Are you as concerned as The Martin Chronicles is about Mayor Martin’s recent comments in a December 14 nky.com article titled Villa Hills Still Without Needed Officer? We are concerned for several reasons. Two of the many are Martin’s self-delusion and his grasp of math. He is responsible for overseeing the city budget after all-despite the fact that the city really doesn’t have a "legitimate" budget for the current fiscal year.
First let’s examine Martin’s self-delusion. In the article Martin says he doesn’t know why the two prime candidates-undoubtedly seasoned police officers- “nixed” an interview for the job. Martin attributes the two brush offs to the potential salary the new officer would earn.
Martin completely looks past the grim fact that he and Councilmen Mike Pope and Jim Noll have launched a well-publicized assault on the Villa Hills Police Department over the past year. Martin’s mistreatment of the police department has been so egregious that one officer has filed a lawsuit against him.
Worse yet, the entire department is so upset with the mayor that they declined Martin’s invitation to join him at a “Christmas luncheon” on December 19. It’s pretty bad when a group of guys who have to wear bullet-proof body armor to work every day decline an opportunity to share a free lunch with their itinerant-handyman mayor.
How about Martin’s grasp of math? In a ham-handed attack on the city’s Civil Service Commission, Martin is quoted as saying the salary range for the new officer as laid out by the 2010 Civil Service ordinance would be between $35K and $55K annually. So, Martin says that if an officer “with 15 years of experience” wanted $48K a year, the civil service ordinance would not allow it!!!
Hello? Is anybody in there? The last time The Martin Chronicles checked, while $48K is indeed greater than $35K, it is still less than $55K. So, as we understand very basic math, the requested $48K salary the mayor refers to does fall within the civil service guidelines. Several sources confirm that the reporter replayed Martin’s quote numerous time before moving ahead with the article, so he wasn’t misquoted. Can you say, “five-sided octagon”?
Given his math “skills”, the fact that Martin is overseeing the spending of your tax dollars should keep you awake at night. We suspect that even if you take a sleeping pill or two, the other fact that Martin has decimated the police department whose dedicated members patrol the streets keeping you safe will still lead to many a sleepless night.
