2024.11.12 – Aiken Farmers Market Committee Speech to Aiken City Council on November 12, 2024.
This is the speech that Vicki Simons delivered to Aiken City Council during their non-agenda public feedback time.
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Good evening, Mayor Milner and members of Aiken City Council.
My name is Vicki Simons. I live north of Aiken in Aiken County.
I am a 100% Grower/Producer of microgreens, who first began selling produce at the Aiken Farmers Market in 2019.
My posts on Facebook prove that I am a strong advocate of the Aiken Farmers Market and my fellow vendors, particularly those who sell healthy food.
In June, I:
- expressed my support for changing the City’s ordinance regarding creating a “farmers market committee”; and
- asked what the term ‘registered’ means when it comes to vendors who can be elected to the Farmers Market Committee.
A City employee answered my question that night, in somewhat vague terms.
Council adopted the change to the Farmers Market Committee Code this past August.
Please note that there is no detail in the Code about the criteria of a “registered vendor.”
Last week, I received from a City employee an email stating that nominations for the “farmers market committee” could be submitted during certain hours from November 11 – 22.
In that same email, there was a paragraph that stated the following:
“Criteria: A registered vendor is a vendor who has submitted an application, has been approved to sell at the market, and does so at least 18 times in 6 months.
“Individuals elected to the committee who no longer meet the registered vendor requirement shall resign.
“Individuals not meeting the registered vendor requirement cannot vote.”
I asked the City employee from where this limitation came. No answer has come yet.
I am extremely concerned that these new, undocumented “criteria” may restrict:
- Both those who can be nominated for the Farmers Market Committee;
- And those who may vote for Farmers Market Committee nominees.
Again, the criteria states that a vendor had to be approved to sell at the market “at least 18 times in 6 months.”
The criteria do not state which 6 months.
What if the 6 months under consideration is outside the growing season?
As a year-round vendor at the Aiken Farmers Market, I know of only 3 vendors of non-egg and non-meat grown produce — other than myself — who are also there year-round.
If a vendor sells only once a week, 18 times represents 18 weeks — or a time frame of about 4½ months.
If a farmer has a growing season that is shorter than 4½ months, why should he/she be removed from consideration of being on the Farmers Market Committee?
Some local farmers have been doing business at the Aiken Farmers Market for many years.
In my opinion, they have gained experience and knowledge that I believe must not be discounted by the additional criteria stated in the email.
I am also concerned that these new criteria may lean toward being an “ex post facto law.”
Let us make sure that we abide by the irrefutable leadership law called “The Law of Navigation,” so that in charting the course for the Aiken Farmers Market Committee, we highly value local farmers.
With the Council’s permission, I can read a questionnaire that I wrote, which I believe would provide more structure to the Aiken Farmers Market Committee nomination process than a blank canvas.
Do you have any questions?
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References:
ARTICLE IV. – BOARDS, COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEES,
DIVISION 3. – FARMERS MARKET COMMITTEE,
Sections 2-181 through 2-187.
“Section 2-183. – Composition; appointment and terms of members” reads as follows:
“The farmers market committee shall consist of seven members who are elected by the registered vendors of the market at the time of the election. One month prior to elections, nominations will take place. The seven members will consist of four farmers, one wholesales, one baker/other and one crafter. Terms will be one year, unless the committee member is no longer a registered vendor of the market.”
An ex post facto law[1] is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences (or status) of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_post_facto_law
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The questionnaire to which Vicki referred is published in another post.