FAIRHOPE, Alabama—For years, employee appeals to the personnel board have occurred behind closed doors and without public notice, but those long-standing violations of the state’s Open Meetings Act have begun to change in recent months during a period when The Courier’s series on Fairhope personnel practices and polices has brought new scrutiny to the subject.

The first open meeting of a grievance appeal occurred last month, and another is scheduled in January.

“They’d all been closed up until then,” a long-term member of the personnel board said last week.

In the November case, the board overturned the suspension without pay of a water department employee.

“One of the things that we’ve learned in the last few months is that where an employee has filed an ethics form, hearings involving their cases must be in an open session,” City Administrator Gregg Mims said at a Nov. 9 meeting of the personnel board called to review policies and procedures in preparation for six pending police employee cases that could end up before the board.

A meeting called this past Monday by City Council President Lonnie Mixon and attended by Mayor Tim Kant, attorney Paul Myrick and others, could result in revision of city rules to ensure greater compliance with state sunshine laws.

“Staff has been tasked with drafting recommended changes to the personnel manual,” Mixon said Wednesday. “The meetings must be open at the start, and then the chairman can decide based on the law and facts whether the board can meet in private.”