Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a continuing series on Sunshine in Government, examining open records and meetings laws and their implementation in Fairhope.

FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The sunshine got brighter in Fairhope city government this week.

Two open government initiatives that provide greater access to public records were announced at Monday’s City Council meeting.

Starting Friday, May 9, the public will be able to obtain a copy of the “council packet” or notebook the council will use for the meeting on May 12, Council President Bob Gentle said Monday.

The public has been denied access to those notebooks prior to council meetings. The records were available for review but could only be copied after the meeting adjourned.

“Citizens need to know what their officials are doing, and how can they know what they’re doing if they don’t have access to the same information their delegated representatives have,” said Bill Chamberlin, an expert in freedom of information issues at the University of Florida, regarding efforts by the Fairhope Courier to obtain those records earlier this year. “It is hard enough to understand what is going on in a meeting if you have the appropriate materials in front of you.”

But during the April 14 council meeting, Gentle instructed city attorney Marion “Tut” Wynne to prepare language for a policy change to make that information available prior to council meetings. Wynne was also asked to research the law regarding how much of the information contained in the packets met the definition of public records.

Some council members were concerned that letters from the public addressed to council members might not be public records.

In the past, the city had also denied access to the documents because some of the documents in the notebook had not yet been approved by the council.

“The packets are public records and should be available to the public and to the press,” Wynne said. He also said that letters addressed to council members are also public records and should not be exempted from disclosure.

Wynne said that he consulted state statutes, attorney general opinions and case law to arrive at his opinion.

Gentle asked Wynne and the city clerk’s office to draft language to be included with the packet notifying the public that some information in the notebooks was not final until acted on by the council.

The other initiative was announced by Mayor Tim Kant, who said the city’s complete Code of Ordinances became available that day on the city’s Web site.

“This will make for a more efficient government,” Kant said Tuesday. “We can share ideas with other governments more efficiently. Other cities can look at our tree ordinance, for example. We get lots of those requests.”

Kant also said putting the city code online will save the city money in that it will reduce the number of paper copies of the code that the city needs to maintain.

Assistant City Clerk Lisa Hanks said the city has been working for about a year in preparing for Monday’s announcement regarding the online posting of the ordinances.

That work was expedited recently when the city was contacted by Municipal Code Corp., which binds ordinances for cities around the country, Kant said. The company also scans these records for insertion onto city Web sites. Fairhope will utilize this service for its online Code of Ordinances.

“They told us they could do it all for $600,” he said. “We had been typing it in by hand.”

Hanks said that her office would still have work left to do to make sure all the records were accurate and kept up to date.

The code is accessed at the city’s Web site by clicking on the “public meetings and notices” button on the sidebar, then clicking on the “ordinance and forms” button there. At the top of that page is the new online Fairhope Code of Ordinances.

The code can also be accessed directly by visiting www.municode.com and scrolling through the states and finding the Fairhope link.

That Web site has a search engine which enables key word searches through the complete Fairhope Code of Ordinances.

On the front page of the company’s Web site Tuesday morning, a service was advertised showing ways to help cities put all city documents, such as council packets, online.

“These initiatives are just the first steps in creating a more transparent and citizen friendly government,” Councilwoman Debbie Quinn said Tuesday.