Revelations of an investigation surfaced at Monday night’s council meeting, where Liberal councillor Michelle Blicavs moved to table a 2100-signature petition against changes to the market’s operation.   

Last month, the council handed the Friday market licence over to the businesswoman behind the Foragers franchise, Kirrily Sinclair.

The move, which followed a public quotation process, saw business partners Jenny Briscoe-Hough and Lara Seresin lose their bid to continue operating the popular venture after 14 years.

A council spokeswoman confirmed the organisation had launched an investigation after it received a complaint “regarding aspects of the quotation process recently undertaken for the management of the markets”.

“This complaint is being dealt with in accordance with council’s Professional Conduct Investigation Policy,” the spokeswoman said.

“While this process is under way, it would be inappropriate for council to comment on the investigation.”

Lord mayor Gordon Bradbery said the council would engage its professional conduct coordinator “to make sure it was done correctly and the procedures were put in place and adequately followed”.

"We're just going to go back through and make sure the process was followed, because there is a lot of vitriol flying around,” Cr Bradbery said.

He said the council's current sustainable procurement policy had been in place since 2014 and noted the operators had significant notice that there would be a change in the way the council licensed the markets.

Cr Blicavs told Monday night’s meeting she was aware of the review, prompting Cr Vicki Curran to say she was “quite upset” a code of conduct complaint had been mentioned.   

“It’s drawing attention to the community ... that there’s been a serious complaint made about the process that I, as a councillor, feel has been very good,” Cr Curran said. 

In an open letter to Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery and other councillors, the partner of one of the former Friday market operators has accused the council of being “dispassionate” and lacking common sense.

In a four-page complaint, Port Kembla resident Mark O’Donnell – the partner of market co-founder Jennifer Briscoe-Hough’s – also said the council’s decision to “revoke and reissue” the Friday markets license to a new operator raised “serious issues about procedural fairness”.

“A process is not fair if the outcome results in an established business being given to another operator and that operator now has all three weekly markets in Wollongong city council’s area,” he said. 

“It is not fair for established stallholders and small business start-ups if they have only one operator to turn to in Wollongong.”

Mr O’Donnell also said he would be referring the council’s decision to Australia's competition regulator, as he believed it would create a market “monoculture”.

“The selection of Foragers is anticompetitive in the extreme,” he said. “It is truly nonsense to initiate a process on the basis of competition policy that results in a monopoly.”