By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Michael Green, foreground, chairman of the Stadium
Authority, was in the hot seat during yesterday's board
meeting attended by about 200 Aloha Flea Market vendors,
whose contract ends Sept. 30.

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Flea market vendors
vehement at meeting

The Stadium Authority gets
an earful, then delays a vote on
the swap meet concession contract

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

Aloha Flea Market vendors still have no assurances that they will continue operating come Sept. 30.

That's when Aloha Flea Market Inc.'s current contract to run the swap meet concession ends, unless the Stadium Authority decides to extend it for two more years.

The Stadium Authority yesterday put off voting on whether to extend the contract after a 1-hour-long meeting that nearly ended 20 minutes after it had begun.

The public will be notified when the board is ready to vote, said Chairman Michael Green.

Nearly 200 vendors attended yesterday's meeting after the Stadium Authority voted to terminate the contract at a May 20 meeting without notifying the vendors.

Aloha Flea Market owner Edward Medeiros filed suit Aug. 16 accusing the authority of violating the state's "open meetings" laws by deliberating on the issue without feedback from the stakeholders.

Vendors at yesterday's meeting say their livelihoods are at stake. They want the Aloha Flea Market's contract to be extended for the next two years and management to remain the same.

By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Aloha Flea Market owner Edward Medeiros, left, was
joined at the meeting by former gubernatorial candidate
Linda Lingle and her former campaign chairman Bob Awana.

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"Most of the vendors are opposed to any takeover by the state," said vendor Renee Becht, who sells local and handmade crafts and souvenirs. "We believe it is not a good thing."

The Stadium Authority in May notified Medeiros that the authority was terminating its agreement with no contract extension.

Also, the state would be seeking bidders to "market, coordinate and manage" the swap meet concession. The state, in effect, is going into the swap meet business and will hire someone else to run it, said Bob Merce, Medeiros' attorney.

Medeiros has said he believes the contract was not renewed because he and vendors supported Linda Lingle in the 1998 gubernatorial election.

Lingle, one of seven people who testified in favor of extending the contract, said it makes good economic sense.

Aloha Flea Market paid the stadium $3.8 million in rent -- 83 percent of its revenues -- in 1998. The Stadium Authority's request for proposals seeks $3 million.

"Why give up $3.8 million to earn $3 million?" Lingle asked. "It doesn't make sense."

Merce said it would be "imprudent" for the state to walk away from making nearly $8 million over the next two years, especially in these tough economic times.

Extending the contract would allay the worries of the vendors and their families who depend on the flea market for their livelihood, he said. "You owe it to them to stick with what you've got because, frankly, what you got works."

If the state takes over the swap meet, it would take away the jobs of 50 Aloha Flea Market employees -- including janitors, security, parking attendants and a registered nurse -- some of whom are elderly and live on fixed incomes, said custodian Manuel Alvarado, 82, who's been working there since the flea market opened.

There are about 800 to 1,000 vendors who market their wares at the Aloha Flea Market, Medeiros said. Including their workers, there are nearly 3,000 to 4,000 people who depend on the flea market for their livelihood.

When the meeting began, vendors outside the overflowing stadium conference room demanded that they be allowed to listen. The noise prompted warnings from Green that he would adjourn the meeting if they continued to disrupt the proceedings.

"We're not going to conduct this like this is an alley," Green said.

Green recessed the meeting then returned a few minutes later to notify the sign-waving throng that the meeting would adjourn to a bigger room to accommodate all of them. Vendors applauded the decision.