Edison politics can sometimes be very strange. Sal Pizzi’s letter to the editor, Dec. 10, shows that Mayor Jun Choi is definitely part of the Old Guard. The Old Guard he talks about shares the same mindset as Choi when candidates were picked by just a few persons. When looking at Choi’s record, one can see that he is determined to go backward in time. He has eliminated testing to hire police officers and is trying to do the same with firemen so he can handpick those he wants. Although he was a Democratic committeeman, he bypassed the secret ballot selection of council candidates and handpicked his own candidates to run in 2007. What Choi has done reminds us of Jersey City boss Frank Hague and the notorious Tammany Hall politicians of long ago.
Choi talks about reform, but it looks more like deform. He has hired a lot of high-priced people in positions the town never had before. He has given his cronies huge raises and township cars to travel back and forth from their homes at taxpayer expense. Instead of appointing a police chief, he named a civilian police director who he can fire at any time if the director doesn’t agree with him.T
he Democratic Party was well on its way to reform by passing bylaws to have secret ballots and choosing candidates who supported police and fire testing in order to get the most-qualified applicants to serve our township. In the last three years, Choi has taken us in the wrong direction. He has gone back to cronyism and backroom politics. We have been saddled with a 40 percent tax increase and a 53 percent salary increase for himself. As an example, the communications director got a raise from $65,000 to $90,000 retroactive to July 2007. Now that Jun Choi has come out of the closet and shown his true colors, it is obvious that Edison Township must find new leadership in order to move ahead. We can no longer afford Jun Choi.
Vito Fabrizio
Edison