EKY city axes police chief after he accuses mayor of ‘drunk party trip,’ more
The mayor of a small Eastern Kentucky mountain city has fired the head of its two-man police force after the rookie chief led a citywide protest against the mayor for alleged drunken public antics.
Michael Cagle served just one month as chief of the Martin Police Department before Mayor Samuel Howell let him go this week amid an ongoing political clash. Cagle’s short tenure was marked by a series of demonstrations he led calling on the mayor to resign and accusing him of abusing his office and drinking on the job.
Howell and Cagle were notably absent from a Martin City Council meeting March 24, but members of the council announced Cagle’s termination.
It’s still unclear whether a new chief has or will be appointed, and who is running the department in Cagle’s absence. Cagle told the Herald-Leader he learned of his firing from news reports, and it’s been 21 days since he’s directly heard from or seen the mayor.
Municipal police chiefs in Kentucky are appointed by a mayor with a city council’s approval, but they may be removed by the mayor alone.
Cagle began generating public attention earlier this month when he took to Facebook to accuse Howell of damaging a police cruiser on a “drunk party trip” to Elizabethtown for fire department training. Days later, Cagle staged a protest at a prominent intersection south of the city. He has hosted multiple Facebook Live events calling Howell the “missing mayor” for his failure to show up at city hall or respond publicly to Cagle’s claims.
“He’s going to have his day in court with me,” Cagle said of Howell. “Things are getting criminal now.”
Howell, who was first elected mayor in 2012, has ruled it with an iron fist, Cagle said, alleging the mayor has threatened political foes and bought influence and votes during contested elections.
The mayor has not responded to multiple Herald-Leader requests for comment, but members of the council have defended him, saying he altered a police cruiser for civilian purposes and his absence from city hall is due to the hours he works at a federal prison in nearby Inez. Drinking during his personal time is “his prerogative,” Council Member James Reynolds said.
Howell was arrested and charged with public intoxication in August 2018, but the case was dropped five months later without a trial, according to court records.
Disagreements over grant money, more
The once-bustling city of Martin, now home to a little more than 500 residents, has struggled to reimagine itself as the region’s coal mining jobs have all but disappeared. It sits on a large flood plain near the headwaters of Beaver Creek — an area uniquely prone to devastating floods that have repeatedly torn through the historic downtown core.
Under Howell’s tenure, residents have witnessed Martin literally rise up under a multi-decade, $160 million U.S. Corps of Engineers project designed to lift the city onto the slopes of Varia Mountain, safely above the Beaver Creek flood plain.
Public infrastructure and buildings have made the move. City hall, the police and fire departments, schools, a senior center and housing complexes are in the clear, but homeowners and commercial businesses have largely opted for voluntary federal buyouts, leaving fewer taxpayers residing within city limits, Floyd County Judge-Executive Robbie Williams said.
Cagle said he always knew his protests could get him fired, but he believes he is doing what’s right for the city’s residents.
“I care about these people,” he said. “I’m doing what I can to defend the people of Martin, Kentucky, because they deserve that.”
Scuffles with the mayor have stressed the city’s finances, Fire Chief Ben Meade said. Last year, almost every member of the volunteer fire department resigned amid a disagreement with Howell over use of a $10,000 grant from the Floyd County Fiscal Court.
Meade said Howell insisted the money be controlled by the city, even though the department had been underfinanced for years. Firefighters, he said, had been forced to fuel and maintain trucks out of their own pockets, so when the mayor’s office seemed adamant about gaining control of a grant, there was a mass exodus.
First responders have stood with Cagle during his public protests. For a while, Meade said he was considering staging a walkout, but he and his crew of volunteers have opted to remain at their posts for the benefit of Martin’s residents.
“We decided it’s better to stay and fight and make sure the fire department is still operating,” he said.
