Joann Petrizzo made some serious mistakes as a member of the Dover Township Committee back in the early nineties, but she's a fighter, and many residents respected her energy and commitment.

When she and her husband moved to Berkeley Township a couple of years ago, there were those who predicted she would emerge as a candidate when the opportunity presented itself.

Chance Came This Year

The chance came earlier this year, and Petrizzo turned up as a Republican candidate in the Berkeley ward elections to oppose incumbent Ward III Councilman Glennon DePetris, a Democrat.

Petrizzo is a real estate agent, and her husband has been ill, but she became a candidate anyway; she thought she could contribute something to the process by joining in the debate.

This was in April, prior to the filing deadline for the primary election, when she knew very little about what she was getting in to.

Credibility Problems In The Republican Campaign

Then the potential problems with the Republican campaign strategy devised by Republican Club Vice President Richard Ciullo, Chairman Carmen Amato and GOP Club President Anthony DiPaola began to emerge in statements by the other ward council candidates. Berkeley has four ward council seats.

First it was the offensive Republican website operated by Ciullo, also a Central Regional School board member.

Ciullo Forced To Take Down
Second Offensive Website

Parents and kids in the school system were so proud of having vile and offensive material on a website operated by a school board member that Ciullo was forced to take the website down, the second time this has happened since Ciullo's election to the Central Regional board last year.

Things got worse when Ward I Republican candidate Karen Davis nearly lost the GOP primary election to former Republican councilwoman Janet Palino-Morey despite big money and the party line behind Davis.

Davis' Promises Had Hollow Ring

Davis promised to cut spending and hold the line on taxes in the local government, but her claims developed a hollow ring when it was pointed out she has been a school board member for the last eight years, and has been responsible for every spending and tax increase during that period.

It also didn't help when conflict-of-interest possibilities surfaced about Davis' job with Holman and Frenia, the Toms River accounting firm that has more no-bid auditing contracts than any other accounting firm in Ocean County.

Holman Firm Is Auditor For School
Board Davis Is  A Member Of

And, guess what? The Holman firm turns up as auditor for the same school board that Mrs. Davis is a member of; so the question: "Is this a conflict?" was a reasonable one when it appeared in a letter to local news media.

Then the potential problems with Carmen Amato's candidacy in Ward II (the conflicts between Amato's $75,000 "job" as "Director of Printing and Graphics" in one of the most overstaffed "departments" in county government, and his situation as President of the Central Regional school board) became more evident in the wake of other "connections" showing pretty clearly that Amato is a patronage distribution stooge for the Republican county leadership.

Plot Thickens As More Falsehoods Spread By Ciullo-Amato Flunky Running In Ward IV

Krone

And this was only half of it. The other half of "it" will be covered in Part II of the Petrizzo resignation story as problems developed with the Ward IV candidacy of senior Hugh Krone, who made it three out of four for not getting his facts straight, and more problems with Ciullo's heavy-handed connections with the Dover Township Republican political payoff network.

Watch for Part II of the Petrizzo resignation story. Who will replace her as Ward III candidate?

The article is prepared for publication August 9, 2005

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