02-28-11 Regular Meeting, Public Hearing and Workshop Meeting of La Porte City Council

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funding limitations, the manager may have to be chosen is almost impossible to police a farmer -only rule. from among the regular market sellers, be a retired person The size of the market and the availability of an offering services free or at low cost, or be a government adequate range of quality produce from local farmers may official to whom market management responsibilities are affect the decision. Whatever the decision, the Board added above other assigned duties. needs to impartially enforce the ruling until, after careful An on -site manager is needed to: review and evaluation, the Board chooses to change it. • Provide orderly parking by sellers (and buyers); Besides the political debate, experiences indicate that • Maintain order and cleanliness; allowing resellers and other non - producers to operate in • Collect seller fees; the market may cause the market to come under closer Open and close the market grounds; surveillance by sales tax collection authorities, weights- • • Exercise supervisory control; and - measure regulatory agencies, and labor law enforcers. Suddenly, all laws applying to retail sales become • Record names and addresses of sellers; applicable. • Develop an anonymous system for reporting sales by each seller; • Provide pricing and merchandising help to sellers; and Financing the Market Operations • Confer with local l awenforcementofficia tsconcerning g p authority to regulate behavior at the market and the support available for accident investigation, traffic Thoughts to Consider control, removal of unauthorized sellers, and control • Usually, seller fees are expected to pay operating of disorders at the market site. costs. Although some cities or counties may be willing to Who May Sell at the Market? underwrite the establishment of a market, few will pay its operating costs. In most situations money will need to be Thoughts to Consider raised from market users to pay current expenses. Three Reasonable policy must be established and applied methods are frequently used, all of which charge only the • seller. consistently. If a membership fee is charged, only members have Generally, farmers' markets are attractive places at any right to sell on the market. This may permit a little which to buy and sell produce. This encourages the niore controt since eligibitityto belong to the group can be presence of non - producers who may buy produce and established more carefully. it also may exclude casual offer it for resale at the farmers' market. Consequently, sellers who only have produce items to sell infrequently, potential problems may arise with non - producers, peddlers, or for a short period of the season. For these sellers, the "pi nhookers," and resellers. Since many of these marketers membership fee may be uneconomical or the membership buy produce from other areas and offer it earlier in the application procedure troublesome. spring and later in the fall, the money received for their Stall rental fees (by the day, week, month or season) produce sometimes leaves the vicinity because the produce do permit anyone to use the market, but the better sites are may not be locally grown and the sellers do not reside usually rented and occupied for the season by first -come, first - served marketers. Commissions on gross sales are nearby. All of these factors lead to strong demands by resident hard to document because sales are usually cash and producers for regulating who may sell on the market. This records are frequently sketchy. Commissions are usually leads to a considerable managerial problem. The Board used when market employees sell produce for the grower. has several policy options: • only local farmers may sell; Hiring Employees • only farmers may sell; • farmers and non - farmers may sell. Thoughts to Consider Most markets find it difficult to exclude all non- • Wage and hour laws apply to retail marketing farmers. Some community leaders may feel that it is not establishments. wise to limit selling to bona fide producers. Reasons cited • Federal and state withholdings must be maintained. include the notions that peddlers may assure more uniform • OSHA rules apply regarding safety. supply and more attractive volume, and that a local • Job descriptions must be furnished to each employee. producer with quality homegrown produce can effectively ( compete with the peddler. The bottom line is often that it 5