Cheaters at the Market - The Biggest and Fattest Ones: Part 2 - Robertello/Kapnick or whatever it is they call themselves today

The screen capture shown here comes from the Tecumseh Herald, in Tecumseh, Michigan. The article from the paper shows a photo of the owner of Kapnick Orchards, Sharon Shaffer. The caption underneath the photo says: Pictured above - Sharon Shaffer owner of Kapnick Orchards. An excerpt of the text from the article follows: Kapnicks are making the best of a bad situation by selling #2 peaches that are just as delicious as #1’s at rock bottom prices. The #2’s show the spots where the hail struck, like those pictured above held by owner Sharon Shaffer.

Scott Robertello, who claims he is the owner of Kapnick Orchards, has been allowed by the City of Ann Arbor Parks and Rec Department, to rent stalls at the Ann Arbor Public Market without going through the proper procedures required under the Market Operating Rules at the time he made application to vend under a different business entity.

Scott Robertello wasted the time and energy of the Market Commission. Here is a quote from the former Market Commission Chair, found on the blog www.arborupdate.com,
"The issue about Mr Robertello not transferring seniority rights from Kapnick Orchards to the store known as Kapnick Farm Market Inc. came up at that time (2002). I asked Mr Robertello after a Commission meeting if he had ever followed Market Operating Rule 7, and made a legal transfer of seniority rights, and he replied that he did not, "because Maxine (Rosasco) said I didn't have to". My reply was that Mrs Rosasco didn't have the authority to make that decision. The market's inspector at the time found that paperwork in Mr Robertello's file was a bit out of order, and he could not make a definite determination of Mr Robertello's status. My questions to the City's Legal Department, including attorney Mary Fales, went unanswered."

Instead of filing the proper paperwork required of all other vendors at the market, Mr Robertello essentially lied to City officials by saying he was the owner of Kapnick Orchards and circumvented the process in place. Yet Mr Robertello was one of the first to file complaints against other vendors (like Erie Orchards and Renaissance Acres Organic Herb Farm), and was allowed to maintain a seat on the Market Commission - in violation of criteria the City has for those who wish to be on Boards and Commissions.

Fraudulent business practices should not be rewarded, so Fuzzbollah says boycott Kapnick's!! or whatever they are calling themselves today.

Cheaters at the Market - The Biggest and Fattest Ones: A Series

Why the market management lets cheaters get away with it is anybody's guess.

It could be that they're friends with each other, or maybe kissin' cousins, or lovers perhaps.

It could be that somebody is being 'paid off' in some way.

It could be that nobody has ever really cared enough to deal with the issues even though they have been pointed out and complained about.

The CHEATER known as Denise Brock is a champion at it. Fuzzbollah believes she obtained seniority at the market illegitimately, and the City staff let her get away with it. Rules in place have not been followed, and Denise has the gall to make statements to the press about it. Any reform efforts have been thwarted because people like Denise Brock gang up with people like Glenn Thompson and make it seem like they have 'public' support.

Denise Brock apparently cheats even now. A search of the Michigan Department of Agriculture's website on this date showed she has no grower's license from the Michigan Department of Agriculture. A Grower's License must be obtained by vendors at Farmer's Markets in order to vend perennials. Both Denise and Carol Vena have been told by past Market Commissions that they must maintain separate businesses, and function that way at the Ann Arbor Market, yet they continue to operate closely together. The City won't enforce its own rules, so the cheaters get away with it, and put other vendors at a disadvantage.

Get a load of Denise's statement to the Michigan Daily (October 10, 1996):
"The booths here are assigned according to seniority," Denise Brock said. She vends mainly plants, candle settings and painted pumpkins. Of the 144 booths, 66 people have permanent booths and 70 come to the Market and set up their booths randomly.

Myla Snyder, a vendor of polar fleece hats, collectively sums up the opinions of the vendors when she said, "It's like we're family."

In Denise Brock's case, this may actually be true. Smiling and gesturing toward 50 or so booths with a large sweeping motion of her hand, she said, "One half of them are family, we're really related to each other."

Such monopolizing of a public space has continued long enough!!

Fuzzbollah says Boycott Denise Brock!!

Glenn Thompson rears his ugly head in public - again

Get this bullshit from Glenn Thompson, self-appointed market czar: "For many years the vendors at the Farmers Market have requested the Market be cleaned and painted, better lighting installed and the water and electric utilities improved. Jeff Dehring, a parks designer, has expanded this into a $1,500,000 renovation. More has been spent on consultants than would be required to do the work the vendors want. A simple maintenance task has been delayed years as the project keeps expanding."

As usual, Glenn neglects most of the story, and embellishes other parts of it to suit his own deluded purpose.

Firstly, Glenn does NOT speak for all of the vendors at the Public Market, there are many vendors who have wanted the market to be expanded, renovated, built upon in order to have more stall spaces to sell from. The destruction of the Kokinakis house on the market property presented a golden opportunity to construct what could be a premier showcase of a multi-use market space, not just some dingy parking lot with depression-era sheds.

Secondly, the current cost for a council-approved, market commission approved construction plan comes in at around $1 Million, with 1/3 paid by the DDA, 1/3 by Parks and Rec of Ann Arbor, and 1/3 paid by the Market Operating Fund, all of whom have the cash set aside to do the project. The delays that Glenn talks about are of his own making, he has rallied a few vendors to his cause, who have badmouthed ANY capital improvements proposed for the market, and showed up at hearings and council meetings to make it look like there is significant opposition to what is really a worthwhile project. Perhaps Glenn is predicting the future cost of completing the project, because his resistance has led to the delays, and the delays of construction have led to increased costs for construction. Any renovation MUST be accompanied by installation of water management systems, and improvements like that don't get any cheaper the more one waits. Glenn, stop blaming Jeff Dehring, he isn't at fault, YOU ARE.

Thirdly, Glenn Thompson does NOT speak for the citizens of Ann Arbor, maybe just a few. Over $90,000 was spent on consultants to come up with a vibrant proposal that Thompson didn't like, so he started up a phony interest group, put up a blog that makes it seem like he has an army of Ann Arborites supporting him, and he regularly communicates to City Council and the Market Commission that he doesn't want the market to be improved unless he agrees with the design. That $90,000 was literally pissed down the drain, forcing a market commission composed of volunteers to go back to the drawing board, and drawing out a process that could have been a completed by now, with a totally renovated, beautiful market structure, public space and surroundings that would have benefitted all Ann Arborites, vendors, and the Kerrytown business community.

Glenn Thompson is alot like the Bush administration - assume everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie until you can prove otherwise.

Market Gals Gone Wild

OK, so nothing is really changing at the market. The Market Mafia (aka the Growers Association members: Carol Vena, Denise Brock, Delores Gracia, Toni Gracia, Tina Koski, Krapnick Orchards, Sparr Greenhouse, Wasem's, and a few other vendors who have dominated the market operations) are still in control, probably giving Jayne Miller (uber management of Parks and Rec) her marching orders. The deck has been shuffled once again, with the "new" Market Manager Molly Notarianni installed to keep business as usual going, and to continue the cover up of past misdeeds.

So what do we do? Continue the cultural attack with Fuzzbollah's song MARKET GALS GONE WILD!!!

Market Gals Gone Wild
Original Lyrics by Fuzzbollah
All Rights Reserved

A commissioner, name of Carol Scott
Thinks she’s hot, when she’s not
A tattooed lady with big hoo-boobs
She wants ‘em posted onto you tube

Ain’t gonna throw you no beads
It’s Ann Arbor, not New Orleans
You want to show us your bra
Get your ass on down to Mardi Gras

We’re fightin’ for market equality
For fair rules and diversity
We’re fightin’ corruption
And here you go havin’ a boob eruption

Intimidation and threat
Its how you got what you get
Why don’t you point out the lies
Like the guy who thaws and bakes those apple pies

Market gals gone wild!! Market gals gone wild!!
You know the world don’t smile, on market gals gone wild!!

Workin’ hard to defeat
That bunch of vendors who cheat
Commissioner Scott you’re a fool
For letting some vendors break the rules

It really looks absurd
When you’re flipping your bird
Take your finger and park it
In the dark side of the Farmers Market

Its gotta be for the best
That you cover your breasts
It would only be right
To keep those twins out of sight

You give Ann Arbor a scare
When you show ‘em your pair
I guess it should be spoken
For this I got my camera broken

Market gals gone wild!! Market gals gone wild!!
You know the world don’t smile, on market gals gone wild!!

Sloppy Cover Up Job Lyrics

Corruption is where
You might not look
In ann arbor city
It took it took
Down at the market
Its run by a mob
Backed by the city
With its sloppy cover up job

The rules they say
We must obey
Do not exist
Wouldn’t matter anyway
They let them cheat
Help scare others away
To protect their dollars
And keep local farmers away

Did jest and his cronies
Put in a fix
Lay another phony trail
To defend more than lies
They got caught with their pants down
And although not a crime
They keep the truth from the public
To save their white little behind

Like before with sexual harassment
They didn’t follow the rules
Got hit with a lawsuit
Some call them fools
Both D and D
Two learned men
Said when the city speaks
Don’t believe what is said.

-Chorus

The assaults and lies
You throw our way
All been used
In the civil rights days
We’ll hang our hats
On equal access for all
Equal rights and treatment
Is all of our call

Her name is jack
Blacks the color of her soul
Did she sell lies to the cops?
Maybe more she has told?
She told many a vendor
It’s for the benefits
So consults with the attorney
To do what he bids

The two before her
Ganese and Gustene
Took cash from the mob
And gave them the keys
The city found out
Did nothing at all
Yet gave them bonuses
And we were taxed to the wall

Belle was a commissioner
When the vendor said
I buy pre made frozen baked goods
Bake them and then
Sell them at the market
The commission said “no”
“If I sprinkle the sugar
Are they good to go’?

The cash kept coming
No investigation was done
Its part of the record
The threats with a gun
Those courage’s few
Who stood up to the mob
Got harassed by a committee
To have them
Thrown from their jobs

I was there when the vendor
Said to gustene
“Why do you let them take ten stalls
That’s not what the rules mean”
She said” you’re a communist”
And what was strange about that
She was a long time
Union democrat

They made up a story
About a fruit man
He was thrown away
By their scheming hand
When the truth came out
From the experts mouth
The fruit man came back
No apology would follow

Corruption is where
You might not look
In ann arbor city
It took it took
Down at the market
Its run by a mob
Backed by the city
With its sloppy cover up job

Words and music by deep green all rights reserved

Key to players in Sloppy Cover Up Job

Belle---adelle ponvert

Jack---jessica (black)

Jest—bob west city attorney

Attorney---kevin macdonald

Genese—louise (wireman)

Gustene --maxine (rosasco)

Vendor baked goods—robertello

Vendor asked---phyllis ponvert

Fruit man erie orchards

Carol Vena and Denise Brock - Vendors from Hell, or just Belleville?

The image in the screen capture shows that 2 vendors at the Ann Arbor Public Market, Carol Vena and Denise Brock, each holding 3 stalls, operate as a single business entity at the Northville Farmers Market. Is it fair to other vendors in the Ann Arbor market that these two are allowed to operate as two separate business entities? What is going on here? Does the management of the Ann Arbor market not realize that this prevents other vendors from gaining seniority and a stall space on the highly coveted "main aisle"?

This unfair monopolization of scarce public space has been formally complained about numerous times. Market manager Jessica Black was informed about this, former market managers Louise Wireman and Maxine Rosasco were also aware of this, but all chose to do nothing, even though this practice violated Market Operating Rules.

What is even more galling is that vendors Carol Vena, Denise Brock, Delores Gracia, Tina Koski, and T. Gracia all use the same greenhouses in Belleville, MI. This family unit is allowed to take 16 stalls at the Ann Arbor market!! With only 144 stalls in total at the Ann Arbor market, thats over 10% of the stalls being controlled by one family? Is this a Market Mafia or what?

This practice also prevents the needed diversity of the marketplace, prevents competition, prevents Ann Arbor consumers from making choices, prevents new vendors from gaining a foothold, prevents innovation, and prevents others from making a decent living. This is unfair, and should be changed. Ann Arbor consumers should complain to the new Public Market Commission and City Council to get them to discontinue small groups from monopolizing our public spaces.

Recent Rumblings Rock A2 MarketWatch

OK, so I, the great FUZZBOLLAH, was on hiatus for a few months, watching with glee as the local blog site http://arborupdate.com had a rather long thread pertaining to the Ann Arbor Public Market, entitled "Growing Pains at the Farmers Market". Well, last week, Arborupdate webmeister Bruce Fields pulled the plug on this thread, claiming that 2/3 of the postings were from one person. Oh BOY oh boy. See for yourselves what this thread had to offer: http://arborupdate.com/article/1533/growing-pains-at-the-farmers-market

Although you will see a few snarky posts from yours truly, it certainly wasn't me who made 2/3 of the posts. See what happens when all other avenues for free speech and redress of grievances get shut down? People start resorting to harsher measures. Maybe the excessive posting was done by one of the disgruntled vendors whose issues have been glossed over by a negligent city staff, who constantly make excuses for the monopolizing of the market by a few other "privileged" vendors.

The other item of note for ArborMarketWatchers is an article that appeared in the January, 2008 issue of the Ann Arbor Observer, written by Vivienne Armentrout. The article is all about the importance some Ann Arborites place on LOCAL FOODS. Local foodies - in the article referred to as Locavores - "stress the importance of getting to know the individual farmers and buying from them steadily." I couldn't agree more, Locavores.

Armentrout also points out that buying at the Ann Arbor Public Market takes commitment, as the market is only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays, shuts by 3 pm, has difficult parking, prices are too high, and there are controversies about some of the vendors not growing the produce they sell, or making the goods themselves - as required by Market Operating Rules.

It might be useful to critique each of these issues that were raised, but now that arborupdate has closed their forum on the market, what's a lonely Fuzzbollah to do? Why don't you add in your 2 cents? Comments anyone?