Farmers market pulls sign permit request

SOUTH PORTLAND — A permit for signs that farm vendors hoped would promote the Thursday afternoon market on Hinckley Drive was pulled Monday because more than month had passed since the July 25 application.

The permit did not go before the City Council until its Sept. 5 meeting, at which point it was tabled because of confusion over a permit issued for last year’s market.

“We only have a few weeks left in the season, so it’s kind of moot at this point,” said market manager Caitlin Jordan, of the “campaign-style” signs that were meant to planted where candidate signs typically appear. Jordan said she was never informed the item would be on the Sept. 5 agenda, leaving her unavailable to answer questions that night.

“To spend money on summer [market] signs at now would be a waste of money,” she said.

Jordan said she would return with a sign request for the winter market, slated to start in November at the Planning and Development Office (the old Hamlin School gym) at 496 Ocean St. Meanwhile, Mayor Patti Smith announced the council will hold a workshop on a wide array of farmers market issues on Oct. 22.

“Even though we didn’t get anywhere tonight, we really did get somewhere,” Smith told Jordan. “Don’t let anyone tell you any different.”

However, the bulk of time spent on the issue involved a run to bar Councilor Rosemarie De Angelis from voting.

Holding up a copy of last week’s issue of The Current, Councilor Gerard Jalbert referenced a story about the Sept. 5 council meeting, at which the sign permit was considered and tabled. The article quoted several emails between Jordan and De Angelis, in her role as chairwoman of the ad hoc farmers advisory committee, which had not met since last spring, when several members defected during a row between the two women over a new location for the market. In the more recent exchange, De Angelis denied a request for an advisory committee meeting from one of the group’s two remaining members.

On July 17, De Angelis references the spring resignations, writing, “Clearly there was a loss of sense of TEAM, and I need to consider how to move forward.

“This is a city ad hoc committee formed by me as Mayor at that time,” she continued. “Right now I am working to consider how the committee would be constructed, if it continues, and what would be its mission. Right now all is ON HOLD.”

Jordan then replied to the other committee members, excluding De Angelis, suggesting a new “Friends of the South Portland Farmers Market” group to fill the void. That led to another exchange, after De Angelis somehow got a copy of that message, and a final note from City Manager Jim Gailey, once he was drawn in, in which he told Jordan, “Plain and simple, you two can’t get along.”

The entire episode left Jalbert to declare, “It appears from the emails that there is a loss of objectivity and a loss of perspective. I see a personal dispute that correlates to a personal conflict of interest.”

Jalbert motioned to bar De Angelis from voting on the issue, prompting her to complain, “We’re just talking about a sign permit here.”

Mayor Smith and Councilor Tom Coward both refused to back the motion on grounds that De Angelis has no financial interest in the market. However, Councilor Maxine Beecher pointed out that the city’s ethics rules allow recusal from any issue in which a councilor may be suspected of being unable to act impartially, regardless of financial interest, although she, too, declined to back the motion.

Both councilors Alan Livingston and Tom Blake agreed with Jalbert’s assessment, especially Blake, who faulted De Angelis for appearing to be completely out of the loop on the sign request at the Sept. 5 meeting.

“It showed me there are issues between the farmers market and Councilor De Angelis,” said Blake, adding that he was “absolutely stunned” that De Angelis had shot down a request for an advisory committee meeting.

De Angelis replied that she had only denied the meeting because there were too few members, noting also that the advisory committee is its own kind of beast, and as such she does not sit on it as the council’s representative.

“I’m not abdicating my responsibility," she said. “There is nothing I should have known that I didn’t. I just go to the market every week and spend my money at this point."

Ultimately, Jalbert could find no support for his motion, and it failed, 5-1. Meanwhile, both Smith and De Angelis reserved harsh words for the article that prompted the debate.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to be guided by newspaper articles,” said Smith.

“The only thing that’s black and white about news reporting is the paper and the ink, otherwise nothing.” said De Angelis, playing off Jalbert’s comment about the black and white nature of emails quoted in the article, which she repeatedly faulted.