{"id":13176,"date":"2015-07-01T19:01:41","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T23:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=13176"},"modified":"2015-07-01T19:01:41","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T23:01:41","slug":"the-mayors-flag-flip-flop-flop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/07\/01\/the-mayors-flag-flip-flop-flop\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mayor’s Flag Flip-Flop Flop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why make half of the people mad at you when you can get someone else to do the dirty work for you?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For those of you who have been orbiting Uranus, Danville has a Confederate flag flying on top of a Confederate monument on the city-owned grounds of the Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History. It may be hard to believe, but that flag has drawn a bit of controversy.<\/p>\n

Vice-Mayor Gary Miller said that he and Mayor Sherman Saunders were going to discuss the future of the Confederate flag at next Tuesday night’s Danville City Council work session. Last week, we published an article with our predictions on how the process would go, resulting in the removal of the flag in the end.<\/a> Today, Sherman Saunders released a carefully worded statement saying that he<\/em> would not being up the flag issue for discussion at the work session. Note the italicized word, people.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at the statement from the “Mayor’s office”…<\/p>\n

Danville Mayor Sherman Saunders announced Wednesday that he will not bring before City Council next week the issue of the Confederate flag flying on the grounds of the Sutherlin Mansion.<\/p>\n

Saunders said he came to his decision following several discussions with City Attorney Clarke Whitfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city attorney\u2019s initial position has not changed and therefore, pending any new information forthcoming to City Council, this issue in my view appears to be rendered moot,\u201d Saunders said.<\/p>\n

Last week, Vice Mayor Gary Miller announced that City Council would revisit the issue at its July 7 meeting. Miller made the announcement at Saunders\u2019 request.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile attending a national conference, I learned from many telephone calls of much media and citizen inquiry being made of Danville as it relates to the Confederate flag and the mass shooting that took place on the evening of June 17 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston,\u201d Saunders said. \u201cAs I am concerned about maintaining a positive image of our city, I was concerned that such renewed attention would depict just the opposite. In my discussion with the vice mayor, I asked him to state that City Council would be revisiting the actions it took in November 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n

At its meeting on Nov. 6, 2014, City Council voted to adopt a resolution advising the Danville Museum of History and Fine Arts that Council had determined under Virginia law it does not have the authority to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the Sutherlin Mansion, which the City owns and leases to the museum. The museum\u2019s board of directors had requested removal of the flag, which is the Third National flag of the Confederate States of America.<\/p>\n

Saunders returned from the conference and met last week with the city attorney. He met again with the city attorney on Monday and yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my understanding from the city attorney that this issue is considered to be a \u2018local\u2019 matter,\u2019\u201d Saunders said. \u201cAs such, this matter was voted on and decided at the November meeting. I want to thank the vice mayor for his cooperation and for representing the City during my absence.<\/p>\n

\u201cDanville is a great city with wonderful, welcoming citizens. I ask that we remember that respect, love and a greater acceptance of ethnicity, individual differences and culture will enable Danville to become even greater.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well then. After reading this, you might believe that the issue is dead once again and nobody will talk about it. No need for any flag supporters, flag opponents or any outside agitators to show up to make their opinions heard, huh?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

All that Sherman has said in his flip-flop statement is that he<\/em> won’t bring it up for discussion. There’s eight other councilmen who just might and at least one of them probably will. This is an open invitation for Larry Campbell to waltz right in and open the discussion on this. Saunders wants the flag removed. That’s shown by his vote to go with Campbell’s last-minute flag removal idea back in November. This is a quite smart move in making this statement because if Larry Campbell starts the discussion going, Saunders can sit back, smile and say “See, folks? I didn’t start this. They did.”<\/p>\n

There’s enough consensus on council for them to order the city attorney to get an Attorney General’s office opinion on the flag and then things will progress like I predicted in the linked article. Even if Saunders votes no on that proposal, there’s enough there to pass it anyway. In fact, Saunders voting NO on getting an attorney general’s opinion makes him look even more neutral by supporting City Attorney Clarke Whitfield’s current legal opinion.<\/p>\n

This is just a way to let Larry Campbell take the heat from the flag supporters. Campbell is safe when he comes up for re-election even if flag supporters mount an organized campaign against him. Saunders may not run for reelection in 2016 but if he does, he’s going to need all the support he can get.<\/p>\n

I see right through Sherman Saunders’ “Let’s all forget about it and be happy” flip-flop here. This flip-flop is a total flop to me. I’m not falling for it one bit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why make half of the people mad at you when you can get someone else to do the dirty work for you?<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinioncentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-3qw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13141,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/06\/26\/the-confederate-flag-controversy-script-round-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":13176,"position":0},"title":"The Confederate Flag Controversy Script – Round #2","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"June 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey everybody! The Confederate Flag on the grounds of the Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History is back in the news again! Hooray! Yay! Meh. In this article, I'm going to predict the outcome of Round #2 and tell you how it's going to happen. For those of you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/2Cd74Ta.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/2Cd74Ta.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/2Cd74Ta.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/2Cd74Ta.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10734,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/21\/danville-city-council-live-10212014\/","url_meta":{"origin":13176,"position":1},"title":"Danville City Council – LIVE! (10\/21\/2014)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Editor's Note: This article is now complete. We'll have a BreakDown article analyzing what happened later this week on SouthsideCentral. We're LIVE! at Danville City Hall for tonight's Danville City Council meeting. We start with a special closed session work meeting at 5:30 PM (dealing with the confederate flag issue),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/srIpVcm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/srIpVcm.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/srIpVcm.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/srIpVcm.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10521,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/06\/the-confederate-flag-controversy-script\/","url_meta":{"origin":13176,"position":2},"title":"The Confederate Flag Controversy Script","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's what's going to happen during this Museum\/Confederate flag controversy. SouthsideCentral knows it all. Yep, I'm predicting the timeline. Let's see how close I'll be. Museum board makes request and knows to keep it as quiet as possible. CHECK! Media finds out about it and publishes articles about it. CHECK!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"sclogo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/sclogo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13275,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/07\/07\/danville-city-council-live-6715\/","url_meta":{"origin":13176,"position":3},"title":"Danville City Council – LIVE! (6\/7\/15) – Part #1","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"July 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Editor's Note:\u00a0I've decided to break this up this Danville City Council meeting article up into two parts. 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