But What Kind Of "CEO" Is He?

The Martin Chronicles knows many in our vast audience are already well aware that Villa Hills malfeasant Mayor Mike Martin regularly enjoys beating his chest and announcing to anyone who is still listening that he is the "CEO" of the once-thriving City. Why? Because every decision is his and his alone. Excepting of course during one of those many occasions when something goes horribly wrong because of his mismanagement and his corruption. Then Martin points the finger of blame at somebody-anybody-else but himself.

We do agree that the mismanaging Martin is indeed the "CEO" of Villa Hills City government. How do we know this? Because the Kentucky Revised Statutes tell us so.

But what kind of "CEO" is the mendacious Martin?

• We could conclude that Martin is like former Enron CEOs Kenneth Lay and Jeffery Skilling. Enron was an energy-trading behemoth worth an incredible $68 billion in 2000. But shady accounting practices suddenly fell on Enron like several tons of shredded documents. Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, leaving its employees, shareholders and stakeholders in the lurch. Both Lay and Skilling went to prison.
• Perhaps Martin is more like CEO Dennis Kozlowski. Kozlowski nearly destroyed corporate giant Tyco by using corporate funds for personal benefit. Perhaps like paying personal legal bills and settling personal legal liabilities for LIBEL, SLANDER and DEFAMATION with taxpayer money?
• Or, maybe Martin is like Keefe, Bruyette and Woods CEO James McDermott, Jr.? More than a dozen years ago, McDermott's army of well-paid attorneys attributed the CEO's many costly misdeeds to nothing more than "lapses of judgment". Is that like deceptively attributing the illegal burning of City records to a crony-hire part-time City Clerk whose only defense was that she claimed to have read the non-existent book, Clerking for Dummies?
• Could it be that Martin is a carbon copy of ImClone CEO Sam Waksal? Waksal served eighty-seven months in prison for lying. Is that like telling investigators, "I didn't know it was wrong then, but I know its wrong now?"
• Perhaps Martin is like former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers? Ebbers is currently serving a twenty-five year prison sentence for-in part-conspiracy. Is enjoining City Attorneys and City Clerks to make as-yet unproven claims against a City employee to justify that City employee's termination an example of conspiracy? Is recruiting a spouse and other family members to vainly search for non-existent dirt on a City employee for the purpose of DEFAMING them an example of conspiracy?

Gee, we don't really know for sure. Perhaps the malevolent Martin is actually a hybrid of the five previously-listed CEOs? Maybe Martin adopted the worst of all worlds from all of them?

The good news? The voters of Villa Hills will have the opportunity to fire their CEO on November 4, 2014.

We only have to wait another 330 grim days to see what happens.