Tuesday Farmers Market may get retooling

The contract for running Sonoma’s Tuesday Night Farmers Market is up for renewal, and some are asking to review the event’s primary purpose.|

Moments after the five members of the Sonoma City Council begin the 2017-2018 term, they will be faced with one of Sonoma’s most debated issues, over one of its most signature events: What is the Tuesday Night Farmers Market in the Plaza meant to be?

The debate has spilled over from the season just passed, which opened with a dispute over how much the City was charging for the weekly event’s use of the Plaza, as well as dissatisfaction over the selection process of market and food service vendors.

It was exacerbated by a recent Facebook posting on the Sonoma Farmers Market page that suggested that the entire Tuesday Night Market was up for re-consideration, which could potentially mean cancelation. The post encourages “friends” to write, email or phone the City Council members in a lobbying effort, in some cases even before the council members themselves were aware the market would be discussed on the Dec. 12 agenda.

The Valley of the Moon Certified Farmers’ Market (VOMCFM) was awarded the contract for running the market in December 2010, to start with the 2011 season, in a two-year renewable contract. That contract is again up for renewal.

The latest round apparently started on Nov. 1 when VOMCFM president Bill Dardon sent a letter to City Manager Carol Giovanatto and the City Council members suggesting “it might be time to review our performance against the original goals as outlined in the City’s 2010 Request for Proposal and determine if there are any modifications to those goals for the future.”

That may have prompted Giovanatto to agendize a re-evaluation of the Tuesday Market, though she put it in context. “The agreement … expired at the end of this season and since the overall operational components had not been reviewed by the City Council since the original RFP in 2010 it is prudent to undergo the process,” she told the Index-Tribune in an email.

As well as offering fresh, locally-grown produce and other goods for sale, the 2010 objectives also included providing “an opportunity for local musicians to perform, and provide a festive community event which highlights the town character and to create a social gathering place in the town square, the Plaza.”

Those event definitions may come under the microscope on Monday. Councilmember Gary Edwards told the Index-Tribune, “I’m finding more and more that there’s a lot of people who have lived in Sonoma a long time who simply don’t go to the market anymore.” Among the reasons he gave was the fact that it’s moved away from its roots as a Certified Farmers Market or CFO, and toward becoming a “city party every Tuesday.”

Dardon’s letter to the city made note of the “concerns expressed by the Council at its April 18, 2016, meeting,” just two weeks before the year’s first Tuesday Night Farmers Market. Edwards’ voice was one of the skeptical ones at that meeting, calling it more an event than a farmers market. Others included several local restauranteurs who complained their Tuesday business suffered because of competition from the farmers market’s food trucks, and questions about the selection of vendors which did not necessarily favor local vendors.

For the reconsideration of the Tuesday Night Farmers Market, city staff outlined three possible courses of action for the Council to undertake at Monday’s meeting: Approve VOMCFM contract to manage the event for another year with no changes; appoint a subcommittee to re-evaluate the Tuesday Market’s objectives, which would then come back to the council for consideration of extending VOMCFM’s agreement; or use the subcommittee’s work to draft new guidelines entirely, and issue a new Request for Proposal (RFP) for running the market.

The latter course would require a fast-track revision of the Tuesday Market’s purpose and objectives, which would allow VOMCFM to reapply to run the market but permit other applicants to bid as well – and to have the entire process completed and approved in about four months, before the traditional early May opening date.

But none of the three proposed courses of actually suggest canceling the market, which dates back at least 25 years. City Councilmember Rachel Hundley responded to the Sonoma Farmers Market Facebook suggestion that it might be cancelled by posting, “Don’t worry, folks. No one wants to get rid of the Tuesday night farmer’s market.”

“I’m not against having a Tuesday market, but I’d like to see the emphasis put on the farmers,” Edwards said this week, calling the Plaza “our number one asset in town. It’s not the tasting rooms or anything else, it’s the Plaza. I think we need to get back to respecting that.”

By asking the Council to “review our performance against the original goals as outlined in the City’s 2010 Request for Proposal,” Dardon and the VOMCFD may have opened the door to a more critical review than they bargained for.

“I think you’re going to find the new council is going to take a real focus on preserving the character of Sonoma for the people who live here,” said Edwards.

“I think you’re really going to see some real changes.”

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