Village vendor dispute bubbles up again
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Fredonia's long-running dispute about vendors was on display again this week at a Board of Trustees workshop.
Representatives of three community organizations and village officials emitted more rhetoric about a years-long tiff that seems to be centered around allegedly confusing Fredonia laws. A fairly new village law governing vendors has further clouded the issue. The dust up between the government and the festival organizers of Fredonia has many side issues, however.
The only thing that really came out of the discussion, which gobbled up 75 minutes of a three-hour workshop, was a loose agreement to talk more. Mayor Michael Ferguson offered to start a committee of festival organization leaders and village officials. The community organizers -- Lauren Boyle of the Farm Festival, Anneliese Bruegel of Fredonia's Farmers' Market, and Larry Fiorella of Festivals Fredonia -- appeared open to that.
"There's been questions from all three organizations," said Ferguson to open the discussion. He spoke of "a lot of confusion, not only on everybody's part including ours to a certain extent, but the law's been pretty clear over the course of a number of years."
Ferguson read the entire vendor's law of the village, which took 15 minutes. Police Chief Gregory Myers read a law governing Barker Common, which notes that no alcohol is supposed to be served without prior village approval. Civic events also "can't become a disturbance, it can't turn into something that people are calling us on and complaining," Myers said.
Ferguson commented there is a misconception that once the board has approved the event, it has also approved the vendors. The vendors are the organizer's responsibility, he held.
Boyle said, "I feel like there is a big difference between Susie's Crochet Pot Holders that wants to set up on a random Tuesday on her own in a park, and Susie's Crochet Pot Holders that wants to set up under an event, an organization. I think those things need to be made a little more clear, that the organization is participating through an approved organization in the village, rather than a vendor just attempting to vend on their own."
The community organization representatives complained that fees for vendors were unclear. Trustee Ben Brauchler said, "My understanding is the organization that's sponsoring the event would pay the fee, and individual vendors would not pay a fee." Code Enforcement Officer Charles LaBarbera said the Farmers' Market was exempt, but it was his understanding that every vendor should pay a $150 fee.
But Boyle had yet another interpretation: it appeared to her, going by the village's sign up form, that both the sponsoring organization and the individual vendors would have to pay up.
"This law was not available publicly until June, when it was posted on the website. But even if you go on that law, there was no language put into it about how the permit process was going to go, what was going to be expected of someone who was applying for a permit," Bruegel said.
"There really needs to be a clear written set of instructions with definitions of what the expectations are, so that I don't get told different things," she added, also complaining that Fredonia requires permits and fees for its farmers market when many other communities do not.
Ferguson said Dunkirk does, and also requires insurance, as does the village. "In some years we've asked for that and been told no. This has been going on for years. I've never once been asked by the Farmers' Market to talk about this... We had your entire board here just a month ago. It went very well, they agreed with (the village's structure for the market), we took notes, we sent them to you and nothing was done."
Bruegel said something about "clear instructions." Ferguson said, "Clear instructions is why we're here tonight, because you've refused to come to the couple of meetings we've asked you to come to." Bruegel angrily replied that one of the meetings happened the same day she had surgery. Cooler heads prevented what could have been an ugly dispute, with Fiorella calming Bruegel and Trustee LeeAnn Lazarony declaring, "Let's not do this."
Bruegel later noted confusion about the "difference between the Farmers Market, Festivals Fredonia and the Farm Festival. My vendors were directed by your employees to talk to Larry," she said to LaBarbera. LaBarbera disputed that.
Fiorella commented the village should just go by its peddler and solicitor law. "You don't even need this (vendor law). You already go through this process with the peddler and solicitor law."
Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau reminded that a March trustees resolution said vendors would pay the $150 fee -- unless they were vending in an event sponsored by an organization, then the organization was supposed to pay.
"The process would be so simple if the organizations would just put on their websites, 'check with the village for permits,'" LaBarbera later said.
Fiorella asked for a "little bit of leniency" on form filling until the end of the year until the kinks in the vendor law are worked out.
"This is taking up so much of my time, if you abolished this law tonight, I would be a happy man," LaBarbera groaned.
Lazarony demanded clarity about whether the vendor law should be enforced the rest of the year. Ferguson said, "We have laws that are on the books, legal, binding laws -- we can't just say we're going to lift those the rest of the summer."
"We actually could," Lazarony said.
"Great, then you go ahead and do it," Ferguson replied. The trustees did not do so.
However, Ferguson said he was fine with only enforcing laws related to public safety and New York State law, in regards to the village festival scene.