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NIRENBERG & VARANO, LLP

32 Mercer Street
Hackensack, New Jersey 0760!
(201) 996-1121
Attorneys for Respondent
Joseph Licata
RYAN CURIONI,
Complainant

: BEFORE THE SCHOOL ETHICS

: COMMISSION OF NEW JERSEY
: DOCKET NO.: COl-16

-vs.JOSEPH LICATA, President of the Lodi

Board of Education,

CERTIFICATION OF JOSEPH LICATA

Respondent

I, JOSEPH LICATA, _of full age, hereby ce1iify the following:

1.

I am cmTently the President of the Lodi Board of Education. I first became a

board member in 2009 when I was 21 years old and a college student. I have lived in Lodi my
entire life and have attended the Lodi Public Schools. I have been a member of the Lodi Board
of Education continuously since 2009. From 2009 to 2012, I was Vice President. I was
appointed President in 2012.
2.

I make this ce1iification in response to an inquiry contained in the School Ethics

Commission decision of May 25, 2016 and to provide fmiher evidence in preparation for the
probable cause review.
3.

At the outset, I wish to make it clear that in support of my motion to dismiss the

complaint I did not assert that at the August 26, 2015, meeting of the Lodi Board of Education,
the appropriate Doctrine of Necessity was invoked which permitted all board members with
conflicts to vote to approve the Superintendent's Merit Bonus.

[_

4.

Rather, as demonstrated by a copy of the minutes from that meeting at page 5535,

annexed hereto as Exhibit A, a resolution was passed to invoke the Doctrine of Necessity with
respect to voting on the resolution to amend certain labor agreements for emplqyees..
5.

As set forth in the resolution invoking the Doctrine of Necessity on August 26,

2015, the following board members had conflicts of interest:

1.
Carole D' Amico' s son, Frank D 'Amico, is a Principal for the
District;
2.
My wife is a teacher for the District;
3.
Jonathan Carafa's parent, Emil Carafa, is a Principal for the
District and his sister Stephanie Carafa is a teacher;
4.
Philip Carbonetti's daughter, Kristen Borrometti, is a teacher; and
5.
Jeffrey Telep's wife, Stacey Telep, is a teacher.
6.

Based on these same conflicts, a majority of the board members including me was

precluded from voting on the resolution regarding the Superintendent's Merit Bonus and
. therefore the Doctrine of Necessity was required to allow all conflicted board members to vote
on ,that resolution.
7.

Accordingly, the only impropriety if any with respect to my voting on that

resolution was that the Doctrine of Necessity may not have been properly invoked in that it
referred only to the resolution regarding the amendment of certain labor agreements and did not
specifically refer to the Superintendent's Merit Bonus.. However, based upon the Board's lack
of a quorum to vote on that resolution, this is not a situation where I would not have been
permitted to vote under any circumstance. Instead, I along with the other conflicted board
members were permitted to vote on that resolution, just as we voted on the resolution to amend
certain labor agreements for employees, upon the invocation of the Doctrine of Necessity by
resolution.
8.

The board attorney was not present at that meeting.

9.

At the May 25, 2016, meeting, the Lodi Board of Education unanimously.passed a

resolution invoking the Doctrine of Necessity which specifically refers to the vote to approve the
attainment of the 2015-2016 Superintendent's Merit Bonus Goals. 1
10.

The Doctrine of Necessity was required because the Board of Education lacked a

quorum to vote on this matter due to the following conflicts of interest:

1.
Carole D' Amico's son, Frank D' Amico, is a Principal;
2.
My wife, Nikki Licata, is a teacher;
3.
Robert Marra's spouse, Mary Marra, is a learning disability
specialist for the District's child study team;
4.
Jonathan Carafa's parent, Emil Carafa, is a principal and his sister,
Stephanie Carafa, is a teacher;
5.
Philip Carbonetti's daughter, Kristen Bon-ometti, is a teacher;
6.
Jeffrey Telep's spouse, Stacey Telep, is a teacher;
7.
Nicholas Vara's cousin, Janelle Guido, is a teacher; and
8.
Michael Nardino's niece, Lisa Costa, is a teacher.
11.

My salary as Executive Director for the Boys and Girls Club of Lodi/Hackensack

was determined by contract at the time I was hired for the position i'n or about December of
2015. It is not based on any revenue that may be attributed to me .
12.

The revenue generated by the the Boys and Girls Club Educator's Training

Institute comprises a small percentage of the Club's total budget.

13.

I do not receive a salary or any form of remuneration from Lodi Cares, a non-

profit educational foundation whose programs include scholarships which benefit students
residing in Lodi. In fact, it is not uncommon for me to utilize my own personal funds for the
benefit of Lodi Cares.
14.

All funds raised by Lodi Cares are spent on scholarships, a high school barbecue

and minimal overhead.

As of the preparation of this certification, the minutes from the May 25, 2016 meeting have not been approved by
the Board.

15 .

Lodi Cares' primary source of funding is the contribution it receives from the

Boys and Girls Club of a p011ion of the funds generated by the Educator's Training Institute.
16.

Jamie Ciofalo, as the Supervisor of Guidance, Curriculum and Instruction for the

Lodi-Board of Education is a 12-month salaried employee. He is required to structure his time to

insure all his professional duties are performed and his obligations are met.
17.

Upon information and belief, no substitutes are hired by the Board of Education

when Mr. Ciofalo is out of the district for sick, personal or professional development days.
18.

Upon information and belief, Mr. Ciofalo is not the only administrator who is

permitted by the Superintendent to use professional development days and therefore not docked
or required to use a personal day when giving professional development workshops both in- and
out-of-district.
19.

The Educational Information and Resource Center (EIRC) provides professional

development workshops for educators. EIRC rents a room from the Boys and Girls Club of
Lodi/Hackensack. In conjunction with that transaction, as the Club's Executive Director, I
arranged for EIRC to allow five Lodi Board of Education staff members to attend all of their
workshops at the Club free of charge.
20.

I am a lifelong resident of Lodi and have strong roots in this Community. Over

the years, my parents were involved in volunteering in Lodi having been coaches in the
recreation department, PT A and PTO Presidents and volunteers for various fund raisers.
21.

I attended the Lodi Public Schools from kindergarten through high school. I

attended Wilson Elementary School, where my grandmother, great aunts, great unC!es, mother,
father, aunt, uncles and all three of my siblings attended . I then went to Thomas Jefferson
Middle School and Lodi High School.

22.

I concluded my career at Lodi High School having been President of the National

Honor Society, President of the Student Council, Editor of the Yearbook and President of the
Science Club among other activities.
23.

I learned a sense of community at the Lodi Schools. Because of this and my

desire to give back to the system that had given me so much, in 2009 when I was 21 years old
and still in college, I ran for a seat on the Lodi Board of Education. Since that time, I twice ran
for re-election unopposed.

24.

I had been fortunate to be able to volunteer as an Intern at the Boys and Girls

Club of Lodi/Hackensack in 2009. That internship developed into a job, career and personal
mission to help those children who need it most.
25.

As someone who is burdened with student loan debt from my graduate and

undergraduate education, in 2014 in an effort to help other Lodi students lessen their student debt
burden, I founded and created Lodi Cares, a nonprofit educational foundation which works to
provide supplemental education funding and college scholarships.
26.

I want to do all I can to make Lodi and its schools the place of community it was

.for me as a child. This is the reason I am on the Board of Education, work for the Boys and Girls
Club and created Lodi Cares - to make Lodi a better place.

I hereby certify that the foregoing statements made by me are true. I understand that if
any of the foregoing statements are willfully false, I am subject to punishment.

DATED: June 10, 2016