There’s only one political race at the Ocean County level in 2026.
Republican Frank Sadeghi will seek a second three-year term on the Ocean County Board of Commissioners. He’ll be challenged by Democrat Khia Phua.
Phua will have a hard row to hoe. No Democrat has been elected to the commission since 1989 when Paul Brush and Mark Troncone were picked to what was then called the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders.
Sadeghi is a certified municipal and professional engineer who earned a bachelor’s degree from the NJ Institute of Technology and a master’s in city and regional planning from Rutgers University. He owns and operates the Morgan Engineering & Arya Properties firm, based in Island Heights.
Sadeghi legally immigrated to the U.S. from Iran 45 years ago. He eventually settled in Ocean County and raised a family. He feels that he has achieved the American dream.
“I fled Iran and its tyrannical regime with just a few dollars in my pocket and a promise made to my father that I would one day bring my mother and siblings with me to America.” He continues to pray for freedom and peace for his former countrymen, and for those “giving Iranians their best chance at freedom in generations.”
Phua has an associate’s degree in accounting and a bachelor’s degree in general management. He’s a civil servant, employed as a train operator for New York City Transit for the past 23 years. From 2011 to 2018 he served as a union representative for the 42,000-plus-member Transport Workers Union, Local 100.
Phua and his wife and four children moved from Middlesex County to Berkeley Township in 2019. He immediately became involved in the Berkeley sports scene and is currently serving on the board of directors of the Berkeley Girls Softball League. Phua is also the head coach for a recreational team as well as one of the travel teams in town. He also restarted the dismantled Cub Scout Pack 27.
“In a township with hundreds of children attending the four elementary schools in town the children of our community deserve to have a program available like the Cub Scouts.”
Sadeghi was the commissioner who suggested the one-cent open space tax increase that is also on Ocean County ballots this autumn. He projects the county will have a population of over a million residents by 2050 and that Jackson Township, which has a current population of 65,000 residents, will balloon to over 200,00 within a decade, making it one the largest cities in the Garden State.
Sadeghi, along with the rest of the commissioners, are also busy fighting the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s new stricter flood zone regulations that were signed into law by ex-Gov. Phil Murphy on his last day of office.
Environmental officials argue that these new rules are revolutionizing the way the state approaches coastal resilience by adopting a forward-looking approach to climate change, rather than basing regulations on past data.
Sadeghi quoted Point Pleasant Beach Borough Administer Joseph A. Michigan to show the new regulations have gone overboard.
Michigan said the new rules “essentially place the entire Borough of Point Pleasant Beach into a flood zone, basing this decision on future climate predictions, 75-100 years from now, not historical data from past storms. These new inland properties will now be considered flood-risk areas, where even after Superstorm Sandy, many of these new areas did not see that level of flooding, which would cause such a drastic change.”
Michigan added that the new REAL (Resilient Environment and Landscape) rules will lead to higher costs for homeowners and builders, decreased property values, and higher insurance premiums, as well as limits on coastal development and financial pressures on taxpayers, with potential losses in tax revenues.
Phua’s main issue is transparency.
“Public records identify Morgan Engineering contracts and appointments involving 12 Ocean County municipalities, including several awarded or continued after Sadeghi took office in January 2024,” said Phua. “Some of these contracts involve taxpayer-funded engineering services, road improvements, and municipal infrastructure projects.”
“How much taxpayer money has Morgan Engineering received from these municipalities?” Phua questions. “Are potential conflicts of interest being properly disclosed and addressed?
“Let me be clear: Having a private business is not the issue. Transparency, accountability, and protecting taxpayers’ interests are.”
