FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The City Council and Mayor Tim Kant met Friday with more than a dozen city department heads, a city attorney and two facilitators at Marriott’s Grand Hotel in Point Clear to discuss city personnel policies and working relationship issues between the legislative and executive branches of municipal government.

“I really feel that the department heads all thought the meeting went well,” said Council President Debbie Quinn, who convened the meeting. “It gave the council a chance to hear (their) issues and a chance for them to know that we were listening. The council and mayor also had an open, frank conversation about their working relationship. I feel that everything was laid on the table, and we all understood each other’s concerns.”

During the first two-hour session, Paul Myrick, the city’s personnel relations attorney, briefed the group on existing procedures and policies and proposed changes for a new personnel policy and manual. He said proposed changes in the personnel policy and manual are the result of a new ordinance passed recently by the council that requires most department heads to be appointed by the council upon recommendation of the mayor. The past procedure had the mayor make those hirings without council participation.

Gregg Mims, city general superintendent, asked whether the new ordinance required reappointment of the department heads with each four-year election, as is required for the treasurer, clerk, police chief and city attorney positions, and was told that was not required for those positions.

The city department heads who attended the meeting included the following positions: city clerk, city treasurer, interim police chief, general superintendent, administrative superintendent, senior services director, directors for the three city-owned utilities, public works director, meter department superintendent, golf course operations director, human resources administrator, purchasing manager, financial reporting manager, and CIS manager. A personnel board member also attended, as did Quinn, Kant, and Council members Rick Kingrea, Lonnie Mixon and Dan Stankoski. Councilman Mike Ford and City Attorney Marion “Tut” Wynne did not attend the meeting.

“We’ve asked for job descriptions for every city employee, an organizational chart for every position and wage scales for each position,” said Mixon, who is the council liaison to the personnel board. “Hopefully, within a few months we’ll have a new personnel policy.”

Kant said his administrator had responded to those requests.

“We’ve responded to those requests and have also been looking at salaries, personnel rules, pay classification plan, salary range when employees are moved from one position to another,” Kant said. “The only thing we haven’t tackled is the wage scale.”

Recently, there have been some job reassignments by the mayor, which have included changing Mims from head of planning and building department to the general superintendent position, giving new responsibilities to Administrative Superintendent James Gillespie, promoting Jonathan Smith from city planner to Mims’ position, and giving new responsibilities to Rhonda White, human resources administrator, following the resignation last month of the human resources director. Kant said none of those job reassignments resulted in any salary changes.

“I’ve told managers I’m not hiring anyone until we are through with the hiring freeze,” Kant said. “The council instructed me to have a hiring freeze, and I’m trying to cut costs wherever I can. We’ve got 300 employees and can fill in some positions where necessary. The alternative in three or four months is for the council to say we’re going to have to eliminate 50 jobs.”

The group had a lengthy discussion about whether some employees should be classified as full- or part-time employees and issues relating to their employment, including ground for their termination.

Several department heads said they recommended moving to a “zero tolerance” policy of terminating employees upon violation of policy prohibiting use of controlled substances. The city currently administers a drug testing program for city employees.

During the second two-hour session at which most of the department heads were not present, the meeting on the working relationship between the council and mayor was facilitated by Fairhope psychologist and consultants Martha Adam and D’ana Snow.

“Where are we now, where do we want to be, and how do get there?” were some of the questions Adams asked of the participants.

The group said that communication and trust between the two branches of city government were two of the largest problems facing a good working relationship.

“We don’t always agree with either the mayor or council,” said Gillespie, referring to department heads and city employees. “We’ve never really sat down and had a conversation like this. We’ve got to do some more of this.”

One of the issues that came up during this session was the status of pre-council meeting work sessions. In the past, they occurred in the 30 minutes before the regular council meeting. After the recent election, the council changed that to having one work session each month at the end of the month before the regular council meeting.

“We need to have work sessions where we can really talk about the issues,” Kant said.

Kingrea said, “My problem with the work sessions is that the public doesn’t come to the work sessions but they do come to the council meetings. There’s a perception that there’s constant conflict going on. We have to overcome this perception.”

Stankoski said, “It does get perceived as fighting. But what’s the alternative? If two people think alike, you don’t need one of them.”

Quinn said after the meeting that the council would vote at the Feb. 9 council meeting to change its rules to have the third Monday night of each month dedicated to a work session alone.

“Those work sessions will have an agenda like our past work sessions, but they will be a time for the public to ask questions (and) give us our thoughts on upcoming issues,” Quinn said.

Another issue involved the notice to department heads about upcoming issues on the the council agenda.

“It would be nice if we knew something that is going to be on the agenda,” Gillespie said. “I’ve had 40 people talk to me this week about the manager job (issue). It (was) a surprise and caused a lot of conflict.”

At the Jan. 26 council meeting, the council pulled a proposed ordinance that would have established a city manager position, with duties similar to those of the mayor. Council members stated that night when the ordinance was withdrawn that they had intended to add a city administrator job that would answer to the mayor not remove any of his current authority as chief executive officer of the city.

During this late afternoon session, Kant said his administration would be presenting information about city finances in a different way, and that the city would be preparing its budget in a more effective manner based on the council’s new strategic planning initiative.

“This will be a great thing,” Kant said. “We have agreed that we will be taking another look at the budget in mid-March.”

Quinn said the Friday retreat followed her discussion with council members and mayor, and that a majority agreed to have the retreat. The meeting apparently was not discussed or action taken during a formal council or other open meeting.

“It was advertised, and we treated it like a committee meeting and notified the press and public about it,” Quinn said. “The meeting cost us only for the sodas that were consumed and Paul Myrick’s two hours worth of time. The room was free, and the facilitators worked for free.”

Quinn said she will be on Feb. 9 council agenda to discuss what happened at the retreat.

“During that discussion, we hope to direct staff to take all the ideas (and) suggestions from the meeting with department heads, council and mayor and come up with recommendations to the Personnel Board and then to the council for consideration,” Quinn said. “We want to make sure that we have the ideas and suggestions that were brought up written thoughtfully and legally before being presented to the council and public.”