All the water-cooler talk in Asheboro this weekend (actually, a lot of it is not talk - it's just laughter - people are just tickled pink) is about Patricia Bradshaw's lawsuit against the City of Asheboro.
Bradshaw, owner of Peachtree Street Grocery, alleges that the Asheboro Downtown Farmer's Market has “directly and adversely impacted” the profitability of her business.
Directly from the Courier (I cannot make this stuff up): The suit states that the Downtown Farmers Market is a taxpayer-funded, “quasi public/private for profit entity” specializing in fresh produce and general merchandise which has operated for three years “on a retail basis in direct competition with the business of the plaintiff and competes for the same retail customer ...”
The complaint alleges that the city and parks and recreation department have “failed and refused” to enforce regulations “one aim of which was to avoid direct competition with its private citizens operating the same or similar businesses” — even though the plaintiff advised the city more than once of that failure and the adverse impact on her business.
The suit also contends that the city, “without having first compensated the plaintiff or without having initiated any condemnation process at all took measures that effectively eroded the value of the plaintiff’s property rights and business profitability.”
The city and parks and recreation department, the suit says, violated its “fiduciary duty” and caused “irreparable harm to the business of its citizens, plaintiff and is causing a loss greater than Ten Thousand Dollars per year.”
The article (written by Chip Womick) in the Courier then proceeds to rattle off the history of the Farmer's Market. It started as a "non-profit" kind of "co-op" arrangement - fostered along by the state department of agriculture - which was eventually taken over by the city last year.
Womick's narrative slowly builds to a full-blow advertisement for the project . . . and ends with an invite to a quasi-public-hearing at Sunset Theatre on Monday at 4 pm to discuss the future of the market.
I just love the word, "quasi";)
By jingo, there's nothing impartial or slanted about the Courier's presentation of the facts. God bless economic development.
Of course, none of the lawyers involved are commenting.
Allow me.
First, Bradshaw's attorney, Kenneth Johnson (no relation) of Greensboro, must not have much to do.
Second, isn't it lovely how, when Ms. Bradshaw files a lawsuit against the City of Asheboro it's instantly news . . . but a number of years back, when Dr. Mary Johnson filed a lawsuit against Randolph Hospital (another quasi-private, "non-profit" whose under-handed/illegal tactics drove her out of town), it wasn't news until the hospital sued her a year later (ultimately unsuccessfully) for "libel"?
The headlines were that Dr. Johnson was a liar. Not that Randolph Hospital executives would just as soon let innocent newborn babies die. You see, what Dr. Johnson was saying was NOT the issue . . . it was how she was saying it.
Yeah, sure, whatever.
Third, as someone who has dropped in on several occasions at the Farmer's Market, I can state unequivocally, as a customer, that I don't equate a co-op (that features the wares and arts of many locals & pseudo-locals) with a private "Mom & Pop" grocery store. It's just not "direct" competition.
Of course, Wal-Mart might be (just this past week, a down-East buddy and I were talking about the Wal-Martization of America - and how the discount giant had helped kill the Mom & Pop businesses in so many small towns). Alas, Wal-Mart is not propped up by tax dollars.
Only local incentives;)
Back to Ms. Bradshaw's premise, I could be wrong, but I don't think I would have found the exquisite hand-crafted coral necklace I gifted upon YaYa KA this past Christmas at Peachtree Street Grocery.
So. While I certainly have no love for the "right people" running Asheboro, on the surface (and on first read) it just feels like Ms. Bradshaw, in bad economic times, is making the City of Asheboro a scapegoat for a flailing business.
On the other hand/playing devil's advocate . . .
I'd like to know the specific city regulation or ordinance Ms. Bradshaw and her lawyer are basing their lawsuit upon (it's not identified in Womick's article). Is there something actually on the books that says the city of Asheboro has a fiduciary obligation to its residents that their businesses and livelihoods cannot be adversely impacted by an entity supported by tax dollars?
Because if there is such a regulation or ordinance, that puts a new and very interesting spin on the City of Asheboro's failure to act when Dr. Mary Johnson appeared before the City Council - first in 2004 and later in 2008 - and begged them for help in fighting the unethical & illegal actions of the one of the town's largest employers, Randolph Hospital . . . (again) another quasi-private-albeit-"non-profit" entity that destroyed and absorbed the Pediatric practice she had spent several years building . . . in order to serve the "best interests" of its own "controlled affiliate" (Randolph Medical Associates).
Sunday morning afterthought: Instead of fixing what was CLEARLY wrong internally, and allowing Pediatrics to transition (as it was supposed to do) and develop normally in Asheboro's private sector, Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin wanted Dr. Johnson to shut up and "just go away". After all, Pediatricians were "a dime a dozen" - they could just find another pliable medical zombie to do their bidding. And they thought that a professional hatchet job on Dr. Johnson would solve all of their problems.
When the plan began to unravel, they knew they would be able to cover their tails with a few "little" lies. You see, they had friends in important places. It's called "networking".
Eleven years later, with the city making lists no one wants to make - and Pediatrics a shadow of what it could have been with a little time and TLC (the kids seeing PA's at the Merce Clinic having taken a back seat to the razzle-dazzle of a cancer center we didn't really need), it amazes me that no one in a position of oversight in our fair mill town . . . particularly no one in a position to fire these overpaid nimrods for sub-standard performance and/or their illegal behavior (now splattered all over the Internet) . . . has had the cahoones to ask, "How'd that strategy work out for you guys?"
Randolph Hospital's actions against me were just a little more direct and malicious than I think the City of Asheboro's were against Patricia Bradshaw. But I am feeling her pain.
It's called a knife in the back.
It would seem to me that if this kind of regulation or ordinance existed, then the Asheboro City Council was duty-bound to ask the local District Attorney and/or NC Attorney General to investigate my allegations of perjury (no statute of limitations), contempt and fraud against a local "non-profit" . . . and to prosecute the hospital to the fullest extent of the law if those allegations were found to be true
As Bob Morrison prepares his retirement lair, inding those allegations to be true would not be very hard. Again, I have the signed/sworn original documents proving said perjury, contempt, & fraud. Randolph Hospital executives lied under Oath about the "confidentiality" of information that was IN NO WAY confidential. All even a pseudo-competent SBI/FBI agent would have to do is compare my income over the last decade to the "most-favored" doctors at RMA . . . or (better yet) to Bob Morrison & Steven Eblin . . . in order to see how deep the wound to my heart, soul and pocketbook really was.
I wonder if I should call up Keith Crisco, ex-Asheboro City Councilman and Beverly Perdue's new Commerce Secretary and ask him what he thinks?
Mr. Crisco, should businesses propped up and supported by tax dollars be allowed to crush the enterprise of private citizens?
It could add yet another layer (and defendant) to the action I am currently pondering against the state of North Carolina and several of its oversight agencies.
Maybe Patricia Bradshaw . . . and Mr. Johnson . . . are on to something.
Maybe we should chat.
Update (Sunday Morning):
(1) First, I must apologize to my readers. The Courier Tribune has apparently killed the link to the story I reference in this post (it's a good thing I used quotes). It's par for the course with this crowd.
(2) Now PISSED OFF and smelling a rat at the Courthouse (dare I liken it to "habitual intemperance"?), I'm wondering when this lawsuit was actually filed - and were there any delays in reporting on it? When did the City Attorney first find out about this lawsuit - and how did Mr. Suggs find out?
I'm sure our local newshounds will be all over it.
Update (Sunday Afternoon): Someone I am working with in my own situation had the following assessment:
"The Asheboro's Farmer's market could be dead meat if the case can get to a much higher court in the State . . . it's an interesting point of view . . . has the City's Department of Recreation taken ANY Federal funds (pages 24-27) in it's operation? For that means one could make the leap to federal court and dodge the good-ole-boy judical system in Asheboro altogether."
My take? Bradshaw's "point-of-view" is also, to a large degree, mine. In fact, I was there first . . . well over a decade ago . . . making apparently naive/misguided assumptions about how "non-profits" were supposed to work. Entities subsidzed by public money should not be allowed to monopolize local resources or break the law to their own ends (or the fiscal benefit of their employees), and to the detriment of private citizens & business-owners.
Where Asheboro is concerned, these local big-fish-in-their-small-stinking-pond have played dirty, and/or winked and nodded and gotten away with it for so long that they think they can continue to get away with it.
Change is here. They are about to get an education on several fronts.
As for the Bradshaws, I fear they are about to get the same ugly education I got - about the way the good people of Asheboro treat their "neighbors".
And I will tell them that I wish I had ignored all the legal eagles and COMMENTED when the lawsuits were going down.
I wish I had had this blog back then.
Update (Sunday Evening): I asked a mutual aquaintance to try and contact the Bradshaws this afternoon. They were rebuffed. Mr. Bradshaw is very unhappy with this blog post (I suppose the first part would put him off) . . . apparently not understanding that, when it comes to the lawsuit's basic premise, I'm kind of on his side (at least based on was reported by the "newshounds" at the Courier . . . in an article now de-linked online).
This lawsuit has cracked open a hornet's nest. A lot of people have a vested interest in seeing the Farmer's Market succeed (and, as a big fan of the GSO Market, I'd like to see something like that develop and grow here). Moreover (based on experience), the local "rag" is not going to be sympathetic to Bradshaw's lawsuit - as was proven by Womick's article.
Moreover again, if/when this case gets to court, some of the points I've raised are going to have to be countered. What makes Peachtree Street Grocery any different than any other local business that has struggled or gone under due to state-supported competition (either directly, ala the grants and funding afforded the Farmer's Market . . . or indirectly, ala the incentives and considerations offered to a corporate monster like Wal-Mart)? Explain it to me like I'm a six-year-old . . . or a jury member.
Burned by another "non-profit", I don't know what I'm talking about. So be it.
I will be calling the Randolph County Clerk of Court's office tomorrow morning to see if I can get a copy of the complaint (which is, of course, public record). I would like to know what city or state regulation/ordinance/statute supports the allegations made in the complaint.
Evening Update #2: Here is a link to the Downtown Market's website. You can pull up the market's rules and regulations there.
Evening Update #3: Here is the NC Non-profit Corporation Act. And here is the IRS page on Charities and Non-profits. Here are Asheboro's City Ordinances. Still looking.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment