Editor:

I read with great interest that the Fairhope City Council, after considerable open public debate and discourse on the topic, voted to allocate $25,000 to hire a consultant to conduct a feasibility study as to whether or not Fairhope should create its own school system.

The council, which promised to introduce the paid consultant to fully explain the study parameters and allow he or she for questioning, failed to deliver on those promises. They simply authorized the payment and insisted it was “just a study.”

This is the council that also said they would never raise our sales taxes without first auditing the city’s finances. Instead, they expediently forgot the audit, neglected making budget cuts, and asked us for more money in the face of skyrocketing legal expenses due to growing lawsuits.

My question to the City Council: If the $25,000 was spent on a study with zero intentions of moving forward on the creation of an independent Fairhope school district (which most do not want) then why waste the money in an economic downturn?

Fairhope

Editor’s Note: The city’s annual audit was presented to the council at its regular meeting Monday evening.