The Shell Game, Revisited

The Martin Chronicles has already told you about the wisecrack offered up by a long time political observer in malfeasant Mayor Mike Martin's Villa Hills. In case you have forgotten, it went like this, "Villa Hills city finances have been a real shell game during Martin's four terrible years in office. It's far past time to get rid of the nut who has been running this tawdry con on the taxpayers".  

So what about this shell game? Would you like a few examples? Sure you would. Why?Because you have to cast a vote for the next mayor and six council members in just about 11 days.

• The malfeasant Martin and his willing accomplices have camouflaged some of the more than $500,000 absolutely wasted on taxpayer-funded lawyers and legal actions in innocuous budget line items such as "pre-paid expenses", "resident resources (whatever the heck that is)" and yes, even "office expenses".
• The malfeasant Martin recently used more than $5,000 of taxpayer money to pay the Lexington-based law firm of Sturgill, Turner, Barker & Moloney, PLLC. Why is that significant? Because that law firm is representing Martin personally in the four current lawsuits the mismanaging mayor's reckless behavior has generated.
• The malfeasant Martin and his willing accomplices have exploded the budget for the money to "improve" a park that almost no resident even knows exists. Martin's current, "golden moment" council approved a little more than $12,000 for the pointless project. Martin has actually squandered more than $48,000 on this useless white elephant waste of taxpayer money to-date.
• The malfeasant Martin continues to sit on the alleged $15,000 dollars he and incumbent council candidate Brian Wischer claimed was collected from some poor insurance company after the Amsterdam Village sign was damaged by a drunk driver more than a year ago. Why hasn't the still-missing sign been replaced? If $15,000 was actually collected from some poor insurance company as Martin and Wischer claimed, where is it now?
• The malfeasant Martin has cleverly kept a-taxpayers-on-the-hook-$217,000 fine from the State of Kentucky for "pension spiking" out of the city's financial records. Yes, the taxpayers have been kept in the dark about this tawdry piece of Martin mismanagement. But its worse than that. Martin has paid his personal-and now City-Attorney Toad V. McMurtry (of Gerner & Kerns) roughly $7,000 to contest the fine. Oh, by the way, Martin, McMurtry and Craigory T. Bohman have already accused to former police officers of "pension spiking". So, how can Martin object to the fining of his abject mismanagement?

The preceding shocking examples are just the tip of the iceberg of Martin's abject waste of taxpayer money. The reality is far worse. If Martin is somehow re-elected, the financial fallout to the taxpayers will be staggering.

Its time to clean house on November 4.