Many of the new readers are unaware of the events that have led us to the brink of an important election in current malfeasant Mayor Mike Martin's Villa Hills. We understand. People are busy just living their lives. They work. They pay the bills. They take care of their children. But, many are also coming to the understanding that it truly does matter who occupies the mayor's office and six council seats.
The Martin Chronicles is going to review the events that have led us to this point. It will be a good opportunity for our new readers to see the truth about their current, malfeasant mayor. This will also serve as an important reminder to all of our long-time readers as they prepare to head to the polls on Tuesday, hopefully to remake their city government.
Mike Martin was elected to the mayor's office by the narrowest of margins in 2010. That year, Martin ran one of the dirtiest campaigns in Northern Kentucky political history. Martin told several lies. Let's look at some of those 2010 campaign lies first:
- MARTIN'S LIE: Martin claimed he was a victim of "dark forces" who were trying to derail his "good government zealotry" by violating his constitutional rights and "framing" him on forgery charges in late 2007. THE TRUTH: Four separate, respected judges have since ruled that there most certainly was probable cause for Martin's 2007 forgery arrest. They also opined that what Martin had been doing "fit the very definition of forgery".
- MARTIN'S LIE: In one of his dishonest pieces of 2010 campaign propaganda, Martin wrote that he was "happy to tell" the residents that he was not suing them for $1.505 million. THE TRUTH: The Supreme Court of The United States issued a ruling that says Martin most certainly was suing the taxpayers of Villa Hills for $1.505 million. Amazingly, Martin continued his $1.505 million lawsuit against the taxpayers after he was elected mayor. Even after his baseless lawsuit was tossed out of court a second time, Martin told The Kentucky Enquirer that he and his wife Janet had to "pray about it" before deciding against yet another appeal in 2011.
- MARTIN'S LIE: Martin assured nervous 2010 voters that he would never consider disbanding the local police department and that he and the police department leadership would simply "learn to work together". THE TRUTH: Martin's long-standing plan to disband the local police department was finally unveiled in early 2013. Only a huge public outcry against Martin's reckless plan has, at least temporarily, delayed the plan's implementation. Oh, and Martin has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to force out the previous police department leadership.
Martin also wants you to believe that all of the many missteps he has made and scandals he has been caught up in were the fault of "previous council". But the last two years-with an entirely new council-have been at least as bad.
Let's look at what has happened just over the last two years with an entirely new city council:
- Martin hired his personal attorney to serve as City Attorney and has paid him approximately $250,000 in about twenty months. There is no way to defend that wasteful spending. It also raises several concerns about-at best-conflicts of interest.
- Martin has signed a city purchase order that put more than $23,000 of taxpayer money in to his own personal pocket. No matter the reason, that raises all manner of questions and concerns.
- The new city website Martin loves to tout actually offers further proof of Martin's malfeasance. Much of the incredible waste of taxpayer money on lawyers and legal actions is deviously hidden in such line items as "Office Expense" and "Resident Resources". What have the residents received by Martin's abject waste of roughly $500,000 on lawyers and lawsuits. That's easy. NOTHING.
- As previously written, despite years of incessant lying, Martin's long-time, radical plan to disband the local police department was revealed in early 2013. Only a huge, very public backlash convinced Martin and his good old boy network (Koenig, Wischer, Menninger-Isenhour, Hilgefraud, Berger and others) to run away from the radical plan like scalded cats. Even outgoing County Commissioner Steve Arlinghaus fell victim to Martin's duplicity. Arlinghaus lost re-election mostly because of the opposition he created in his own hometown of Villa Hills because of his very public support for Martin's radical plan.
- Martin has wasted nearly $50,000 of taxpayer money on a "park" that virtually no resident in Villa Hills even knows exists. Many people are convinced that Martin squandered this taxpayer money simply to fix the drainage problems on mostly-vacant property that just so happens to abut the properties of his three supporters on the current city council (Koenig, Wischer and Menninger-Isenhour).
- Martin lied to the residents through the camera lenses of local television stations in March of this year when he falsely claimed that now-former Police Chief Dan Goodenough was "just taking a few days off". We now know for a fact that Martin and his personal-and now City Attorney-had already met with Goodenough. Why? To present Goodenough with the unsavory ultimatum that he either resign or face public embarrassment. Martin wasted more than $100,000 of taxpayer money in an ugly public spectacle to finally force Goodenough out of office.
- Despite continued, false claims that he is some kind of "budget hawk", Martin has raised your taxes over the past two years. The worst example? Martin raised your sneaky insurance premium tax by roughly FIFTY PER CENT supposedly for money to fix the city's streets. But guess what? The additional money Martin is taking out of your wallets IS NOT RESTRICTED TO STREET REPAIR.
- Martin has absolutely refused to detail his wasteful spending for lawyers and legal actions on his beloved, new city website (that almost no one reads). Popular City Councilman Jim Cahill respectfully requested that the malfeasant Martin post the spending on the rarely-read site. Martin forcefully refused to do so. Martin claimed that he had done "research" and that no other city posts legal spending. But then, no other city's mayor has squandered $500,000 of taxpayer money on lawyers and legal actions nor hired their own personal attorney to serve as City Attorney.
- Martin has been so out of control over the past two years that the new council that replaced the "previous council" that the diminutive dictator wants to blame for the problems is mostly walking away. The most intelligent and possessed with business acumen members Cahill, Baehner and Balson have thrown up their hands and decided to exit stage left. Holly B. Menninger Isenhour-who voted 100% for Martin's "vendetta agenda"-even decided to leave. She has chose instead to challenge Martin for a seat in the mayor's office beginning in January 2015.
- Martin received a "confidential" reprimand from The Villa Hills Ethics Board for his misuse of city personnel and resources regarding the diminutive dictator's feckless-and failed-efforts to ram a huge new road tax down the throats of the residents in 2011.
- Open Records requests revealed that Martin was using his mean-spirited wife Janet and his sister Cindy Koebbe to "dig dirt" on former local police leadership and-very oddly-minor children.
- A respected judge warned Martin to immediately stop the his illegal destruction of city records in 2012.
- Martin was convicted on seven of nine counts of OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT and NEGLECT OF DUTY in 2012.
That is why voters-new and old-need to know the truth about the dishonest Martin. He must go if Villa Hills will ever heal.
We'll know for sure in about three days.
