Newspaper, CRG weigh in as recall vote nears in Jefferson

Tuesday is election day in Jefferson, where Wal-Mart supporters have forced a vote on whether to recall Alderman Dave Olsen, who voted against an annexation to clear the way for a superstore.

As you might expect, there has been a lot of last-minute activity -- a newspaper endorsement, an "opinion" by Citizens for Responsible Government (now the CRG Network), and a fund-raising appeal on Olsen's behalf. As background, we'll also run the transcript of a Bill Moyers television program on the issue last year. Here we go:

OLSEN ENDORSED. The local newspaper, the Daily Jefferson County Union, endorsed Olsen in a Friday editorial. We are told it is the first time the paper has ever endorsed in a local race. The newspaper has opposed Wal-Mart, and paid a price when the city council moved its legal advertising to another newspaper in retaliation. (The Wal-Mart backers play hardball.) The editorial:

Keep Olsen on council

The City of Jefferson has one of those election rarities next Tuesday: a vote to recall Alderman Dave Olsen. Recall elections are a safety net under our system of government, typically reserved for situations in which an elected official has violated or otherwise lost the public trust.

Unfortunately, they are being used more and more in attempts to remove elected officials who have offended some special interest faction or another. Such is the case in Jefferson. Councilman Olsen is facing a recall not for malfeasance in office or some infraction, but for having the audacity to vote the way he thought best represented his constituents.

The Walworth County district attorney's office found the main charge in the recall petition against Olsen - an alleged violation of the state's open meetings law - to be without merit. Following an informal review, Wisconsin's attorney general also found no violation.

For people who understand the intent and letter of the open meetings law, these decisions weren't a surprise. The intent is that the decision-making process leading up to government actions occur in the full view of voters. Olsen's "crime," in this case, was to cede his question time to fellow Jefferson citizens at what was listed as an "informational meeting" with Wal-Mart officials. This was the only public participation that took place at the meeting and, as the Walworth County assistant D.A. pointed out, the public notice of the meeting did not limit who would be involved with the discussion.

The next night, Olsen cast one of three deciding votes against annexing land from the Town of Jefferson into the city - land that was proposed for the Supercenter, but not committed for by Wal-Mart. The property owners seeking the annexation of the Town of Jefferson property submitted the open meetings complaint.
Soon, a group led by two ardent pro-Wal-Mart advocates, called the "Coalition for the Best Jefferson," circulated a recall petition listing an unspecified open meetings violation, as well a catch-all line claiming that Olsen "failed to act in the best interest of Jefferson."

We often find ourselves on the opposite side of issues from Mr. Olsen, but his is one of the public's most accessible members of the council. He doesn't deserve having to face a whispering campaign concerning charges that died quickly when exposed to the light of day.

If this is really about Wal-Mart, which we believe it is, then the petitioners should have said so in the document. Of course, it is possible that then they might have had trouble gathering enough signatures if that had been stated up front. If there were other reasons for forcing the recall, they should have been specified so they could have been addressed publicly.

We believe the public tolerates differing opinions if they are honest ones. Those who try to punish or silence people whose opinions they disagree with often harm themselves more than their target. They spend so much time circling the wagons that they forget the direction the wagon trains was taking in the first place. Unfortunately, of late, some in Jefferson have forgotten these simple truths.
We recommend keeping Dave Olsen on the council next Tuesday. More importantly though, we'd like to see a full slate of candidates on the ballot - including Chris Havill - when Olsen's and other aldermanic seats are up for election next spring...just a few short months away.

Unintended consequences

As readers of this column know, we have thought all along that a Wal-Mart would not be a positive impact on the area's future. In other places, people also feel that way, with Stoughton being the most recent community to turn down annexing land for the mega-retailer.

Earlier this year, we felt the majority of the Jefferson Common Council punished us for our editorial opinion by moving its legal notices from the Daily Union to a newspaper with a much smaller Jefferson circulation and higher legal advertising rates. We think they though that move would cause us to cut back our coverage. Well, obviously, it didn't.

On top of that, since the council moved the legals, our Jefferson circulation - as of Sept. 21 - has gone up 153 copies a day.

The law of unintended consequences still holds.

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Supporters of Olsen have launched an e-mail campaign and website with information and a link to make donations to his campaign. It's at SavingDave.

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The Capital Times writes about the recall.

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CRG network, the most pro-recall organization in the state, was asked for an opinion on the Olsen race. In guarded language that did not come right out and say it, the group suggested the Olsen recall is not well-founded. From the release:

CRG Network generally opines in favor of recalls regardless of the reason and would very likely have offered our assistance to the Petitioners had they requested it. Recalls are somewhat analogous to the "vote of confidence" procedure in parliamentary systems but with a significantly higher standard for initiation, especially in Wisconsin. They also are self-limiting in that they ultimately reflect the will of the people. Recalls for poor reasons rarely, if ever, succeed.

Nevertheless, we are troubled by the fact that the petition in this case bore a reason for recall that was ultimately proven to be untrue. State statutes do not require the reason to be true and many reasons for recall can never be proved or disproved. However, the integrity of the recall process requires that if the reason given is a simple matter of law that can be adjudicated in a reasonable amount of time, Petitioners should make every effort to wait for final adjudication before proceeding or select a different reason for recall. Given the flexibility of the statutes, this is not an unreasonable burden.

We also are concerned that a recall petition was offered primarily because citizens, regardless of their beliefs, were given a chance to speak. While we sympathize with citizens who felt deprived of the opportunity to offer opposing points of view, we question whether any of the citizen input had a measurable effect on the outcome of any votes. Although we do not condone such practices, at worst, we see this as a case of being politically outmaneuvered. Any Wal-Mart advocate on the Common Council could have also arranged to yield their time as well.

Regardless of the above, CRG Network still believes wide latitude should be given to all Petitioners and, despite serious reservations about its reasons and execution, would not suggest this recall be halted. Moreover, given that the recall election will proceed as scheduled, our opinion is already rendered moot. We would, however, caution all citizens of the City of Jefferson to carefully examine their motives before voting, especially if you signed the petition under the false impression that a violation of state law was committed. You have all been given another chance to speak. Do so in the most informed way possible.

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Finally, in case you haven't heard enough about Jefferson and its politics, Bill Moyers asks whether class war is being fought in Jefferson:

"When you visit a place like Jefferson, Wisconsin you are on the front lines of America's class war. Working people are losing this war, as privileged elites arrange the rules to perpetuate their own advantage." -- Bill Moyers.

The struggle over Wal-Mart in Jefferson has been going on for more than a year. This transcript from the Oct. 22, 2004 "NOW" with Bill Moyers on PBS explained the split in the community. With a recall election scheduled for Tuesday, spurred in large part by Wal-Mart backers, it seems like a good time to revisit the story. Sylvia Chase is the reporter.

SYLVIA CHASE: . . . [T]here is another Arkansas traveler bearing down on them: Wal-Mart. Wisconsin has become saturated with them -- Jefferson has 10 stores little more than a 20-minute drive away. Yet, Wal-Mart intends to put down roots in this Jefferson cornfield -- a 150,000 square-foot supercenter, groceries included.

DAVE LORBECKI (at Wal-Mart meeting): My question is do we really need another super Wal-Mart center every 10 miles apart?

SYLVIA CHASE: A town meeting grew tense when opponents charged that the discount giant hurts local business.

SPEAKER 1: A company that all the care about is the profit the bottom dollar, making their own people rich.

SPEAKER 2: Why would we want an emblem of urban sprawl here in this small community.

SYLVIA CHASE: There are studies that conclude that two supermarkets will close for every new supercenter that opens.

That when Wal-Mart's open, some small communities have lost up to 47% of their retail trade after 10 years.

JOHN BISIO: Wal-Mart provides a very competitive wage and benefits package.

SYLVIA CHASE: John Bisio, a company executive from Arkansas dismissed criticisms of Wal-Mart as a campaign of disinformation. The company sent us other studies concluding that new Wal-Mart's do not hurt communities but add to local employment and payrolls.

JOHN BISIO: Nationally our average hourly wage is about ten dollars, it's $9.96 an hour.

FEMALE VOICE: There are no big industries banging on our door to come here. Nineteen and 20 dollar industrial jobs are not coming to Jefferson. Wal-Mart would like to be here.

SYLVIA CHASE: A lot of people in Jefferson are enthusiastic about taking advantage of those low Wal-Mart prices and cannot understand how Jefferson could turn its back on those new jobs.

JOYCE KIRKVOLD: We need jobs here very badly. And I know that they aren't fantastically paying jobs, but they are - there'll be over 300 jobs for the community.

SYLVIA CHASE: Joyce Kirkvold and her friends collected a couple thousand signatures on their pro-Wal-Mart petition. She says she cannot find what she needs on Main Street and that Jefferson mustn't stay locked in the past. At the same time, she doesn't believe Wal-Mart will hurt Main Street.

JOYCE KIRKVOLD: The people in small towns are very loyal. And they'll continue shopping at those merchants if the merchants offer them a fair value for their price.

PATTI LORBECKI: If you're at Wal-Mart and you're pickin' up whatever you need at Wal-Mart and you need a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk, I would stake my life on it that you're not gonna drive across town and come to our store to pick up those two things. And even losing sales like that is gonna be detrimental for us.

SYLVIA CHASE: It has been said that Wal-Mart makes its own weather. Well, when the weather turns stormy, little Main Street guys fear being blown away. Shop owners were reluctant to speak on the record, but there's hardly a place of business whose goods and services aren't duplicated at Wal-Mart. Remember Elmer Waldmann?

ELMER WALDMANN: You know, we just lost our Converse account because we couldn't afford to buy what they wanted us to buy. You know so it's a problem. Company that we bought stuff from say "Well if you don't buy $3,000 a month, you know we can't serve you, ya know." So they're going top just all the biggies.

SYLVIA CHASE: You mean biggies like --.

ELMER WALDMANN: Well I would guess like Wal-mart, Kmart, ShopCo, any of those I think. Kohl's.

SYLVIA CHASE: Elmer Waldmann is Jefferson's unofficial historian -- in the back room his old computer is brimming with photos and clippings from the 19th century up to 1940. But he greets the future with a sigh of resignation.

ELMER WALDMANN: I think the handwritings on the wall, you know I think our city wants Wal-Mart to come-- but I-- it's gonna hurt a lot of us, it's probably gonna do a lot of damage to us. I don't know if we'll be able to survive through it.

DAVE LORBECKI: It really scares me.

SYLVIA CHASE: Scares you?

DAVE LORBECKI: Because where is the future for our children? What are they gonna do? So you know I have my children who have jobs right now. But the thing is where are my grandchildren gonna have. You know that's what I'm looking at basically.

BOB FLEMING: Look at the prices of houses. Houses run, what, $100 to $150,000? How do you pay for that at nine dollars an hour?

SYLVIA CHASE: And are you worried about your future or your--

BOB FLEMING: Am I? No. Uh-uh

SYLVIA CHASE: How about your son?

BOB FLEMING: He's got a lot to worry about. And Jon's even got a lot more.

SYLVIA CHASE: Bob Fleming is talking about his grandson, Jonny, who is likely to be the first son to break with a family tradition. Instead of going to the factory, he wants to go to college.

JONNY FLEMING: Because I don't want some big company to come in, take over a little factory and start shoving us around like Tyson did -- that's something I don't wanna see happen to my future family.

MIKE FLEMING: And I told him, "Jon, there's nothing out there for jobs. You can look at the papers all you want. You gotta get an education. You gotta get it now while you have a chance."

SYLVIA CHASE: But Jonny is already working at one of America's booming, low wage industries -- fast food.

Three generations of Flemings. Three job pictures:

Grandpa Bob, $33 per hour

Son Mike, $13.10 per hour, wages frozen for four years.

Grandson, Jonny, $5.90 per hour.

Male college graduates are expected to earn as much as 50% more than men with just high school diplomas, but for the moment, Jonny needs to keep working at Burger King to pay off his car loan and save for college.

JONNY: I wanna at least just work a year. And then try to go to college, if I can.

SYLVIA CHASE: Jonny does not see Jefferson in his future. For others, it seems like the right place to stay, whatever happens.

SYLVIA CHASE: I guess these people are willing to sacrifice the grocery store, the hardware store, the jewelry store to have a Wal-Mart where they get good, cheap stuff.

PATTI LORBECKI: I guess my answer would be, "No." I'm-- I'm not willing to do that. And-- I-- I wish people could look into a crystal ball and maybe see ten years from now what-- what's gonna happen.


SYLVIA CHASE: Elmer Waldmann believes he already knows. He measures Jefferson's future in each swing of the wrecking ball.

ELMER WALDMANN: And they tore the Opera House down. And then they tore those buildings down and made a parking lot out of it. So you know there goes some more places. So-- you know it's just an erosion of businesses that there's not many left. When you're a historian and you remember those things it's-- quite a loss, you know

SYLVIA CHASE: And when you are a thirty-one years old and jobless, you are "living" history. Kurt Bubolz believes he's watching his hometown fade away.

KURT BUBOLZ: You know, you can make it on $8.50, maybe right now, you're barely scraping by. But every year, we see things go up. You know, the heat bills are rising, the gas bills are rising. You know, right now, we've got this huge gas crunch. You know, we've got gas going, you know, $2.00 a gallon, maybe even more. People in this town, you hear 'em talk about just how tight it's getting. And eventually, there's not gonna be enough there.


MOYERS: When you visit a place like Jefferson, Wisconsin you are on the front lines of America's class war. Working people are losing this war, as privileged elites arrange the rules to perpetuate their own advantage.

Take the Wal-Mart empire as a case in point: the research group Good Jobs first found that the world's largest retailer with nearly $9 billion in profits has received more than one billion dollars in tax breaks, free land, cash grants and other subsidies from state and local governments. Its low-wage employees often turn to food stamps, emergency rooms, and other publicly funded programs just to scrape by.

The study estimates the average payout to a Wal-Mart retail store at $2.8 million. Surely one reason those small businesses on Main Street in Jefferson can't compete with the colossus from Arkansas.