TOMS RIVER, NJ – A township council Zoom meeting was off the tracks from the start due to technical issues and a screaming councilman who continued shouting over his fellow elected officials, but that was just the beginning. The meeting quickly descended into chaos as Councilman James Quinlisk shouted over other speakers, refusing to follow the rules of the meeting.
Council President Craig Coleman repeatedly asked Quinlisk to come to order, but he refused. At one point, another councilman, David Ciccozzi mocked Councilwoman Lynne O’Toole, a senior citizen because of her age, making an extremely rude comment to her.
But things got worse when an unknown person was able to unmute himself beyond the control of the meeting host, shouting vile anti-semitic hate speech.
The man referenced “Jews” in tunnels in New York City and a pedophilic remark about young Jewish boys. Councilman Quinlisk was seen laughing at the comment.
The unknown participant made a vulgar comment about Jewish rabbis circumcising young boys in tunnels in New York City.
Toms River Mayor Dan Rodrick on Wednesday confirmed the town is investigating the incident and will try to track down the user by IP address.
“We’re going to see if we can find out who it is, which we should be able to do unless he was using a VPN,” Rodrick said. “The matter is being investigated, yes.”
Rodrick condemned the behavior of Councilmen Quinlisk and Ciccozi saying the councilman’s behavior during the meeting was ‘witless’.
Rodrick said he was disappointed in the way the meeting was conducted and said a new meeting would be scheduled, but this time, it wouldn’t be on Zoom. He said the township scheduled the meeting on Zoom because attendance was expected to exceed the capacity of the township’s public meeting room and that officials felt a Zoom meeting would be able to allow everyone who wanted to speak a chance and allow the meeting to go uninterrupted.
No new date has been set by the township yet.
At this point, it is not certain if the Ocean County Prosecutor’s High-Tech Crimes Unit is investigating the matter.