Amen.
The end of a prayer. But not just any prayer. The prayer that Mike Zowniriw has been saying to St. Jude ever since the other two Richland supervisors called his bluff, and arranged for a Special Counsel to investigate Z's charges of "illegal spot zoning" in the age-qualified area.
Don't bother to bring in the Commission on Miracles, or the Jude dude (the patron saint of lost causes). This prayer didn't have a prayer. Harrisburg municipal law expert Thomas Wenger issued his report, and the findings make it clear that, after less than a year in office, Mike Zowniriw has lost all credibility.
Z's most recent disgrace charged that one year ago, Richland's other supervisors, professional staff, and several volunteers conspired to improperly pass an ordinance. In fact, by calling it "illegal", Z accused these people of a crime.
It just ain't so. Wenger concluded that Richland followed all necessary procedures required by the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code.
As for Z's specific charge of "illegal spot zoning", apparently our newest supervisor doesn't even understand the concept. The ordinance did not alter the zoning map , just the wording in the code. Spot zoning only applies to a change to a zoning map. And, as Township Solicitor Linc Treadwell pointed out, it is not illegal.
So what exactly prompted Z to concoct these serious charges in the first place? Like the Beatles, he gets by with a little help from his friends. Instead of following the advice of the township's professional staff, he has kowtowed to the Richland Citizens Alliance's Agenda of Revenge. His campaign committee. The people he referred to as "the sweetest people in Richland Township".
The RCA is a handful of dissidents, mostly former township volunteers, who either resigned or were asked to leave their positions because of conflicts with other members. Some were refused seats on boards because of their radical positions. Several lost elections for local office. Each has a personal axe to grind.
Specifically, many of them live in the vicinity of the age-qualified zone. They (and they alone) spoke against the ordinance, and even brought an attorney to the hearing. But appealing to the courts is a long and expensive undertaking, and they are already paying to appeal the YMCA approval. So they hit on another idea.
Skip the legal process. Get their supervisor buddy to call the zoning illegal. Embarrass the township into somehow retracting the ordinance a year later. Sort of a back-door appeal, fast and free to them. The cost was covered by you, the taxpayer.
It didn't work. And justly so. Why should this small group of Z's friends have better rights than anyone else who doesn't like a township ruling? While the rest of us must appeal within 30 days, hire and pay an attorney, and wait our turn in Doylestown, RCA members have their own personal supervisor to plead their case.
If you have read the newspapers lately, you know that Mike Zowniriw is now engaging in a full-scale revision of history. After seven months of calling the township's actions "illegal", Z was quoted in a recent article in The Morning Call as saying that he has learned to "trust the township's professional staff". He called them "top notch".
Well, Z showed his "trust" in these "top notch" people by publicly accusing them of committing a crime. Richland had to spend township money in order to prove that he was wrong. Again.
This fiasco is just the latest in a long series of incidents in which Zowniriw has pooh-poohed the top notch staff's advice, and followed the urging of his friends.
In April, Z ignored the professionals, and publicly called on the other two supervisors to (illegally) change the zoning on 26 parcels of land to allow for his pet-project golf course to be built. Pretty much the same thing he later accused everyone else of doing!
Despite being warned against it, in June he wrote an unethical secret letter to Judge Mitchell Goldberg, who was hearing the suit brought by three RCA members against the new YMCA. Z's letter was in support of his friends, and against his own township. Goldberg wrote back "As a Supervisor of Richland Township, who has access to the Township Solicitor, I trust you understand that ex-parte communications to a judge are entirely inappropriate."
Zowniriw followed that up in July by participating in a deceptive RCA-inspired letter to Hunter's Crossing residents saying that he would (improperly) use township resources to help them with their complaints against the builder of their houses. The top-notchers had to send out over 100 corrective letters.
In September, he improperly tried to present his RCA buddies as "witnesses" at a public meeting. When informed that supervisors can not do so, he admitted "I stand corrected". Well, he now stands corrected again. Not just by the staff. Not just by an angry judge. Not by me. Not by the media. Not by his critics. By an impartial expert .
And how did he take the announcement that the ordinance was legally correct "both procedurally and substantively"? He felt Wenger didn't give him enough time. Would he accept the ruling as final, as he had publicly promised? Apparently not. "I think the decision left room for interpretation."
We can no longer write off Z's actions as just those of a clueless guy who has learned little in ten months. This latest attempt to push through the Agenda of Revenge has led him to falsely accuse almost everyone he works with of a crime. What the RCA hoped would disgrace Richland has boomeranged to disgrace their pet supervisor.
Time for Mike Zowniriw to either repudiate the RCA, or resign and allow Richland to be represented by someone who understands right from wrong. Someone who will work for the interests of all residents, not the revenge of a few friends.
Amen.