BreakDown: The Second “Second Amendment Sanctuary” Showdown

Oh lordy. Here we go again. We had another Danville City Council night of fun & hijinks regarding gun rights resolutions. Something finally happened, but how did it happen, why did it happen and what does it all mean? Let’s take a comprehensive look and analysis of what did actually happen. We call that a BreakDown.

Just like the first one, this is going to be a hybrid type of BreakDown article because we’ll have analysis, opinion, facts and observations. The best way to do it is on a Big Board in the RandomThoughts! format like before, so let’s bring another one out.

• This one started early because we had a presentation that was going to take an hour. With only one on the business agenda, adding a special work session at 5:30 PM would make it so the 5+ item regular work session wouldn’t run past 10 PM or worse. This happens often and it’s usually handled the same way each time.
• So seven council members pile in to the 4th floor conference room at around 5:15 PM, grab some food and get ready. Fred Shanks & Madison Whittle don’t make it on time, and that’s not unusual for anybody at these early work sessions because council members have lives too.
• (Camera cuts to Rod Serling leaning against the wall) (Yes. This is a VERY old TV reference). But this isn’t your ordinary work session. The signpost up ahead shows your destination. You’re about to enter… The Tomer Zone.
• Yes, Adam Tomer (who wasn’t there for the last meeting) is waiting with one of the most amazing political strategies I’ve ever seen in Danville. I’m not casting judgment on whether it was wrong or right (yet), but I give credit when smooth moves are made. Smooth moves are about to be made.
• Remember, Fred Shanks & Madison Whittle (the ALL OR NOTHING team from two weeks ago who got NOTHING) aren’t at the work session yet, so they can’t get into the game. Hmm. Two people missing from a work session so they can’t join in the discussion. That sounds familiar. Adam Tomer has came up with a resolution that’s so bland that it could be served at a nursing home’s dining room. And he’s got a plan.
• This plan would have worked with or without Fred Shanks in the room to discuss it, so let’s remember that as we progress through the night. Tomer’s watered-down resolution is something like “We support the US Constitution.” He’s designed that so everyone has to vote YES on it. This resolution is equivalent to “We believe that stomping puppies is bad”.
• Tomer knows that he’s got the votes to add this resolution to the agenda because only 5 are needed. Even without Team ALL OR NOTHING, he’s got seven. The other votes will come from Team SOMETHING & Team NOTHING, because they see this as a way to shoot the puck into the empty net and ice the game.
• So the arrangements are made to get this on the agenda when the business session starts. And yeah, last minute talking happens before & after business sessions on the 4th floor of the Municipal Building. Technically, any group of more than two elected people needs to be on the record to comply with the Open Meetings Act but that’s not real life at times. I’ve seen this happen plenty of times and I’ve walked right up and inserted myself into the middle of many of those conversations. I’m not going to be Frumpy McDumpy, whine about it on Facebook and sit like a tantrum-throwing toddler in the back corner. If it’s serious, I’ll call it out right on the spot and that will put an end to it right then & there. City Attorney Clarke Whitfield would back me up on the spot if that ever happened.
• Fred Shanks arrives about 15 minutes into the presentation, and Madison Whittle gets there near the end. They’re quickly briefed on the plan that will happen (and it WILL happen) and are caught slightly off-guard. Again, if they had been there before the special early work session started, Tomer would have told them what he was going to do and Shanks & Whittle wouldn’t have been able to change a damn thing about Tomer’s plan even if they’d wanted to. Tomer’s plan was perfectly designed to work with or without their support. All the talking is done, so let’s get the business meeting going.
• Mayor Alonzo Jones and the other council members work the audience and we’ve got a full audience tonight. Most of them are here for the Second Amendment Sanctuary stuff.
• The meeting starts with the prayer & pledge of allegiance, and we move to the public comment section. Jones has pretty much decided that Joshua Jennings is the leader of these people (and he is), so they’ve struck a deal for the “You Get Three Minutes! You Get Three Minutes! Everybody Gets Three Minutes!” talking.
• Everybody Gets Three Minutes! Alonzo reminds people to talk to Council as a whole and not to ask questions, so the first speaker goes and asks council a question. Jones says STOP THE CLOCK! and repeats himself. The guy was talking about a non-gun rights issue so everything is cool. First gun rights speaker gets up, reads the Constitution & other assorted things and promptly runs out of time. Jones transforms into Drew Carey from “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and hands out more time in random amounts (because the points don’t matter). City Clerk Sue DeMasi had to manually enter the bonus time into the clock system and rightfully glares at nobody in particular. The speaker’s bonus time runs out and Showtime Jones plays him off the set like a late-night talk show hose going to commercial. Not a good start for the public speakers.
• And it gets worse. Tonight’s speakers are mostly B. A. D. BAD for the cause. But Everybody Gets Three Minutes! and the speakers get worse. Joshua Jennings gets up for his 4th speech and also promptly runs out of time. Drew Carey Alonzo Jones awards him something like 42 more seconds and Jennings talks real fast and beats the clock. We’re now on our 10th speaker and 8 of them don’t live in Danville.
• Everybody Gets Three Minutes! is suddenly Nobody Else Gets Three Minutes Because This Is A Trainwreck So Stand Up If You Agree With The Bad Speakers! and we’re done.
• Adam Tomer makes the motion to add an item to the agenda, but doesn’t say what it is. The motion passes by a 9-0 vote. That’s right. Everybody voted for it. Everybody. Gee, that means Everybody must know what the item will be. Everybody.
• This is already a 1000+ word article so let’s just FastForward to the gun rights fun. Time for the Mystery Agenda item, and Adam Tomer reveals it’s a “Danville City Council supports the US Constitution” bland-as-hell resolution. Fred Shanks says he still wants to propose a resolution that mentions gun rights and makes a substitute motion. Substitute motions take priority so here comes that vote. When it gets to Lee Vogler & James Buckner’s turn to vote, we get a over-dramatic, right in the microphone YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!! that rivals any of Torrey Blackwell’s car dealership commercials. Hey, it’s an election year. Right on cue, the motion fails by a 4-5 vote. WOW, DIDN’T SEE THAT ONE COMING! Adam Tomer knew he had the five votes needed to defeat Fred’s plan that he knew was coming, so Lee and James could vote YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!! and the motion would still fail. Hey, it’s an election year.
• Madison Whittle has gone from last meeting’s “Having a good time” to this meeting’s “Bro, I’m straight up not having a good time”. Fred is relatively calmer as the Tomer Train runs over him and flattens him. Since the substitute motion fails, it’s back to Tomer’s original motion and everybody is forced to say they support the US Constitution. 9-0 and the Tomer Plan is complete.
• This process is quite confusing if you don’t know procedure and the intricacies of a council meeting, so the audience is sitting there with mostly blank looks on their faces.
• We move to the around the horn closing comment section and Madison Whittle is seriously pissed at getting checkmated by Adam Tomer. He says things like “We got buffaloed”, finishes his comments and then walks off the dias into the workroom behind the doors, then right out the door.
• The meeting ends and everybody files out of the room, with still most of the audience not knowing what’s going on. There’s a mildly heated conversation in the kitchen area of the work session conference room but I don’t care anymore.

So let’s get some things clear.

• This was a genius plan by Adam Tomer whether you like it or not.
• Adam Tomer would have told Shanks & Whittle what he was going to do if they were there on time and neither of them would have been able to stop his plan in any way.
• Gina’s Family Restaurant did the catering and DAMN they make an amazing strawberry cobbler.

It’s over. And after this comprehensive recap and analysis, I hope you understand what actually happened. We call this a BreakDown.