Shaking Down The Children

The Martin Chronicles staff occasionally frets that the human wrecking ball Villa Hills malfeasant Mayor Mike Martin will somehow get his act together, denying us things to write about. But that fretting is quite rare indeed. Because in our collective heart of hearts we know that the mistake-prone Martin is always only minutes away from being caught in another lie, misdeed, foul-up, bleep or blunder.

Not surprisingly, Martin has managed to do it again. The tiny tyrant's latest outrage occurred at the annual youth sports field assignment meeting held at that local den of drunkenness known as the Villa Hills Civic Club.

Martin opened the meeting in his typical fumbling fashion. The diminutive dictator immediately delivered some very bad news to the assembled throng of community-minded volunteer coaches, telling them that there were going to be some changes. Specifically? Every team was going to be shaken down for twenty to thirty dollars per player for the "right" to have their teams compete on the so-called "civic" club's ball fields this year.

Witnesses tell us that the assembled coaches wouldn't have been any less put off if Martin had instead announced that he had slipped poison in to every drink that had already been served that evening. In other words, the coaches were understandably none too pleased.

Always one to run for cover, Martin then turned the meeting over to two of the members of his infamous "goon squad", Councilwomen Holly Menninger-Isenhour and the hideous Mary Koenig to finish the dirty deed. As you can imagine, they did nothing to improve a very bad situation. But enough about that for now.

For the purposes of full disclosure, The Martin Chronicles is not absolutely opposed to the concept of "pay for play". If a government entity is legitimately enacting austerity measures as a means of freeing up money for perhaps more important services, it may make sense.

But that clearly isn't the case in the mismanaging Martin's Villa Hills:

• Remember, Martin had no trouble signing a Purchase Order to pay himself TWENTY-THREE THOUSAND-PLUS TAXPAYER DOLLARS to cover his legal expenses for his personal attorney who managed to get the malfeasant Martin acquitted on two counts of Official Misconduct and Neglect of Duty. Oh, that's right. Martin was CONVICTED on the other SEVEN COUNTS OF OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT AND NEGLECT OF DUTY. Ain't that something?
• Remember, Martin had no reservations about convincing a majority of his "golden moment" council to hire his personal attorney to serve as the City Attorney to the-yes-the-meter-is-running-at-full-speed-ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY TAXPAYER-FUNDED DOLLARS PER HOUR. Again, ain't that something?
• Remember, Martin tasked his personal, and now City-Attorney to launch a ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY TAXPAYER-FUNDED DOLLAR PER HOUR investigation of the investigation of the State Auditor's investigation of the Kentucky Labor Department's investigation into the mismanaging Martin's refusal to pay justifiably earned TAXPAYER-FUNDED overtime expenses. Again, ain't that something?
• Remember, Martin recently convinced a majority of his "golden moment" council to approve a ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT PERCENT INCREASE in taxpayer-funded legal fees. Oh, yeah. The City's Finance Committee just announced that that whopping increase wasn't going to be enough to cover the misspending Martin's TAXPAYER-FUNDED legal largesse. Once again, ain't that something?

Our regular readers realize that this is just the very tip of the mallet-headed Martin's wasteful spending. Given that, how does the miniature mullah justify shaking down every youth sports team an additional THREE TO FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS?

Good Grief!