Farmers Market

VENDORS SUSPECT COUNCIL MEMBERS OF INTERFERING IN MARKET ENFORCEMENT

A decision by the city of Greensboro’s interim parks and recreation director to overturn a decision to suspend a local farmer from the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market has stoked suspicions of political interference among some vendors and customers. Mike Causey, owner of Dodge Lodge Farms in southeastern Guilford County, received a letter from the Greensboro Parks & Recreation department on Aug. 25 informing him that he had been observed selling blueberries from under his table, and that he would be suspended for a year as a consequence of the violation. Blueberries found under Causey’s table on Aug. 22 had not been authorized to be sold at the market. Interim Parks & Recreation Director Anthony Wade said he rescinded the suspension because he could find no evidence that money changed hands. Wade is also director of the city’s human relations department.

“As a human rights investigator, my background is in developing legally sufficient investigations,” Wade said. “In order for me to take actions that penalize an individual, I need to ensure that we have enough evidence to justify those actions. I took the standard elements of evidence and looked at them and applied them to the case and said I would have a hard time justifying suspension and a suspension of that duration.”

After overturning the suspension, Wade said he outlined expectations to Causey, including that “anything he was unauthorized to sell at the market, those transactions should occur off the market property.” Wade added that Causey “readily agreed” to the terms.

In his defense, Causey told Wade that the blueberries were not for sale; rather he planned to relinquish them to a community sustainable agriculture, or CSA subscriber.

The incident marked the third violation for which Causey has been cited this year. The farmer served a 30-day suspension in June and July for selling unauthorized blueberries. Causey has acknowledged that he applied for a variance to sell the blueberries, which were grown in Johnston County by another farmer, and that his application was denied. The market mission emphasizes local products, and Market Coordinator Lynne Leonard explained in a June 10 letter that Causey’s application was being denied “due to the fact that we currently have local vendors who grow their own blueberries selling at the market.”

Market management had confirmed that Causey was not growing the blueberries on June 2 when Market Manager Larry Smith visited the farm and reported that he could find no bushes bearing ripe berries.

Causey said his agreement not to store blueberries under his table was easy because its season is coming to an end, adding that he believes the prohibition against selling that product lacks legitimacy and he will raise the issue before blueberries come back in season next year. The farmer pointed to a provision in the market’s Vendor Participation Guidelines that specifies that products can only be offered for sale by “the farmer who raised them, or the artisan who made them, or his/her agent.” Causey said he met with Smith a couple weeks ago to discuss getting farmers across North Carolina to draft letters authorizing him to act as their agent at the market.

“That’s something we will have to resolve before next season,” Causey said. “It’s not just blueberries. It could be anything. The whole issue is — everybody agrees that you need to have rules and guidelines, but when you get to the point of being like, having ironfisted enforcement or heavy-handed enforcement, that’s not good for the customers; that’s not good for the vendors.”

Greensboro City Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw’s involvement in the controversy has prompted new concerns by other vendors and some customers that enforcement actions by market management are being overturned because of political pressure from elected officials.

Causey returned to the market after completing a 30-day suspension for his second documented violation of the year on July 12. Nine days later, Rakestraw mentioned the turmoil at the farmers market from dais in city council chambers.

“I would like to meet with parks and rec and Dr. Anthony Wade over the fact that we’re having problems with our farmers market,” she said. “It seems that there’s some bullying of vendors and we need to take care of this problem. And so I’m going to try to get a meeting together so we can resolve this. It’s not turning into a farmers market anymore, Madame Mayor; it’s turning into almost a free-for-all with vendors going against vendors, and we can’t have that.” Interim City Manager Bob Morgan, interim Parks & Recreation Director Anthony Wade and parks and recreation program support manager Chris Wilson confirmed that they met with Rakestraw on July 24.

“My recollection was that there was someone who was complaining about the rules about the farmers market,” Morgan said. Wade said the concern brought to staff by Rakestraw concerned “equity of treatment occurring in the market among vendors.” Causey said he was aware of the meeting occurring, but did not contact Rakestraw. The councilwoman did not return calls seeking clarification of the matter. “I know that Mary Rakestraw had asked Bob Morgan, as well as myself and Chris Wilson to sit in with several individuals who had concerns about the farmers market,” Wade said. “Out of that came the results of the meeting, including revisiting the practices and procedures and looking at possibilities to create greater transparency and efficiency to services to consumers, as well as improving the market conditions and relations for vendors.” The staff members could recall the identity of only one individual who attended the meeting to express concerns about the market. That was Ruth Foster, a customer who has complained to the Parks & Recreation Commission in the past about being unable to buy unauthorized product from the market. Jim Rientjes, a Greensboro potter who sells his wares at the farmers market, said he and other vendors were told about the meeting by Wade.

“They had this meeting, and then they backed off on the one-year suspension,” he said. It would be a month later before Causey ran afoul of market management again, and before Wade’s decision to overturn the suspension took place. Morgan said he is aware of no requests by elected officials to overturn disciplinary decisions at the farmers market. Wade said the decision to overturn the suspension was his, and his alone. “I didn’t talk to anyone in the city manager’s office or city council about this,” he said. “This is a decision that I made as a department head. If we’re going to suspend this guy, after reviewing this, I decided there wasn’t sufficient evidence. There was absolutely no political pressure on me at all.” Rientjes and other vendors advocating for better enforcement of the rules see a parallel with a similar episode in May and June of 2008.

A May 27, 2008 letter to Causey from market coordinator Lynne Leonard noted that the vendor was selling three different types of produce that were not personally grown by him without labeling them, and informed him that he was being suspended for 30 days. A subsequent letter dated May 30 reduced the suspension to 15 days, “based on my conversations with you and your statements of sincerity to comply with market policies in the future.” Then, on June 2, Causey received a third letter from Leonard notifying him that his suspension had been commuted to a sixmonth probationary period. “A long time ago, [Causey] called me about something, and I called to inquire,” said Mayor Yvonne Johnson, who is a mediator by profession. “I didn’t ask anybody to do anything for or against him….

A number of people who went to the market called me. I did ask questions, but I didn’t say, ‘You better do this.’” For his part, Causey said, “No other vendor has been treated, singled out the way they have singled out me since the beginning of 2008. And it’s my understanding that the questions that was put to whoever the management was: Are you holding every other vendor to this same standard? If every other vendor is not being held to the same standard, why are you singling out this particular vendor?… I received a call from Chris Wilson. He invited me to come back. I was really upset. I said I would never come back. Mr. Wilson said he hoped that wouldn’t happen.”

Now, 16 months later, under pressure from Rientjes and other vendors, the market management is again stepping up enforcement efforts. Market manager Larry Smith and Guilford County Cooperative Extension agent William B. Wickliffe II are making farm visits to verify that vendors are growing the produce on their tables.

“The market manager is coming out here Tuesday,” said Brian Gann, vice president of operations at Gann Farms in McLeansville. “I asked him why. He said, ‘Because we don’t want Causey to feel like he’s singled out.’”

Gann said he feels that he’s in jeopardy of losing his privilege to sell produce at the market. He added that some of the vendors who are clamoring to have the rules enforced are not from Guilford County, as he is. The rules are being enforced selectively, he intimated.

“They’re going to a select few,” he said. “These people in Rockingham County ain’t part of that select few.”

Vendor Mike Causey chats with customer Zan Liccione at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market. Causey and Market Manager Larry Smith were the only vendors present on a recent Wednesday in the late afternoon. (photo by Jordan Green)