Farmers market controversy continues

UPDATE: David Craft says his group has asked Jace Ralls to recuse himself from the farmers market selection committee.

Related: At the end of last night's council meeting, Assistant City Manager Denise Turner handed out copies of a draft audit review of Friends of the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market to the nine council members and to media representatives. Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw had been the loudest voice on council calling for the audit, and a series of articles [1, 2, 3, 4] in The Rhinoceros Times has cast suspicion on the nonprofit's financial management practices.

Len Lucas, the city's internal audit director, concluded, "All expenses reviewed were incurred for appropriate purposes and it does not appear that fraud has occured at the Friends of the GFCM as of this review; however, without proper segregation of duties or compensating controls in place, a window of opportunity for the misappropriation of assets exists."

Lucas found that the nonprofit has spent $7,125, the largest portion of which was spent on operating expenses for special event breakfasts, including goods, supplies, table rent and liability insurance. The city has asked the nonprofit to put on hold all plans to invest in the improvement of the market until the audit is complete. Of the $7,125 spent by the nonprofit, Lucas found that receipts were missing for $323.

"The Friends of the GFCM, like many other small non-profit organizations, is vulnerable to fraud because the treasurer is solely responsible for collecting and disbursing funds, reconciling the bank statement, and preparing financial reports," Lucas wrote. "Good internal controls dictate the segregation of duties such as cash handling from record-keeping."

The Friends of the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market and the parks and recreation department will have the opportunity to review the draft audit report and respond, according to city documents.

ORIGINAL POST: Somewhat upstaged by former Klansman EH Hennis, David Craft made a plea during speakers from the floor for the city of Greensboro to conduct a fair and transparent process of selecting a private vendor to operate the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market.

Craft is a partner in the nonprofit Greensboro Farmers' Market, which has submitted a proposal to take over management and operations of the farmers market.

Craft publicly questioned the impartiality of the committee. After the meeting he told me that the daughter of committee member Jace Ralls works for one of the partners in the Farmer Community Collaborative, a for-profit entity competing for the contract.

Craft told the council that the conflict of interest on the part of the committee will cast a cloud of illegitimacy over whatever group ends up being awarded the contract, and ask them to postpone a meeting of the committee scheduled for tomorrow. He said the parks and recreation commission would be better qualified to vet the proposals considering that its members have a broad interest in parks rather than a specific stake in the farmers' market.

Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan concurred.

"I think giving it to parks and recreation would be a good option, and I think it needs to be done with openness," she said. "I think if there is some bias, we owe it to everyone to make sure it doesn't look wrong."

Assistant City Manager Denise Turner disagreed with the notion that the parks and recreation committee would render a more impartial decision, opining, "There is some concern that some members of the commission are close to some of the vendors that do not see the vision for the future of the market in the same way."

After the meeting, Turner disclosed that four out of the five committee members were appointed by District 4 Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw, who has sharply questioned past management of the market and the activities of group of market supporters aligned with Craft's group. The Rakestraw appointees are Ralls, Violet Landreth, Denny Crowe and John O'Sullivan. A fifth member, Galen Oliver, was appointed by District 2 Councilman Jim Kee.

Turner said at-large Councilman Robbie Perkins and District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade also made appointments, but their appointees were unable to participate. Wade told Vaughan she could appoint someone to fill her vacant spot on the committee.