The "Martin Five" also included a real clue about their potential plans for illegal electioneering on November 4. What was that clue? A business card listing all of their names that could easily be passed out by shady surrogates inside the polling areas on Tuesday. How do we know that is most certainly possible. Because it absolutely did happen in 2012.
Voters are generally turned off by slates of candidates in non-partisan elections. As well they should be. Why? Because the best council people are independent thinkers beholden to no one but the residents they are elected to serve. George Orwell was correct. "Groupthink" is bad for democracy.
Martin apologists want you to believe that people who oppose their hero are "naysayers", "negative", "mudslingers", and "angry". We say Martin's ever-growing opposition should be angry.
Martin has squandered approximately $500,000 on pointless legal actions and lawyers. Martin has squandered tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars helping his buddies on council. Martin has hired an unqualified friend and is paying her $47.50 per hour of taxpayer money to cook the city's books. Martin has hired his personal attorney to serve as City Attorney and paid him about $250,000 of taxpayer money. Those things aren't "naysaying". Those things are facts.
So, why should voters elect "The Martin Five"? Obviously, they shouldn't. At least two will be victorious next Tuesday. The math is inescapable. But voters need to minimize the damage.
Let's take a final, pre-election look at "The Martin Five":
- Mary Koenig: She has been around local politics way,way too long. Koenig was first elected to city council in 1989. She is the ultimate "good old boy". Koenig was at the epicenter of the unnecessary removal of two local police chiefs. Sources who were in the March 2014 Executive Session that ended Dan Goodenough's Villa Hills distinguished career say that Koenig's comments were "vitriolic", "crazy angry", "off-base" and "shockingly disgusting". Only the malfeasant Martin deserves electoral defeat more than Koenig.
- Brian Wischer: Wischer started the most-recent trouble in early 2013 by asking his paralegal sister to write a Municipal Order that gave Martin the authority to bring in the FBI to investigate the Villa Hills Police Department. Nuts, huh? Martin signed that crazy Executive Order. We all know what happened next. And a great deal of what happened is Wischer's fault.
- Dave Hilgefraud: Hilgefraud triggered yet another costly-to-the-taxpayers lawsuit by making offensive, reckless comments at a Safety Committee meeting several months ago. Former friends of Hilgefraud tell us that they are very concerned about his recent, erratic behavior. Once a steadfast public servant, Hilgefraud has seemingly gone completely "off the reservation".
- Summer Berger: No one has shown more offensive disregard for the voters of Villa Hills than Berger. Berger consciously blew off the voters not once, but twice. Evidently, she has no time to answer questions from lowly Villa Hills residents.
- Jennifer Yost-Vaden: Yost-Vaden is perfectly fine with Martin's waste of $500,000 on lawyers and legal actions. 'Nuff said.
The rest is up to the voters of Villa Hills on Tuesday.
