I want to encourage Westbrook citizens to decline to sign Ray Richardson’s petition to put on the ballot a question that would undermine both the Planning Board and the City Council’s actions in placing thoughtful limits on Wal-Mart. The question is whether Wal Mart’s store should be huge (160,000 square feet) or immense (180,000 square feet). The planning board put scores of hours into listening to citizens, into weighing and balancing complex and competing interests, and came to a set of compromises that pleased no one, but which seem fair and balanced. Moreover, it overwhelmingly reflected the wishes of the scores of people who put time and energy into going to hearing after hearing.
I did not agree with welcoming Wal-Mart to Westbrook. I think of Wal-Mart as an awful company, one which is currently defending itself in a massive class action suit with thousands of women claiming sex discrimination, paying poor wages, offering poor (if any) benefits, and reportedly is one of the worst abusers of workers compensation statutes. It treats its people shabbily. My two cents worth is that we ought to be welcoming Costco, which has an enviable labor record ($17 an hour average wages, great benefits, reasonable opportunities for advancement) and also offers great prices. But I will put my own personal preferences aside, because I fundamentally respect the process that the Planning Board created and rigorously followed. The outcome was one that scores of citizens supported in front of the city council. That impressed me a lot. Only a handful disagreed with the planning board.
The Planning Board’s process had integrity. I ask the citizens of Westbrook not to undermine its thoughtful work. I ask you to decline to sign Ray’s petition.
Mike Miles
Westbrook
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