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Wal-Mart Hires Big Gun To Fight Big Box Ordinance

PHOENIX-Wal-Mart is tired and isn't taking it anymore. One day after a suburb of Phoenix passed an ordinance against big box retailers, Wal-Mart has hired the former Arizona attorney general to go to battle.

By D.J. Burrough | Updated on December 21, 2000

PHOENIX-A day after a Valley city passed anti-big box retailer legislation, Wal-Mart is fighting back by hiring Arizona’s big gun, former attorney general Grant Woods. Woods began the counter attack against the new ordinance enacted by Glendale by questioning the emergency clause attached to it. “The bottom line is the council created an emergency,” Woods says. “They made it up out of thin air.”

An ordinance that is passed with an emergency clause is put into effect immediately, foregoing the normal waiting period for most ordinances. That abbreviated enactment took away the citizens’ rights to seek a citywide vote on the issue, Woods says.

On Tuesday night, the Glendale City Council approved three changes in ordinances that will impact big box retailers. At least two of them are expected to be challenged in court.

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