No longer canceled, arts and crafts vendors will be back at the Sebastopol Farmers Market this Sunday

The city granted the market a waiver until its permit comes up for discussion with the planning commission in January

The Sebastopol Farmers Market

It’s been a rough few weeks for people who care about the Sebastopol Farmers Market. On Nov. 14, Sebastopol Farm Market Manager Barbara Hom got a letter from Sebastopol City Manager Don Schwartz saying that the farmers market was out of compliance with its permit.

“The letter said we’re not in compliance with the existing permit, which is from 1997 and has a ratio of 80% farmers, 20% non-farmers—and that 20% included things like bakery and cheese and bread and arts and crafts. We run our market like most of the other Sonoma County farmers markets, probably about 40-40-20: 40% farmers, 40% other food things, and 20% arts and crafts. We have not been in compliance for many, many years.”

Hom, who said she didn’t know about the 80-20 ratio spelled out in the market’s permit, said she immediately reached out to Schwartz and asked for a meeting. That meeting was scheduled for the following week, and when Hom arrived she found herself facing a roomful of people.

“I thought we would be meeting just with him, and so I brought one of my board members, but when we arrived, there were 12 other people, including the police chief, assistant police chief, fire chief, the Director of Public Works, I think, a couple of council members, the vice mayor. I really felt caught off guard,” Hom said.

And this is where things get murky.

Hom left the meeting thinking she’d been told to immediately reduce the number of non-ag vendors to 20%. That would have required her to eliminate all but a handful of arts and crafts folk. Not wanting to choose which arts and crafts vendors to cancel, she decided to cancel them all. So a dozen arts and crafts vendors were told by Hom that they were banned from the market in the critical few weeks before Christmas.

Associate Planner John Jay told the Sebastopol Times he also thought the farmers market had to immediately cut back to the 80/20 vendor level.

Schwartz remembers the message from the meeting differently. “The way I took it, the market was to begin a gradual shift towards more ag-based products. We were leaving enforcement of that strict 80-20 until we’re able to revisit this with the planning commission in January,” he said.

Mayor Diana Rich confirmed that this was what Schwartz told her. “I confirmed with him that he was still absolutely 100% in support of whatever vendor mix the farm market decided to pursue in the short term, until the topic comes to the planning commission in January,” Rich wrote to the Sebastopol Times.

Hom’s cancellation of the arts and crafts vendors set off a firestorm of protest from vendors and farm market fans alike.

And this is where things got nasty.

A rumor got started around town that the city’s enforcement efforts were instigated by the Downtown Business Association, the Chamber of Commerce, and a few local downtown merchants who had opposed the market’s decision this fall to expand into the parking lot connecting Weeks Way and Highway 12.

Some merchants began getting hate mail. According to one source, a woman walked into Toy Works and told the owner that she was going to start a boycott against them and was never going to shop there again. Another merchant, who asked not to be named, choked up when she started to describe the hate mail that her business had received since this all started.

Schwartz confirmed, however, that this was a city-instigated action, kicked off by Hom’s request to expand the market back in June. Associate Planner John Jay said Hom started the paperwork and then just dropped it and expanded anyway, which Hom admits.

This is where another rumor got started—this time within the city itself and among the council. Word spread that Hom had been sent a violation letter in June of this year about the 80/20 rule in the market’s permit and that she was just ignoring the city’s concerns—and worse, expanding the market to add more craft vendors, despite a warning that the market was in violation of its permit.

In fact, the only thing that happened in June, the Sebastopol Times discovered, was that Planner John Jay told Hom that if she wanted to expand the market, she would have to file the paperwork to change her permit. According to both Jay and Hom, there was no discussion of the 80/20 vendor ratio at that time.

“Since I took the job, I’ve kind of followed along with what every other market is doing and that’s 40-40-20. The farmers market cannot survive if it was 80-20. So say, for instance, we have 28 farmers; that would only allow five [other vendors]. That’s just 33 vendors. We cannot do that. Our money is made through stall fees. We’re a nonprofit. Our stall fees are what pays for all the administrative costs, liability, the rent and all that. We could not exist with a ratio of 80-20,” Hom said. “Farmers markets have changed since the ’90s when that permit was created.”

The farmers market will have a chance to revisit their permit in January when they meet with the planning commission.

At last week’s council meeting, Myriah Volk of the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce tried to calm the waters.

“Sebastopol thrives when we prioritize collaboration over division,” she said. “We want to reassure the community that we are committed to fostering a positive relationship—and to protect the relationship—between all parties. The city, market organizers, and downtown businesses are all essential threads in the fabric of our town, and we are dedicated to ensuring mutual success.”