The Martin Chronicles was happy to see the hundreds of residents who attended last night's public hearing at River Ridge Elementary School in Villa Hills malfeasant Mayor Mike Martin's troubled town. People are finally engaged. That is a great thing. People were taking pro-police signs and donating money to the efforts of the police supporters.
Opening the meeting:
It was obvious that Martin was more nervous than an ant at an aardvark convention at the beginning of last night's meeting. He did manage to stumble and fumble through a non-sensical introduction without (obviously) wetting his pants.
Martin gave everyone-with the obvious exception of his few supporters who attended-three minutes to speak their peace. He frequently interrupted those who opposed him with, "you've got to wrap it up" jabs. The few who spoke for disbanding the police were never interrupted. Typical.
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.:
A huge majority of the attendees were clear supporters of maintaining a local police department. Several commenters spoke truth to Martin's treachery, saying that Martin's efforts have nothing to do with "saving money" and everything to do with his vendetta against the police department he blames for his 2007 FORGERY ARREST.
Sources tell us that there was an obvious scam being run by Martin, Cabana-Boy-City-Administrator- disguised-as-a-City-Clerk Craig Bohman and Martin's fellow police-haters. A few police-haters had signed up at the end of the list intentionally, hoping to close the meeting on a pro-Martin note. When they saw the huge groundswell of support for the police, the police-haters backed off. The tip-off that it was pre-arranged? Cabana Boy Bohman-who controlled the sign-in sheet-didn't even call on the police haters.
"I trust this mayor":
The most bizarre moment-and therefore the one television media paid attention to-came when a woman spoke in support of "outsourcing", falsely claiming that's what every other Northern Kentucky City is doing. The reality? It hasn't worked well in most cases. Including in neighboring Crescent Springs.
The woman lost all credibility when she said, "I trust this mayor", ignoring Martin's LIE after LIE after LIE after LIE after LIE. The truth? This woman and her husband have received a whole lot of help-on both a professional and volunteer basis-from the Villa Hills PD over the years. How is this woman and her husband repaying the police? BY STABBING THE POLICE IN THE BACK OVER AND OVER.
We do want to thank this woman for the gobs of free advertising she provided our plucky little blog. We suspect that thanks to her rant against The Martin Chronicles last night-we have already shattered all readership records today!
We all enjoyed the show she put on last night. We enjoyed it a lot. A whole, whole lot.
Giving credit where credit is due:
The Martin Chronicles has been justifiably hard on the new council at times. But three of them really stepped up last night. Council members Baehner, Balson and Cahill could not have been more explicit about their opposition to Martin's plan to disband the Villa Hills Police Department. We salute them. We also hope they remember that Martin can break a tie vote to disband the police department.
Kenton Kounty Kop Konnection?:
One Kenton County Sheriff cruiser and one Kenton County Police cruiser were parked on the River Ridge Elementary lot last night. Were they providing TAX-PAYER FUNDED security for the Bilious Blowhard Judge Executive Steve Arlinghaus, who was in attendance? Was it a heavy-handed attempt to intimidate attendees? We suspect it was BOTH.
So much for the "postage savings":
For some bizarre reason, Martin seems obsessed with hanging his size 5 1/4 hat on his alleged factoid that the proof he "runs a tight ship" is that he "saved a $1,000 on postage". One pundit at last night's public hearing quipped, "What a joke. The little fella already blew the thousand bucks he claims to have saved buying those 9 stupid chairs for the council chambers. Well, 8 chairs-and a stool for Toad!"
Thoughts on the other media coverage:
Over all, the other media did a nice job covering the meeting. Despite the over-attention paid to the aforementioned police-hating woman.
We do want to address a couple of things in LOCAL 12's morning report.
First, veteran reporter Larry Davis said Martin "IS going to outsource to find money to fix the City's streets." Not "hopes to". Not "wants to". The reliable Davis said, "IS". That is telling.
Next, the man riding the anchor desk added a tag at the end of the report, saying that, "Villa Hills and neighboring Crescent Springs have been sharing a fire department and life squad for several years". We don't think the anchor was being intentionally misleading. In fact, the anchor is a fine person. But his comments need clarification.
You see, the fire department that the anchor referred to EXISTED EVEN BEFORE THE CITY OF VILLA HILLS WAS INCORPORATED. This "sharing" is nothing new. In point of fact, it didn't begin as "sharing". That distinction is very important.
Besides-while the fire department and life squad provide excellent service-they do not patrol the City's streets in an effort to curtail the tidal wave of crime in Villa Hills. That job is reserved for the police department. A LOCAL, FULLY-STAFFED police department can do it best.
More coming up.
