The Martin Chronicles can completely understand the doubt and suspicion-dare we say paranoia-resulting from Villa Hills’ Mayor Mike Martin’s Reign of Error. After all, the more than thirteen month misadventure of mismanagement, malfeasance, misbehavior, mumbling and meatheadedness is certainly enough to make any sane person question Martin’s every misstep.
So, we are putting one of our crack investigative reporters on the rumor mill’s grinding of the story of Martin’s clandestine, back-room meeting with some of his Civic Club cronies that occurred last Friday evening.
Here’s what we know so far. Martin was sharing adult beverages with the cigar-chomping former president of the Civic Club as well as a husband and wife team who benefited from some mayoral largesse in the form of an allegedly "not-low-bidder" contract for fire extinguishers.
The opinionated cigar-chomper was president of the Civic Club when it went through an embezzlement scandal that very nearly put the club out of business. The grinding rumor mill is also alleging that this “gentleman” has been feeding confidential information to the two defendants in the lawsuit the Civic Club is pursuing in an attempt to recover some more of the embezzled funds. It is also rumored that this cheap-cigar aficionado plans to run for Civic Club president yet again in March. Perhaps his plan is to finish his inexplicable task of taking the once-proud club completely under? That is for minds far smaller than those of The Martin Chronicles to decide.
So, why might the malfeasant mayor been meeting with his venal cronies at the club? The rumor mill says they are planning to make mischief with the long-term lease the Civic Club has entered into with the City of Villa Hills. The City and Civic Club entered a ten-year lease back in the peaceful days of late 2009. The main purpose? To signal long-term stability between the two entities enabling the construction of the privately-funded Tommy Vogt Pavilion and the taxpayer-funded concession stand.
So what good could come from making mischief with the long-term lease?
Well, if the long-term lease plays right into the bogus claim the grizzled cigar-chomper has always made that “the City is trying to take over the Civic Club”. Some observers believe that the former president made the incessant “takeover” claim as a way to divert attention away from all the bad actors ransacking the club from the inside. There is nothing like creating a "straw man" outside enemy to take peoples’ eyes off the enemy within. The Martin Chronicles can’t prove that theory-just yet. But we see how people could believe it.
But what could Martin gain by walking away from the lease? Well, he could re-kindle the love of the bad actors at the Civic Club in order to keep them aboard the hillbilly lynch mob he will need to fight the impeachment proceedings that are rapidly speeding down the pike. Besides, he could use the tens of thousands of dollars that the Civic Club would have to pony up to get out of the lease for his down payment on the massive overtime expenses he has incurred.
And the troglodytes gravitating at the bar wonder why almost no one new is joining the Civic Club?!?!
