FAIRHOPE, Alabama—On Monday, the City Council began a transition to the new council elected Sept. 11, when it delayed approval of the budget for fiscal year 2013 that begins Oct. 1, leaving that task for the new council, which will take office on Nov. 5.

“This will allow the new council to approve the new budget,” Council President Lonnie Mixon said.

Mixon is one of four members who will not be returning to the council in November. As the lone incumbent re-elected this year, Councilman Mike Ford will be the only member returning in November. The current council is thus serving in a lame duck capacity until the new council is sworn in, another council member noted Monday.

Mixon is leaving office because he mounted an unsuccessful challenge against Mayor Tim Kant, who won a decisive victory over Mixon and Chris Warner. Warner suffered his second loss to Kant in the past two election cycles.

Council members Debbie Quinn, Dan Stankoski and Rick Kingrea lost their races by significant margins to Jack Burrell, Rich Mueller and Kevin Boone, respectively. Diana Brewer bested Mike McPherson and Vince Valentim for the open council seat vacated by Mixon.

The current council, under the leadership of Mixon (with usually only Ford’s dissenting voice), made clear in numerous statements and actions that it was determined to exercise its strong council-weak mayor mandate authorized by state statute and take a more assertive role in a variety of city government tasks.

The new council, with several of its members aligned with Kant, according to campaign finance reports, the posting of campaign yard signs together and joint meetings, could take a much different approach to running the city than did the last one.

That new approach by the new council was voiced by Ford this week on Lori DuBose’s “Community Contact” morning radio show on WABF 1220 AM.

“One of the reasons I ran again was the fact that I was there when things kind of came unraveled, even though I didn’t have that much to do with it,” Ford said.  “I wanted to be there when we straightened things out again, hopefully— and where we respect the mayor. I think there are going to be a few changes made with the mayor running the city more.”

Some of those changes he saw taking place include giving Kant back his position and salary as superintendent of utilities, which the current council removed from him; phasing out the city administrator position, which the last council created; selecting a police chief without doing a national search; and possibly returning free police escorts for funeral processions, which the outgoing police chief ended.

Ford said he disagreed with statements Kant has made about conducting a national search for a new police chief as was done in 2009, when former chief Bill Press, who resigned last week, was selected.

“I hope we don’t through the process all over the nation as we did before,” Ford said. “I don’t think we need to do that. I’ve heard Tim (Kant) say that. We’ve got very competent people in the area around here, and some good people have put some names forward.”

Some of those people Ford said he has met with, who are interested in the position, include former chief Chris Browning and former captain Steve Griffis.

In response to a question from Dubos, Ford said the outgoing council had done some good work, especially in the financial area. He was talking presumably about the financial reserves of some $7 million built up in the past few years. That reserve resulted from a 2-cent sales tax, which Ford voted against and Kant vetoed. The other four council members rejected his veto, passing the controversial sales-tax ordinance.

“There were some good things done, even though I was against some of it,” Ford said. “They were doing what they thought was right. I’ve got no problem with that. We’re all still friends, I hope.”