Being Richland Supervisor Mike Zowniriw means never having to say you're sorry.
Not for terrifying six neighboring families, who showed up at a township meeting to ask for protection from his bullying. Not for retaliating by turning off an elderly disabled couple's water, and preventing them from getting to their well. Not for forcing those neighbors to hire attorneys and haul the Zowniriws into Bucks County Court.
Except this isn't "Love Story", and real people have been harmed. Yet it appears that Mike and wife Amy feel no apologies are necessary.
Amy never showed up in court. But Mike was there. And oh-so-humble in front of the judge. " I believe their request to have access to the well at any time is reasonable", he said.
You bet your bippy that these folks are reasonable in asking for access to their own well . But what is the Z's attitude now that there's no judge watching? Don't they feel even the slightest remorse for what they have done to these elderly folks, and all of their neighbors (not to mention their township's reputation)?
Apparently not. "I've been reinvigorated and stand taller than ever and will continue to defend the citizens of this community", said Mike proudly. Defend? Earth to Mike - these citizens are begging someone to defend them from you ! And this insensitive episode "reinvigorated" you???
One neighbor isn't surprised. "We will never get an apology because they insist they have done nothing to us. So...I am not expecting one." And the neighbor is seemingly right. "Upon reviewing our chairman's four pages of accusations against me, I find it contains his opinion, gross exaggerations, lies and shared confidences between ex-friends," Zowniriw said.
The Zowniriws also issued a "press release", over 500 words, with blame for everyone but themselves. It referred to "the lynching my wife and I received at the township meeting on 4-11-05 at the hands of these said neighbors, conspired in part or in total by our township chairman, including the lack of expected professional legal advice from our township solicitor."
And the final sentence, "Even though we are deeply and profoundly upset by the actions of these neighbors, we apologize for troubling them". You can't help but be touched by this personal and heartfelt "apology", which blamed the neighbors, and then wasn't even delivered to them. According to the families on Station Avenue, the Zowniriws have never uttered a single "sorry".
But Mike has begun his own campaign to revise history. At the April 25 Board of Supervisors meeting, he tried to have the negative comments about him on April 11 removed from the public record. He criticized the township's recording secretary for bias in the way she keeps the minutes.
"Please know, ladies and gentleman, that I wish only the privilege of serving my community," Zowniriw said. "I am dedicated to maintaining the rural quality of Richland. I am also dedicated to taking out the vindictiveness and mean-spiritedness in this board. I believe my neighbors were used as pawns by our chairman (Richard Orloff) and Richard Woldow".
The neighbor's reaction: "I am tired of Mike implying that we were 'used' for political reasons. They are still trying to circumvent the real issue - that Mike and Amy abuse his position as supervisor and their behavior is intolerable".
Zowniriw also insists that we should ignore the whole matter as a private dispute between neighbors. He doesn't seem to realize that elected officials give up the luxury of having private issues. Ask the Kennedys, Clintons, or jailed former Bucks County Rep. Tom Druce.
And while Mike doesn't seem to have an apology, he does have a few apologists, who portray the Zowniriws as the victims rather than the perpetrators. Like the wife of supervisor candidate Vic Stevens, and RCA chairman Paul F.A. Maderson.
Even after Mike proclaimed in court "The negotiations were fair and amicable", they wrote letters to two newspapers calling the allegations a "smoke screen", a "set-up piece of nastiness", and an "all time low in human decency".
Vic Stevens and Maderson have been long-time Zowniriw allies. Amy is the webmaster for Stevens' Richland Historical Society, and Maderson is a harsh critic of anyone who opposes Mike's agenda. In fact, Maderson is a harsh critic in other areas of his life as well:
He used to be a college biology teacher, focusing on whether dinosaurs had scales or feathers. His colleagues report the same overbearing, intolerant attitude in his scientific work...
Luis Rey, a renown paleontologist/artist who has impartially observed Maderson through the years, said he strives "Mostly to get the limelight ... Basically he belongs to the school of 'traditionalists' that find it more important to defend their own pet theories at any cost than abide for any evidence. He ignores and/or twists all the current evidence to fit his own interpretation."
And how did Maderson's students at Brooklyn College feel about him? The school's on-line rating of 1096 professors had Maderson ranked at the bottom, 1015th, with a grade of 1.9 on a scale of 5. You might think that students tend to be overly-critical, but, actually, 693 Brooklyn College professors were rated "good", 235 "average", and only 168, including Maderson, were judged "poor". The RCA can't blame this on me, or on the neighbors, or anyone in Richland.
Sample student comments: "Horrible human being. Makes people feel stupid. Tests are killer! DO NOT TAKE HIM!" "A bad person and horrible as a professor take this course in another college!" "Arrogant, and horrible professor. Some of the highest grades were in the 40's." "If you get him run for your life!"
Too bad the Zowniriws' neighbors can't just run.