SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: "The Voters Finally Stopped Buying What He Was Selling"

The Martin Chronicles has a number of longtime Villa Hills political observers who have been helping us even before we launched our pesky, little blog on October 8, 2011. These pundits have been providing us valuable assistance as we tried to gain some understanding of now-thankfully outgoing malfeasant Mayor Mike Martin.

Martin is a classic con man. Just look at what he "accomplished" just during his up-and-down-and-up-and-out political career in Villa Hills.

Martin first became a member of Villa Hills City Council on January 1, 2005. Longtime observers told us he was-at best-"ineffectual". Martin botched every project he took on as Chairman of the City's Administration Committee.

• Martin "saved" money on phone services by disconnecting necessary phone lines.
• Martin never meet his promised deadlines to present alternatives for employee health insurance.
• Martin was never able to grasp the ins and outs of the annual City Budget.
• Martin antagonized his fellow councilmembers and City employees for reasons only he may be able to explain.

And then it happened. After years of cashing his deceased mother's child support checks and pocketing the money, Martin was arrested on forgery charges in December, 2007. Oh, the police offered Martin many opportunities to resolve the problem. But, Martin "cleverly" declined their many invitations to resolve the matter. The seeds of Martin's later attacks on the Villa Hills Police Department were planted and quickly began to take root.

After several court appearance, a judge decided that Martin simply didn't understand that he was committing a criminal act and made the inopportune statement that there was "no probable cause" to move forward with Martin's prosecution. Instead, the judge generously granted Martin a mulligan to undo the crime he had committed.

Instead of dropping to his knees to thank God for his good fortune, Martin soon filed a $1.505 million lawsuit against the Villa Hills Police Department and the taxpayers of Villa Hills. As we now know, Martin's suit falsely claimed that his forgery arrest "violated his constitutional rights".

Despite the fact that the original judge reviewing Martin's case told him that there was probable cause for his forgery arrest and dismissed his bogus lawsuit, Martin wasn't finished. He quickly filed an appeal of the original judges decision.

Martin lost his 2008 council re-election bid by only two votes. But Martin was far from finished. He continued his pursuit of a $1.505 million taxpayer-funded payday and launched his 2010 mayoral campaign.

Martin convinced barely enough voters of two falsehoods in 2010. First, that he wasn't suing them-even though he was. Second, that his forgery arrest was actually proof that he was just a victim of dark forces who were trying to derail his good government zealotry-even though he wasn't.

The next four years proved to be a perpetual series of embarrassments for Villa Hills. Martin was always in some kind of trouble.

• A reprimand from the Ethics Board.
• A judicial warning to stop illegally destroying City records.
• Sexual harassment allegations.
• Convictions on seven of nine counts of Official Misconduct and Neglect of Duty.
• The hiring of Martin's personal attorney to serve as City Attorney.
• The revelation that Martin actually did plan to disband the local police department he blamed for his 2007 forgery arrest.
• The railroading of the leadership of the local police department he blamed for his 2007 forgery arrest.
• Four straight busted City budgets, including more than $500,000 spent on lawyers and lawsuits.
• The 2014 expenditure of taxpayer money to send out a political propaganda piece.

Just look at the people who have had the misfortune of dealing with the Mayor Martin. Six of the twelve councilmembers who worked with him over the past four years simply threw up their hands and walked away from their council posts. Five of the remaining six council members were voted out of office (all save one the victim of Martin's lies). The good news? Three of those five were returned to council in the 2014 election. Another would have been re-elected but withdrew from the 2014 race shortly after filing as a candidate.

Martin's doofus damage extends even beyond Villa Hills. Bilious blowhard Judge Executive Steve Arlinghaus will soon be on the outside looking in in large part because of his wrong-headed public support for Mike Martin. Do you want proof? Arlinghaus lost-again in large part-because the voters in his hometown of Villa Hills chose to support the outgoing Judge Executive's opponent. Why? Because of his ridiculous support of the malfeasant Martin. Bye-bye now.

Despite all of Martin's many failures, his 2014 re-election campaign urged voters to re-elect him and "The Martin Five" to keep the City "moving forward". It is obvious that Martin continued to believe that some number of voters simply weren't paying any attention to the mess he had created. But the November 4 results betray the fact that voters finally stopped buying what Martin was selling. Martin was annihilated, only receiving 16% of the total votes cast.

One oddball (Martin supporter) Facebook poster recently chided Martin's critics in a pre-election post for what he called "negativity". This poster listed all of Martin's supposed "accomplishments" and proclaimed that he was convinced that "the voters will do the right thing". Well. the voters did the right thing on November 4.

They resoundingly threw Martin out on his butt.