City council needs more time to decide farmers market contract

DOWNEY — The fate of the Downey’s farmers market remains up in the air, as the weekly event is caught in a seeming tug-of-war between the Downtown Downey Improvement District and its current manager Raw Inspiration, Inc.

The Downey Farmer’s Market takes place every Saturday, rain or shine from 9 am to 1 pm on the city owned property located at 2nd Street and La Reina Avenue.

The city of Downey has been contracted with Raw Inspiration since 2008. Under the agreement, Raw Inspiration would operate a certified farmers’ market, only paying street closure costs if necessary. The city would also not incur any costs.

The contract was previously extended in 2020, however a further amendment to the agreement to push it through December 2024 was found to be not valid. As such, the contract officially expired in November last year and the market has since been operating without a licensed agreement.

According to Assistant City Manager Vaniah De Rojas during her presentation to the City Council on Tuesday, the city has been in contact with Raw Inspiration concerning the contracts expiration and the need for renewal.

However, operators of the organization dispute this, saying that they were only made aware of the situation as recently as last week.

“When our contract [expire] – if there is a contract, you consider it null and void, I don’t understand that – we need to know,” said John Edwards, President of Raw Inspiration. “We were told by Mr. [Mario] Guerra. On Sunday, as you may know, there were many Facebook pages about the market, overwhelmingly supporting us and the farmers market.”

He continued:

“What I would like to know: Why is our contract considered null and void by this council? We’ve never got a letter from you. I understand the decision was taken by this council that it was invalid two months ago. Nobody wrote to us. Nobody contacted us. Nobody told us that that was the position of you. So, we’ve been going along merrily.”

Meanwhile, the DDIA has expressed interest in taking over the market’s management.

Melissa Farwell, the market’s Director of Development, said that Raw Inspiration was “uniquely qualified” to keep running the market.

“Raw Inspiration built the farmers market here from scratch. We built a market that operated in the red inf the first six years since its inception, and kept it going because we believe in Downey, and we love our customers and the residents, and had an amazing relationship with city staff,” said Farwell. “We also had to deal with the huge impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, where once again we very much were in the red and contemplated closing the market…We triumphed through these challenges and built a reliable community gathering space with great vendors.”

She described the situation as a “behind closed doors takeover.”

“I do want to note that the Downtown Downey Improvement Association has never reached out to us to talk to us about taking over the contract with the city for the farmers’ market,” she said.

Both Edwards and Farwell said that vendors had expressed concerns over a potential change in management.

The DDIA attempted to clear the air on some of these claims and concerns

Hans Fritz, executive director of the DDIA, said that the DDIA did not wish to remove the operator, nor any of the vendors of the market.

Then-council members Mario Guerra, David Gafin and Kirk Cartozian, surrounded by members of the Miss Downey Court, at the grand opening of the Downey farmers market on April 18, 2008. (Photo by Eric Pierce)

“The community obviously loves them, and we want to keep them,” said Fritz. “The reality is that their contract ended December 17, 2022, and I knew this a year ago, so it was public information. And now it must go through an RFP (request for proposal) process.

“The nature of any downtown district like the DDIA is to manage all aspects of its downtown. We ask you to please allow the DDIA to issue the RFP for the farmers market…the current operator would be invited and encouraged to participate in the RFP process; if we could keep them working with the DDIA, it would be a win-win outcome for everybody.”

The DDIA currently manages the twice-monthly night market, partnering with Angel City Markets to operate the event.

Councilman Hector Sosa believed that the council should take more time before making a decision.

“You know, Raw Inspiration has done a great job in our community with the farmers’ market for the past 15 years,” said Sosa. “On the flip side, the DDIA has done a great job so far in trying to drum up business and do the things they want to do in the Downtown District.

“I think this needs further discussion; I think we need to maybe set up a meeting where we bring the interested parties to the table. I’d like to see more of a plan from the DDIA and also, because Raw Inspirations had been there so long, they should be given the opportunity to renew their contract.”

Mayor Claudia M. Frometa suggested that the DDIA continue with Raw Inspiration under a pilot program for the next six months. She said that she wanted the community to “continue to have what they have been accustomed to,” however suggested it may be time that the city receive some sort of compensation.

“In this environment, where yes we want to continue to provide a service, but at the same time we hear from the residents about the downtown needing additional attention; the parking structure, all of these things,” said Frometa. “If we want the Downtown Business Association to work as an umbrella for things that occur in the downtown, we also need to give them an opportunity to have that oversight as well.”