Sometime in 2007 officials from the Port of Coupeville and the Greenbank Farm Management Group will decide whether the $45,000 fee is enough, or too much, to pay for management of the non-commercial property at the port-owned farm.

Before that can happen, however, port officials want to see how that money is spent.

The port is requiring the management group to maintain a record of how the fee is spent and provide receipts that will be audited on a quarterly basis.

“They have nine months to demonstrate how much they spend to do the job down there,” Jim Patton, port executive director, said. He wants the new fee agreed upon when the port commissioners approve the 2008 budget, which is required to take place in October.

The $45,000 annual fee stems from an agreement the port and the management group signed in 2004 to manage the recreational, agricultural and environmentally-sensitive land that basically surrounds the farm buildings. That fee can be readjusted on the fourth and sixth anniversary of the agreement’s signing.

The two sides can’t seem to agree on how the fee is used.

The management group wants to use the fee to help cover the cost of holding events while the port says the fee shouldn’t be used for that purpose.

“They can’t do that,” Patton said. Port officials have said the management group can’t hold events on the managed properties because zoning prohibits those kinds of activities. Events such as the Loganberry Festival are held on the leased properties.

Karen Hutchinson, president of the Greenbank Farm Management Group, said events affect the surrounding lands. Someone attending the Loganberry Festival may choose to hike the nearby trails, for example, while other events have hay rides that are also popular.

“You can’t separate the two,” Hutchinson said. “All we’re saying is those two properties aren’t as black and white as they want to think.”

The port sent the management group a letter outlining how staff should account for and use the fund.

“This whole argument has been about generating the data,” Patton said.

When asked whether the port wants to lower the fee, Patton said that issue will come up after the use of the management fee is examined. That fee could be raised or lowered depending on what the audits show. He will have at least two chances to audit the books before he wants negotiates a new fee.