{"id":7800,"date":"2022-04-28T04:55:26","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T08:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=7800"},"modified":"2022-04-28T06:21:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T10:21:59","slug":"former-toms-river-councilwoman-lands-90k-town-hall-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2022\/04\/former-toms-river-councilwoman-lands-90k-town-hall-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Toms River Councilwoman Lands $90K Town Hall Job"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maria<\/a>

Maria Maruca (Campaign Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

A longtime former member of the Toms River Township council who lost her re-election bid last fall will return to town hall as an employee, Mayor Maurice \u201cMo\u201d Hill announced, drawing the ire of the council member who now represents her ward, as well as at least one member of the public at the lightly-attended meeting.<\/p>\n

Maria Maruca, who recently left a position as the agent, or manager, of the Toms River motor vehicle office, will take over as Toms River\u2019s Director of Senior Services. Hill said Maruca left her previous job at the MVC \u2013 a position which is appointed by the governor \u2013 to take the department director position in Toms River, which is a mayoral appointment. The job was not advertised publicly and it is not clear if any other candidates were interviewed for the position.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnion positions are advertised, but mayoral appointments are not,\u201d Hill plainly stated. \u201cIt\u2019s a mayoral appointment. It takes a special person to lead this department. I\u2019ve known Maria for at least 18 years. She has served this community with distinction, and I think her record of government service, managerial skills and familiarity with this community make her perfect for the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maruca represented the township\u2019s first ward before being ousted in favor of current Councilman Justin Lamb, who successfully won the Republican nomination and the general election for the seat held by Maruca, a fellow Republican on the opposite side of an intra-party split. Lamb was the only member of the council present at Wednesday night\u2019s meeting to vote against granting consent to Hill to hire Maruca.<\/p>\n

At her new position, Maruca will earn $90,000 per year, plus health benefits, compensation \u201con the low end\u201d for a director position, Hill said. He was unsure of the exact cost of Maruca\u2019s benefits package.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the second patronage hire this year,\u201d said Lamb, questioning the hiring, which follows another $90,000 job post handed to Hill\u2019s former campaign worker, a political blogger from Monmouth County who was appointed a public information officer earlier this year. That employee, Art Gallagher, was also hired without any public advertisement of the position.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith everything I see, there are reports down the street, maybe a criminal investigation about hiring at the Ocean County Board of Commissioners, so maybe it\u2019s not the right kind of hiring at this time,\u201d said Lamb. \u201cIt\u2019s bad optics that it\u2019s the second patronage hire in two months. This is starting to sound like Tammany Hall<\/a>. I think it\u2019s unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council President Kevin Geoghegan, aligned with Hill in the Republican party, defended the hire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not concerned about the FBI walking through here, or the Ocean County prosecutor,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maruca\u2019s hiring drew some opposition from members of the public attending the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther people aren\u2019t getting the opportunity to get these jobs, and I don\u2019t really think it\u2019s fair,\u201d said Pat Lazlow, a township resident. \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, I like Maria, but this job should be opened to other people. It seems like everyone is taking care of all their friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill praised Maruca\u2019s previous service to the township as an elected official, and said she was qualified for the job given her previous posts at the MVC as well as with the Seaside Heights Business Improvement District.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to go through a hiring process,\u201d said Hill. \u201cI\u2019ve selected Maria. I think she\u2019s eminently qualified for this position and I think she\u2019s going to do a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The retiring Director of Senior Services, he said, recommended her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was very particular about who she was going to hand this off to, and when I mentioned Maria\u2019s name, she was very comfortable with that transition,\u201d said Hill.<\/p>\n

Matthew Lotano, another council member aligned with Hill\u2019s wing of the GOP, called Maruca the \u201chardest working councilwoman up here\u201d during her tenure, and praised her leadership qualities.<\/p>\n

\u201cHandling people at the DMV, if she can handle that, she\u2019ll fit right in at the Senior Center, so I vote yes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Councilman David Ciccozzi said he \u201ccan understand the optics behind this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut knowing Maria most of her life, as a business woman, running the BID in Seaside Heights for years \u2026 and running the DMV in Silverton for years, there have to be 25 people in that building there, and you can\u2019t imagine the headaches she had dealing with that every day,\u201d he said. \u201cShe turned that place around too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the mayor\u2019s will,\u201d Ciccozzi said, to which Lamb replied, \u201cWe have a chance to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamb represented the sole \u2018no\u2019 vote on the appointment. Council members Geoghegan, Lotano, Ciccozzi and James Quinlisk voted in favor of the appointment. Council members Josh Kopp and Dan Rodrick were not present.<\/p>\n

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

A longtime former member of the Toms River Township council who lost her re-election bid last fall will return to town hall as an employee, Mayor Maurice \u201cMo\u201d Hill announced, drawing the ire of the council member who now represents her ward, as well as at least one member of the public at the lightly-attended […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1080,336,1579,11],"class_list":["post-7800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-featured","tag-maria-maruca","tag-senior-services","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/maruca_campaign_1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7800","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=7800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}