Let it be known that the only people who have had a problem with any of this is someone who has nothing to do with the garden (but apparently is very angry on everyone’s behalf) and the former lead who abandoned the space.
If anyone has a legitimate grievance, please be in contact with me. And I mean this seriously and sympathetically. I will be happy to talk with you about what can be done to recompense any wrong-doing. Thanks.
Wasn’t that then clarified in that discussion as that weeding communal areas wasn’t a good requirement to track hours of to satisfy the area access policy requirements of hours volunteered? And, that instead the better use of volunteer hours would be to weed whack the communal areas to control weed height?
It’s a pretty involved discussion Access policy and it hardly seems fair to extract one statement that can only be interpreted within the context of a portion of a proposed access policy and with the later explanation of the better use of volunteer hours.
How does this have to do with the discussion topic? Is there a reference to that series of incidents in this topic before you brought it up?
As lead, I kept the Wiki up to date, which included the Rental Agreement and the link to the Garden Plot Sign up through Wild Apricot. I also posted that a link to the sign up on the forum. On Sunday, July 30 I told Sean in an email about the rental agreement and that the contact information for renters was in Wild Apricot. His response was to say that I was “abrasive, overbearing and argumentative at nearly every turn” and that he had no desire to work with me anymore and would not contact me further. So should it surprise anyone that I ignored his email in mid August asking for the information I’d already provided as best I could?
Making an error is one thing, but denying it by blaming others is entirely different. Denying it and calling references to the error an attack on innocent third parties is also wrong.
Leads are allowed to quit. Private plot renters are not required to be part of garden committee.
If Lesley has been the only one working in the garden the last 3 months (a fact I do not doubt, since it was pretty much just her and I through all of June), I would ask what the current lead is doing to remedy the situation? Why does it jump straight to mowing private plots without warning, when it has been clearly stated that weed whacking communal areas was useful?
I don’t really have anything in this fight, just a few different ideas for paths forward:
The only thing I do care about from the outside is that I don’t want an area I’m not involved in to be a liability for everyone else. While the city might come in and charge us for stuff - had we been served with a notice? They usually don’t just unilaterally take action, especially when quite a bit of public land isn’t always spiffy either.
This was mentioned in the September 21st Board meeting. (And isn’t in the minutes on the wiki for unknown reasons. It was between the discussion about the Non-profit Chamber and the roof repair discussion).
Thanks Sean for the good faith effort to avoid further trouble with the city and our neighbors. And significant costs to the organization.
The city hasn’t usually been at all flexible about timelines for commercial properties that are in violation of the ordinance that is commonly referred to as “tall grass and weeds”. It’s entirely at the discretion of the inspector to write up any vegetation, regardless of some of it being planted vegetables or flowers. If it’s unkempt it’s going to be mowed. And if it’s mowed by a city contractor they are just told to mow all of it. And the charges for the mowing is often based on acreage of the entire property, not just the area that received a complaint. It’s no exaggeration that the mowing and fine would be thousands. Any additional complaints during the calendar year get mowed by a contractor, but without a new notice of violation.
Yes, it would have been better to give notice to the renters of plots that they were in violation of their contracts before the area attracted a complaint to the city. And to notify them that an inspector had verified a complaint and given a deadline to be in compliance with the city ordinance. But, realistically waiting for the renters to take care of their individual plots could have been risking a last minute scramble to get the area into compliance and schedule a new inspection.
I wouldn’t want to be either in Sean’s position or in the position of a gardener having their plot mowed down. It’s not easy to run a community garden and there’s no possible way to make everyone happy.
We can either nit-pick and criticize or try to learn from the experience. We can try to be kind to each other and to understand multiple perspectives or each take it personally. The garden area can be a showcase of what’s possible or a source of frustration.
After running into someone who bought into the rumor and getting treated coldly this weekend. Then hearing from another member this weekend about the event of the previous year and siting rumors as a reason they believed as they did. When I hear this:
That’s the first place my mind went. We were accused of conspiring to kick a member out, false information that many people bought into and used against both of us multiple times over the last year. I made assumptions based on other incidents I had this weekend.
I have talked to @Sherry this morning and she forwarded me a message that @squarenuts sent to the renters on September 20.
Today is my daughter’s first day of daycare. She’s very adorable and I’m not going to let this ridiculous discussion ruin any more of my day or week. Thanks for the much needed clarification on that bit of intentional misinformation, Mike. You’re exactly right.
That Oct. 4 deadline was when the city would begin taking action. It was never intended that we wait that long to actually begin cleaning up. And as I’ve said and will continue to say until I’m blue in the face: I only cleaned up tall grass and weeds.If anyone other than these two have actual grievances, please contact me as soon as possible.
The language is clear. It states you will be notified via email and have two weeks to clean it up or it will be considered abandoned. Sean was notified of this specifically on July 30.
Here’s part of the original letter that was sent to us, which actually has a date of 9/21 on it. I believe Aaron reached out and got an extension, but I’m not sure that was in writing. Thus, all of this discussion about past contracts is not relevant. This letter specifically mentions tall grass and weeds over 12 inches in height. That’s exactly what I mowed down. Further, the original contract that I came up with specifically stated that any plot renter would notify the Garden Lead if they are to abandon their plot. If no notice is given, the plot becomes communal once again. So, even if we want to act like we’re all lawyers and get technical here, all of these plots were in violation of their contract and are now communal beds. This discussion really doesn’t need to go any further. Part of the reason the garden currently looks like it does is because a total lack of leadership and accountability–and I’m not blameless in this (however, I’m also not solely to blame). I’m happy to take that on the chin and admit my faults in how this garden has played out. I’m also happy to have spent hours this past week, along with other dedicated volunteers, to help correct this. I’m ready to be a part of positive change–others just want to sit around and act aggrieved. I honestly can’t believe Sherry took the time to snap photos of weeds in the garden and post them here to question the work we did. She could’ve pulled them and actually been helpful. All of this is incredibly toxic behavior and the very worst aspect of MakeICT.
