¢ A pig wearing lipstick.

¢ Pulling the refrigerator away from the wall to see what crawls out from behind.

¢ Throwing aside the curtain to reveal the wizard.

¢ Letting the sun shine in.

All of those figures of speech – and a couple more – worked their way into an animated hearing Friday on the subject of how much evidence should be allowed at an upcoming trial about a stymied retail development at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive.

Attorneys for Wal-Mart and 6Wak Land Investments told District Court Judge Michael Malone that they wanted to call a parade of city leaders – including former Planning Director Linda Finger, former City Manager Mike Wildgen and acting City Manager David Corliss – as witnesses at trial next month to have them explain in detail how and why the building permit for the development was denied in spring 2003.

“The court needs to pull the curtain back and see just who the wizard is back there that made the decision to deny this permit,” said Timothy Sear, an attorney for Wal-Mart.

After the city refused to issue the permit, the developers appealed to the Board of Zoning Appeals, which upheld the denial and found Wal-Mart was a department store prohibited by the site’s zoning. But the developers say the city gave bogus information to the appeals board about why and how it had denied the permit in the first place – enter the “pig in lipstick” analogy – causing the board to make a bad decision.

The city’s attorney, R. Scott Beeler, opposed bringing in city leaders to testify. Beeler told Malone that the only thing properly before the court when trial begins April 24 will be whether the Board of Zoning Appeals made a reasonable decision based on all the information it had.

“It’s not rocket science. They want to make it rocket science,” he said. “Whether the city acted reasonably isn’t at issue here. … What is at issue is whether the Board of Zoning Appeals acted reasonably.”

Wal-Mart and 6Wak have four pending lawsuits against the city, and the trial next month will involve two of those.

Malone on Friday denied 6Wak and Wal-Mart’s motion to consolidate all four of the cases for trial.