Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By JOE SYLVESTER jsylvester@leader.net
Wednesday, February 02, 2000 Page: 3A
SHICKSHINNY – Northwest Area School Board member Joseph Federici didn’t
know it at the time, but someone might have been watching him last month.
The N.W. Area Underground Alliance claims it paid an investigator to watch
Federici for four days while he travelled from the Luzerne Intermediate Unit
in Kingston to residences in rural Shickshinny and Forty Fort. Federici denies
claims by the anonymous group, which says he lives outside the district.
The group, saying it consists of concerned taxpayers, sent alleged
surveillance results to local newspapers, but deleted the private
investigator’s name.
Federici said Tuesday he lives in the district. “My residency is in
Shickshinny. I have a house in Shickshinny. I stay there, I pay taxes there,”
he said with a sigh.
Federici said anyone with concerns about where he lives should talk with
county voter registration officials or the District Attorney’s Office. He
deferred further questions to his attorney, Charles Coslett, who resigned in
December as Northwest Area’s solicitor.
“The fact he may not lie in bed (at his Shickshinny residence) every night
is of little consequence,” Coslett said.
Jeff Litts, staff attorney for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association,
based in New Cumberland, said residency is determined by several factors such
as where one pays taxes and the addresses listed on their drivers license and
voter registration. If someone is staying at another residence due to a
domestic problem,this implies federici has a domestic problem. I’d edit it to
“If someone is staying at another residence due to an emergency or a problem
… their home is still their residence of record.
“Just because they are not staying at a particular residence doesn’t mean
it’s not their residence,” Litts said.
Coslett tied the probe to a change in the political tide on the School
Board.blamed a change in political tide on the School Board as the probe’s
cause.
“Joe is now a member of the minority of the board,” he said. “I would
speculate his political opponents certainly would be cheerleading this effort,
if not encouraging it.”
Coslett said board member Nancy Pierontoni is Federici’s only ally on the
board. Pierontoni and fellow board member Charles Brace Jr. said there are
rumors Federici lives outside the district.
“As far as I’m concerned, he lives in the district. He pays taxes here; he
owns property,” Pierontoni said.
She declined further comment “until (anonymous group members) are brave
enough to come forward with their names.”
Litts said it’s up to the county court, not the School Board, to remove a
board member who moves out of the district and does not step down.
Call Sylvester at 829-7219.