County Looks for New Leadership for Friday Farmers' Market

At the Arnold Field Parking Lot Farmers’ Market – better known to locals as the “Friday Farmers’ Market” – the search for new leadership is on, spurred many say, by a feud between market personnel.

Sonoma Regional Parks, who own the parking lot where the market takes place, announced last month that along with a scheduled resurfacing, they would issue a “Request for Proposals” (RFP) for new market management. The full application documents went live on their website Friday, April 1.

“The impetus for an RFP coincided with a resurfacing of the parking lot,” said Supervisor Valerie Brown in an email. “It seemed a perfect time to revisit our objectives and thus the RFP.” 

In recent times, the Friday market has been plagued by controversy: for the last two months, one regular stall - containing cheeses and specialty goods from the - has been missing, after owner Sheana Davis was kicked out of the market.

In a Feb. 7 letter, Farmers’ Market Board Chairman Carson Hunter removed Davis from the market, stating that she violated the Market’s rules of conduct "by publically complaining about your space assignment in a conspicuous manner to staff, management, board members, other vendors and customers of the market…[and] threatening to disrupt the market and to do what you did to the Tuesday night market.”

 Hunter, who runs "Carson's Catch,” a farmers’ market booth selling Alaskan salmon, said that the controversy was rooted in Davis’ request for a better booth space. Davis, he said, was placed at the outskirts of the market because she was not a ‘certified grower’ – a term limited to vendors who produce their product using their own (owned or leased) land or livestock.

Due to national farmers’ market regulations, Davis, who sells specialty food products – including an award winning cheese which is produced in house, with purchased milk – is not “certified producer” and not entitled to a central spot in the market. 

“Sheana was approved for the market for two years, but she’s been unhappy with the market and complained for the whole two years,” said Hunter. 

Davis denies that any outburst took place and says that she simply spoke up:  asking management for a list of board members – which was never provided to her – and demanding greater transparency in the selection of vendors, who she says could better represent the local community.

“The way I would run it is: first you ask all of the vendors around the Plaza – ‘hey, do you want a booth in the market,’ then you work your way out into the city, and so on, to make sure that every Sonoma vendor, who wants to, has a space in the market,” said Davis.

But current farmers’ market rules do not regulate localism amongst vendors.

 “Typically producers travel as far as 180 miles out,” said Doug Hayden, president of the California Farmers' Markets Association, explaining that the only limits to vending as a certified producer in a local market is that the product must have been grown within the state of California.

 “[Vendors] can’t be tied our growing regions, because [growing regions] just don’t support certain crops,” said Hayden. “Up in Sonoma, I’m not sure where you’re going to find melons, it’s a valley climate - it’s not going to get as hot as you like.”

 Of the roughly 26 certified growers at the Friday market, 20 are from Sonoma County, according to Market Manager Hilda Swartz, who says she feels the percentage is reflective of a commitment to local growers.

 Although Brown is quick to separate the RFP from market controversy writing "nothing we are doing was driven by any one person or any singular complaint,” she does put localizing the market as a top priority for new management.

"Hopefully we will have participants who want to achieve our goal of providing fresh produce to the community. I have certainly received some complaints regarding the current farmers market and have talked with Hilda about those issues," said Brown.

Current vendors are just hoping to move past market politics, which they say have detracted from sales.

“Some people have wanted to boycott and that’s unfortunate for vendors, it’s not their fault, they’re just trying to make a living,” said Tamara Unger, who runs a ceramics booth that often sells at the Friday market.

But, Swartz, who has managed the Friday night market for over 20 years, says that her team will apply for the new RFP, and are willing to look at options such as paying higher rent, or moving the market to another space.

“We’re our own market, we’re our own certified market, and they can't come in and take over this market; they can open it up for a whole new market,” said Swartz. “I hope they know that.”

You can find applications and documents for the market RFP on the Sonoma County Parks website. A mandatory conference will be held at 2 p.m. on April 15 at the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Building on April 15. Full proposals are due by May 13, with a contract awarded by June 3.  Leadership will take over July 1.