed a photograph to the township clerk that he said showed numerous town hall employees at a Republican Club function.<\/p>\n

Price faced resistance from Councilman Maurice \u201cMo\u201d Hill, after excoriating Wittmann over the message.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find it interesting that you take the chance to single out someone who isn\u2019t present,\u201d Hill said. \u201cIt says a lot about your character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Price initially asked if Wittmann had already resigned. Kubiel said he was away on a business trip and his absence was formally excused by the governing body.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis email did not state that anybody was getting a job,\u201d Kubiel later added.<\/p>\n

In the case that a council member resigns, the party to which he or she belongs recommends three candidates, then the remaining council members select one to serve until the next election.\u00a0The Toms River council is currently split 4-3 in favor of the Republicans. Democrats, however, took three out of four available seats in last year\u2019s council race.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Responding to a round of tough criticism by a Toms River Democratic party leader, the Republican council president said he would not back a request to oust one of his colleagues from the dais. Councilman George Wittmann, who was not present at Tuesday\u2019s council meeting, came under fire by Teddy Price, president of the Toms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[617,616,615,11],"class_list":["post-1956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","tag-e-mail","tag-george-wittmann","tag-teddy-price","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/17265060_1477238088955041_6940891347093857449_n.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}