Wow – now that’s a biological miracle! How does he do this?

Even now the material presented at the February meeting of the Market Commission is still being withheld from the public. Note that the link in this article to the proposed revised Market application does not work. When a Market vendor asked for a copy this past Saturday he was told he could not have it. This is simply wrong.

The link failure can be chalked up to The Chronicle, not the city — ideally we try to host documents on our own website, instead of relying on third parties to maintain the same URL forever. And it was The Chronicle who dropped the ball that. [When a link doesn't work, the URL window should indicate the address where it was trying to fetch the file from].

In any case, I’ve filled in the missing domain name prefix, and it should now work: [link]

I appreciate Mr Newell’s recognition of my support of the market. But this is why we disagree on this issue. I support the Market, and correct, rule making procedures that follow legal precedent. I do not have a position for, or against, Mr. Robertello.

In November, a quorum of the Market Commissioners met in the Market office to discuss “policy and procedures”. The Michigan Open Meetings Act (OMA) requires all meetings of public bodies when a quorum is present to maintain minutes and to make these available within 8 days of the meeting. When I asked for a copy of the minutes under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) I was told the minutes of the meeting were not available.

The November meeting was illegal and unnecessary since the regular Commission Meetings were typically less than one hour. A major part of my objection is that the Commission activity was not been conducted in the public, cablecast, meetings of the Commission. This is clearly in opposition the intent and spirit of open, transparent, deliberation and decision by government as required by OMA and supported by Ann Arbor Council resolution. The meetings have continued, although at the February meeting of the Market Commission the chairperson, Mr Pollack was careful not to disclose the number of Commissioners present at the last meeting.

Even now the material presented at the February meeting of the Market Commission is still being withheld from the public. Note that the link in this article to the proposed revised Market application does not work. When a Market vendor asked for a copy this past Saturday he was told he could not have it. This is simply wrong.

Consider the legal structure of the US. Our system is based on written law and court precedent. Mr. Pollack has stated that the Commission is not changing the rules. So the Commission is not changing the ‘law’. Mr. Robertello has decades of precedent from Market Managers, Market Inspectors, and even the City Attorney’s Office that whatever he is doing is consistent with the ‘law’. Under the framework of our legal system the ‘law’ and precedent strongly support Mr Roberttello.

This does not mean the Commission cannot start the process to change the rules, if that is their intent. But it should be done by the procedure that was approved by the Ann Arbor City Council, not by a backroom deal. The discussions should be if the change is good for the Market, not whether it is good for one vendor or not.

Years ago I used to buy a peck of cucumbers to make pickles, for example, but later I found that they were selling them only in little pint containers at much higher prices. I agree that they need to sell at retail prices instead of wholesale in order to make farming remunerative, but this does take away much of the traditional motivation in visiting a farmers’ market. I mostly visit the market through nostalgia and to buy certain items, and as an entertainment. It is still one of our treasures and I love to patronize the West Side Market. Arbor Farms also sells local produce in season, which helps assuage my conscience, since I can no longer shop at Fresh Seasons.