A widening probe into a political action committee operated by the Niagara USA Chamber may have repercussions stretching from Buffalo to Albany, sources familiar with the case told the Reporter.
Last week, as word of an investigation into the Committee for a Better Niagara leaked out, Chamber CEO Bobby Newman quietly resigned as the PAC's treasurer. He was replaced in that position by Chamber Board Member and Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. Public Affairs Manager Steve Brady.
Other Chamber board members who have been prominently involved in political fund-raising this year are Niacet Corp. Managing Director Kelly Brannen and Paul Kolkmeyer, who was named interim president of First Niagara Financial Group Inc. on Friday following the suicide by hanging of longtime president William Swan.
The burgeoning scandal centers around dues invoices sent out to Chamber members since last spring. The itemized bills contained a line item for a "voluntary" $50 donation to the PAC, which was then included in the "total amount due" figure.
Many Chamber members said they simply looked at the total and sent a check, without realizing they were contributing to a political organization. These members include Community Missions, the Lockport YMCA and a number of area churches, all non-profit organizations forbidden by federal law from making political contributions.
In all, around 250 Chamber members sent money, and the PAC raised nearly $13,000. During the last period for which records are available, the PAC cut checks totaling $800 to state Sen. George Maziarz, county Legislator Malcolm Needler and Legislature candidate Beth Mazza.
The PAC was set up several years ago, ostensibly to lobby for the creation of a county manager position, but had been largely inactive until recently. Several current and former members of the board told the Reporter that no official meeting had been held to decide which candidates to endorse or oppose, and one said he had no idea money was being raised to support individual candidates for political office.
"The purpose of the committee has always been to focus on issues, not to back politicians," he said.
County Legislator John Cole, a former top investigator with the Niagara County Sheriff's Department, said that soliciting and accepting political contributions from non-profit organizations is inexcusable.
"The Chamber is ostensibly made up of the best and brightest business minds in Erie and Niagara counties," he told the Reporter. "Somebody over there had to know that this was wrong." In the case of groups like Community Missions and the YMCA, which are at least partially subsidized by the government, the problem is particularly acute, Cole added.
"These are taxpayer dollars going to politicians," he said. "It's ironic that the Chamber, which is always going on about wasting taxpayer's money, should be behind something like this.
"This is something they're aware of in Albany, and they're looking into," he added.
Reached over the weekend on a holiday in Toronto, Maziarz said he would return the money were it found to be tainted.
"Obviously, if this money was collected under false pretenses, or collected from an agency prohibited from making campaign contributions, I don't want anything to do with it," he said.
Last year, Maziarz was the only elected official in Niagara County to instruct his campaign staff to return donations from Laborers Local 91, a union local later identified by the federal government as a "criminal enterprise." Following multiple indictments of Local 91 leadership on racketeering and extortion charges, most of Maziarz's colleagues in the business of government followed his lead.
Maziarz said that PAC's are a fact of life in politics, though not always a pleasant one. "From the local right up through the federal levels, candidates accept money from political action committees," he said. "You have no way of knowing who the individual donors are and you've got to assume, as in this case with the Chamber, that the people who are running it are doing the right thing."
The Chamber PAC seems particularly involved in the campaign of Beth Mazza, who is running against popular incumbent Niagara Falls Legislator Dennis Virtuoso. Last week, an invitation was sent to the Chamber's approximately 1,500 members for an Aug. 23 breakfast event at Antonio's restaurant on Niagara Falls Boulevard.
While the flier directed recipients to make their $75 checks payable to "Friends of Beth Mazza," the mailing address provided was a Lockport Post Office Box registered to the Chamber PAC.
"A successful, well-funded campaign will send a message through the political establishment in Niagara County that the business community will no longer watch from the sidelines," the flier warned.
It was signed by Chamber Board Members Paul Kolkmeyer, Steve Brady and Kelly Brannen.
The Niagara USA Chamber has been at the center of numerous controversies since being formed by the merger of the Niagara Falls and Lockport chambers several years ago.
Earlier this year, Board Chairman Steve Braver was fired from his prestigious job as publisher of Greater Niagara Newspapers here, and many small businesses have failed to renew their memberships or resigned outright following drastic personnel changes at the Chamber offices in both Niagara Falls and Lockport.
Chamber CEO Bobby Newman has been the target of withering criticism for his opposition to local control of the Niagara Falls International Airport, his abandonment of the Chamber's traditional role as an advocate for small business, and for directing entrepreneurs potentially interested in locating in Niagara County to Buffalo.
His family owns the ubiquitous chain of NOCO gas stations and convenience stores -- not one of which is located in the City of Niagara Falls -- and also controls Prior Aviation, which holds the lucrative monopoly on jet fuel sales at the Buffalo airport.
Newman's efforts to inject himself into Niagara County politics are well known. He once fought for a seat on the county Industrial Development Agency, but that plan was foiled when county Legislator Renae Kimble pointed out the illegality of an Erie County resident serving on the Niagara County agency.
Both Newman and Braver are members of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, a Buffalo-based, anti-union group which conducted studies of government operations in both Niagara County and Niagara Falls recommending wholesale cutbacks in the levels of public safety and service here, as well as the slashing of the remaining employees' health care and retirement benefits.
The recent activities of the Chamber's PAC are seen by many here as simply another attempt to gain control of Niagara County government and tax dollars.
"These are the same guys who led Erie County into receivership," said one longtime political observer. "They've picked over that carcass for as much as it was worth and, now that the state's come in, they're up here trying to do the same thing."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | August 26 2003 |