Food vendors at the Kent Farmers Market and Kent Cornucopia Days could see big jumps in food inspection fees next April under a Public Health – Seattle & King County proposal.
Public Health officials would raise fees at more than 40 farmers markets in the county for a temporary food permit to $400 from $281 per event in an effort to recover more of the costs to run the food inspection program. That’s a jump in fees of 42 percent.
The increased fees, which are now under review to lower, are for food vendors, not farmers who sell produce. The county doesn’t require permits for most of them.
“Our concern is local folks who live in King County and do it to make a little extra money or as an adjunct to their restaurant,” said Mark Taylor, co-chair of the Kent Cornucopia Days that features a few dozen food vendors during its annual weekend celebration in July. “They don’t make a lot of money. “To pay $200 for an event and to make that $400, the $200 is significant for them and maybe no longer worth participation.”
Volunteers from the Kent Lions Club run the Kent Farmers Market on Saturdays from June through September as well as the Cornucopia Days festival in July. The proposed fee increases also would jump the Kent Farmers Market coordinator fee to $1,162 from $502, an 131 percent increase.
“We charge permit fees based on how much time our inspectors spend at each type of food facility,” said James Apa, communications manager for
Public Health – Seattle & King County, in an email. “In our recent review, we found that we spend more time at farmers markets than at some other kinds of food businesses, so the cost of providing the service is actually higher than what we charge now.”
Because of the initial uproar at the proposed increases first revealed in September, the King County Council directed Public Health staff to submit a proposal with lower fees to the King County Board of Health, which will consider the fee increase at its 1:30 p.m. Dec. 18 meeting at the King County Council chambers in Seattle.
“We know that the fees seem too high, so our next step is to gather feedback vendors and the public on these proposed fees and come up with a solution to hold the costs down or another way to subsidize the fees,” Apa said.
Taylor attended a stakeholders meeting organized by Public Health on Nov. 19 in Kent. He said he needed more information than what officials provided.
“It was a good presentation but they didn’t have the data to justify what they are doing,” Taylor said. “Just because consultants say to raise the fee doesn’t mean a lot to me.”
Food vendor Steve Towey and his wife run the Bothell-based Shiskaberry’s, which features chocolate dipped fruit on a stick. They run a food stand at Kent Cornucopia Days as well as numerous other county events and have concession stands at Safeco Field. Towey now pays $55 for a limited temporary food permit that would jump to $200 at each event. Because Towey sells fruit-dipped snacks and not meat, his increase wouldn’t be as high, but still would hit his business hard.
“It all adds up,” Towey said during a phone interview. “Costs go up with minimum wage going up and event fees. It’s going to be real tough to do.”
Food vendors also pay fees for space at each market or festival. The Kent Farmers Market charges a food vendor $30 per Saturday. Sue Madsen, co-chair of the Kent Farmers Market, did not return calls for information about how many food vendors the Kent market attracts on a typical summer Saturday.
Towey said a high fee increase could cause him to cutback on county events and look at doing more events out of state where fees are lower. He plans to attend the Dec. 18 Board of Health meeting to let the board know what he thinks of the proposed increase.
The 11-member board is composed of three health professionals and eight elected officials, including three members each from the King County Council and Seattle City Council. The county issued 42 farmers markets permits in 2013.
For more information, go to kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/fees/proposal.aspx.
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