Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions, has enjoyed the support of a lot of donors over the years, but one of his biggest supporters is Kenneth M. Mazik. You won’t find him listed as such on the Center for Responsive Politics website though. That’s because Mazik has contributed or directed contributions exceeding $100,000 to Harkin’s affiliated campaign and leadership PAC committees through a maze consisting of his family, employees, and organizations. On at least one occasion, Harkin even used Mazik’s private plane.
So who is Ken Mazik and how can he afford to lavish Harkin with his largesse. He made his initial fortune at the race track, owns his own private plane, estates in Delaware and Florida, and has enough to spend lavishly on art and cigars.
Mazik’s Story Reads Like A Hollywood Movie, Making His Original Fortune At The Race Track With A Horse Named “Silk Stockings.” “It sounds like an old-fashioned Hollywood movie. A dedicated couple start a boarding school for autistic children in a faded mansion in rural Delaware. Struggling to make ends meet, they pool their personal resources to buy a racehorse named Silk Stockings. The filly not only wins thousands but also makes harness-racing history, all for the sake of the children. That is the way the story of the Au Clair School was told in the mid-1970’s, in heartwarming television features and news articles across the country.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
Mazik Owns His Own Private Plane, As Well As Estates In Delaware And Florida. “With his own plane and pilot, a home on a former du Pont estate in Wilmington, Del., and one in Eustis, Fla., Mr. Mazik, 57, has come a long way from the 29-year-old social worker who started Au Clair from scratch and paid the bills with a bet on a racehorse.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
Mazik Paid Thousands Of Dollars For The Controversial Robert Mapplethorpe Photograph, “Larry And Bobby Kissing.” “[A] lower priced work, ‘Larry and Bobby Kissing,’ set a record for a single Mapplethorpe photograph. The auction had valued the picture of male lovers at $12,000 to $15,000, but dealer Ken Mazik bought it for $17,600.” (Suzanne Muchnic, “Stieglitz, Mapplethorpe Sell For Record Prices,” Los Angeles Times, 10/31/89)
• “Mazik, who owns schools for autistic children in Delaware and the nearby Lake Jem area, broke a record at the New York auction by paying $17,600 for the art.” (Bill Bond, “Is Mount Dora Ready For ‘Homoerotica’?” Orlando Sentinel, 1/10/90)
• “According to the magazine item, Mazik will display the photos in the ‘Kizam Gallery’ in Mount Dora. Kizam, of course, is Mazik spelled backward.” (Bill Bond, “Is Mount Dora Ready For ‘Homoerotica’?” Orlando Sentinel, 1/10/90)
The Late Robert Mapplethorpe Was A Photographer Whose Homoerotic And Sadomasochistic Photographs Caused Great Controversy. “A round of photography auctions opened here on Monday with a host of shattered records and keen interest in the controversial work of the late Robert Mapplethorpe. . . . Mapplethorpe’s homoerotic and sadomasochistic photographs are at the center of a continuing furor over the federal government’s funding of art.” (Suzanne Muchnic, “Stieglitz, Mapplethorpe Sell For Record Prices,” Los Angeles Times, 10/31/89)
Mazik Owns A Wide Range Of Cigars. “‘An aficionado has a range of cigars to match his mood or taste at a particular time,’ said Ken Mazik, a Mount Dora entrepreneur with one of the best-stocked humidors in Central Florida. There are short ones, long ones, thin ones, fat ones and some shaped like torpedos. The fat ones tend to offer a cooler smoke and the longer ones require more time to smoke.” (Brad Kuhn, “The Cigar Mystique, A Look At The Past, Present A Guide To Selecting, Smoking A Fine Cigar,” Orlando Sentinel, 1/19/96)
Mazik Believes That Cigar Smoking Is Like Sex—To Be Enjoyed It Should Not Be Rushed. “Time is of the essence when it comes to cigar smoking. Mazik compares it to sex. To be truly enjoyed, the experience should not be rushed. Unlike cigarettes, which are smoked primarily for the nicotine buzz, cigars are smoked primarily to relax. Mazik recommends setting aside at least an hour.” (Brad Kuhn, “The Cigar Mystique, A Look At The Past, Present A Guide To Selecting, Smoking A Fine Cigar,” Orlando Sentinel, 1/19/96)
Of course Mazik didn’t just build his fortune at the race track, he’s also been associated with a number of business entities in Florida and Delaware: 431 Corporation, AdvoServ, AdvoServ of Florida, Inc., All Care Group Home #2, Inc., Au Clair School, Inc., Baker Street Gallery, Inc., Carlton Palms Educational Center, Inc., Celeste Foundation, Inc., Championship Productions, Inc., Kizam Corporation, Jovius Foundation, Inc., Main Street Leasing Company, and Orlando Financial Corp., to name a few. These business entities use common addresses, including:
4185 Kirkwood St Georges Road
Bear, DE 1970128334 Churchill Smith Lane
Mount Dora, FL 32757699 E. 5th Ave.
Mount Dora, FL 32757
It is Mazik’s business connections to Au Clair School and AdvoServ that are of most interest. Mazik built part of his wealth off the backs of taxpayers who have chipped in through the years to pay for services for the physically and mentally disabled, mainly through the Au Clair School he founded, and later AdvoServ. AdvoServ specializes in treating people with “developmental disabilities or mental health issues.” AdvoServ has locations in Delaware and Florida, where Mazik owned residences, and New Jersey.
Treating folks with disabilities, both mental and physical, is noble work. However, not all appears to be so noble in the world of one of Harkin’s most loyal and generous contributors. As award winning investigative reporter Nina Bernstein detailed in this New York Times article, Mazik was instrumental in getting the word “nonprofit” deleted from federal welfare reform in the 1990’s, thereby enabling his company to compete for “the billions of dollars that the Government spends each year to support poor children who are taken away from homes judged unfit.”
“Mr. Mazik’s Biggest Lobbying Coup, The One That Changed A National Policy, Took Two Years To Accomplish.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
“It Began In 1994, When The City Of Philadelphia Warned That Unless Au Clair Turned Nonprofit, It Might Lose Its $3.7 Million Contract To Care For 31 Philadelphia Children.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
“Like Many States And Localities Coping With Cutbacks, Philadelphia Wanted To Be Able To Cover More Of Its Bills For Such Children With Unlimited Federal Child Welfare Payments.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
“Mr. Murphy, The Company Vice President, Said Mr. Mazik Did Not Want To Change The Nature Of The Company. So Mr. Murphy, Mr. Mazik’s Top Aide, Went To Work.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
“At Meetings With House And Senate Staff Over Two Years, He Pressed For The Change In Law As A Minor, Uncontroversial Matter Of Equity.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
“Through The Efforts Of The Company, A Single Word – ‘Nonprofit’ -- Was Deleted From An Obscure Paragraph Of The 400-Page Bill That Dismantled Six Decades Of Poverty Policy.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
“. . . A Closer Look At The Little-Noticed Change Engineered By Its Founder, Kenneth M. Mazik, Shows That It Sharply Alters Government Policy On Care For The Poorest Children.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
“Historically, Only Foster Families Or Nonprofit Institutions, Mostly Charity-Based, Were Eligible For This Money. It Is Now The Last Unlimited Pool Available For Poor Children.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
“Companies Like His Have Always Been Able To Get Other Kinds Of Federal Money, But Not To Tap Into The Increasingly Important Child Welfare Pot.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
Note: Harkin voted in favor of the welfare reform bill:
Budget Reconciliation-Welfare Overhaul – Conference Report. (H.R. 3734, CQ Vote #262: Adopted 78-21: R 53-0; D 25-21, 8/1/96, Harkin voted Yea)
Budget Reconciliation-Welfare Overhaul – Passage. (H.R. 3734, CQ Vote #232: Passed 74-24: R 51-1; D 23-23, 7/23/96, Harkin voted Yea)
Mazik, the businesses that stood to benefit from the welfare reform legislation, as well as his employees, have been accused of inflicting abuse on the children in their care:
For Years Ken Mazik Had Been Accused Of Mistreating Children And Evading Government Oversight While Collecting Funds At A Rate Of At Least $140,000 For Each Child. “Over the years, Mr. Mazik has been accused of mistreating children in his care and of evading meaningful government oversight, even as his company expanded to care for 130 disturbed children from 24 states -- at sites in Bear and Middleton, Del., and Mount Dora, Fla. -- at yearly rates of more than $140,000 for each child.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
Ken Mazik Admitted To Physically “Beating A Mentally Retarded Boy With A Riding Crop,” Defending The Action As “Therapeutic.” “Mr. Mazik himself, in the late 1970’s, acknowledged beating a mentally retarded boy with a riding crop in front of several staff members. That was one of the incidents at Bear that he defended as therapeutic after staff members complained to the Delaware authorities and the local newspaper that he was abusing children in his care.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
For Many Years, Mazik “Cared” For Disturbed Children Without Government Supervision. “[Mazik’s] company has always specialized in the children nobody else wanted, at some of the highest prices in the industry. In 1992, the children under Mr. Mazik’s care included 13 mentally retarded and emotionally disturbed wards of New York City’s child welfare agency, who had been sent to the Delaware center under a contract with the city. They had been left for as long as six years without a visit from the officials who were paying for their care.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
Mazik Opened A 52-Bed Center In Florida During The 1980’s And Operated It Without A License. “The public wards now in Mr. Mazik’s care include those in a 52-bed center that he opened without a license in the mid-1980’s in Mount Dora, Fla., 25 miles northwest of Orlando. It went unlicensed by the state for years, because it imported children from other states, under government contracts, but took none from Florida, said Kingsley Ross, formerly the state’s director of developmental services.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
Mazik’s Institution Received A License In Florida Despite The Fact That Its Manual Instructed Employees In The Use Of Electrical Shocking Devices—Devices Illegal In Florida. “Ultimately, Au Clair won its license, [former Florida director of developmental services Kingsley] Ross said, despite his discovery of an Au Clair manual instructing staff in the use of electrical shocking devices that were illegal in the state. He said Mr. Mazik, who denied using the devices on children at the Florida site, hired former state legislators as lobbyists and won a licensing category all his own.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
An investigation by New York officials found children living in appalling conditions and worked diligently to remove all of the state’s wards from Mazik’s care:
Once New York Inspectors Searched Mazik-Controlled Institutions They Found Children In Trailers Reeking Of Urine And Feces And Bound By Immobilizing Restraints. “A New York city inspection team finally sent to check on children in the $429-a-day program found them in trailers that reeked of urine and feces, team members said in interviews. One deaf boy, weeping silently, had lain there for hours in an immobilizing ‘wrap mat’ restraint that had cut off his circulation, they said.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
Child Welfare Workers Wept After Viewing The Pitiful Conditions In Which Mazik Kept The Children Under His Care. “‘I cried all the way back on Amtrak,’ recalled one of the two child welfare officials who described the episode on the condition that their names not be used. ‘I told my boss, if it’s the last thing I do, I’m shutting down their contract.’ State officials with responsibility for care of the mentally retarded agreed that something had to be done.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
Local And State Inspectors Removed All New York Wards Because The Children At Au Clair Suffered Physical Abuse And Lacked The Most Basic Items Such As Underwear. “Another team of inspectors sent from New York in 1992 told of such deplorable conditions and maltreatment of children at Au Clair that city and state officials removed all the New York wards. And in recent interviews, three current employees spoke of staff levels so low at the Bear campus, that residents were endangered, of children who had lacked such basics as shoes, toys and underwear, and of disturbed youngsters who suffered broken noses, black eyes and missing teeth in suspicious circumstances that went uninvestigated.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
The New York Child Welfare Agency Inexplicably Described Living Conditions At Au Clair As “Satisfactory” Even Though The School Utilized Mechanical Restraints That Were Prohibited By The City. “As officials struggled to get the children out, Au Clair continued to receive favorable annual performance reviews from the city’s Child Welfare Agency, which were required to justify its contract with the institution as long as the children remained there. . . . The evaluation, issued in May 1994, one month before the remaining New York children were removed, called the living conditions ‘satisfactory’ but noted that Au Clair used ‘personal mechanical restraints’ that were prohibited by city standards and added that a future visit would check that these measures were not being used.” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
New York Officials Lamented That They Had To Leave Some Children In Mazik’s Care. “[Former director of planning and governmental relations for the New York Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Carol] Kurlander stressed that neither the state nor the city had the resources to monitor their care. ‘Our main concern was getting New York State kids out,’ she said. ‘We felt sorry for those who would be left behind.’” (Nina Bernstein, “Deletion Of Word In Welfare Bill Opens Foster Care To Big Business,” The New York Times, 5/4/97)
Stay tuned, we’ll follow on shortly with a look at Senator Harkin and Ken Mazik’s unusual relationship.
ThinkFY's full feed