A Letter from Jerry Davidson
 
Mr. Mayor, Council Members, and all Murphy Residents,
 
First, I thank the Council for their continued service to keep our community together.  I know you only hear from residents when they don't agree with you, so before I comment on Mayor Baldwin's letter in the June 16th edition of Murphy Messenger I thank you for doing a thankless but necessary job in our town. Whether a Wal-Mart Super Center comes here, builds down the street, or not at all, you have brought like-minded residents closer together and created an opportunity for them to be actively involved in their city government.

Second, I thank Police Chief Cox for doing an extraordinary job keeping us safe and forecasting what his department will need if a Wal-Mart Super Center does comes to fruition.  I have thanked you in person and I thank you now in print for having the wisdom to seek advice from your Chief peers in other towns who have experienced what we may soon go through--all for the sake of serving and protecting our citizens. Fine job, sir. Do take note Frisco just sent us a message to make sure you get additional detectives who have experience with homicide cases based on their recent Wal-Mart situation.
 
Third, let's call a spade a spade, Mr. Mayor. Wal-Mart has moved into hundreds of small towns like ours across the country and has brought unequaled prosperity to the bottom lines of those cities' budgets. They sell lots of taxable goods and draw heavy volumes of customers to an area. In Murphy's case, one estimate I've been told is they'd add $1.4M each year in sales tax revenues to our current $1.8M sales tax revenues base for ALL businesses in Murphy combined.  Staggering, they're big time players and they have everyone's attention who likes to spend City of Murphy money. After all, who wouldn't want a 77% raise? I can't say I blame Council for factoring the money aspect into their decision. I welcome any additional revenue to our City as well, but I strongly urge you to consider the long term effects if Wal-Mart were to one day decide they wanted out of Murphy. In 10 years our City will have become reliant upon Wal-Mart's sales tax. However, you don't put over 40% of your retirement money in a single stock, so please don't gamble with our money on Wal-Mart. They have destroyed city budgets in towns just like ours when a certain individual in Arkansas decided to close a location here and there. Please consider every business in Murphy as a "tenant" who has choices and may one day relocate to another town and stop paying "rent" here.
 
Fourth, in the same published letter, Mr. Mayor, you stated "The Council as a body did not communicate, and has never deliberated or made any statement regarding a referendum", which is a very politically correct way to say Council didn't help me. You are correct. The Council as a whole didn't send me any communication on official City of Murphy letterhead begging me to fight this battle. Actually, it was a very special lady who sat in the audience during the late April P&Z meeting who was quietly gathering business cards of pissed off residents while I delivered a speech to the commission about why they shouldn't allow Wal-Mart's application to go forward. I wish I could say the Council "as individuals" didn't apply in the same manner, however. If you dispute I wasn't contacted by Council members individually (yes, I said 'members' as in plural) which specifically discussed referendum I'll be happy to show you privately and off the record the documentation to back that statement up.
 
Indeed there was "a unanimous decision" to allow Wal-Mart to proceed by Council (as a body, since I need to be specific now) in late May, but I assure you some of those votes by Council members were diametrically opposed to their prior conversations directly with me. Perhaps I'm just not privy to information related to Wal-Mart's deal they struck with the City, but when a City official tells me one thing and then blatantly does another in my presence I call that being deceitful to a registered voter and neighbor. Furthermore, had Deputy Mayor Pro-Tem Halbert not simultaneously responded to your published letter and, by my own interpretation, declared you a Council member gone rogue with your letter to the Murphy Messenger you might be in a very sticky situation, sir. Nice save, Colleen.
 
Since NoMurphyWalmart.com was created May 1st I've had over 750 Murphy residents submit an online form against Wal-Mart building a Super Center in our town. That's nearly twice as many folks as vote in any given City of Murphy election, so you tell me if you truly think this is what your constituents wanted when the Council (as a body) unanimously voted for Wal-Mart moving forward. Even Murphy Messenger's own online poll showed a majority of participants were NOT in favor of a Wal-Mart being built. If hundreds of folks are telling me they don't want Wal-Mart here, and dozens of folks are telling a newspaper they don't want Wal-Mart here, why the hell won't elected City officials listen to the masses?  Because your contract dial-a-lawyer told you to take the money and avoid a lawsuit from both the landowner and the Bosses of Bentonville, that's what I think. Take the money, bend over, and don't say a word. You know what they call people on Harry Hines Blvd who do those three things in sequence?
 
You cited a case involving the City of Canyon, Texas where it cost taxpayers a lot of money to fight a zoning ordinance their city government tried to implement and the citizens lost. Look up the City of Buda, Texas who had an opposite outcome when they fought US Food Service from building in their town and won. Same type of fight, different towns, different results. The way I see it, taxpayers in this town are either going to suffer by staring at a Wal-Mart Super Center and the travesties it brings (real or perceived), or pay lawyers to fight the City to accept our Petition for Referendum you say might not be accepted, or pay higher property taxes if Wal-Mart goes away because your team can't figure out a way to make the City stop bleeding financially with no Wal-Mart band-aid in sight (which is ironic, because they sell those). Any way you slice it, the people who entrusted you with the keys to the City lose because of the Council's actions towards Wal-Mart (again, as a whole).
 
I, too, am sorry for being so long winded and I agree this is an important matter--perhaps the most debated issue since alcohol sales were approved some years ago. I want citizens to make informed decisions as well, and it is not my intent to organize angry lynch mobs carrying pitch forks. My goal is to right what I feel was a political wrong and put this zoning ordinance change up for a public vote. I'm not asking for a ruling on whether Wal-Mart is appropriate for our City, I just want the people to have a voice on how that land gets used since City Council cleverly changed the PD ordinance just seconds before they approved Wal-Mart's application to build (which I learned, from one of your own City Council members, as an individual, was a prerequisite for the deal to work).
 
I get it City Council members were elected to make decisions which are hard or which nobody really pays much attention to, but you got this one wrong and you're digging a deeper hole by suggesting the City will deny the submission of our Petition for Referendum. It's coming, so get ready to serve your citizens in the best manner you know how.
 
 Sincerely,
 
Jerry Davidson
Founder, NoMurphyWalmart.com