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Council sidesteps bid to block Wal-Mart

By REID J. EPSTEIN
repstein@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Nov. 16, 2005

The effort to keep Wal-Mart out of Jefferson will almost certainly end up in a court battle, attorneys said Wednesday following a unanimous Common Council vote to sidestep a direct legislation effort that aimed to slow the city's annexation process.

Recent Coverage

10/26/05: Citizens wield powerful weapon 9/27/05: Alderman opposed to Wal-Mart loses recall 9/26/05: Jefferson votes today in heated recall sparked by Wal-Mart denial 9/6/05: Alderman cleared of open meetings law violation 8/22/05: Jefferson official's recall election set 8/9/05: Recall petition filed against alderman 7/23/05: Jefferson alderman could pay a high price for opposing Wal-Mart

Aldermen voted 8-0 on a motion that the direct legislation, which calls for a municipal ordinance that would require any developer seeking annexation of more than 15 acres by the city to complete a series of costly steps, is administrative, not legislative. The vote has the effect of neutering the direct legislation effort, unless a judge overturns it.

Wisconsin's direct legislation process allows residents of cities and villages to propose initiatives that the governing body must either approve or forward to voters in a referendum. By concluding that the effort is administrative, the city does not have to adopt the legislation, nor does it have to hold a referendum.

Meanwhile, the council on Tuesday held its first public hearing on the annexation of 22 acres from the Town of Jefferson on which a Wal-Mart Supercenter would be built. Hours earlier, a Jefferson County circuit judge had declined to issue an injunction to stop the annexation.

The judge, John Ullsvik, ruled that the direct legislation group Coalition for a Better Jefferson would not suffer irreparable harm by letting the annexation process proceed. The earliest the Common Council could vote to annex the land is Jan. 3, according to Bennett Brantmeier, the Jefferson city attorney.

'It's the coalition's move'

Until then, the citizens group would have to persuade a judge to stop the process.

"It's the coalition's move, Brantmeier said. "They're going to have to bring a motion to find that the city's actions were improper. I don't believe they were."

David Halbrooks, a former Milwaukee municipal judge who is representing the direct legislation group, said his group has yet to determine what it will do next.