NJ town resorts to banning U.S. flag as council meetings get increasingly wacky

🎤Town council votes to cut public time at mic

🎤Props banned, including flags, in decorum rule

🎤Ordinance follows months of meeting disruptions

EDISON — Emotions ran high among dozens of critics at a Monday meeting, as the Edison Township Council adopted some new rules for public comments.

One ordinance reduced the limit on public speaking time by two minutes, to a total of four minutes per person. There were two dissenting votes and an absent council member who has previously spoken against the proposal.

A separate ordinance looked to codify "firm rules of decorum for conduct" at town council meetings.

That conduct, already established by Edison Council President Nishith Patel, included a ban on any props from use by those at the podium.

American flags and copies of the U.S. Constitution being lumped into “props” was of particular disgust from those who slammed the ordinance before a final vote.

As the floor was opened up for public comment on the time restriction, the first speaker said the council should be ashamed of its proposal to “slash” the time that each member of the public is allowed to speak.

He narrated that he was holding a printed copy of the ordinance, saying “I’m tearing it up and holding up the pieces, one third of it is gone,” before he picked up a bound copy of the Constitution.

At that point, the council told him it counted as a prop and his remaining time would be forfeited.

New Brunswick Today creator Charlie Kratovil also spoke against the proposed time limit, saying it was an abuse of power.

Another critic of the time limit was the vice president of the Edison Board of Education.

“We do have a right to speak, let the people speak,” Joseph Romano said, adding that their last board meeting ran over four hours long as 72 people spoke.

Another female resident said that it was misguided for the council to try and “militantly control” public actions during meetings, due to a handful of disruptive individuals.

Masked men at multiple meetings

Disruptions have been caught at the recorded Edison Council meetings, going back for months, if not years.

At the Oct. 9 meeting, at least two men wore Guy Fawkes or “Anonymous” style face masks, while a third often wore a full wrestler’s mask.

A fourth man was dressed as a giant cannabis bong, cradling a baby doll dressed in a similar costume.

Two of the men have a social media presence as “Bongholeo and El Rampador”, whose self-billed mission is in support of ”medical-cannabis and the disabled.”

Their TikTok account includes repeat appearances at other municipal meetings in Sayreville and Lavalette, in addition to Edison.

During his six minutes at the October meeting, the man dressed as a bong told the council they had failed miserably.

He ended by singing until his time was up and he was escorted out by police officers.

That unique collection of attendees was no accident, according to self-billed entrepreneur, Patrick Duff on his Instagram account.

“People’s ability to freely speak is what keeps us from tyranny. The right to pray, say, and protest, must be protected, so sometimes we must push the boundaries with absurdity to act as the modern day court jester,” Duff said in an Oct. 10 post.

He added the activists had turned out to support lifelong Edison resident, Christo Makropoulos.

Past town controversy

Makropoulos, who goes as Jersey Watcher on his own social media accounts, has been at the center of years of controversy in his hometown.

He ran as an independent for mayor in 2021 but lost to Democrat Sam Joshi, the town's youngest and first South Asian mayor.

Makropoulos, an Edison High School grad, then unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Edison Board of Education in fall 2022, on the “Protect the Children” platform.

That same year, he was arrested after an amateur attempt to catch a child predator turned violent.

Read More: Edison, NJ man arrested in bold child predator trapping fiasco

By this January, his case had been dismissed and Makropoulos had become a frequent speaker at council meetings.

He can be seen in videos posted from January, March, April and June, wearing a ski mask and going as "anonymous" while speaking at the podium.

At the Monday meeting before a final vote on cutting back on public speaking time, Councilman Patel said the new rules were about having “better conversation.”

Councilman Asaf Shmuel said most of those who had spoken that night had delivered their comments in under four minutes.

Of the two opposing votes, Councilman Ajay Patil said that people were taking their time to express their feelings on any given issue and called the time limit “insane.”

Councilman Richard Brescher said he agreed with the public members who had spoken against the limits.

Brescher — who was also in the mayoral race as an independent candidate for several months in 2021 before ultimately dropping out — said this was a repeat of history or “Jun Choi 2.0” — as the former mayor had also cut public speaking time to four minutes.

Choi was Edison’s first Asian American mayor and previously the youngest mayor elected, serving for one term through 2010.

Several public speakers at Monday's meeting said that while some might lack decorum or might not always be polite, the council should still hear them out and not move to restrict how individuals make their views heard.

Video from the Oct. 6 Edison Town Council meeting, including costumed attendees, was shared to YouTube by New Brunswick Today:

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Editor's note: An earlier version of the story did not reflect that Brescher's independent mayoral campaign had ended before November 2021.