Kelaher sworn in by Christie in Toms River

U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, left, and Ocean County GOP Chair George Gilmore 

Reflecting on when he first moved to Toms River over 50 years ago, Thomas P. Kelaher says there were more chickens and chicken coops than people and houses, and now the Ocean County shore town has a population of almost 100,000 and is the seventh largest municipality in the state.

Still, it has some distance to go before it becomes a full-fledged city, as New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg reminded Kelaher when they lunched several days ago at a meeting of mayors.

"When he asked me to describe the characteristics of Toms River, I told him we did have 600 miles of streets and he said, ‘Tom, that’s nice, but in New York City we have 6,000 miles of streets,’" said Kelaher, 75, who was sworn in as the town’s second elected mayor at Town Hall on Tuesday.

U.S. Attorney Chris Christie did the honors.

"We worked together for five and half years when he was the Ocean County Prosecutor," said Christie. "He called me and asked me, and I’m not doing many of these but I had to come for Tom, who was incredibly cooperative with us in the post 9/11 era, and was the kind of guy who worked as hard as he had to as part of a whole new paradigm."

Kelaher’s running mates, Peter V. Cassano, Melanie S. Donohue and John Sevastakis all joined the new Republican mayor and retired prosecutor in getting sworn in by Christie.

"My first remark is a concern that Mr. Chris Christie knows how to pronounce my name," Sevastakis joked, referring to the U.S. Attorney.

Longtime Christie friend Councilman Gregory McGuckin was sworn in for a second straight year as Council President. He praised former Mayor Paul Brush, the town’s first elected mayor, a Democrat who served from 2004 to 2007 and who attended Tuesday’s reorganization meeting.

"Paul Brush pledged to restore credibility to the governing body, and that is what he did," said McGuckin. "Paul Brush and I didn’t agree on everything but we agreed on 90 percent of the issues, and one thing I will say about him is he is utterly honest."

Former Mayor Paul Brush

Brush, who didn’t run for a second term, took a standing ovation, one of several Tuesday that also honored Kelaher, McGuckin and Christie. The former mayor as of today questioned the flat tax rate imposed on the town for years "in the face of rising rising pension and healthcare costs," in his words, that required him to take an unpopular stand during his term of office. As one piece of parting advice, he encouraged the expansion of Ocean County Community College and Kean University. 

Giving his own nod to the U.S. Attorney, Kelaher said, "As far as I’m concerned he is certainly the outstanding U.S. Attorney in the United States and our state has been well served by him."

In his victory on Nov. 6th, Kelaher received 9,743 votes to Democrat Richard Strada's 6,777 and Independent Carmine Inteso's 2,060. He was a late entry to the race, filling in for McGuckin who dropped out last September after reports that the Internal Revenue Service filed $120,000 in tax liens against him.

Keeping with his campaign themes Tuesday, Kelaher promised to foster new business ratables to lower taxes and to clean up the old Ciba Geigy property, a waste site roughly the size of Hoboken.

Last month Kelaher testified against the death penalty before the state Senate Budget Committee, presenting in addition to his own experience as a prosecutor the argument that in more than 100 cases DNA evidence exonerated someone sitting on death row.