Five demonstrable facts about Edison Local Governance

 Five demonstrable facts about Local Governance under the Last Four Years of the Joshi Administration:

• Residents have been impeded and or blocked from any Public Inquiry and Scrutiny of the Administration both at Council meetings, with the inexcusable antics of his 'Pocket Council' and by blocking Official Council Communications from being entered into the record as well as adding a Gatekeeper to impede or delay OPRA Requests.
• The People of Edison had to Sit by and Watch their Good Town being Turned into a National Embarrassment.
• An inept and embarrassing Mayoral performance which arguably lacks maturity, experience, honesty, integrity, principals, credibility, truthfulness, political acumen and transparency.
• Turned the town into a massive amount of Ridiculous & Wasteful Spending, warehouse expansion, and uncontrolled approvals of undersized lots and oversized houses, impossible truck traffic, adding to the school overcrowding and without properly addressing major infrastructure problems - and he did all this and Still Raised the Muni taxes by Some 7.4%, more than Doubled the Township Debt Yet only Raised the Ratables by a Ridiculously Low 2.6%. 

• Clearly, he has no idea what he is doing but, to his credit, he is very good at it.

Anyhoo, this guy needs to be Voted into Forced Retirement on June 10th - enough is enough of this Stench Hanging over the Town.

Mayor Sam 'the Big Lie' Joshi Won't be Presenting his Ridiculous $175.5 million Muni Budget for 2025 before the Council

Well, looks like 'Bubble-boy's' bailing out on his own 2025 Muni-Budget and Not Making a Presentation before the Council when it comes up for adoption. 

He apparently doesn't have the nerve to answer Council questions about what's in his own budget and why and will leave it up to others to answer questions.

I get this is an election year but you'd think if his budget is so good then he should be able to convince the Council and Public by sitting there and answering questions.

He only plans to put out a Silly video where he can say whatever he wants and you don't get to comment on all the nonsense he spews.

This is even a new low for this guy. If you remember last year's budget presentation, even though he had the 'Pocket-Council' votes for the budget to pass, he still Rigged the Budget Presentation to limit exposure of his incompetence. 

They moved the Budget Presentation to one hour before a Council Work Session (from a date which was solely for his presentation), didn't give Council Members the budget books to properly vet this budget until the day of the meeting and then only gave Council Members 5-minutes each to ask questions.

His video is already on the website and you can see it there.

Never have I seen someone so disrespectful to the People of Edison but, then again, never have I seen such an incompetent Mayor as he.

Anyhoo, if this doesn't tell you to vote this immature, incompetent buffoon out of office on June 10th, then you'll believe anything that comes out of his disingenuous mouth and you'll continue to make a mockery of this town.

Edison Board of Mythomania's $378.2M FY 26 School Budget Passes - that's a 'Big Duh!'

Well, looks like Jerry 'ReferenDumb' Shi, aka Mr. Shi-shed, Mr. Pac-Man got one of his 4 P's in a Pod to show up last night to get the 5 votes needed to Pass this Bloated, Out-of-Control $pending School Budget, which is just another in a long line of pissing away money and failing to properly address the Biggest Problem facing the School District. We Need a New School.

The Vote was Yes 5, No 3, Absent 1.

Yes - Shi, Peng, Errico, A.Patel, R. Patel

No - Lugo, Romano White

Absent - V. Patel

 

Unfortunately, most of these Board Members obviously don't even understand how these School budgets are put together, what's in and not in these School Budgets and as soon as the state aid money runs out (and it will), they will be faced with an unpleasant reality for their lack of understanding, foresight and failures that will be forced onto the backs of the Residents & Taxpayers.

Here's the May 6, 2025 School Board Meeting:

Anyhoo, there are two undeniable facts in this politically-corrupt town - the town has been taken over by the County and We Need a New School. Neither of which will change, and it will cost you dearly, until you do something about the inept Oversight on both sides of town.

School Board President Jerry 'ReferenDumb' Shi proves, once again, he should of never been allowed back on the Board - Much Less be Board President

 Well, saw something yesterday on 'Edison Township Forum' FaceBook Group page that was quite disconcerting.

Seems Mr. Shi took his disagreement with the 'No' Votes of Board Members Lugo & Romano on the recently failed FY 26 School Budget to a FaceBook Group page. Take it he was writing for himself as Jerry Shi and not as President of the School Board, although there was no disclosure statement to that effect.

But who he was writing as isn't my concern here. Seems to me that any disagreement between Board Members should have been dealt with at the April 29th Board Meeting or in closed session of that meeting.

Who takes their disagreement with fellow Board Members on a Board Vote to a FaceBook Group page?

Chastising two sitting Board Members on a public FaceBook page for Not Voting 'Yes' on the School Budget isn't the correct or fair way of dealing with this disagreement.

What kind of message does that send to other Board members who don't agree with Mr. Shi at Board Meetings?

Are you going to be called out on some public platform by Mr. Shi because you dare to have a different opinion on a Board matter and don't vote the way he thinks you should vote?

As elected officials, the Board Members Represent the People of Edison and are expected to vote for what they believe is best, Not for what Mr. Shi wants or thinks is best.

Seems to me that the Board Members should consider if this is the type of Leadership they want to be Representing the Edison Board of Education going forward. Clearly, I don't think it's the type of School Board Leadership that should be out front Representing the School District.

Not for nothing but the Board members should consider changing the Board Leadership by having Mr. Shi step-aside as Board President and allow some other Board Member to take control of the Board.

Clearly, with this kind of inept and dictatorial Leadership, it's only going to get worse if the School Board does nothing about Mr. Shi.

Be that as it may, Mr. Shi at least owes an apology to Board members Lugo & Romano.

Here's his unfortunate post:

Anyhoo, you get what you vote for, and in this case, it's deja vu all over again with Mr. Shi's inept and dictatorial Leadership.

Th Look on Your Face when You don't have all your P's in a Pod - and the $378.2m Bloated, Out-of-Control $pending FY 26 School Budget Fails

                                   Priceless

Vote - 4 Yes, 2 No, 1 Abstain, 2 Absent. Apparently, you need a majority of the Board (5) whether present or not.

Yes - Mr. Priceless, R. Patel, V. Patel, R. Errico

No - J. Romano, C. Lugo

Abstain - V. White

Absent - S. Peng, A. Patel

Anyhoo, off to a good start over there on Mythomania Lane under the inept & dictatorial leadership of Jerry 'ReferenDumb' Shi, aka Mr. Shi-shed, Mr. Pac-Man.

Another Bloated School Budget, Another Year of Mis-$pending Keeping the School District from Moving Forward

 Well, just a Reminder that the FY 26 School Budget is up for Board Approval on Tuesday. 

Not that anyone's thoughts or concerns are important or matter under the unfortunate inept leadership of Jerry 'ReferenDumb' Shi, aka Mr. Shi-shed, Mr. Pac-Man, they already have the County Super's Approval before you even get a chance to see it - which is all they need to pass it. 

In summary again, this Preliminary Budget has appropriations of $378.2 million, which is up $10.9 million (offset by $10.9 million in other revenue) - leaving the School Tax levy the same as last year at $235.0 million.

The School tax rate built into this School Budget is 3.139. Unfortunately, this reduction in the School tax rate of 2.7-cents (over last year's 3.166) is solely due to the increase in the Ratables of $62.9 million - they kept the School tax levy the same as last year.

No $pending Reductions that affect Your School tax rate. So, when they tell you they kept the School tax Rate Flat again, you now know how - and is wasn't due to any reductions they made in their Ridiculous $pending. School Budgets that fail to show you or at least disclose to you what changed for 7 months of last year's Budget including staffing & benefits, which represents over half the total appropriations. 

When you look at the changes from the FY 25 'Revised Budget' in the Proposed FY 26 Budget, they're not comparing it to last year's Original FY 25 Budget. That's because they update last year's budget to actuals on Feb 1st. That should concern you since those 7 months (July 1 to Jan 31) becomes the breeding ground for the 'Staffing Shell Game' where they can hire non-budgeted positions and never disclose it to you while asking for new positions in the current budget.

Just another Bloated, Out-of-Control $pending Budget that continues to piss away all that State Aid money ($342.9 million over the last 5 years) with these piecemeal projects, some of which get around voter approval needed for capital additions and come with no state aid with these Lease-purchase agreements and that won't solve the Biggest Problem facing the School District.

We Need a New School.

Anyhoo, this is just another in a long-line of Bloated, Out-of-Control $pending School Budgets which is where the bulk of your property tax dollars go to get wasted -  and, you should be concerned what's going to happen when all that State Aid Money Stops coming in - and it will.

Edison School Districts $378.2 million Preliminary School Budget 2025-26

 Well, just received this County Super Approved $378.2 million Fiscal Year School Budget for 2025-26.

This Preliminary Budget has appropriations of $378.2 million, which is up $10.9 million (offset by $10.9 million in other revenue) - leaving the School Tax levy the same as last year at $235.0 million.

The School tax rate built into this School Budget is 3.139. Unfortunately, this reduction in the School tax rate of 2.7-cents (over last year's 3.166) is solely due to the increase in the Ratables of $62.9 million - they kept the School tax levy the same as last year.

No $pending Reductions that affect Your School tax rate. So, when they tell you they kept the School tax Rate Flat again, you now know how - and is wasn't due to any reductions they made in their Ridiculous $pending.

Just another Bloated, Out-of-Control $pending Budget that continues to piss away all that State Aid money ($342.9 million over the last 5 years) with these piecemeal projects that won't solve the Biggest Problem facing the School District - we need a New School.

You can see what this School Budget does to Your School taxes in the March 19, 2025 post.

Just some things you need to understand about School Budgets:

• They are prepared on a Fiscal Year Basis (July 1 to June 30)
• They are prepared by the Administration, Reviewed by their Finance Committee and Voted on by the Board to send down to the County Super for approval. You can't see the budget until after it's approved by the County Super and even when the Board puts the Budget up for a vote, it really doesn't matter what the Public thinks, all they need is the County Super's approval.
• They are required to update their Original Budgets on February 1st for actuals. So, when they're comparing the 2025-26 Budget to the 'Revised 2024-25 Budget, they're not comparing it to the Original 2024-25 Budget. By updating to February 1st, you don't get to see what happened or any of the activity that occurred between July 1 and January 31st in these budgets. All that activity is not disclosed to you and any non-budgeted new employees hired, you never see.
• Property taxes are prepared on a Calendar Year Basis so all they do to convert their Fiscal School tax levy is to take half of last years fiscal year school tax levy and half of this years fiscal school tax levy.
• These School Budgets have Salary & Benefits that far exceed half the appropriations yet they fail to show any headcount schedule by position. Last salary file I saw in January 2025, there were some 2,400 employees. Impossible to understand how they can fail to show the employees by position that go along with and whether it supports the salary dollars they're budgeting.
• This School Budget is up for Board approval on April 29, 2025. Once they approve it, they will post the 'User Friendly Budget' (which is not so user-friendly) up on their website. That posting is just a small amount of the full budget and detail they send down to the County Super for approval.

Here's what they sent down for County Super approval - it shows Revenue & Appropriations, Recap of Balances, Capital Projects, Cap Bank calculations, and Employee List and Benefits for the Contracted Employees among other things:

Anyhoo, this is just another in a long-line of Bloated, Out-of-Control $pending School Budgets and you should be concerned what's going to happen when all that State Aid Money Stops coming in - and it will.