The King County Council has directed Public Health to find ways to scale back its proposed increases to permit fees for farmers markets in 2015, after operators and vendors expressed concerns the increase will be their undoing.
Lori Taylor, founder and manager of the Bellevue Farmers Market, said when she started the farmers market in 2004, the coordinator fee — paid annually to hold a market — was $100. This year it was $502, and would rise 131 percent to $1,162 under currently proposed 2015 fees.
The proposed 2015 schedule would raise the recurring event plan review — for preliminary assessments of event sites — 12 percent, from $201 an hour to $225 an hour. That is a one-time fee, if the event remains at the same location.
“The vendors are up in arms. They’re very concerned,” Taylor said. “You know we just can’t afford (the fee increases) and just can’t understand how they’re justified.”
A temporary food – limited fee, which applies to vendors with less food handling demands like scooping ice cream, is proposed to increase 264 percent, from $55 to $200. A temporary food permit for a more full-scale vendor is proposed to increase 42 percent, from $281 to $400.
Becky Elias, food program manager for Public Health, said the last time fees were increased was in 2011, and the agency spent the past three years analyzing the amount of time it spends coordinating with markets and vendors. She added the currently proposed fee rates are based on the three-year average cost for service.
James Apa, Public Health communications manager, said fees cover the cost of inspections, with no subsidization from the county’s general fund.
“The cost of the inspections reflects the full cost of delivering the service, so there’s no subsidy from taxpayers, and this is reflective of any of our other inspections,” he said.
Now Public Health has been given until Dec. 18, when the Board of Health holds a public hearing for proposed impact fees, to find ways to reduce them.
“They expressed that we want to see a lower fee,” Apa said of the county council. “They didn’t indicate exactly how to get there.”
A second stakeholders meeting was held Wednesday to gather feedback and ideas as to how.
The Bellevue Farmers Market runs Thursdays from mid-May to mid-October, and a Saturday market runs from June to Thanksgiving. This Saturday will be the last market event of the season at the Barnes and Noble parking lot downtown.
Taylor said she’s uncertain how fee increases will affect the market next year, but she’s hopeful Public Health will find cost savings, possibly by adding more efficiency to its inspections process.
