The Martin Chronicles is following several story leads that surfaced at last night's Villa Hills city council meeting. It certainly appears that Mayor Martin is right on the edge of losing any semblance of control over a City that was ranked Number One in Northern Kentucky just two short years ago. What has gone wrong? We will learn more about that when the Special Counsel presents the initial findings at River Ridge Elementary on Monday, April 30 beginning at 6:30pm.
Based on last night's meeting, just how poorly are things going?
Martin's lies aren't working. The little man from Norwood was forced to make a very embarrassing public apology for the scurrilous attack he and his wife launched against Councilman Tim Sogar last month. Mr. Sogar explained the reasons why, contrary to Martin's fabrications, he is not required to have an Occupational License. The City Attorney surprisingly swatted away Martin's lame questions and protests. Martin was not even provided salt or pepper for the crow he was forced to eat.
Councilman George Bruns laid waste to the Martin Manifesto that the mayor took door-to-door this past Sunday. Bruns dismantled Martin's hand-delivered deceptions point by point. Martin's feeble response? "I'm not going to discuss it with you, George." Where is that old bravado and bluster that the CEO used to exhibit?
The City Attorney also told the mayor, council, God and the camera that the uncontracted arrangement Mayor Martin unilaterally struck with his $47.50 per hour crony-hire clerk/bookkeeper Cordelia Schaber well more than one year ago was not a good idea. While The Martin Chronicles has said that since the blog launched on October 8, 2011, we think it is significant that the City Attorney demonstrated the sand to make that statement so publicly. Martin's response? He re-shuffled his already over-shuffled papers.
It is also becoming evident that Martin has completely mismanaged the City's finances. Last night we heard some shocking numbers about line items that are literally hemorrhaging red ink. It is such a mess that the City Attorney informed council that they have the legal right to ask a judge to issue an injunction to bar the mayor from more rampant waste of taxpayer money.
Council also sent signals that the mayor's budget proposal for next fiscal year may not be approved. That would mean two years without a new budget. We aren't sure whether passage of a new budget would make any difference. Martin simply can't control spending.
Councilman and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Pope went so far as to suggest the council consider borrowing $500,000 to fund street repair. The debt would be repaid over ten years by annual tax increases. Red ink, debt that equates to more than 15% of the City's annual revenues and TAX INCREASES LOCKED IN FOR AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE? Mike Pope is certainly not the Tea Partier he likes to masquerade himself as.
We also wonder about Councilman Jim Noll. How, after droning on for nearly a half an hour about something as meaningless as time clocks for eleven City employees can Noll suggest that it is important for Special Counsel to keep his April 30 presentation concise? Who is Noll trying to kid?
Along those lines, we find it shameless that Martin would question the amount of money being spent for Special Counsel's investigation. It is Martin's perpetual dodge, dip, duck, dive and uh, dodge of the Special Counsel's requests that has wasted so much time.
Martin has never met a taxpayer dollar he doesn't want to waste.
