{"id":9153,"date":"2023-07-27T06:27:17","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T10:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=9153"},"modified":"2023-07-27T07:15:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T11:15:36","slug":"toms-river-appoints-gop-club-president-new-municipal-court-judge-in-5-1-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2023\/07\/toms-river-appoints-gop-club-president-new-municipal-court-judge-in-5-1-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Toms River Appoints Rival GOP Club President New Municipal Court Judge in 5-1 Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Anne<\/a>

Anne Hammill-Pasqua (File Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Toms River township council has confirmed the appointment of the president of one of two rival Republican clubs as the township\u2019s new municipal court judge over the objection of one councilman who implied nepotism may have contributed to the hiring.<\/p>\n

The council, in a 5-1 vote, confirmed the mayoral appointment of Anne Hammill-Pasqua as the township\u2019s new municipal court judge. Hammill-Pasqua serves as president of the Republicans for Toms River club, one of two dueling GOP factions that supported Mayor Maurice \u201cMo\u201d Hill and the current council majority in the recent primary election. The primary resulted in a loss for Hill and his slate of incumbent council members who voted on the appointment Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

It was also revealed that Hammill-Pasqua is the sister-in-law of Council President Matthew Lotano. Lotano abstained from voting on the matter.<\/p>\n

Hammill-Pasqua\u2019s resume, according to the website of law firm where she had been employed, named her specialties as workers\u2019 compensation claims and litigation surrounding the Defense Base Act, a federal statute that governs compensation claims arising from incidents that occur on military bases. She also serves on the township\u2019s planning board, and once presided over the board as its chairwoman. Her experience in municipal court matters was unclear.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer qualifications are in her resume,\u201d said Hill. \u201cShe\u2019s the only Toms River resident who applied, and since it\u2019s a Toms River municipal court appointment, I felt it was appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill said three candidates applied for the municipal judge position, which he argued should be taken by a Toms River resident. He also noted the gender of the new judge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is only one other female on the municipal court system in the entirety of Ocean County \u2013 she would be the second woman,\u201d said Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid it help that she\u2019s also president of the Republicans for Toms River?\u201d asked Councilman Justin Lamb, rhetorically.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is based on the fact that she\u2019s a Toms River resident,\u201d Hill replied.<\/p>\n

Township spokesman Art Gallagher said the new judge will earn between $50,200 and $80,000 depending upon how many sessions she presides over. Toms River\u2019s ordinance provides a range of salaries for municipal court judges, ranging from $50,200 to $134,500.<\/p>\n

Lamb represented the lone \u2018no\u2019 vote on the appointment. The remainder of council members voted in favor of the appointment. Councilman Dan Rodrick, the front-runner to become the township\u2019s next mayor, was absent from the meeting.<\/p>\n

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

The Toms River township council has confirmed the appointment of the president of one of two rival Republican clubs as the township\u2019s new municipal court judge over the objection of one councilman who implied nepotism may have contributed to the hiring. The council, in a 5-1 vote, confirmed the mayoral appointment of Anne Hammill-Pasqua as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1826,1080,1007,11],"class_list":["post-9153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-police-fire-courts","tag-anne-hammill-pasqua","tag-featured","tag-municipal-court-judge","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Anne-M.-Hammil-Pasqua.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9153","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=9153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}