FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Department heads will meet earlier and more often this year with a City Council-appointed committee to review the municipality’s annual budget plans.

“We need an initial cycle of department head meetings,” said Chuck Zunk, chairman of the Financial Advisory Committee, during a March 22 committee meeting. “We’ll first meet with them to discuss the current budget and then meet again to discuss the budget for the next fiscal year.”

That committee, which includes all council members, held the city’s first ever round of budget hearings with department heads just prior to the end of the fiscal year that concluded Sept. 30, 2009. In years past, the mayor would submit a budget to the council, which was usually adopted by the council with little change or discussion, according to several current and past city officials and staff.

City Administrator Gregg Mims said during the March 22 meeting that he would work with department heads to schedule the initial cycle of meetings referred to by Zunk.

“We want to begin the process of meeting with the department heads much earlier than last year,” Zunk said. “This will allow more feedback from the departments and more in-depth discussion of the budget.”

At the conclusion of last year’s two days of budget hearings, Zunk said the next year’s budget review process would include earlier and more frequent meetings with department heads. He also said then the city budget review process, and the city’s new procedures for financial accountability, would be enhanced during each succeeding year.

At the March 22 meeting, committee member Stan Grubin presented a one-page set of proposals for the council’s budget guidelines for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

“A lot of these things should be studied and built into the coming year’s budget,” Grubin said.

The list of proposals includes financial planning issues for the various utility departments, procedures for employee staffing and management, salary and health care policies, garbage pickup schedules, and vehicle replacement and usage polices.

“We’ll take it as the committee’s job to come forward by the next FAC meeting (in April) to flesh out some of Stan’s proposals,” Zunk said.