Fair board holds ground on vendor concerns

Deirdre Newman

Fair board officials on Thursday refused to give in to the demands of

Orange County Marketplace vendors who claim they should receive

financial compensation for the loss of a lucrative swap meet weekend

in August.

Although the 20 vendors at the fair board meeting did not speak,

Tom Askew, president of the vendors’ association, hammered away at

the board members, accusing them of not doing enough to alleviate the

two-day loss he estimates at about $2 million.

Board member Ruben Smith said that, although he is sympathetic to

the vendors’ plight, the board’s hands are tied because it does not

negotiate with the vendors directly. It has already offered to

include vendors at the fair and to work with the vendors to consider

other options.

That’s not enough, the vendors say.

“We’re a little disturbed,” said All Pro Remodeling’s Ed Sullivan,

who expects to lose about $200,000 for the lost weekend of Aug. 2 and

3.

The fair expanded another weekend to accommodate crowded

conditions, Smith said. While the board would like to help the

vendors and maintain a good connection with them, it is inappropriate

and illegal to interfere with the relationship with Tel Phil

Enterprises, which contracts with the vendors, Smith said.

When it decided to extend the fair to include the first weekend of

August, the board said the addition of a fourth weekend would provide

an opportunity to include new commercial vendors, said Becky

Bailey-Findley, the fair’s general manager.

The board examined a variety of concepts and added between 80 and

90 spots for vendors to rotate in and out of during the entire fair

run. Although the board has a waiting list of about 300 vendors who

do not participate in the Marketplace, it decided to give priority to

the 81 Marketplace vendors who applied for the spots.

Many of the vendors, though, look upon the idea with disdain.

“I don’t sell a commodity, I sell wallpaper,” Michael Arnell said.

“No one goes to the fair and comes out with rolls of wallpaper.”

Smith also mentioned the possibility of the swap meet taking place

on Mondays during the fair since the fair is not open those days.

But that did not sit well with many of the vendors, since a lot of

them work elsewhere during the week and don’t expect their customers

to show up on Mondays.

The vendors say they are not looking for cash compensation, but

for relief in rent.

“Either get January or February rent for free or [provide] free

admission in August so we have more customers,” said Donna, who did

not disclose her last name.

Stewart Suchman, an attorney for Tel Phil, said the company would

like to help the vendors, but needs some guidelines from the fair

board.

“[Holding the swap meet on Mondays] was just brought up today and

I think there would be a lot of operational concerns and hurdles that

would have to be overcome, but we’re happy to talk to people and see

what we can do to help the situation,” Suchman said.

Exacerbating the situation is the fact that Tel Phil’s lease with

the fair board is up on Wednesday. The board did not award a new

five-year lease to the company Thursday because the only other bidder

has filed an appeal with the California Department of General

Services disputing the selection process, Suchman said.