By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats City Council on Wednesday rejected a recommendation that a vendor-run group manage the popular farmer’s market and instead voted unanimously to let a local businesswoman operate it.
The vote came after council members acknowledged a flurry of emails and telephone calls the past week in support of a proposal by Blythe Collins, owner of Bread and Roses Bakery, to run the Yachats Farmers Market.
The Parks and Commons Commission last month recommended in a 4-1 vote that a vendor group organized by Starla Gade of Waldport operate the market. That vote came after city staff decided the fairest way to recommend an operator was to hide, or redact, the identities of the people or groups submitting proposals and rank the proposals on various criteria.
But Wednesday, Mayor John Moore said the council thought it was important to know who wanted to operate the market and asked to hear from Collins and Gade. That was a surprise to Parks and Commons Commission members and many others in the audience of 40.
“… the initial direction seemed the way to go,” Moore told YachatsNews.com later Wednesday. “I made the decision a couple of days ago to handle it this way. I said ‘We need to open this up’.”
Moore said council members had received “significant community input” regarding the selection process and wanted to give the two main applicants the chance to explain their proposal.
During and after the meeting, Gade said she was asked to attend the council meeting to respond to questions, not make a presentation. She also said her group had been told not to lobby or contact council or commission members.
“What’s going on here?” she asked shortly before the council voted 5-0 for Collins’ proposal.
Parks and Commons Commission members preferred Gade’s proposal because it had a vendor-run board, a hired, non-vendor market manager, rules for jurying and mediating disputes, and a detailed budget. The preferred proposal also “grandfathered” all 2018 vendors who wanted to return this year.
Collins’ proposal called for her to operate the market under a 5-year contract with a paid market manager, bookkeeper and publicist. Her proposal calls for all 2019 vendors to go through a jury process.
Collins told the council Wednesday that George Mazeika, manager of Yachats Mercantile, would manage the market with the authority and ability to deal with complaints. Although not in her written proposal, Collins said there would be a “review” board possibly of vendors, herself and community members to handle disputes and other issues “in house.”
Collins emphasized the need to expand the number of farmers in the Yachats market, aiming for a 50-50 split of farm-produced goods and crafts. But she said the market “doesn’t need to get bigger.”
Other than an annual vendor fee of $20 and weekly fee of $15, Collins’ proposal did not have a budget outlining income or how money would be spent. Councilors Leslie Vaaler and James Kerti pressed her on that.
“I really don’t know what the numbers are,” Collins responded. “But there will be enough to pay the rent, the bookkeeper and the manager.
“It’s not about the money,” she said. “It’s about the community.”
The market decision landed in the city’s lap after its original sponsoring group, Friends of the Yachats Commons, disbanded in December. The city thought it had vendors to organize a new market, but that fell apart in January. Collins picked up the effort but apparently did not communicate with a second, larger group of vendors.
After not hearing this winter, the second vendor group organized by Gade approached the city about running the market. The city then set a deadline for proposals and asked that the Parks and Commons Commission judge them and make a recommendation to the City Council.
Gade said Wednesday she already had more than 30 vendor applications. Her group had a website and set up a business license as Yachats Sunday Farmers Market.
During Wednesday’s discussion, Vaaler said council members had been “bombarded” with calls and emails, mostly in support of Collins’ proposal. Vaaler and Councilor Max Glenn said that information – without specifying it — was different than what was given to the Parks and Commons Commission.
Glenn later told YachatsNews.com that his calls and emails – numbering about 20 and the most he’s received on any issue during his years on the council — came from vendors in support of Collins’ proposal.
The market is scheduled to open on Mother’s Day, May 12.
“I think the community will be fine with the decision we made today,” Moore said. “Not everybody, but most.”
And that is Yachats politics in a nutshell. Very sad.
How disappointing.
One proposal was asking for transparency and for vendors to have a say in the market direction.
One proposal asked *all* interested parties (including those that put together the other two proposals) to work together for the good of Yachats.
One proposal said that they didn’t want to control the market, they wanted to unite a vendor and community based board to work together to lead it.
One proposal had a detailed budget showing exactly where anticipated funds would go.
One proposal had plans for managing growth, while protecting the vendors who have been a part of the market for many years.
One proposal tried multiple times to unite the vendors and community members.
One proposal received four of five recommendations from the parks board.
One proposal followed the “rules” that they were given.
One proposal emulated the template of the other large, successful Farmer’s markets in the area (Newport and Lincoln City).
And because of politics they were not chosen.
Disgraceful.
Moving here last August we thought this would be a nice, warm, small town feeling. What a disappointment . Learning that a few have control of the whole town, the backdoor politics and the absence of transparency in the town government is sickening. Not something I want to be part of…this is an incident that happened to me: As a Family Nurse Practitioner, I posted my brochure on the PO bulletin board. I saw another such posting who had a posting for seminars at a price from $50-150 per person. The postmaster said I couldn’t post my brochure because it is not a community service. Exactly what am I if not? And I bill insurances, Medicare, Medicaid etc. what a disappointment. And truthfully I don’t need to post; I am very busy. I just thought folks might need my community service.
Because several vendors asked, the City tried to be helpful to the Market by establishing a process to select from proposals. The Parks and Commons Commission submitted a rank-order preference to Council for Council to make a final decision. Anyone at the Parks and Commons Commission would know that the Commission had difficulty selecting between the three good proposals and making a decision without talking to the groups that would be running the market. Vendors bombarded the City with calls and emails after that meeting. The Council had to do something to address the volume of citizen input they were getting. The Council would have been negligent of its duty if it had ignored all of that feedback. The Council then decided, not Mayor Moore alone, to open the selection process up to discussing the proposals with the groups behind each proposal. Based on those discussions and the proposals, the Council selected Blythe Collins’ group. While Blythe is the individual in charge of the operations, she is definitely involving vendors in the operations. This wasn’t a conspiracy. It was actually a very good example of how government is supposed to operate to incorporated the opinions of citizens.
I’m very disappointed in this decision. All those calls and e-mails must have come from a small group determined to run the market their way… The vendors should have a say in how the market is run.
SuSun, most of the calls were from vendors.