Martin and his now-very-small band of supporters could have said, "If only this" or "if only that" if the election had even been remotely close. But it wasn't. Martin was handed a decisive repudiation on Election Day. The voters left no doubt. Absolutely none at all.
Martin has done tremendous damage to the Villa Hills City Government and-far worse-to the lives of many people who did not deserve it. City Government will be repaired. It will take a great deal of hard work. It will most likely take some time. But, it will be done.
What of the many people Martin intentionally harmed? In many cases, the diminutive dictator went out of his way to damage the reputations and destroy the careers of several people who deserved far better. More disgracefully, Martin seemed to actually enjoy himself while doing it. That will be a great harder to fix.
Even Martin was aware of the dismal fact that he didn't have the mental capacity to engage in a reasoned debate of the issues. Instead, he resorted to false allegations against people he perceived to be his enemies. Pick anyone you want. Martin's predecessor. The 2011/12 City Council. The previous City Attorney. The former Assistant City Clerk. The previous Police Chief. The former Assistant Police Chief.
Take the terrible treatment of the previous police department leadership, for instance. An intelligent professional would have sat them both down and advised them that he needed to make a change and worked out amicable, fair separation packages for both men. But Martin is not intelligent. Nor is he professional.
Police Department sources tell us-under the condition of anonymity-that Martin was constantly trying to undermine the leadership of the Police Chief and Assistant Chief even before he took office in January, 2011. These same sources tell us that Martin's perpetual back-stabbing continued mostly behind the scenes for the next two years, seriously damaging the morale of the entire department.
Then came the election of 2012. Desperate to find a way to end the constant embarrassment of Martin's first two years in the mayors office, the voters provided the miniature mullah with enough votes on council that he could do almost whatever he wanted to do. One of the very first things Martin did was hire his personal attorney Toad V. McMurtry to serve as the taxpayer-funded City Attorney. Conflict of interest be damned. It was then, "Janet, bar the door!"
Martin made the Assistant Chief his first target. The puny potentate had some high-powered help. The aforementioned personal-and now City-Attorney Toad V. McMurtry and new City Clerk Craig T. Bohman helped Martin cook up a 55 gallon drum of now-proven-to-be-false allegations against the Assistant Chief. After an ugly, public spectacle, these three stooges eventually ran the Assistant Chief out of his job.
Martin then turned his sinister sights on the Police Chief. McMurtry and Bohman both played a major role in the railroading of the Police Chief as well. The Chief's sham hearing was another ugly, very-costly-to-the-taxpayers, public spectacle intentionally designed to do maximum damage to the Chief's reputation. Martin wasn't satisfied with just getting rid of the Chief. No, Martin wanted to humiliate the Chief.
Let's next consider the City Council of 2011/12. Four long-serving members of that council became understandably frustrated with Martin's incompetence, corruption and constant dishonesty. Over time, it became clear that Martin was breaking the law, illegally destroying City Records, misusing City resources and City personnel, funneling taxpayer money to cronies, making a mockery of State Statutes regarding Open Records, tampering with taxpayer-funded City computers and other equipment. And that is just a small sampling of Martin's lawlessness.
But Martin was able to fool a still-inattentive voting public yet again. The little liar was able to convince a large bloc of voters that his criminal acts weren't the problem. Instead, Martin somehow convinced the still-inattentive voters that the 2011/12 City Council's reaction to his criminal acts were the problem. So, those inattentive voters sent all four councilmembers packing on November 6, 2012, hoping things would get better. But they never did. They got worse.
Three of those former 2011/2012 councilmembers bravely threw their hats back in the ring in 2014. Why? Because they wanted to fix the mess Martin has made. Despite their good intentions, they had to soldier through the bizarre-but ultimately unsuccessful-charges from the infamous "Martin Five" who tried to claim that these three wanted to stop the City from "moving forward". As if it had been moving forward under Martin's dishonest Reign of Error.
Some of the former councilmembers even had to contend with a slur campaign conducted by Martin's "underage army". Martinite minors snuck around-under the cover of darkness-taping defamatory letters to residents' doors, falsely claiming that these former councilmembers "were mean to teenagers". Weird, weirder and weirdest. But, the teen-worshipper efforts were also hugely unsuccessful. The teen-idol Martin was annihilated on Election Day.
Yes, the mindless Martin made a horrible mess of things. Martin intentionally harmed several people. But soon Martin will be gone. Hopefully, for good. Besides, he will probably finally be taken to task for all of his defamatory lies. Let's hope Martin pays very dearly for his mean-spirited lies. There is a lot of work to do.
About ten more days until VM (Victory over Martin) Day.
