{"id":2688,"date":"2019-01-07T02:20:31","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T07:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=2688"},"modified":"2019-01-07T02:22:43","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T07:22:43","slug":"toms-river-hires-lacey-gop-committeeman-to-63k-township-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2019\/01\/toms-river-hires-lacey-gop-committeeman-to-63k-township-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Toms River Hires Lacey GOP Committeeman to $63K Township Job"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mark

Mark Dykoff (Campaign Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Democrats in Toms River are calling the hiring of a Lacey Township Republican committee member to a town hall job a \u201cblatantly obvious patronage\u201d appointment.<\/p>\n

The township council\u2019s Republican majority hired Mark Dykoff, 58, as its new council secretary, a job post that officials say will soon receive a new title. Laurie Huryk, one of two Democratic members of the Toms River council, said in an e-mail that the council secretary job was never publicly advertised and no other candidates were interviewed for the position. She also said she and Councilman Terrance Turnbach, a fellow Democrat, heard about the appointment just five hours before a council meeting last week and tried to stop it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll previous discussions indicated that this position was being considered for elimination in order to cut costs for the taxpayers of Toms River,\u201d said Huryk and Turnbach in a joint statement. \u201cSuddenly we\u2019re being asked to vote to give a secretarial position to an individual who is not qualified for secretarial work, at more than a 20 percent increase over the previous employee\u2019s salary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dykoff was elected to a seat on the Lacey Township Committee in November. He previously served as a committeeman there as well as the township\u2019s mayor, which in Lacey is a largely ceremonial post chosen from the committee. He generated controversy in 2014 after he was served a summons for allegedly punching another committeeman, Dave Most, at a Republican Club picnic. The charges were dismissed after Dykoff apologized to Most over the dispute, which apparently centered on a school board endorsement.<\/p>\n

Dykoff, in his Toms River position, will earn a salary of $63,000 annually, however Huryk said she and Turnbach were able to intervene with regard to the appointment, leading to a 90 day-long probationary period under which Dykoff will be paid the equivalent of $58,000. The previous employee who occupied the post was paid $55,000 annually.<\/p>\n

Dykoff was previously employed by the state Motor Vehicle Commission. Sources said he was recently let go along with a number of other Republican appointees left over from Gov. Chris Christie\u2019s administration. He earned $74,830 at the MVC job.<\/p>\n

Dykoff was appointed at the Jan. 3 reorganizational meeting of the township council. His name appeared on the agenda for the business portion of the regular meeting, however the governing body met in a closed session where the hiring was discussed. When the council returned and announced that the probational period with the lower temporary salary was announced.<\/p>\n

Turnbach asked for a vote on the hiring to be put off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve asked certain questions, and nobody here has done the due diligence that we are obligated to do,\u201d he explained. \u201cI mean to disrespect to Mr. Dykoff, but I have a job to do. I took an oath of office to do it, and I can\u2019t do it in this five hour period.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and Huryk both voted against the hiring, though acknowledging that Democrats were outnumbered on the board, suggested the position\u2019s title be altered and a formal list of job duties be promulgated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that the process might not have been perfect,\u201d said Council President George Wittmann. \u201cI apoligize for that, if it wasn\u2019t as smooth as you would have liked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wittmann said Turbach and Huryk would both serve on an administrative committee that would formalize a job description, and added that some confusion may have been caused because in the past there had not been a written description of the council secretary\u2019s duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can assure you that in the next three to four weeks, we\u2019re going to have a job description that is rock solid,\u201d Wittmann said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur loyalties on the township council must be to the township residents we have been elected to represent and serve, not to county Republican leaders or club members,\u201d said Turnbach. \u201cRespectfully, the Republican majority of the township council failed the township residents tonight, pushing through a patronage appointment without any fair, honest and open hiring process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huryk and Turnbach centered a portion of their campaign for council in 2017 on eliminating patronage appointments. They were elected alongside Councilman Daniel Rodrick, leaving the GOP a thin majority, however Rodrick switched parties last year, citing cuts to school funding and other policies promoted by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and some lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncilwoman Huryk and I will continue to fight against wasteful spending in government and continue to make sure our residents stay informed on these issues,\u201d Turnbach said.<\/p>\n

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

Democrats in Toms River are calling the hiring of a Lacey Township Republican committee member to a town hall job a \u201cblatantly obvious patronage\u201d appointment. The township council\u2019s Republican majority hired Mark Dykoff, 58, as its new council secretary, a job post that officials say will soon receive a new title. Laurie Huryk, one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[761,759,760,11,91],"class_list":["post-2688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","tag-council-secretary","tag-mark-dykoff","tag-patronage","tag-toms-river-nj-news","tag-township-council"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Screen-Shot-2019-01-07-at-2.19.28-AM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688","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=2688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}