FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The power struggle between city officials that hit the boiling point last week was precipitated by several ordinances passed by the City Council since taking office last November, and some actions taken by Mayor Tim Kant in response.

Those new rules shifted the appointing authority for most city managerial positions from the mayor to the council; limited mayoral expenditures; and removed the mayor’s appointment power regarding hearing officers in police disciplinary actions.

At the June 8 council meeting, Kant said bluntly that he would not be posting an advertisement for a city administrator position as instructed by the council that night, nor would he back off hiring a private firm to conduct background investigations of finalists for the police chief vacancy, despite the council’s instructions otherwise.

One of the new laws passed by the council gives it complete hiring, firing and ultimate disciplinary authority over the police chief. But Kant said recently that he reserved the power as chief executive officer of the city to make sure the appointing process was implemented effectively as the reason for his hiring a firm to do background investigations of the applicants.

Toward the end of a contentious meeting last Monday, Kant said, “I wish we’d sit down and understand the roles of the legislative body and the executive body.”

Councilman Lonnie Mixon said it might be necessary to bring in someone like a representative from the Attorney General’s Office to explain their respective roles.

Since that meeting, Kant and some council members said they hope the issue of the separation of powers between mayor and council will be addressed by Ken Smith, deputy director and general counsel of the Alabama League of Municipalities, when he meets tomorrow afternoon with city officials and employees from throughout Baldwin County.

Smith’s visit was arranged initially at the request of Kant to discuss ethics and open government issues facing local officials and staff.

But Smith said that the content of the Thursday meeting will depend on what the group requests that day.

If he does address the issue of the legal powers of mayor and council, it might be not only Fairhope officials who are interested in that discussion.

In Daphne, the council there passed an ordinance Monday similar to the one passed in Fairhope in March, which shifted power from the mayor to the council to hire, fire and discipline city employees.

That meeting also boiled over with allegations, according to media reports.

At issue in the battle lines drawn last week in Fairhope between some council members and the mayor are the statutory provisions which set out some of their respective powers.

Section 11-43-81 of the Ala. Code states that “the mayor shall be the chief executive officer, and shall have general supervision and control of all other officers and the affairs of the city or town, except as otherwise provided in this title.”

And Section 11-43-56 also states, ”except as otherwise provided in this title, the council shall have the management and control of the finances and all of the property, real and personal, belonging to the city or town.”

One of the issues Fairhope city officials are living through now — during their second four-year term since the city met the population threshold of 12,000, requiring the mayor to step down from having a vote on and presiding over the council — is the rearrangement of the powers between mayor and council required by statute and those local ordinances passed and actions taken by mayor and council.

One council member said last Monday they might end up in court if the present course of the mayor’s bucking the council’s authority continues.

“The working relationship between the mayor and the council usually determines the success of a mayor-council administration,” the Handbook of Mayors and Councilmembers published by the ALM states. “The legislature has given the council, in mayor-council municipalities, important powers essential to the government of the municipality. Mayors and council members must recognize the fact that each is dedicated, for the next four years, to a common goal — providing the city or town with the best possible municipal government.”