Edison's Budget Vote Collapsed Monday Despite Looming Employee Furloughs
Three council members skipped Monday's meeting, and a fourth walked out during a recess, leaving the body one vote short of adopting its budget. The township says state law will force furloughs if a new budget isn't passed by month's end.
Left: Councilmember Richard Brescher, Right: Council President Joseph Coyle (Source: Edison Television via YouTube) (Illustration by The Central Jerseyan)
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Chris Howell | July 21, 2026
Edison officials are racing to pass a budget and avoid employee furloughs after a municipal council meeting melted down ahead of a planned vote.
The meeting started about 20 minutes late as Council President Joseph Coyle waited, hoping more members would show. Richard Brescher, Kelli Dima, and Asaf Shmuel joined Coyle, four in total, enough for a quorum. Robert Kentos, Biral Patel, and Ajay Patil were absent.
“Three of our members are not here today. Unusual. I’m certain there were circumstances why they could not be here,” Coyle said.
The meeting opened with a resolution for Tourette Syndrome Awareness Day. A spokesperson for the New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome thanked the council, saying the recognition helps “create a community where children and adults living with TS are seen, supported, and included.”
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Then came the budget. Coyle said a failed vote that night would mean reintroducing it entirely and asked Business Administrator Sonia Alves-Viveiros what the options were. She said Edison’s temporary spending authority expires at the end of July, after which state law requires furloughs unless the council first schedules a special meeting.
“By statute, you have to issue furloughs, correct?” Coyle asked. “Yes,” she said. Rather than call that meeting on the spot, Coyle pushed the budget down the agenda, hoping absent members would still arrive.
When Coyle opened the floor to comments, Brescher spoke first. He said he’d only received an amended budget that same day, with no time to study it. Alves-Viveiros called the change technical, a shift of Social Security charges between accounts, not any total. Brescher said there was more he wanted: a breakdown of two costs he’s pressed the administration on for months. EZPass tolls, which he estimates at more than $300,000, and extra fuel burned because roughly 100 employees, some living an hour or more away, take vehicles home, which he puts around $700,000. Combined, he said, the savings could top $1 million.
“I have not received the line items,” he said.
Alves-Viveiros disputed that, saying she’d sent the information May 20 and followed up June 1 with no response. Asked if he’d vote for the budget as written, Brescher said no. “I don’t feel comfortable in voting on this budget the way it is.”
Not long after, Brescher walked out. Coyle called a four-minute recess, hoping he’d return. Twenty-five minutes later, he still hadn’t, leaving the council one vote short and nothing left to do but adjourn.
Coyle’s tone shifted from the patience he’d shown minutes earlier to open irritation. He told the room Brescher had left the building, adding, in a line that landed more like pointed sarcasm than real concern, that he hoped it wasn’t a medical emergency.
“This is my first time in 12 years I’ve ever seen a council not convene for a budget that was important to the township,” he said, noting that former Council President Margot Harris told him she’d never seen anything like it. No one had warned him, he said, or tied an objection to an ultimatum. Without a vote, he warned, “the administration will issue pink slips to employees.” He closed by asking residents to track down all four missing members, “in the most respectful way you can.”
(Source: Facebook)
Mayor Sam Joshi was less charitable still. In a statement naming Brescher directly, Joshi said the council had enough members present until “1 Councilmember, Richard Brescher, decided to leave the meeting and abdicate his elected council responsibilities,” killing the quorum and any chance to amend the budget. He called it “reckless and childish” and said he would “use my statutory authority and force the Council to hold a meeting prior to the end of this month.”
In a text message after the meeting, Brescher said the administration told him take-home vehicles are no longer allowed, and the savings had already been pulled from the budget, though he hasn’t been shown where.
“They need to show me or remove it and lower our taxes,” he said. Asked if he’d return for a special meeting given the numbers, he didn’t hesitate. “I am available any day. I can get tomorrow if they get me the information.”
Coyle’s defense leaned on timing, arguing cuts made this late in the year mostly shrink next year’s surplus rather than this year’s tax bill. He offered a new tax estimate, too, a 4.4 percent municipal increase working out to roughly $130 a year, in the same rough range as figures floated since April, none ever final. What he stated flatly is that nothing touches staffing.
“Our public safety remains the same, no cuts,” he said. “Our fire and personnel remains the same, no cuts. Our public works department remains the same, and no cuts.”
Editor’s note: The Central Jerseyan is free to read and supported by advertising. If you value this kind of local reporting and want to help sustain it, you can become a citizen supporter on Patreon. Your contribution helps fund continued coverage of local government, schools, and community issues.