Some Eastern Market merchants are questioning the reach of a D.C. Council proposal that would establish a governing entity with financial oversight of the traditional market and the adjacent outdoor flea market in historic Capitol Hill.
“I’m concerned [the board] might be a little too powerful,” said Tom Glasgow, taking a break this week from running his popular Market Lunch eatery inside the historic market building. “We want this to keep its old-fashioned market feel.”
Glasgow and other tenants inside the historic building are wary of a bill sponsored by Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells that proposes an 11-member board governing a financial trust dedicated to the market and absorbs the flea market as part of the overall operations. The flea market, which operates on weekends at a parking lot across from the market, is operated by two people who lease that lot from the city.
“I have extremely mixed feelings about it,” said Joe Snyder, a member of the Eastern Market Tenants Council, who said he supported the idea of a financial trust for the market. But he wants more than three vendor representatives on the board, while the bill proposes that Wells himself pick five members. The board would then re-elect its own members.
“The way the trust is written, it’s still heavily in their favor,” Snyder said.
Wells said the board structure was modeled after several existing boards that oversee other markets across the country. The Central Market board in Lancaster, Pa., has 11 members who are community volunteers.
“I championed the three spots they have — I appreciate that they want more,” Wells said Thursday, adding that he himself was “leery” of having five appointments to the board and he’d be happy to hand some of those over to the mayor.
But as for the vendors, “having three votes on an 11-member board is a lot of influence,” he said.
After the market was gutted by a 2007 fire caused by an electrical failure, the city seized control and spent roughly $25 million over two years restoring what had been a badly aged building. At a hearing held this week on the legislation, Wells said “the main role of the city is not to run a market, so they want to get out of managing the market.
“And currently, the only way to get out of doing that is going back to the way it was, and that’s unacceptable,” Wells said. “It does not protect the asset.”
The Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee, which advises the city on the market’s operations but has no legal power, supports the legislation, saying it will get the market back on solid financial footing and keep it there.
However, a Department of General Services attorney testified that Mayor Vincent Gray does not support the proposal.
