Toms River mayor called local agency a ‘patronage pit.’ His colleagues refused to dissolve it.

In a series of votes on Wednesday, the Toms River Township Council rejected a proposal from Mayor Dan Rodrick to dissolve the township’s Municipal Utilities Authority, which his administration considered a way to end redundancies and save large sums of taxpayer money.

The vote included remarks from some council members explaining their reasons for rejecting the proposal, followed by criticism from Rodrick, who insisted that the governing body could have saved taxpayers about $2.5 million per year.

The MUA, founded in 1949, manages wastewater collection for the township and is comprised of a five-person board that handles its finances. Homeowners serviced by the agency were expecting a 2.0% increase in their sewer rates for the year, according to the latest budget.

Rodrick factored in the need for a utilities authority with rising costs, arguing that board members get $45,000 in health benefits for members who “go to one meeting a month for 10 minutes.”

Referring to the MUA as a “patronage pit,” the mayor also claimed the agency uses politically connected law and engineering firms to “milk us for about a half-million dollars a year.”

“Because so many people owe their political positions to power brokers, to political power brokers, we don’t need to have a vote on that any longer,” Rodrick said, moments before some meeting attendees disrupted him by shouting.

“Pretty clear that this council is bought and owned by the same political interests,” the mayor said.

The MUA is operating this year with a $25 million budget, according to a document reviewed by NJ Advance Media. It allocated about $3.8 million in salaries, including $625,165 to compensate its executive director, chief financial officer and seven board members, the budget states.

This year, the utility agency budgeted about $1.5 million for health insurance costs, the document shows.

The MUA has been mired in controversy previously, when the former mayor of Brick Township was appointed its leader in 2010, giving him two full-time salaries. The former mayor has since left his position with the authority.

Bernard Rutkowski, the utility authority’s executive director, could not immediately be reached by NJ Advance Media for comment on the rejected proposition.

Before the council Wednesday evening were three measures. One would have clawed back the size of the MUA, which is made up of five regular members and two alternative members, according to the township code.

The other two proposals would have given local control over the agency, allowing the township to gradually sunset its operations, Rodrick told NJ Advance Media after the meeting.

The first ordinance to dissolve the authority’s leadership failed 4-3. A sister ordinance to create a locally controlled wastewater utility also failed, 5-2.

Acknowledging that he “lost” with the proposal, Rodrick floated the possibility of it returning. Three new members will be sworn onto the council in January.

Councilman-at-Large Thomas Nivison suggested the township could instead restructure the authority rather than liquidate it.

“If there’s as much redundancy, as the mayor says, with engineering and legal, why don’t we just trim the fat?” Nivison said. “Do the engineering in-house. We have legal. But, keep the entity.”

Council President Justin Lamb said he has “railed against” utilities authorities in New Jersey before, arguing that they’re often made up of recycled municipal workers.

“It feels rushed, for that reason alone, that rush, I’m going to vote no,” Lamb said.