Two More Potential Walmart Ballot Initiatives Emerge

As a Walmart ballot initiative took center stage at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, two other potential initiatives waited in the wings.

On Monday, a group of Milpitas residents filed the initial paperwork for two ballot initiatives at City Hall that would make life harder for Walmart, or any other big box retailer selling groceries, to do business in the city. 

One would require grocery stores with more than 100 employees (exceeding 45,000 total square feet) to pay a living wage of $14.30 per hour. The rate could be reduced if the employees receive benefits as part of the job, according to the ballot language filed with the city.

The other initiative would amend the city's general plan to restrict land use for big box retailers to areas zoned as industrial park—should they try to expand or modify the store. The initiative language cities traffic, noise and pollution as reasons why "superstores" should not be in commercial areas within the city.

The initiative language defines "superstores" as exceeding 80,000 square feet with more than 10 percent (for floor space or storage) used for non-taxable items (i.e. groceries). Membership-based or would be exempt.

The city attorneys need to first approve the ballot language before signature gatherers can move forward on the two initiatives.

But the coalition will make its future decisions on the direction the council takes Tuesday night, said Nancy Mendizabal, former city employee and council candidate, who submitted the language for the living wage initiative.

"This needed to happen," she said. "They asked me if I would be a part of it, and I said yes." 

The Milpitas Coalition for a Better Community came together last year when Walmart proposed its expansion through the City Council and planning commission.

While union grocery workers and labor supporters oppose Walmart's plans to expand, "the reality is that the coalition is a group of active city residents and business people," she said.

Guy Haas, who submitted the living wage initiative with Mendizabal, said, "I'm not union. I've never been union. But I've been a member of a social justice church," Sunnyhills United Methodist.

"I oppose the kinds of practices that Walmart is notorious for," he said.

The new Walmart initiative is "a whole different ballgame" compared with the original proposal that went before the council, he said. While voters signed the petition thinking it was the same proposal, Hass, a technical writer, read the language.

"They want to create a special district exempt from oversight from City Council or city planning commission," he said noting that Walmart would "severely restrict the ability of elected officials to have any influence on it."

Mendizabal echoed that sentiment, saying of Walmart's latest initiative, "It removes the city's authority to decide on planning issues on stores such as Walmart."