The Martin Chronicles will now report the story it teased on Friday. A little late we admit. But when there is so much going on-including the addition of a probe by the US Attorney’s Office-it sometimes becomes difficult to keep up with the mayhem that is Mayor Mike Martin’s Villa Hills.
The last thing the taxpayers of that troubled town need right now is another lawsuit. Martin and his LIBELOUS teammate Dale Schaber ($47.50 per hour clerk/bookkeeper/crony-hire Cordelia Schaber’s hubby) generated one serious lawsuit. The allegedly inappropriate behavior of Councilman Jim Noll and Martin’s pathetic reaction to it has generated another complaint that is teetering on the brink of a second serious lawsuit. But thanks to the vindictiveness of Councilman Mike Pope, yet another lawsuit is precisely what the taxpayers might be facing.
We think a little history lesson might be in order. As we have already reported, Martin launched his baseless assault on City employee, who serves as the City’s Building Inspector, Joe Schutzman, almost immediately after taking his oath of office in December, 2004. At approximately the same time, Mike Pope identified Mr. Schutzman as his “focus of evil” because Schutzman dared to issue the entirely proper building permits allowing a developer to expand the Ameristop strip mall on Amsterdam Road. Pope lived fairly close to the Ameristop strip mall.
So, Pope and Martin had a common enemy. At least in their tiny minds. Martin was hammering Schutzman from within City government. Pope was casting aspersions on the building inspector from the outside. As a brief aside, the City Attorney-we hope unwittingly-encouraged the outrageous behavior of both Martin and Pope. By extension, the City Attorney is in part to blame for all of the litigation the taxpayers have been dragged into.
Moving along, Schutzman served as the “psycho magnet” that attracted Martin and Pope together. The two convinced themselves that they were crusaders tasked by their version of “god” to destroy Mr. Schutzman. After Martin chickened out of a mayoral run in 2006, Pope jumped in as an unsuccessful “write-in” candidate. When Pope was elected to council in 2008, Martin was defeated for another term. Still, the time just wasn’t right.
Flash forward to 2010. The stars were finally in alignment. Martin and Pope teamed up to run a dirtbag campaign that placed Martin in the mayor’s office and Pope dutifully at his side as the mayor’s most trusted councilman. Now, vengeance was theirs. Or so they thought.
Martin’s egregious retaliation against Schutzman sparked the first lawsuit fairly soon into the mayor’s dreadful Reign of Error. What Pope has done may actually be worse. If he isn’t sued into the ground The Martin Chronicles thinks that would be a miscarriage of justice.
Why? Because it appears that Pope has teamed up with at least two other elected officials from another city to take away work Mr. Schutzman has been performing in the City of Ludlow for the past twenty-two years.
Why would Pope do this?
· Because he is consumed with hatred for Schutzman.
· Because Pope believes he has a long-unsettled score to settle with Schutzman over the minor expansion of the Ameristop strip center near his home.
· Because Pope is still stinging from the complaint Schutzman filed against Pope’s retaliatory Finance Committee.
· Because Pope is slavishly devoted to Martin, as witnessed by the uncomfortable adulation exhibited in his now-defunct "alternate-reality" City Website.
Whatever the reason, Pope has tried to capture a bridge too far. The Martin Chronicles wouldn’t care if Pope had only placed himself in well-deserved jeopardy. But he hasn’t it. Pope has opened the already-jeopardized taxpayers to further financial exposure because of his vindictive antics.
So what is the damning evidence that clearly points the “lawsuit finger” at Pope? It’s simple. Just hours after Pope’s co-conspirators evidently made the successful move to remove Mr. Schutzman from his job in Ludlow, Pope was on the phone with Ludlow officials asking them to consider working together to provide building inspection services to the residents of both cities. Pope was clearly over-eager to drive the final nail in Schutzman’s coffin. Now, the taxpayers of Villa Hills very well may find themselves obligated to pay the tab for Pope’s over-reach.
As The Martin Chronicles frequently writes, we have no sympathy for the taxpayers of the once-proud City of Villa Hills. What’s the old saying? “People get the government they deserve.” The taxpayers elected Martin and re-elected Pope. Now they must pay for those decisions.
One wag commented that "Martin’s ship of state has taken several torpedoes amidships and is listing badly. To make matters worse; his supposed buddies Noll and Pope are actually bailing buckets of water in to the sinking ship!” The Martin Chronicles whole-heartedly agrees with this wry observation. In fact, we encourage them to keep bailing. The sooner Martin goes under, the sooner the council can take the necessary steps to reduce the taxpayer’s financial exposure. Whether the taxpayers deserve it or not.
