City Concludes Vending Cart Probe

By Olin Ericksen
Lookout Staff Writer

March 23 -- The City Attorney’s office has concluded a five-month investigation into claims that the company hired to manage the Promenade’s vending cart program retaliated against former vendors, but the public may never learn the results of the probe.

In fact, neither the disgruntled vendors who leveled the charges after losing their contracts, nor Provenzano Resources Inc. (PRI), which rolled out newly designed carts leased to a new crop of vendors last November, will be privy to the findings.

“I gave a written report to (City) Council, and unless they tell me otherwise, the investigation has concluded,” said City Attorney Marsha Moutrie.

Details of the report presented to the council will not be made public due to attorney client privileges, Moutrie said. Council members are forbidden to comment on the report’s findings, which were presented in closed session.

The conclusion of the City attorney’s investigation likely lays to rest any role the City might play in the dispute between former cart operators, who alleged PRI shut them out of new leases after they complained to City officials that the terms of the new contracts were unfavorable.

In one instance, former vendor Daniel Gannon -- who leased two carts on the Promenade -- has said in a sworn declaration and supporting documents that he was approved for a new contract by PRI and then rejected because he spoke before the City Council.

Gannon and other vendors claimed that PRI’s terms of the contract would require too much overhead investment to make a decent profit.

Gannon is among four former vendors who have retained an attorney.

Deborah Kravitz, president of PRI, countered that Gannon voluntarily removed himself from the program, because he was not allowed to keep two carts. PRI is only allowing one cart per vendor, she said.

News that the City has closed the investigation came as a surprise to Gannon, who said he is still holding out hope he may return to the Promenade.

“We sent a letter two weeks ago to find out what is going on, but we have not heard back,” he said. “I totally believe (PRI) is 100 percent wrong.”

In a report issued last November, the City Attorney’s office cleared the City of any wrongdoing in the dispute.

Also last November, City Council members asked the City Attorney’s office and other City staff members to return with information on possibly ending the contract with PRI, or buying out the remaining contract.

Moutrie said buying out the contract would be costly and terminating the contract could lead to a possible lawsuit by PRI, which is now in its first year of a 10-year contract with a five-year extension.

Staff members have not returned publicly to discuss those buyout or termination options, and it is unclear if the City Council will take up the issue now that the investigation has been concluded.

Tracy Green, an attorney for several of the former vendors, said her clients have no intention of filing a suit at this time against the City, and that they need to gather more evidence before launching any possible action against PRI.

“A lawsuit is a very expensive endeavor,” said Green, who said that whatever the City Attorney found in her investigation could bolster any potential case her clients could have.

“We haven’t heard back, and we don’t know anything yet,” Green said.