Farmers’ market could get licence extended

City says there haven’t been violations of terms of agreement — but critic disagrees

The board that operates the farmers’ market in Morrow Park should have its licensing agreement extended for a year to May 2020, recommends a new city staff report, because the board hasn’t violated the terms of the agreement — an assertion that one concerned citizen says it patently wrong.

There have indeed been violations of the licensing agreement, says Ken Brown — notably that the board has failed to comply with the Corporations Act by not releasing regular audits to members.

“I don’t think city council should make a decision on a report that is inaccurate — and actually contains a falsehood,” Brown said. “Council should postpone any decision on this matter.”

The staff report, written by city commissioner of community services Allan Seabrooke, explains that the extra year would leave city staff time to prepare for a bidding process open to any organization interested in operating the market for five years starting May 1, 2020.

Seabrooke writes that in the meantime, the Peterborough and District Farmers’ Market Association (PDFMA) ought to have a yearlong extension of the agreement that allows it to operate the market on city-owned property.

“The PDFMA is a tenant in good standing with the city,” Seabrooke writes. “There have been no violations of the licence and agreement.”

There’s the “falsehood,” says Brown: He says the market board hasn’t ever released an audit of its

financial books to its members, and that constitutes a violation.

Last year a couple of members asked the board of directors why nearly $22,000 was unaccounted for on the market’s balance sheet between 2015 and 2016.

A letter from the board to vendors stated that an audit was done by McColl Turner and that it would be released to vendors sometime in November 2017. But Brown says no audit were ever supplied.

Romeyn Stevenson is a Bailieboro farmer who was one of seven vendors ousted from the market in May after the market board said it had received complaints of harassment from fellow vendors.

Stevenson said Friday he had asked the board of directors for an explanation for the apparent accounting discrepancy — and never saw an audit as promised in writing by board president Cindy Hope.

The Ontario Corporations Act states annual reports must be issued, Stevenson said — and the market board has “flouted” that rule for years.

“The city council should demand the board operate in compliance with the agreement with the city before extending any access to the Morrow property,” he wrote in a release to The Examiner.

Seabrooke told The Examiner on Friday he knows about Brown’s concerns, as well as Stevenson’s.

“However, the PDFMA is in compliance with its lease agreement with the city,” he wrote.

Wade Matthews, operations manager with the market, wrote in an email that there was never any “accounting error or missing monies from PDFMA finances,” and that annual audit reports are completed and reported to PDFMA members every year.

Yet no audits are available on the market’s website, and The Examiner has never seen an audit despite having asked the board of directors and vendors on more than one occasion.

Councillors meet to discuss this item and others Monday at City Hall at 6 p.m.