The Martin Chronicles has found the December 21 cincinnati.com article about the expansion of the investigation of Villa Hills’ Special Counsel Phil Taliaferro to be a treasure trove of Mayor Martin’s clumsy sleight-of-hand.
Taliaferro has been asked to take a look at the mayor’s voiding of tickets. Martin said, “I want to say it’s been 15 (vehicle sticker fees waived). It could be more. It could be less”. Martin continued, using the reflexive defense he and his cronies have been employing since the early days of his administration. “I find it interesting that they’re investigating me when the previous mayor and all the clerks waived them. Since I took office, I changed that so that it would be just me or the police chief.”
But of course Martin is (intentionally) missing the point. The Martin Chronicles believes Martin has every right to void tickets. He is absolutely correct about that. But here is the real problem. Why has he been lying about it?
All one has to do is go to tbnk.org and watch an archived council meeting from a few months back when Martin was being questioned about the ticket voiding. The mayor gave a tortuous answer, explaining that he waived a ticket given to someone who was “visiting from Florida”. If true, that is fair enough. One of the councilmen asked for a copy of the voided tickets and Martin said he would produce them. The troglodytes at the Civic Club and the boorish Steve Arlinghaus probably mouth-breathed a sigh of relief.
Then Martin reverted to form. Suddenly there were no copies of the voided tickets. The interim city clerk (who spent years specializing in police department work) “officially verified” that the voided tickets didn’t exist.
Hmmm. So how does Martin now know there were “15 voided tickets-could be more-could be less”? Did the interim city clerk somehow manage to find them? Or, was this another case where requested documents were being intentionally withheld? The interim city clerk may want to consider putting the shovel down before she digs a hole so deep she’ll never be able to climb out.
The Martin Chronicles wonders if Special Counsel Phil Taliaferro baited a hook for Mayor Martin. Perhaps Mr. Taliaferro believed that Martin would never sit down to talk about all the allegations. Just maybe Mr. Taliaferro wanted to find another way to get Mayor Martin to publically comment on the elements of the investigation. Did Mr. Taliaferro understand that Martin simply couldn’t resist spinning his less-than-truthful version of events to the cincinnati.com reporter? Has the mayor now made public statements that Mr. Taliaferro can refute as evidence of official misconduct?
2012 could be an interesting year in tiny Villa Hills.
