In an editorial, Jersey City Republican Committeeman Boris Ioffe argues that Ward E Councilman and mayoral candidate James Solomon shows poor judgement by backing former Trustee Lorenzo Richardson for the board of education.
In his recent endorsement, mayoral hopeful James Solomon endorsed a former school board trustee Lorenzo Richardson for the 2025 JCBOE election.
In the same statement, Councilman Solomon referenced his own plan for local educational reform that calls for professional school board leadership.
Residents are certainly fed up with government corruption and rising property taxes, the latter largely due to the municipality’s inability and unwillingness to fully fund the schools according to the state school funding formula and consistently pushing the burden onto the taxpayers.
According to Councilman Solomon, voting for former BOE trustee Lorenzo Richardson will change all that.
However, it doesn’t take much effort to examine Mr. Richardson’s exploits on the BOE during the past years.
Starting with him serving two years as vice president to the disgraced JCBOE President Sudhan Thomas indicted for corruption such as taking bribes in exchange for BOE contracts.
This would make Lorenzo Richardson privy to all decisions made by Sudhan Thomas as well as his corruption, yet he raised no concerns during that time.
After being elected as Board President in 2020, Lorenzo Richardson consistently voted to approve budgets that saw the local tax levy increase from $139 Million to over $426 Million throughout his remaining tenure on the BOE, effectively increasing the school portion of property taxes by 70%.
And finally, to address the professionalism required to serve on the school board, Mr. Richardson may be the only trustee in recent history to be censured by the School Ethics Commission, and receive reprimands from an Administrative Law judge as well as from the Department of Education for his conduct on the JCBOE.
If the above mentioned qualities are what Councilman Solomon considers to be the qualifications for good governance, I shudder to think what standards he will promote if ever elected Mayor.
If James Solomon thinks that Lorenzo Richardson is the best candidate to lead reforms in the JCBOE, it will end in disaster.
Boris Ioffe
GOP Committeeperson ( Jersey City, Ward F District 22)