We hope you had a Very Merry Christmas! We all did. But now we’re back on the Villa Hills beat. We’re working the phones and the e-mails are flying back-and-forth. The staff has renewed vigor, fully restored after being worn out from the five-plus hour debacle of a council meeting on December 21st.
2011 has been a wild year for Villa Hills’ city government. Mike Martin has transformed the city into a chaotic street-brawl chock full of corruption and cronyism. His vengeful actions have triggered a serious lawsuit and promoted Open Meetings and Open Records violations aplenty. Why, even the loutish Judge Executive Steve Arlinghaus has decided to join the mayhem!
Do you realize that it’s now only 316 days until the 2012 council elections? We will give you a blow-by-blow account of a campaign that will surely have the same sour flavor of Martin’s 2010 mayoral campaign. We expect Martin, Pope and Noll to cobble together a slate of like-minded candidates committed to finishing the job of changing Villa Hills into West Crescent Springs. We hope they face at least token resistance.
We are also already getting word that the special counsel investigation is really picking up steam. A number of people have agreed to give sworn statements that Martin’s handyman business did unlicensed electrical work for them. If you are wondering why that is a big deal, unlicensed electrical work carries with it stiff fines and potential jail time.
There are also new lawsuits brewing. One is for libel. Another is for sexual harassment. We’ll give you all the details as these stories unfold.
We’ll also be watching to see how many free-roaders now pay their license fee when they go to the county for their annual registration renewal. Bet it’s going to be a ton. We’ll also keep a running tab of all the smiling faces of people who live in Villa Hills and drive company vehicles or have out-of-state plates. We also wonder how many people are going to start registering their cars to Uncle Fred’s address in unincorporated Boone County. This is going to be fun!
If you love Villa Hills, you really need to stay informed. Tell your friends and neighbors to read The Martin Chronicles. An apathetic, ill-informed public put Martin and Noll in office and re-elected Pope in 2010. Will the same thing happen again in 2012?
