The Right Side
By J Gary DiLaura
I first met George Maziarz in 1985. He was a Niagara County politician with a good reputation for honesty and a sincere concern for the people of Niagara County. In 1985 the Power Authority and NOT Mother Nature, jammed the entire East Niagara River during the biggest “ice run” in history. The Lake went to the highest elevation EVER and PASNY caused the biggest ice jam in the known history of the Upper Niagara River. They stopped ALL water from flowing down the entire east river, and put the river in flood stage for 30 days and then denied any responsibility for anything!
I didn’t believe for a minute that they were innocent, and formed a Homeowners Association of the many damaged riparian homeowners and ultimately, sued the New York State Power Authority for 50 million dollars on behalf of the homeowners!
Mr. Maziarz showed up at our first meeting and every one thereafter, asked how he could help and was instrumental in helping me and the some 300 homeowners who desperately needed help! Think about how YOU would go about suing the New York State Power Authority, where would you start, how would you prove the case? That’s how overwhelming this daunting task was to me, even as an FBI Agent with an engineering degree and a good knowledge of hydraulics!
With the help of George Maziarz and the recently retired Chief Engineer of the Army Corps, the former Ice Control Engineer of PASNY, George Berry (the Chief Design Engineer of the Power Project) and others, we built a major case and ended up forcing PASNY to follow their Ice Control Procedures (which the Corps said they had failed to follow) and settled out of court, 15 YEARS LATER! George helped us promote the Homeowners Association and organize with press coverage, which was what made Power Authority employees (current and former) call me with important help!
During that time I became friends with George and learned a lot about the type of person he is. I also started working as an agent in Niagara Falls, working political corruption for several years, and I can say with no hesitation that Mr. George Maziarz’s reputation of honesty and integrity, in my opinion, never changed!
Mr. Maziarz’s mother and a relative of mine were in the same nursing home. Every time we went to visit my relative, we walked by Mrs. Maziarz’s room, George was at his mother’s bedside, on his knees, praying! That says a lot about a man!
Based upon a wealth of knowledge of Niagara County from a lifetime in the Falls including years as a FBI Agent, working political corruption, I don’t believe for a minute that George Maziarz would intentionally, illegally, convert any money to his own use, period! That is not him! There must be a paper trail with signatures, photos of credit card/debit card users, cashed checks and I will bet anything that Maziarz’s signature or picture is not on one of them! But more important than anything, there MUST be criminal intent and it MUST be proven in order for there to be a crime! No intent…no crime!
With no knowledge of the evidence, I would have to see the ORIGINALS, personally, before I would believe anything!
You know what amazes me? It took over 35+ years to “prove” Sheldon Silver was a thief when everyone knew he was a thief. Silver was even voted the “Worst Politician”, in the US, on a FOX News poll, and he continued to survive… go figure! They still haven’t done anything about our governor. Is that because Silver was honest for 35 years and the governor is still honest, or is it because New York State is a Democrat SWAMP of corruption with high ranking “officials” getting even?? Maybe I’ll ask Chucky Schumer, he might know! Does anyone know where he’ll be cutting ribbons next week?
You know something? When Hillary can sell out 20% of our uranium to Russia and collect $200 million; when Obama can give $1.7 billion in CASH to the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism, Iran; when CNN can give a freaking Presidential candidate the questions to a debate; and NOTHING is done… anytime Trump is talking to anyone Russian about ANYTHING, won’t make a pimple on the devils’ ass. Get my meaning?
Go find some real BAD GUYS!
That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it!!!