Central Regional School Board member Richard Ciullo, alias Berkeley Republican Club VP Richard Ciullo, alias internet CreepSite operator Richard Ciullo, alias All American Crybaby Richard Ciullo says he and Ward II council candidate Carmen Amato "abstained" on a school board vote to let recently hired Assistant Business Administrator April Yezzi use the schools for political meetings.

Central May Be The Only School In Ocean County To Allow Political Meetings

Mrs. Yezzi is the president of the Women's Republican Federation of Ocean County and the wife of architect Massimo Yezzi, who received nearly $2 million in no-bid "professional" contracts from Berkeley schools.

The Yezzi's are also elected members of the Republican County Committee from Dover Township.

Political Meetings Application Came
Shortly After Mrs. Yezzi Was Hired
To $70,000 Job By Ciullo And Amato

Mrs. Yezzi and attorney Dina Vicari presented an application to use school facilities for the political meetings shortly after Mrs. Yezzi was hired by Amato and Ciullo and the Republican school board to the Assistant Business Administrator's job.

On Ciullo's latest website (two prior Ciullo websites have been shut down after Ciullo published offensive and degrading material, some of which speculated about the sexual activities of his critics) he claimed he and Amato "abstained" on the vote to politicize the schools with the Yezzi Republican meetings.

Bombardier Did The Research That
Showed Ciullo Was Wrong Again

But former board candidate Richard Bombardier, a commissioner on the Berkeley Sewer Authority, says he checked the official board minutes and found Ciullo and Amato both voted YES on the Yezzi political meeting motion.

Bombardier noted that board member Robert Ray, also a Republican Party official like Ciullo, Amato and the Yezzi's, made the motion to approve the Republican meetings, and that Ciullo and Amato are both recorded as voting YES.

Third Set Of GOP Misrepresentations In Two Months

Amato becomes the third Berkeley Republican ward council candidate in the last two months to become involved in misrepresentations of the public record.

The first was First Ward candidate Karen Davis, who made use of several notable misrepresentations concocted by Ciullo in her primary election campaign against former Republican councilwoman Janet Palino-Morey.

The second was Fourth Ward Republican candidate Hugh Krone, who sent a letter to the Berkeley Times, reportedly written by Ciullo, in which he charged Mayor Jason Varano with double-dipping on expensive health insurance policies, a charge that the public record shows to be completely false.

Instead Of Thanking Bombardier For Correcting His "Mistake," Ciullo Responded With More Vituperation

Ciullo responded to Bombardier's research of the Central board minutes in his usual fashion, with an attack that suggested Bombardier "has a few things twisted around" with respect to the Yezzi fiasco.

In another tirade straight out of the Twilight Zone, Ciullo did not identify the "few things" but said "there is nothing wrong in doing so since there is no violation of the code of ethics."

Cesspool Of Republican Political Intrigue

So Ciullo is again up to his old habit of answering charges that were not made (the ethics code violation), and ignoring the ones that are current, namely that Ciullo and Amato, the Yezzi's and other Berkeley Republican Party officials continue to waste public funds turning Berkeley Schools into a cesspool of GOP political intrigue that results nearly every year in more spending and higher taxes.

A lot more on this issue in the fullness of time, maybe this coming week.

This article prepared for publication 7/23/05.