Federal Way committee shifts farmers market to prepaid fees, phases out wooden tokens and tightens safety for 2026 season
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Summary
The committee heard staff briefings on 2025 finances and operations for the downtown farmers market and forwarded related budget items to the April 7 consent agenda. Staff said the city will use prepaid booth rental, stop using $10 wooden tokens, outsource donut sales to nonprofits, and adopt a traffic and barrier plan for the street market.
The Federal Way Finance, Economic Development and Regional Affairs Committee on March 31 was briefed on the city's 2025 farmers market finances and a detailed operations plan for the 2026 season, and agreed to forward the related budget amendment to the April 7 consent agenda.
Staff finance lead Steve told the committee that the market had a learning year in 2025 but came close to the $150,000 revenue goal. "In total, we budgeted a 150,000, and revenue achieved that budget," he said, while noting an overall $16,000 deficit driven by start-up equipment and administrative costs. Staff proposed a 2026 budget that forecasts roughly $115,000 in offsetting revenue and expenses and includes multiple operational changes to reduce administration and internal-control risk.
The most visible changes will affect vendors and customers. Operations staff said the city will move from day-of cash/token checkout toward a prepaid online booth rental system used by other municipal markets, and will phase out the $10 wooden tokens that had been used for SNAP/EBT and other voucher programs. "We're phasing out the 10 tokens this year," Jason said, arguing the tokens "made the city act like the farmers market ATM" and created time-consuming cash-handling and reconciliation work.
Staff also described safety and site changes for a downtown-street market. The proposed layout shows roughly 44 tents on the street with food trucks staged in an adjacent TC3 area. The city will require a 25-foot buffer from the deployable vehicle barriers to the first tent, based on vendor-supplied manufacturer guidance, and will run two dry runs for load-in and traffic control before opening. Staff said they plan to stage vendors near the old Target building and will use radioed staging to avoid traffic backups; loading is planned to begin around 6:30 a.m. with two hours for vendor set-up.
Councilors pressed on several operational issues: whether the new flat booth fee ($50 per 10-by-10 tent, plus a $25 one-time application fee) matches neighboring markets' rates (staff said it was consistent with Renton and Auburn), how the reduced state EBT cap (from $15,000 to $6,000) will affect revenue and expenses, and how accessibility and parking will be handled for visitors with mobility challenges. On senior vouchers, staff said they applied for a sponsorship that provided $5,000 last year but the 2026 amount was not yet known.
Multiple councilors expressed support for the effort to reduce staff hours spent on reconciliation and to protect vendor revenue, while asking staff to monitor vendor satisfaction and community events that were de‑emphasized because of staffing constraints (for example, the pancake breakfast will not be run by city staff this season). Staff said Family Life Church has agreed to operate donut sales as a nonprofit fundraiser, using city-owned equipment, and that nonprofits can be considered for rotating donut sales but will need to obtain the required food-handler permits.
Next steps: staff will bring the farmers market budget amendment forward as part of the city's upcoming consent agenda and will report monthly to FedRack (first report expected in June). The committee did not take final policy votes on vendor curation or fees beyond forwarding the budget item; staff said they will continue to refine load-in plans, dry runs, and accessibility arrangements ahead of the May 9 kickoff weekend.
