FAIRHOPE, Ala. — When the city electric department cut tree limbs from the roadway along Fairwood Boulevard recently, it did so without first getting permission from Jennifer Fidler, the city horticulturist and public works director.

“Apparently they were over there and doing some other work, and they just trimmed the trees because apparently the fire department asked them to because the trees were hitting the fire trucks,” Mayor Tim Kant said this week. “It needed to be done. It was just some of the practices that were used that were probably not the best.”

Kant said the tree-trimming occurred within the past month, and that he has had discussions since with Fidler and Electrical Superintendent Scott Sligh about the procedures that should have been followed.

“We had some discussions with the electric department about who authorized the trimming of the trees,” Kant said. “So now, any trees that are being trimmed in roadways other than around power lines must go to Jennifer’s office first, and not just take the complaint and take it on themselves and trim.”

The Fairhope Tree Ordinance already spells out those procedures and gives the city the power to levy fines and jail time, as well as restitution of up to $20,000 for “intentional injury” to trees on city property or public rights of way with diameters of 30 inches or more at chest height, or four-and-a-half feet off the ground.

That city law also states that the city horticulturist can prune trees within city rights of way and on city property to ensure public health, safety and welfare, but for all others “it shall be unlawful to remove, prune or otherwise damage any tree” in those areas without approval from the city horticulturist. And the law states that “public utilities that perform routine maintenance operations must apply for an annual permit” and that “routine pruning shall be based on a maximum three-year rotation.”

After the Fairwood Boulevard tree pruning, a resident trimmed a large tree without permission and has been notified of a restitution amount, Kant said.

“There was a fine issued on a tree cut out on (Greeno Road) across from near Sibley Street,” said Kant, regarding some limbs cut from a large live oak in that area. “That one’s been in the past week and the (restitution amount) was around $3,000.”

Kant said he does not think the electric department has been required to make restitution for the tree limbs it cut, or that the department has had any other financial consequences for that action.

“Not that I know of,” he said. “None that I know of.”

However, Kant said there was a time when the electric department did pay for such an incident.

“There was a tree uptown they butchered,” said Kant, who served as city horticulturist before his election as mayor in 2000. “We made the electric department pay for a new tree, but it wasn’t a fine per se.”

One much larger tree-cutting occurred this summer on Kant’s order to the electric department, with more than 100 trees cut down around the greens on the public golf course then under major repairs, according to a June 23 article by the Press-Register.

Fidler “said she asked the mayor to sign the paperwork himself” to approve the tree cutting, according to that article.

“We cut those 100-plus trees down at the golf course, and Jennifer asked when are we going to replace them, and I said why don’t we just use the same amount of dollars and redo the trees downtown,” said Kant this week, referring to a project to replace about 40 trees along Fairhope Avenue, which began this past month. “It doesn’t say where we have to replace them as long as we replace trees on public property.”

Councilwoman Debbie Quinn said by phone this week that those replacement trees were purchased from one company, possibly in violation of the public bid laws.

Fidler did not return several phone calls and e-mails for comment in time to be included in this story.

But Sligh said he might soon learn whether there have been any repercussions to his department for the tree-cutting on Fairwood Boulevard.

“Well, the specific trimming we did was trimming the limbs up away from the road for vehicular traffic,” Sligh said Thursday. “I was told that we had purchased some trees as retribution.”

He said he would learn whether his department had been billed for some replacement trees when the October city financial accounts are closed.

“When I get (the) October (records), I would see it,” he said.