The Martin Chronicles wants to take a look back at something that took place several months ago to add perspective to the current turmoil in Villa Hills. It involves a proposed meeting and the kicking around of everybody’s favorite whipping boy-news source, The Whistleblower Newswire.
We went back through the archives and found a Whistleblower report of an e-mail from the now-resigning chairman of the Villa Hills Ethics Board proposing the board meet in the back room of a bar outside the city limits. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss complaints that had been brought against Mayor Mike Martin.
The Martin Chronicles believes that the chairman made an innocent mistake. He was surely not aware that such a meeting would have been a gross violation of Kentucky Open Meeting statutes. The chairman’s suggestion simply took place in the current Martin era of running fast and loose with the rules and facts. The fact that his e-mail was leaked to The Whistleblower prompted an intervention by the normally sedentary city attorney that prevented the meeting from taking place. All in all, the turn of events was very positive and caused only minor embarrassment.
But here is where it went wrong. At the very next council meeting, a long-time council member launched into an attack on “anonymous blogs” (re: The Whistleblower Newswire) and “reassured” the public that no such meeting ever happened. Hello in there?!?!? Did it ever occur to the councilman that the only reason the meeting was never held was precisely because it was tipped in The Whistleblower? Perhaps the council member needs to reflect on the root causes of all these problems. That would be Mayor Mike Martin.
Would it have been better for The Whistleblower to sit on the e-mail it had obtained and release it after the meeting had happened? Maybe it would have. Maybe an open meetings violation explosion then would have put the brakes on all the violations that have occurred since.
Would that have made the councilman happier?
