There was an attempted coup last week, not in some remote small Third World country but right here in little old Fairhope. The political straw boss in this case was Tim Kant, and his little coup was directed at our police department.

It started a couple of weeks ago at a council meeting when Mayor Kant and Councilman Ford, their names emblazoned on a petition to promote Steve Griffis for Chief of Police, turned up along with a score or so of supporters of a group that apparently had a rather mysterious structure, including an old-line Kant supporter from Point Clear offering to pay whatever it might take to make it happen.

All of this (beyond its falling flat on its face) was followed soon after by Griffis’ suspension from the department while the City Council continued to work through the process of selecting finalists for the police chief position.

And then there was the story that Tim Kant had, without consulting either the City Council or the selection committee, contracted with the Hand Arendall law firm to conduct background checks on all the finalists. This not only is insulting but raises the question of why Mayor Kant feels compelled to keep pushing Steve Griffis for the Chief position, irrespective of the wishes of the appointed selection committee.

What is the mayor’s purpose in having us poor taxpayers shell out thousands more to Hand Arendall to do these background checks? Is this just his little scheme to find enough dirt on each of the finalists to have them all removed from contention, leaving only Griffis to be appointed?

And this raises the larger question of why he is so intent on spending what little credibility he has left on such overt acts to bring this about. Does he think the council will just roll over and let this happen? Or is he desperate to maintain some sort of status quo within the police department?

It is clear that Chief Sanders and the mayor have had differences of opinion and that these differences are unheard of in Fairhope’s history. Certainly you will come up empty-handed if you search the archives of this newspaper for the past 30 years for any public controversy in this area. My experience has been that the relationship between the mayor and the chief of police has been extremely amicable and cooperative until now.

I will end with yet another question, for this whole affair seems to crank them out in great numbers: What do all of Mayor Kant’s actions do to make any of us safer or show one ounce of sincerity on his part in wanting, in any way, shape, or form, to try to work out an inclusive working relationship with the City Council?

Methinks Denmark is not the only place where something is rotten.

Dean Mosher, a Fairhope resident for 35 years, has chaired numerous committees and boards. He currently serves as vice president of the Fairhope Single Tax Corp. and is a professional artist known worldwide for his epic historical paintings.