This week brought us several campaign tidbits:
- Only four of the nine council candidates saw fit to answer the residents' questions at last Tuesday's Town Hall meeting. The other five candidates-who Martin has publicly described as "my candidates"-evidently thought facing residents' question was beneath them and consciously chose to stay away. Sure, we know Villa Hills is supposed to have a six-member council. But, hey, why not just keep the last two seats empty. Empty chairs have as much to offer the residents as those other five "empty suit" no-shows do.
- Many people are perplexed by Tuesday night "no show" Dave Hilgeford's odd appearance at Thursday night's mayoral candidate Town Hall. Hilgeford compounded his already countless problems by rudely booing Martin's opponents as they were introduced. The good news? Hilgeford got at least a couple of emphatic "ear-fulls" from residents after the event. Hilgeford showed his true colors. He is a jerk.
- We learned this week that Martin's personal-and now City-Attorney Toad V. McMurtry (of Gerner & Kerns) has "earned" more than $239,000 of taxpayer money since Martin craftily maneuvered him in the position in early 2013. That whopping sum averages out to approximately to an incredible $13,000 a month! To put that in historical perspective, the City Attorney budget has typically been about $20,000 a year. Martin is paying his personal-and now City-Attorney Toad V. McMurtry an average of $156,000 a year. So, is this what Martin meant when he told the audience at the mayoral Town Hall that he is "stingy with the taxpayer money"?
- Martin stabbed "his five council candidates" in the back who foolishly took the diminutive dictator's advice and cut and run from Tuesday's Town Hall Council Candidate event by making an appearance at Thursday's Mayoral Candidate event. We believe Martin went because he saw how badly "his five council candidates" were savaged by their no-shows and because he realized he is in electoral trouble. In any event, Martin's self-aggrandizing proclamations that evening were sliced and diced by a heavy dose of the facts. As our readers know, facts are very stubborn things.
- We learned beyond a shadow of a doubt that Martin's recent political propaganda piece (funded by the taxpayers) is full of lies and half-truths. Martin has amended the city budget every single year he's been in the mayor's office to cover his wild-spending budget shortfalls. The amount of money eventually put back in to the treasury each year has been far less than the aggregate total amounts of the original amendments. Martin's false claim that he has run any "surpluses" is clearly a BOLD-FACED LIE.
- We have learned-again, beyond a shadow of a doubt-that Martin is doing everything he can to hide a $200,000-PLUS FINE that has been imposed on the taxpayers of Villa Hills by the State of Kentucky for their mindless mayor's reckless behavior. Martin is desperately trying to keep this terrible fine under wraps until after Election Day. But our forensic accountants discovered the $200,000-PLUS FINE buried in the city's annual audit. Worse yet, Martin is squandering even more taxpayer money paying his personal-and now City-Attorney Toad V. McMurtry (of Gerner & Kerns) to contest the $200,000-PLUS FINE.
- We have learned-yet again beyond a shadow of a doubt-that Martin has launched a full-scale assault on the Constitutionally-protected First Amendment-guaranteed rights of Villa Hills' residents. We have cell phone photos-that we will release closer to Election Day-of Martin's taxpayer-over-paid City Administrator/Clerk Craigory T. Bohman entering residents' private property to move and remove campaign signs of Martin's opponents. This certainly seems to be an obvious case of taxpayer-funded "political activity".
- We now know that the mismanaging Martin has been withholding the fact that the city will not have enough salt to treat the city's streets in the event of another bad winter. A letter from Morton Salt confirms this dismal fact, again beyond a shadow of a doubt.
- We have heard that Martin has ordered taxpayer-funded city employees to remove all campaign signs from residents' yards the day before the November 4 election. This brazen, illegal act would be a clear violation of residents' First Amendment rights. Perhaps that is why some of the taxpayer-funded employees who say they have received this illegal order from Martin have lawyered-up.
In a little more than two weeks Villa Hills' voters will be headed to the polls. Will a large enough majority remember all of the embarrassment and disgrace Martin has brought to Villa Hills City Government?
We'll know for sure sometime on the evening of November 4.
