The big night finally arrived. The City Council was going to review the information and recommendations from the Smoking Task Force.
The first few items on the agenda went smoothly, but prior to getting to item 10 (believe it was right around item 8) up jumps Kevin Straub and makes a motion (again) to adopt the Overland Park ordinance. Needless to say, when queried by the mayor as to why, Straub gave some convoluted explanation about being shut down in April when attempting to nominate an individual for council president. Huh...?? Where did that come from??
As to be expected his motion was seconded by Dan Pflumm. Are these two joined at the hip? Or is it possible that at varying times one has their labium superioris and labium inferioris firmly attached to the other one's gluteous maximus muscle. No, I'm not being vulgar. Look it up.
Basically, we were now treated to almost 4 hours of debate, discussion etc etc. Much of this could have been left out if Straub had just waited for the draft Shawnee ordinance first. When pressed by Councilmember Dawn Kuhn as to why the OP ordinance should even be considered over the draft Shawnee ordinance, Mr Straub could not answer directly. Was this man attempting to pander for the TV camera crew that was there? Would love to have a full copy of KCTV-5's tape. His comedic performance would be a treat to watch again.
It's amazing though how Mr Pflumm can engage in debate on items before the council without his packet of materials handy. He does this alot. Guess he must speed read it before the meeting and then commit it to memory. Wish I could do that. Or, maybe not, since on many occasions he makes statements or asks questions that other members have to point out are answered in the packet.
Anyway to make a loooooooong story short, the Shawnee draft ordinance was approved with some of the recommended exemptions from the task force. This was after the council refused to approve the OP ordinance for use in Shawnee.
