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Five weeks after a Jefferson alderman who voted against Wal-Mart was recalled, the retailer is again trying to locate a store on land that would be annexed by the city.
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Last week, the city received a petition seeking annexation of about 22 acres in the Town of Jefferson from an Illinois-based engineering company that said it was submitting the request on Wal-Mart's behalf.
The petition comes days after the certification of a Jefferson citizen group's direct legislation petition, which, if enacted, would compel any developer seeking annexation of more than 15 acres by the city to complete a series of costly steps before a project could be approved.
Jefferson aldermen are expected to vote on the direct legislation initiative Nov. 15, City Clerk Bruce Bierma said. The annexation petition is to receive its first reading at the same meeting.
State statutes dictate that a proposed direct legislation ordinance that has not yet been adopted has no impact on other city business, Jefferson city attorney Bennett Brantmeier said.
"If it does not pass, and I anticipate it will not, then it is business as usual even on the current petition for annexation," Brantmeier said. "It's not our ordinance, and I don't know that it can have retroactive effect."
The Wal-Mart annexation matter, Brantmeier said, is likely to be decided in court.
A petition to annex land near County Highway K and State Highway 26 for a Wal-Mart Supercenter was first filed in March. Aldermen rejected it in May on a 5-3 vote.
In June, the Common Council again voted on the measure, which required six votes to pass, but it failed again with three aldermen voting against it.
One of those three, David Olsen, was recalled in September. His opponent in the recall election, Chris Havill, campaigned on the need to bring more businesses to Jefferson.
The other two aldermen could not be recalled because they were elected in April 2005.
Roderick Scott, Wal-Mart's Wisconsin community affairs manager, said in July that company officials had "walked away from (Jefferson) altogether and are moving on to work on other projects."
Scott could not be reached for comment Tuesday.