Anti-Wal-mart group divided on best way to fight back.
Now that the great Wal-Mart debate is finally finished, the only question still lingering is whether the main anti-Wal-Mart group in town will follow through on its thunderous vows of a lawsuit and smite the city and the superstore down with one mighty legal swipe.
The answer may not be so simple.
Throughout months of divisive debate-which ended on Sept. 28, when the City Council approved Wal-Mart developers' traffic plan, giving the project its final green light-leaders of the Coalition To Limit Big Box Stores In Santa Fe were promising at least one court battle if the project went through.
Now, however, the Coalition's leadership appears to be moving in opposite directions over the issue, with the group's main faction choosing not to sue while one of its primary representatives, lawyer Stephen Durkovich, says he's still ready to go to court.
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On Oct. 3, the Coalition's executive committee released a statement to SFR saying it would not sue the city and Wal-Mart over its primary contention: that the city violated due process by failing to force the store's developers to iron out traffic problems for the 150,000-
square-foot development, slated for the Cerrillos Road Entrada Contenta development, at a July 7 Planning Commission meeting [Outtakes, Sept. 21: "
"].
"It's a matter of where to put our time and energy, and I think there are better things we could do with our time," David Kaseman, co-founder of the Santa Fe Alliance of Small Businesses and executive committee member, says. "We can do what we set out to do, which is to put some teeth into the city's Big Box Ordinance and educate everyone in Santa Fe about how big box stores cause money to flow out of the city."
Meanwhile, Durkovich says he's still moving against both Wal-Mart and the City Council on the grounds that the Council violated its own rules at an Aug. 16 meeting during which it granted the project conditional approval pending a traffic study.
Durkovich contends that when the city allowed Councilor David Pfeffer to change his vote from yes to no, in order to have the proposal reconsidered after it failed on a first vote, it violated Robert's Rules of Order, the parliamentary handbook used by the Council.
City Attorney Bruce Thompson has publicly maintained the Council did nothing wrong.
"This is still a go. We have a line of lawyers who want to proceed against Wal-Mart from Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque," Durkovich says. "If Robert's Rules mean anything at all, then we know what the outcome to this will be."
Durkovich also says the recent statement by the Coalition does not mean the organization isn't behind him.
"We're still sorting out the details. There are a number of people who have opposed this individually, but the Coalition is a loose group of people," he says.
But Coalition executive committee member and District 2 City Council candidate Marilyn Bane says Durkovich does not speak for the entire group.
"Mr. Durkovich is not on the executive committee, and he did not consult with us before this lawsuit," Bane says. "He is a fabulous lawyer and incredibly intelligent. We know he sees an importance in this, and we wish him all the best."
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Durkovich might well need all the luck he can muster. Wal-Mart is, predictably, well versed in legal drama, having been sued innumerable times-sometimes successfully-over the years.
The corporate giant is currently facing two separate class-action lawsuits in California alleging sexual discrimination and unfair labor practices respectively.
It's also not unusual for municipal governments to get caught in the courtroom crossfire when Wal-Mart comes to town. Last month, the Nebraska Supreme Court began hearing arguments from residents of a Papillion, Neb. neighborhood who are trying to block construction of a local Wal-Mart and allege the local city council changed its long-term plan to accommodate the superstore.
Also, a neighborhood group from Tarpon Springs, Fla. is currently suing its city commissioners for violating existing city development code after approving a Wal-Mart by a 3-2 vote following an all-night meeting which ended just before 7 am, Jan. 19.
Regardless of what's happening elsewhere, Durkovich believes the circumstances of the Santa Fe Wal-Mart debate are particularly unique and will ultimately play to his advantage.
"This situation is different because Wal-Mart clearly lost at the City Council meeting. They already lost. I don't think they've had to face that scenario before."
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