Edison Under Joshi

Jets Athletic Center (Papaianni Park) – has cost overruns of over $12 million. The project was presented to the Town Council at a cost of $5 million. The actual costs are now almost $17 million. The building costs are now $12 million and the field $5 million. Read more here.

Glendale/Silver Lake property debacle –  Mayor Joshi authorized this purchase for $13 million from a seller who didn’t have the full rights to the property. Now, Edison is being sued. Attorney fees to date are over $1 million, and Edison is paying the bond interest of $50,000 per month for property it actually doesn’t own. During the deposition, the mayor said he didn’t read the purchase agreement because it would have been a “waste of his time, just like this deposition.” Read it here.

Multiple Edison Water Utility water main breaks – Edison had a bond approved for the replacement of 80-year-old infrastructure, but in the three years that Mayor Joshi has been in office, the work was never started. Read more here.

Sam misled the public when he crowed about lowering taxes in 2023 – the reality is he INCREASED municipal taxes that year, but his increase was offset by a county tax decrease. Read more here. And here.

Mayor Joshi brought an entourage of four police officers to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago at taxpayers’ expense. There was no need for police officers of any type, or any additional security as the President and Vice President of the United States were in attendance; so protection was paramount for all at the event, and therefore provided by the federal government. There was no need for Edison taxpayers to subsidize the protection of our mayor. The town was only reimbursed for the payments to those four police officers (including overtime) after Councilman Richard Brescher called it to the attention of the town council. When notified of the need to pay back the town, the mayor backdated a check from his election campaign fund. Read more here.

Overpaid by 2x for shipping containers –  that were found in a Google search for half the price. 

$1 million no-bid contract awarded to T&M Associates – a civil engineering firm. See more here.

Administration has withheld information that the public has a right to know under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) – OPRA requests are being delayed repeatedly, greatly redacted, or never filled at all. Legal fees have increased exponentially because Sam requires attorney review of all of these requests, with this cost passed on to the taxpayers. There has never been another administration in Edison that required attorneys to review these – what is there to hide?

In an underhanded move to take control of and repurpose the Clara Barton Library building – the mayor attempted to bully the Library Board into giving up the building and move the CB Library into sub-par space with significantly reduced square footage. The Library Board refused to bring the plan to a vote (which is their right under NJ Library Law).  For 50 years, the CB library has been in that location, serving the residents of Clara Barton and South Edison, but Sam blatantly disregarded that. Read more here.

Sam abruptly dismissed the highly qualified Library Board President and Vice President  – who stood up to him, each with a decade of service to the community. He replaced them with less qualified appointees, one of whom is on the board of his HOA. Why? More here.

Sam hastily evicted the Edison Arts Society from the Municipal Building without explanation  – shortly after a political opponent’s wife became President. The Edison Arts Society had been displaying art on the third floor since 1999. That area is now comprised of photos of Sam. Read more here. 

Sam had a 2025 election fundraiser at Ray Catena Auto – while Ray Catena had a zoning variance application pending. Read more here.

Sam and his Council President turned Edison into a national embarrassment, and council meetings were an unproductive circus for months. After evicting an Edison resident from Council chambers for holding an American Flag, the story went viral on national media, forcing the mayor and council president to make public apologies. Read more here.