Kate Fulton, the dissident Food Front Cooperative Grocery board member her colleagues had been trying for weeks to remove, stood before a packed room of members July 1 and testified.
Fulton opened the meeting with a 15-minute recitation of the abuses, mismanagement and contempt for membership by board chair Roman Shvarts and board member Sanela Ruznic. Then she called for both to step down.
The audience of about 100 erupted in cheers, whoops and applause, some standing to express their gratitude toward someone in power at last challenging the board, a board that had for 18 months thwarted a purchase offer from Market of Choice in order to chase two buyers who eventually withdrew their offers.
Fulton charged the pair with attempting to “suppress membership and subvert their right to choose and play a role in their co-op. This co-op belongs to the members, not the board of directors.
“Roman and Sanela have threatened me by email and phone. They have held multiple secret board meetings that do not meet the quorum minimum of three board members and have done so without recording minutes or content.
“I have lost every shred of respect from this incident, and I have demanded that they resign, as dictatorial leaders do not belong on a co-op board. They have refused.
“We have a problem. Therefore, I am formally and publicly asking Roman and Sanela to resign from the board of directors,” she said.
Calls for their removal poured from several voices in the audience, and a motion to that effect would have presumably passed, but Shvarts and Ruznic insisted on responding. Shvarts gave a rambling defense of inaction on Market of Choice, but neither he nor Ruznic spoke to the heart of Fulton’s condemnations.
Each time Ruznic attempted to speak, Shvarts gestured to her to remain silent.
While the pair struggled to present a counternarrative, Fulton stood at the lectern and controlled the meeting, recognizing members wishing to speak and calling for order when she deemed comments had gone offtrack. The former outcast was now in charge of the moment and perhaps the future of the co-op.
Members came to the meeting with uncertainty as to whether Market of Choice was still in the game after its CEO, Rick Wright, had died unexpectedly two days earlier. Fulton said that Wright’s son and successor, Zach, had since confirmed that the company still wanted to purchase the property, though the price had fallen from $1.9 million to $1.5 million since its original offer in 2023. The offer also includes a $100,000 donation to Friendly House, the local agency often mentioned as a possible recipient of any surplus that might result after a sale.
The board agreed that there was another attractive offer on the table; $2.2 million from a local property investor who intends to find a retail operator. When questions about the source of the offer arose, Mark New, principal of Development Company of the West, Property Services, stood up and revealed himself.
Out of friendship to Rick Wright and loyalty to Wright’s role as his business client, Neu said he would not compete for the sale against him.
Asked if that position had changed since Wright’s death, New said, “If his family wants it, I don’t.”
Neu said he has no interest in residential development, but he could not guarantee that he could find a grocery tenant, the clear preference of co-op members since the store at 2375 NW Thurman St. closed two years ago.
That may leave only one offer on the table, Market of Choice.
The board promised to schedule an official meeting next week to at which decisions can be made. There was also a call for additional board members.
Shvarts’ loss of control was evident in his answer to Dan Anderson, a longtime co-op member whose membership was revoked last year for criticisms of the board, one of five members kicked out under Shvarts’ leadership. All five of them attended the July 1 meeting in defiance of their banishment.
Shvarts told Anderson he would be eligible for a board seat if he agreed to “be impartial.”
Share this post