| Notes |
"Mazzola cut a deal with a real estate investment firm owned by Democratic Party lobbyist Darius Anderson in hopes of pulling political strings that might turn the resort into a much more valuable Indian gambling casino complex. While Mazzola, business manager of Plumbers union Local 38, and his agents were pursuing the gambling deal, Mazzola's personal attorney attempted to re-zone Mazzola's own land near the resort so that the entire area might become a condominium, housing, and commercial development with a gambling mecca at its core. Local opposition stalled the re-zoning and gambling plans. But had they succeeded, the escalation in property values could have personally enriched Mazzola by millions of dollars. And these schemes wouldn't have even been conceivable had Konocti Harbor Resort not been kept afloat with vast amounts of money that was docked from workers' pay.
By docking workers' hourly pay to finance an ambiguously named "convalescent trust fund," then causing $50 million to disappear into the worthless investment that was Konocti Harbor Resort, Mazzola and union officials under his control deprived workers of benefits money they paid for out of their own union dues." |