There's a new twist in the saga of Clovis City Council Member Bob Whalen and the $2,900 campaign donation he received from a development company that wants to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter in the city.

Whalen last weekend donated $2,900 to the Clovis Pet Adoption Center. On Friday, he said that represented the donation from Paynter Realty & Investment, the Orange County-based firm developing the controversial project at Herndon and Clovis avenues.

Actually, the donation gets Whalen a lunch with his colleague, Clovis Mayor Harry Armstrong. Whalen says he'll use the time to talk with Armstrong about what kind of dog he should adopt for his daughter.

The money -- which went to Whalen's state Assembly campaign -- came the day after he cast a key vote on the project. Whalen said he was always a "yes" vote on the project and there was nothing inappropriate about the donation, other than bad timing.

But Whalen said the more he thought about it, the more he felt the donation "fed into the cynicism" about elected officials. So he donated it. He said that is better than giving it back to Paynter. That way, the firm can't turn around and donate it back to him later, he said.

The Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings Central Labor Council -- an influential local labor organization opposed to the Wal-Mart -- had called on Whalen to give the money back, and this week its Executive Secretary-Treasurer Randy Ghan thanked Whalen for giving up the money. "We're glad you agree with labor's position that accepting the $2,900... was inappropriate," Ghan wrote in a statement.

Whalen, however, said it wasn't inappropriate, and he said giving back the money had nothing to do with the union's demand. Instead, Whalen issued a call to the Central Labor Council to match his $2,900, because the Pet Adoption Center's money comes from Clovis' police budget, and it could use the extra money.

No word back from labor on whether it will accept the challenge.