The Santa Fe Plaza Roundtable, which advises the City Council on matters related to the historic square, is preparing to question sponsors of major Plaza events about moving elsewhere.

The roundtable was formed earlier this year after Councilor Chris Calvert suggested banning booths from the Plaza's grassy areas to avoid soil compaction that damages grass and trees there.

Councilors agreed to put off such a ban until the summer of 2011, then created the panel representing downtown merchants, various nonprofits that put on events on the Plaza, preservationists and others to consider the issue.

Roundtable member H.C. Potter, who owns Guadalupaño Imports, 111 E. Water St., said that his business falls off 20 percent to 30 percent during Plaza craft fairs.

"People come here to see the Plaza and not to see a bunch of craft fairs here," he said. "I think it very disconcerting for visitors who want to see the Plaza of Santa Fe and then it looks like a flea market."

On Monday, the roundtable mulled over the idea of meeting early next year with leaders of the eight major annual Plaza events — plus Outside In, the organization that sponsors free music on the Santa Fe Plaza Bandstand during the summer — to see if some of the events might be moved to the Santa Fe Railyard, the Santa Fe Community Convention Center or other venues.

Potter said the first question they should be asked is, "Is it necessary to have your event on the Plaza?"

Roundtable Chairwoman Deborah Leyba-Dominguez, who also chairs the show committee on the Santa Fe Fiesta Council, said the Santa Fe Fiesta Labor Day Arts and Crafts Fair needs to stay on the Plaza to continue to generate up to $85,000 used to put on the Fiesta the following weekend.

"The thing with Labor Day is we have 250 booths, so there's nowhere else you can do that, not even the Railyard," she said. "Without that Labor Day fundraiser, we can't put on Fiesta."

City Councilor Carmichael Dominguez said he didn't think it fair to put Leyba-Dominguez on the spot and that the questions should be presented to the leaders of the events before the meeting so they will have an opportunity to gather information and to bring along others from their group.

Leyba-Dominguez said she would like to know if the other craft shows are juried and, if so, by whom. That touched off a discussion about whether Plaza shows should be limited to local, handmade crafts and how to make sure that craft-show vendors pay gross-receipts taxes.

Elizabeth Pettus, who runs Things Finer in La Fonda and is president of the Downtown Merchants Association, said some vendors tell buyers that if they pay cash, they will not charge for gross-receipts taxes. She said she heard that a few years ago, one craft-fair vendor offered such a deal to Mayor David Coss, who declined. Coss confirmed the incident on Wednesday.

Bruce Bernstein, executive director of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, which sponsors the annual Santa Fe Indian Market, said the payment of taxes is best left to individual vendors and the state Taxation and Revenue Department.

Rick Martinez asked if the roundtable might look into acquiring platforms for vendor booths to alleviate damaging the grass and trees and getting the events to pay for security and traffic control during Plaza events.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.