Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey once described Bill Clinton as "a remarkably skilled liar". While all but his family and few remaining friends would agree that Mayor Mike Martin is also a legendary liar, The Martin Chronicles thinks he isn't remarkably skilled at it.
Yes, we will explain. Martin told the audience at the October 19th council meeting that he was committed to quickly hiring a replacement for the police officer who is leaving. Martin desperately tried to portray himself as Elliott Ness-like in his support for safety. With high drama, Martin declared that he would use his "emergency powers" to hire someone for safety's sake.
Ah, ah, ah Mr. Martin. Not so fast there big fella. The Martin Chronicles has an e-mail you sent to the Chairman of the City's Civil Service Commission at 8:54PM on September29th telling him not to bother searching for police officer candidates. You wanted city clerk candidates. But nothing else.
But wait, there's more. The Chronicles also has an e-mail you received from the police chief several weeks before advising you that an officer was leaving. It appears to us that the only emergency here is one you created. And it appears you created this phony emergency on purpose. We think you may very well have trumped up this so-called emergency in order to circumvent the civil service ordinance-yet again.
The Martin Chronicles is still digging to see if the city attorney is complicit in Martin's end-run around the city ordinance. If so, that is another disgrace.
You would think that all the practice Martin has had at lying would make him a little better at it.
