ST. LOUIS • The Missouri Botanical Garden, host of regional food markets, peddler of native plants and promoter of all things local, has outsourced its retail operations.

Without advance notice to vendors — without even a vote of its board — the Garden signed in January a contract worth about $670,000 a year with the California museum shop operator Event Network Inc.

About 16 Garden Gate Shop workers will no longer be Garden employees, though staffers say Event Network has already offered nearly all of the workers their jobs back. It’s unclear if the company will match their current pay.

The news began to trickle out this week, after Garden bosses met with staff to notify them of the move. Event Network manages stores at the Smithsonian in Washington, the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Ill., among others. The outsourcing will free up Garden personnel and bring in more revenue, Garden President Peter Wyse Jackson wrote in an email Friday to staff. Wyse Jackson was out of town this week and unavailable for comment.

Local patrons and Garden vendors were unimpressed.

“I kinda like it the way it is. It’s a nice place to come and shop,” said Diana Pappas-Booth, 76, of Kirkwood, who was at the Gate Shop to buy jam she can’t find elsewhere. “What, do they think they can increase sales?”

Brian Pelletier, the owner of Kakao Chocolate, who sells his local candies in the Garden Shop, called the move “sad.”

“The garden is very big on sustainability and is a big and longstanding part of the St. Louis community. So it’s disappointing to learn they’re outsourcing and sending jobs to somebody in another state,” Pelletier said. “I think they owe it to the community to explain why they made this decision, and why they didn’t offer up some local solutions.”

And Florence Gaffney, a volunteer at the Gate Shop for two decades, was upset that the Garden kept the effort secret for so long. Worse, she said, Event Network is offering hourly jobs to salaried employees, and fewer hours to many.

When the Garden’s volunteer coordinator called Gaffney this week to see about placing her in a new position, she declined. “I said I couldn’t volunteer at the garden anymore,” she said. “Because of the way they’re treating my friends at the gift shop.”

The Garden will pay Event Network $420,000 a year, plus 12.5 percent of gross receipts — about another $250,000 annually, based on $2 million in sales budgeted for 2014.

In exchange, the company promises a $435,000 shop upgrade, according to its five-year contract, and years of increased sales.

Garden managers brought the issue to the board’s executive committee in January last year. The committee was worried about keeping members happy and portraying a “quality image,” according to meeting minutes, but agreed to the idea. A few months later, managers also informed the board’s finance committee.

But the Garden provided no records of any vote taken by its nonprofit Board of Trustees, which runs the institution, nor by its publicly appointed commission, which oversees $10 million a year in St. Louis city and St. Louis County property taxes.

Bob Herleth, the Garden’s executive vice president over retail sales, said he followed normal policies. “We don’t necessarily need to bring all of our contracts to our executive committee or board,” Herleth said.

“We’re pleased to have entered into this contract,” he said. “We think it will add very good value over time.”

Other area attractions have a mixed approach to their gift shops. The St. Louis Zoo, for example, runs its own shops. The Science Center does not.

Event Network has boomed recently. In 2006, the San Diego company partnered with about 20 institutions across the country, and tallied about $60 million in sales, according to its Garden proposal. By 2012, it had nearly 80 partnerships and more than $140 million in sales.

Sales at Longwood Gardens, outside of Philadelphia, went from $2.2 million in 2003 to $3.3 million in 2012. Shedd Aquarium sales doubled, from $3.8 million to $7.5 million, as did sales at several other partners.

Garden shop sales should grow from a little over $2 million annually now to more than $3 million by the seventh year of operations, Event Network projected.

Even if sales stay constant, the Garden will get about $345,000 in annual profits, an increase of about $100,000 over recent years, according to Garden calculations. If Event Network doubled sales, the Garden’s take would rise to about $1.2 million.

Event Network’s proposal imagined a Garden Gate Shop with new lighting, new shelving, new signage, a streamlined layout, rock-covered columns and a tree growing out of the floor.

It promised to use 100 percent post-consumer recyclable gift bags, boxes and wrap. And it will continue offering Garden discounts for employees, volunteers and members.

Plus, the company promised it would “seek out and support local artisans from the St. Louis/Midwest area” and include their work in the “overall assortment.”

“These types of offerings,” the proposal said, “make the store feel special, increase the average transaction, and capture (as purchasers) a broader percentage of guests. …”

And, because the nonprofit Garden will technically be the seller of all goods, the shop will remain tax-free.

Event Network is scheduled to take over March 3.