{"id":2361,"date":"2018-09-20T02:35:45","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T06:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=2361"},"modified":"2018-09-20T02:35:45","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T06:35:45","slug":"democrats-angered-after-toms-river-gop-boss-lands-six-figure-mua-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2018\/09\/democrats-angered-after-toms-river-gop-boss-lands-six-figure-mua-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Angered After Toms River GOP Boss Lands Six-Figure MUA Post"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Toms

Toms River MUA Building (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The next leader of the Toms River Municipal Utilities Authority will be one of the township\u2019s most prominent Republican party figures, Shorebeat has learned \u2013 and Democrats are raising concern that politics, rather than qualifications, helped him get the job.<\/p>\n

Stephen C. Acropolis, a former Brick Township Republican mayor who serves as the current executive director of the TRMUA, is retiring. He will be replaced by Robert DiBiase, the immediate past President of the Toms River Republican Club. He was hired at the Sept. 5 meeting of the MUA\u2019s Board of Commissioners, which consists of five Republican members. He will earn an annual salary of $120,000 as part of the post, plus benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough Mr. DiBiase is a well-respected individual with many years of work experience, his qualifications do not align with the business of wastewater management,\u201d said Toms River council members Laurie Huryk and Terrance Turnbach, both Democrats, in a joint statement to Shorebeat.<\/p>\n

Huryk and Turnbach said the job posting for the executive director position stated that possession of a C-4 Wastewater Collections System Operator\u2019s License is a preferred qualification, but DiBiase\u2019s resume \u2013 a copy of which was obtained by Shorebeat \u2013 does not reference that he holds such a license.<\/p>\n

Huryk and Turnbach opposed what they termed \u201cpatronage appointments\u201d to the MUA board earlier this year when they took their seats on council after an upset victory at the polls last November. They said Democrats should have been part of the process of selecting new commissioners, who in turn hire the executive director. The fact that both Acropolis and DiBiase have been active in GOP political circles causes concern, they believe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we ran for office, we promised to fight such patterns of partiality,\u201d said Huryk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe residents of Toms River elected three Democrats to spotlight and challenge this exact appointment,\u201d said Turnbach. \u201cCouncilwoman Huryk and I are keeping our word to the residents of Toms River to ensure transparency in our local government, and to demand that the most qualified candidate is hired for the job regardless of political affiliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huyrk and Turnbach are the sole Democrats on the township council following Councilman Daniel Rodrick\u2019s switch to the Republican party this summer.<\/p>\n

DiBiase had formerly been employed by the township as assistant director of Human Services, where he was paid $76,500 in 2017, according to a search of public records. His contract with the MUA is attached to this article.<\/p>\n

Attempts to reach DiBiase at town hall for comment were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

Executive Director Contract, TRMUA:<\/p>\n[scribd id=389043812 key=key-xC0kJ35aT8ZWur5bfQfg mode=scroll]\n

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

The next leader of the Toms River Municipal Utilities Authority will be one of the township\u2019s most prominent Republican party figures, Shorebeat has learned \u2013 and Democrats are raising concern that politics, rather than qualifications, helped him get the job. Stephen C. Acropolis, a former Brick Township Republican mayor who serves as the current executive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[693,692,694,11,695],"class_list":["post-2361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","tag-robert-dibiase","tag-stephen-c-acropolis","tag-toms-river-municipal-utilities-authority","tag-toms-river-nj-news","tag-trmua"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/toms_river_mua.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361","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=2361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}