A Wal-Mart Crisis in Jefferson? - Maybe Not

John Stocco just went Darrell Bevell on Michigan and the Badgers WIN. Now if Bevell can get Favre not to throw interceptions this weekend could be totally footballicious.

Meanwhile the ongoing political conflict is having a flare up in Jefferson, Wisconsin. Both Jib, posting at Badger Blog Alliance and Owen at Boot and Sabers have noticed there seems to be statewide interest in Jefferson’s effort to recall an Alderman. Everyone seems to believe this is the influence of Wal-Mart on the tranquility of small town America.

According to the Capital Time Story, Jefferson is a town of 7,500 residents and over 1,000 signed petitions to recall Alderman David Olsen. The recall actually began over a month ago and both Xoff and Free Will posting at Wisopinion.com noted the activity and drew comments from the locals. The most adamant comments in support of the recall come from John Foust who knows Alderman Olsen very well.

From 1997 to 2001, Olsen was employed by the City of Jefferson to serve as Executive Director of two of its economic development agencies as well as the Chamber of Commerce, and served as the city’s representative on a County economic group. Olsen vehemently opposed opening these groups to public scrutiny, ignoring the opinions and orders of the City Clerk, City Attorney, a District Attorney, and even the Attorney General’s office.

Three of the groups disbanded and were forced to re-structure to comply with the law. Olsen was on the executive committee of the County group that disbanded rather than open up, never delivering the contracted services they promised to the County and leaving a $10,000 debt for unpaid rent.

In March 2001, his City board unanimously reprimanded him for “lack of prudent judgment” when he doubled his insurance coverage and back-dated documents to create his own retirement account without authorization, promoted Internet travel services over local businesses on the cover of a national magazine, and for filing a police report for “feeling threatened” when he was ordered out of a private office.

In December 2001, the City Council and his Chamber Board were furious to discover that he’d hidden a $30,000 slush fund, intentionally and repeatedly supplying misleading financial statements to the Council in order to plead poverty to justify more public funding. He was, as they say, "given an opportunity to resign."

Even after this, in April 2002 the Watertown Daily Times reported an incident where Olsen accosted a City employee at City Hall. The City Administrator ordered that Olsen have no further contact with City employees unless it was official business. Our Friendly Giant gets a little testy sometimes, it seems.

In 2004, Olsen was appointed to the Governor’s Council on Tourism against the wishes of local tourism leaders who wrote to the Governor and Secretary of Tourism to plead against his appointment.

So why is there active state wide fund raising to defend a small town Alderman? The key is that Democratic Party partisans are behind virtually all Anti-Wal-Mart activity in Wisconsin. As Xoff points out, Alderman Olsen is a Democratic Party hack of long standing. As such he understands the Democrats are philosophically receptive to the idea that Wal-Mart is out to get him. Once again, the locals know better than to believe this type of hype from a native son with a long history of failed self promotion. Again from John Foust comments:

Why would mighty Wal-Mart bother to fight a small-town Council member? Why aren’t they pressuring and bribing the other two no-vote Council members in the same way? (I think it's because Olsen is inventing and conflating in order to attract more attention to himself.) Four Council members are elected every year; the Mayor every other year. If they want a Council in favor of Wal-Mart, all they need to do is wait until the time is right. It's ludicrous to suggest they're even corporately aware of Olsen. The wasted effort alone (due to the proximity of the next election) should be proof that Wal-mart wouldn't bother. As you point out, Jefferson is really North Fort Atkinson or South Watertown or West Waukesha, as viewed at high altitude by the demographic models in Bentonville.

Wal-Mart doesn’t care about and probably doesn’t know about a David Olsen. Wal-Mart is to busy donating time, money and supplies to hurricane victims along the Gulf Coast to waste time on an exposed rat in Wisconsin.