The Real "Bullies"

The Martin Chronicles distinctly remembers the wild claims supporters of Villa Hills malfeasant Mayor Mike Martin made during last year's local election. Martin's supporters cleverly spoke to the embarrassment residents felt because of City government's well-documented dysfunction.

• The council is bullying Martin.
• The council is picking on Martin.
• The council is finger-pointing and blaming.
• Wouldn't it be great to see what Martin can really do with a council who will work with him?

Many voters desperately wanted to believe Martin's supporters. They surrounded the tiny tyrant with six new councilmembers in hopes that things would improve. But things haven't improved. More lies. More evasion. More mystery. More disagreement. More turmoil. More incompetence. More petty corruption. More dysfunction. A growing number of residents now understand who the root cause of all of the turmoil and embarrassment is. It is Martin himself.

These residents see exactly who can't seem to work with others. The most recent example? Martin fully expected the council to approve HIS NEW ENERGY TAX at the last untelevised caucus meeting. Martin answered none of council's very legitimate questions about his tax. In fact, Martin refused to allow residents who attended the untelevised caucus to even ask any questions about his new tax. Despite his refusal to answer anyone's questions, Martin was obviously agitated by council's refusal to rubber-stamp his new tax.

Oh, and people are coming to understand who the really bully is as well. Martin is the mayor who threatened to fire employees for cooperating with last year's Special Counsel investigation. Martin is the mayor who threatened to have employees arrested if they attended his removal hearing last year. Martin is the mayor who signed an Executive Order that empowered him to have those he deemed to have stepped out of line at council meetings arrested.

What about all of the bullying with all of those taxpayer-funded lawsuits and threats of lawsuits? It's so bad that council is being asked to move TWENTY-NINE THOUSAND TAXPAYER DOLLARS out of the Public Works budget to pay for the skyrocketing legal bills Martin is generating. That should be very troubling to the taxpayers because the City is barely one-third of the way through its fiscal year.

Martin's personal-and now taxpayer-funded City-Attorney Toad V. McMurtry seems to be a happy participant in this outrageous bullying campaign. There are numerous stories circulating around town of McMurtry threatening legal action against elected officials, employees and even residents. Understanding that if you can't laugh you'll cry, one local pundit quipped that, "Toad V. McMurtry is actually a bully-frog." It would be funny. If it wasn't so true.

Martin and his hired-guns would be better equipped to be members of a Third World, despotic junta, ruling a frightened populace by fear and intimidation. You see, they face a looming problem. Because unlike in an oppressed banana republic, the voters will get an opportunity to express their feelings about the mess Martin and his hired guns have created in Villa Hills.

That opportunity is now 383 days away.