Councilman Mike Pope is fond of saying that Mayor Mike Martin took office "behind the eight ball". If Pope was referring to the lawsuit the Martin guaranteed himself and the taxpayers by the LIBELOUS, SLANDEROUS, DEFAMATORY and DISHONEST campaign he ran last year, The Martin Chronicles would actually find itself in the very uncomfortable position of agreeing with Pope. Fortunately, that is NOT the case.
Listening to Martin and Pope try to attribute the woes they have accumulated for themselves over the past ten months to the previous administration is as painful a watching Barack Obama campaigning in swing states, acting as if he hasn't been president for the last three years.
Funniest thing about Mike Pope. For a guy who hates the dreaded $40 sticker tax so much, a review of his previous two years on council shows that he NEVER ONCE PROPOSED repealing the tax. Not a single time.
But wait, there's more. How can Pope say with a straight face that previous budgets were over-spent WHEN HE QUIT THE FINANCE COMMITTEE VERY EARLY ON IN HIS FIRST TERM? Could it be that he really just didn't care that much? Or, is he being dishonest? The correct answer is probably BOTH.
Now Pope is chairman of the city's finance committee. Martin is responsible for the city budget. Pope has been unable to present his fellow council members with accurate financial reports describing Martin's spending now for ten embarrassing months. It has gotten so bad that NO FINANCIAL REPORTS at all were presented to council at the October meeting. Pope was so afraid of the data he presented in council prior to the October debacle that he was unwilling to recommend that his colleagues vote to approve his report and bills for payment.
Is Pope just that incompetent? Is it $47.50 per hour clerk/bookkeeper Cordelia Schaber's fault? Is Martin just that devoid of leadership ability and professionalism that no one can track his actions? The Martin Chronicles suspects it is a combination of those three factors as well as some other troubling things.
Martin and Pope clearly have created and have sole ownership of the mess of the past ten months. When will they have to answer for it?
