The administration of Mayor Paul Dyster, so full of promise when he took office just 20 months ago, has become a grotesque burlesque, a bizarre freak show where nothing is as it seems.
Take the weeklong suspension of City Engineer Ali Marzban meted out by City Administrator Donna Owens just two weeks ago. Was he suspended because he lacks a current license to practice engineering anywhere in the United States?
No, Dyster assures us. It was something else, but he just can't say what.
Could it be the fact that a Texas woman filed a report with the Niagara Falls Police Department, a report that resulted in Marzban having to undergo a drug test and filled with allegations concerning his comportment as a gentleman?
No again. In fact, the police investigation hasn't even been made public.
What then, what possibly could be worse than that? He's only been here for four months, hired at a salary of $90,000 a year following what Dyster described as a "nationwide search" that lasted more than a year to find the best and the brightest engineer in the whole United States.
City Hall sources told the Niagara Falls Reporter that Marzban's offense was far worse than any of the myriad allegations he's managed to rack up during his brief stay here. Apparently, what he did was -- and don't let your kids read this, please -- what he did was to exhibit insubordinate behavior toward his boss, the aforementioned Ms. Owens.
Marzban's suspension comes on the high heels of similar paid suspensions meted out to the three top men in the city Department of Inspections. Who will be next? We cannot say, and doubt seriously that even the man we all elected to be in charge of the city can say either.
Dyster has apparently abdicated his authority to a woman who -- by all accounts -- doesn't know Niagara Falls or want to know. A short-time professional career climber who will go on to Erie or Toledo or Des Moines claiming to have brought the same sort of top-notch know-how to this city that she'd honed previously overseeing the alleyways of Atlanta or the solid waste in Baltimore.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | August 18 2009 |