ELECTIONS : Wal-Mart Backers, Foes Step Up Campaign : Measure V: Volunteers staff ‘Save Our Hillside’ while a paid consultant leads ‘Yes on V.’ Simi Valley voters will decide whether to allow the store to be built.

Backers and foes of a proposed Simi Valley Wal-Mart are stepping up efforts to sway voters as a special election nears that will decide the fate of the discount retail store.

Hitting the streets with signs and pamphlets, door-to-door canvassers are alerting Simi Valley voters to Measure V.

If approved, the initiative would allow the nation’s largest chain of discount department stores to build on a pristine hillside where city law stipulates a mall be built before any other developments.

In a low-budget campaign, about 50 volunteers led by consultant Steve Frank have planted signs reading “Save Our Hillside, No on V” on busy streets throughout the city.

A Santa Barbara-based consultant hired by Wal-Mart is leading the “Yes on V” campaign, which argues that a Wal-Mart will bring dollars and mall developers to the area.

John Davies said Wal-Mart would build roads and run electricity and water lines onto the hillside, easing the way for mall developers.

“The best way to get a mall is to build a Wal-Mart,” Davies said. “If there’s a discount store like Wal-Mart doing well, a mall will open nearby.”

Funded entirely by Wal-Mart, the campaign has spent nearly $60,000 on consulting, printing mailers that promise 300 jobs and $750,000 in sales tax revenue. Sales taxes are Simi Valley’s largest revenue source, averaging about $6 million a year.

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A new mailer called “What the neighbors are saying,” was sent out to voters this weekend. The pamphlet quotes civic leaders who are happy with their Wal-Marts in Palmdale and Pittsburg, Calif., and in Wisconsin and Texas.

The group is also blanketing voters with absentee ballot applications, urging them to apply by the Tuesday deadline.

Executives at Wal-Mart’s Arkansas headquarters refused to comment on the campaign. The retailer does not discuss potential store sites until all city approvals are in place, Davies said.

The corporate hands-off policy has helped give the Wal-Mart effort a local grass-roots feel. Campaign literature includes a list naming 43 local civic leaders and business owners on the “Yes on V” Advisory Committee.

“There’s a lot of support for the Wal-Mart,” said City Councilwoman Sandi Webb. “People seem to like the idea.”

Frank’s group, Called the Coalition to Save the Environment, Jobs and Business, has received only one campaign contribution-- $5,000 from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

The union opposes all Wal-Mart stores because it says the company pays low wages and hires part-time workers without offering benefits.

“No on V” campaigners also fear that a Wal-Mart would ruin the city’s chances for attracting mall developers. “If we let a Wal-Mart in, we have to let everybody else in who wants to develop there,” Frank said. “There will be no room left for a mall.”

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But City Planner Laura Kuhn said the chunk of property being considered for the Wal-Mart, near 1st Street above the Simi Valley Freeway, is separate from the land reserved for a mall.

City Councilman Bill Davis said the issue is not whether smaller developments will crowd out a mall, but whether upscale department stores would want to locate near a discount store.

“If I were a major mall,” said Davis, “would I want to build a Nordstrom where customers have to pass a Wal-Mart to get to me? I don’t think so.”

Davis said he was not opposed to building a Wal-Mart, but did not think the hillside site was appropriate.

He said there are several other potential sites around Simi Valley, including an empty lot on Cochran Street between 1st Street and Madera Road. Wal-Mart would not comment on the alternate locations.

As the election nears, relations between Measure V supporters and opponents are strained. Although not openly hostile, the opposing camps have accused one another of distorting the facts.

Davies said in-house polls show residents favor the project 2-1. Frank accused Davies of skewing the survey results.

Frank charged that Davies was paying his volunteers. But no payments to volunteers appeared on a campaign financial statement filed by Davies with the Simi Valley clerk’s office Thursday.

Davies said Frank’s lack of financial support from the community meant he did not have the backing of residents. But Frank said the coalition was not actively seeking donations, instead relying on volunteer work and donated services.

The battle over the hillside marks the second time the two consultants have sparred. In the 1992 GOP Assembly primary, Davies supported Nao Takasugi, who defeated Alan Guggenheim, who was backed by Frank.

Even if the measure is approved, construction plans would undergo an exhaustive review by city officials before the project could break ground.

A Simi Valley Wal-Mart would be the chain’s second store in Ventura County. A new Wal-Mart in Oxnard will hold its grand opening this week.

The push by Wal-Mart to break into the California market began in 1990 when the company built its first store in Lancaster. There are now 54 Wal-Marts in the state and 1,970 nationwide.

As the Wal-Mart chain has grown, it has also faced growing opposition in communities around the country.

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Fearing the chain would ruin the local economy by undercutting prices at small businesses, two Massachusetts towns recently stopped efforts to build Wal-Marts in their areas.

And an Arkansas judge recently found the retail giant guilty of “predatory pricing” and ordered it to stop the practice and pay three pharmacies in Conway, Ark., nearly $300,000 in damages. Wal-Mart said it would appeal the ruling.

Despite Wal-Mart’s troubles, Councilwoman Webb, who is on the “Yes on V” advisory committee, said approval of the Wal-Mart project would encourage developers to come to the city by sending the message that Simi Valley is pro-business. “We need to get the ball rolling with a project like this. We need to become more business-oriented.”