Let’s start with the mindless crushing of the City safe with a backhoe. That little piece of malfeasant nitwittery happened more than a year ago. What might Martin say? Well, he will most likely lie and say he asked several people for the combination to the safe. He might lie and say he called a locksmith who told him it would be $1,000 or $1,500 dollars to open the safe. He might say the City Attorney told him it was okay to willfully destroy City property (given the City Attorney’s performance over the past fifteen months we can’t be 100% sure that didn’t happen).
Frankly, all of that is irrelevant. Before he took any action State statutes mandate that he should have asked council to declare the safe “surplus property”. That never happened. Besides, the fact that Martin went out to purchase a new safe with his own money (misusing the City’s Tax ID to avoid paying sales tax) after his action was discovered is as close to an admission that he knew what he did was improper as you are ever going to get. Will Martin try to explain away his shady business dealings? Will he say he didn’t know then that he needs and electrical and plumbing license to do electrical and plumbing work, but he knows it now?
Will he say that it is a mere coincidence that not a single one of the residences in Villa Hills where he performed his unlicensed work secured the necessary permits? Will he chalk that up to every single one of his customers being somewhat dishonest?What excuse will Martin provide to explain his unlicensed commercial work at the Villa Hills Civic Club? Will he make the easily disprovable claim that he donated the labor and material (which would still be improper)? Why might it be so easily disprovable? Perhaps Special Counsel Phil Taliaferro has copies of Civic Club checks paid to Mike Martin Electric for the unlicensed work he performed? We’ll know that soon enough.
Will Martin blame his official (and improper) policy to delay and stonewall the filling of Open Records requests on the endlessly interim City Clerk? Despite the fact that this more or less useless clerk publicly stated that she could not release records without the mayor’s approval to a crowd at a council meeting? Will Martin blame this same inept clerk for the illegal document destruction of January 5? Will he say it is her, not him who is the “custodian of records”? How will he explain the document he falsified the next day? What will he say when documents that weren’t on his trumped up list are presented in the special counsel report? Will that also be the hapless interim City Clerk’s fault?
If so, won’t that be rich? There is something to be said for getting the opportunity to watch two low-life’s wrestling with one another desperately attempting to throw the other low-life under the bus. As many of you are learning, and we already knew, it is not the current City Council who is holding Martin back from becoming “all the mayor he could be”. Unless of course by that Martin means he could become an even bigger embarrassment to the City and its residents.
The logic is clear. The council Martin blames for his problems was there many years before his arrival. Theirs is a track record of accomplishment. What has changed? Martin is now there. His track record? Embarrassing misconduct and abject failure. What we have witnessed over these last fifteen disgraceful months, the lies, the improper conduct, the huge budget over-runs, the decimation of the police department-these are all the sole property of Mayor Mike Martin. Who will ever forget his famous words? “I’m the CEO. It’s MY decision. Get over it. We’re moving on”. Always remember those words.
No more excuses. No more finger-pointing. No more blame-laying. No more lies. With Martin, what you see is what you get. It is time for Martin to heed the sober advice given to him by his friend who came to the podium at the last council meeting. It is time for Martin to accept the fact that he alone is the “CEO”. These were his decisions. These were his actions. He needs to get over himself. And he needs to move on. 