A third farmers’ market applicant sparks further Cornucopia anger; the foundation’s president compares one competitor to a Nazi leader.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
The Cornucopia Foundation president said this week that she would like to have a meeting with the latest applicant for a Malibu Farmers’ Market, because if the applicant knew what her group is trying to do as a nonprofit environmental charity, the applicant would withdraw. Debra Bianco said the foundation is trying to develop an environmental education program, but its funds have almost completely drained due to the fact that it has not held a farmers’ market since 2005.
The Cornucopia president said on Tuesday that she was “totally shocked” when she heard last week that locals Cameron Losey and Jeannie Yamamoto had applied to hold the weekly market at the county-owned Malibu Courthouse property on Civic Center Way. That is where Cornucopia previously operated its market. Cornucopia has submitted an application to the city for a conditional-use permit to bring back the market. Calabasas-based Raw Inspiration has also submitted an application to the city. Bianco said last month that she would like Raw Inspiration to withdraw its application. Raw Inspiration head John Edwards said he would not do that. He added that a request by Bianco for him to do that was only submitted in writing to the local newspapers, and never actually given to him despite it being addressed to him. Bianco has never contacted him, Edwards said.
Yamamoto, who heads the nonprofit Paradise Cove Outrigger club with Losey, said on Tuesday that she had not heard from Bianco. But she doubted she would withdraw the application if asked.
“We’re just going to see what happens,” Yamamoto said. “Obviously with the application, it means we would love to do a farmers’ market.”
Yamamoto and Losey are affiliated with the Malibu charity, International Humanities Center, and they are on the city’s Native American Cultural Resources Advisory Committee. By being on the committee, the two are in charge of setting up the annual Chumash Day celebration. Yamamoto said that experience would be helpful in preparing them to run a farmers’ market.
“My father was a farmer,” Yamamato said. “Since I was a little girl, I was always involved in farmers’ markets. We also have extensive background as vendors.”
The Planning Commission must approve conditional-use permits. Gail Sumpter, the city’s permit services and code enforcement manager, said all three applications have been submitted to the city, but she is waiting for them to be reviewed by several government agencies before she could deem the applications complete. Sumpter would not estimate when the applications would go before the Planning Commission.
The courthouse property is owned by the county, so any entity desiring to run a farmers’ market at that location must sign a lease with the county. Sumpter said this week that most likely any permits granted by the Planning Commission would include a condition that the applicant must get a lease from the county, therefore it would not be necessary for the lease to be obtained prior to permit approval. Sumpter said she did not know if the commission would be able to approve permits for more than one applicant, or if the commission would even consider that issue when it addresses each permit application.
Bianco said last month that Cornucopia has been out of the farmers’ market business for so long because of difficulties, including the county telling her that a permit from the city was needed first and the city telling her a county lease was needed first. Sumpter said last month that any confusion over the order of permit and lease acquirement had been settled. County officials could not be reached for this story.
Although Bianco said she wanted to have a pleasant conversation with Yamamoto and Losey about their application, she had harsher comments for Raw Inspiration. The Calabasas nonprofit is affiliated with another organization, California Certified Farmers Markets, which Bianco accused of being behind a controversial petition last year that requested California Certified, and not Cornucopia, be allowed to run the Malibu Farmers Market. It was later revealed that many of the people whose names appeared on the petition either denied having signed it or said they signed it with false information given to them. It was also never proven that California Certified was affiliated with the petition.
“It is unfair that if Adolf Hitler himself came in tomorrow and gave the city all the right information, and if he qualified as a certified farmer, the city would have no other choice but to give him a permit, if he qualified,” Bianco said. “And that pertains to Raw Inspiration. Those are the same people that tried to sabotage us last year with the false petition. So I’m sure the city would not want people like that, who have already shown their true colors, to come into Malibu to run this market.”
A call made to California Certified was not returned. Edwards said that California Certified had nothing to do with last year’s petition. He added that his organization and California Certified have a limited relationship, which involved California Certified supplying Raw Inspiration with vendors and items such as signs. Also, he said Raw Inspiration has taken over several markets formerly run by California Certified, but he said the two groups are “gradually separating.”
The only contact phone number on California Certified’s Web site for becoming a vendor is the phone number for Raw Inspiration. Potential vendors are also told on the Web site to mail applications to Raw Inspiration.
As for Bianco’s comments about Raw Inspiration and California Certified, Edwards said, “Debra Bianco can say what she likes. It’s quite obvious why she is doing this. She wants to put a negative spin on anybody who is up against her.”
He added that he could find plenty of people in Malibu and elsewhere who would say something bad about her, but he chooses not to do that.