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Tight-lipped board offers no reason for ouster By Sean Wolfe Ashland Daily Tidings Questions concerning management decisions by the local farmer's market board are forcing division in the membership ranks. And few answers are forthcoming, if a meeting between the board and members of the Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market is any indication. Citing advice from legal counsel, the board declared Thursday it could say nothing about its rationale for firing market manager Janet Bierbower and demoting president John Tannaci - who remains on the board. That response frustrated some of the members attending the meeting in Medford. One member, who identified herself only as Elizabeth, said she supported the board, but added she was not willing to follow it blindly. "When humans make decisions without the membership involved - that's not what I signed up for," she said. Other members who said they attended most meetings questioned why there was ever any mention of Bierbower's job performance at those meetings, and why - if there were issues surrounding her performance - did Bierbower receive a raise and a bonus following the conclusion of last year's market, only to be fired before the first market of the year. That question also received no response from the board. At issue was a meeting held by the board May 1, in which the ouster of Tannaci and Bierbower was unanimously orchestrated by six attending members of the nine-person board. The meeting was called in a hasty fashion, just two weeks before the regularly scheduled board meeting. Members assembled at Thursday's meeting in Medford's Hawthorne Park told the board that decisions of such impact should be decided in a regularly scheduled meeting - and that the calling of the special session appeared suspicious. Ashlander Ryan Navickas told the board that they should "not be surprised that there's membership backlash." "Maybe you applied the appropriate rules (in the firings), but for the last two weeks everybody's been hush-hush. No one's told the members about anything," Navickas said. "There's certainly not much effort to work things out that I've seen on your part." Of the 56 attendees at Thursday's meeting, about a third appeared to support the board and its decisions, while another third remained opposed. Those numbers could be important next week, when a membership meeting will be called with the intention of making changes to the board. If successful, Bierbower could be reinstated by her supporters. Interviewed after the meeting by telephone, board member Steve McLaren gave the membership meeting a 50-50 chance of successfully altering the board. "I thought we would have seen more support from the membership yesterday," McLaren said. "Two Tuesday's ago, a petition went around (the Ashland market), and 48 members signed it to reinstate Tannaci and Bierbower. This group (in Medford) was a very different group� What we do have is two very different groups of people voicing two different things. Ashland wanted John back and Janet on, and the board makeup in question. Members in Medford are a lot more inclined to go along with the board's answers. It's interesting, and kind of curious." For his part, Tannaci said he is working on "crafting the perfect motion" to introduce at next week's meeting. A professional facilitator is being lined up to ensure next week's meeting is legally constituted, and not flawed with procedural errors that would render the member's decision void. "For me the challenge if fabricating the perfect motion that will accomplish our goals," Tannaci said. "We'll come up with choices, so the membership can decided how heavy they want to be. If it turns out this is the kind of organization they want, that's fine. I'm only trying to make the soft voices heard." LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -