The Martin Chronicles watched Day Two of malfeasant Mayor Mike Martin's removal hearing with great interest. Man oh man oh man. So much to report. So little time.
Where to begin? Let's first take on the mendacious Martin and his attorney Toad McMurtry's obviously-coming claim that the Villa Hills police and Shorty's enemies on council "planted" evidence in the burned and shredded documents.
That wacky theory was blown to pieces last night. How so?
First, Public Works Director Derrick Yelton provided unchallenged testimony that only Martin, Sue Bree, MARY HARDMAN and Cordelia Schaber have ACCESS to the City file room, Sue Bree's office, Martin's office and the City Clerk's office. You read that right. Only THOSE four have keys-and therefore access- to the rooms where the records are kept.
Second, Special Counsel submitted Open Records requests for several documents that had been recovered from the January 5, 2012 "records barbecue". Special Counsel received a letter from Sue Bree a few days later stating that "the City does not have those documents in its possession". So what does that mean? It means that those documents recovered from the fire were originals. And, it means that they were originals that nobody but Martin, Sue Bree, MARY HARDMAN and Cordelia Schaber had access to.
Are you still with us? If so, you now understand that nobody is setting up Shorty. It means that there absolutely were original documents illegally destroyed on January 5, 2012. It also means that only Martin, Sue Bree, MARY HARDMAN and/or Cordelia Schaber can be responsible for the illegal destruction of those documents. No one else. Only them. QED.
Speaking of Interim City Clerk Sue Bree, what a performance last night. She went from smug resentment to weepy terror in a matter of about twenty minutes. It is rare when an employee learns of the details of her reprimand on live television. But that was Sue Bree's fate last night.
Here is that timeline. Martin was charged with neglect of duty for failing to reprimand Sue Bree for her various shortcomings and failures. Martin dropped a reprimand on Bree a few days after being charged. Sue Bree testified that she refused to read and sign her reprimand. She further testified that Martin told her the reprimand was for her July "personal" document shred.
Boy, was Bree surprised when Special Counsel read her reprimand into the record. She was reprimanded for far more than her "personal" document shred. Want an example? Bree was reprimanded for "repeatedly" violating Martin's directives to obey the State Open Records statutes.
Bree was obviously shocked by the extreme-and previously unknown-details of her reprimand. She went so far as to testify that she believes that Martin "threw her under the bus".
All of this begs yet another, related discussion. Let's see if we have this straight. Martin suspends Clerk Kim Robbins for two weeks without pay AND publicly humiliates her with a press release detailing her PERSONAL PROBLEMS. Social network postings even indicate that Martin improperly shared the details of this employees' PERSONAL PROBLEMS with loyal members of his hillbilly lynchmob. So far, so good?
Then last night we learned that Martin sheepishly slipped a reprimand into Sue Bree's file-that he didn't make her read or sign-FOR WHAT SHORTY DESCRIBED AS "REPEATED" VIOLATIONS OF STATE LAW. Does anybody outside of the BABOONS-to use Toad McMurtry's insulting description of a Villa Hills police officer- at the Civic Club think that makes the remotest bit of sense?
No matter that Martin claims to have secured the support of Councilmen Mike Pope and Jim Noll even before any evidence was presented or testimony heard. No matter what happens, Martin is a PROVEN corrupt and incompetent clown.
