Try To Imagine

The Martin Chronicles asks that you use your imagination for this post. Pretend that you, just as the nitwits at that dingy dump they call the Villa Hills Civic Club do, think that Mayor Mike Martin has done absolutely nothing wrong. Imagine if you can, just as the hapless Kentucky Enquirer headline writer does, that Martin is an earnest, good government messiah who is nothing more than a victim of "infighting". Visualize the world through the eyes of the Tea Partiers, Liberty Leaguers and other various and sundry tri-cornered hat-wearing fanatics who drool when they remember then-Councilman Mike Martin's tirade over the Public Works Director's "reckless" purchase of a $40 garden hose.

Are you there yet? Can you see it? Good. So how does it feel?

• Now, how do we explain Martin's persistent sixteen months of failure to adhere to Kentucky Open Records statutes?
• How do we justify Martin's after-hours removal of computers kept "in storage" at employee work stations from City premises?
• How do we rationalize Martin's January 5 burning of City records that occurred despite written requests from the City Attorney and Kentucky League of Cities to preserve all ( as in all) City records?
• How do we defend Martin's falsification of a document intended to misrepresent what records were actually destroyed on January 5?
• How do we excuse the "confidential" reprimand issued by the Villa Hills Ethics Board for his misuse of City personnel and resources for political activity?
• How do we endorse Martin's decimation of the Villa Hills Police Department that has led to an explosion in unnecessary overtime cost and a skyrocketing crime rate?
• How do we ratify Martin's (and his wife's) dishonest, LIBELOUS attacks on perceived enemies like Councilman Tim Sogar and a host of others?
• How do we defend the hiring of two unqualified Civic Club cronies at a combined pay rate of $62.50 an hour and the awarding of unbid contracts to more Civic Club cohorts for items as innocuous as fire extinguishers?
• How do we support Martin's inability to enact a coherent budget for sixteen months? His frenzied pleas to council for a six-figure budget amendment in a vain attempt to stem his tsunami of taxpayer red ink? His current plan to send the taxpayers into even further debt and lock them into years of guaranteed tax increases?

If, in our imaginary world, Martin is actually an honest man, there is only one other logical explanation. Martin must be a hopelessly incompetent, in-completely-over-his-head, thoroughly unprofessional dolt.

Do you feel better now?