Fairhope councilman lays out issues between council, mayor in letter

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On June 27, Fairhope City Councilman Robert Brown issued his own letter to Fairhope Mayor Karin Wilson, the other members of the council and attorney Harry Satterwhite, whom Wilson had hoped to hire as her attorney through the council’s vote June 26.

During the June 26 meeting, Brown told Satterwhite he would be sending a letter to explain why he didn’t feel the need to meet with the mayor or Satterwhite regarding the issue of Wilson being allowed to hire her own attorney.

Brown’s letter reads as follows:

“This letter is in response to both your initial letter to council on June 9, 2017 as well as your letter on June 23, 2017. Mr. Satterwhite, I am not sure if you are aware of what I would consider disruptive actions and events since all of us took office on November 7, 2016. So I want to recap these events so you can have my perspective why I did not support hiring your firm. These issues might not be in chronological order, but I believe that is irrelevant.

- Sherry Lea Bloodworth-Botop hired as Economic & Community Development Dir.

- Heather Hudson fired

- Mayor Wilson fires Sherry Sullivan and Jennifer Fidler, two of the most dedicated city employees with over 35 years experience.

- Mayor Wilson pushes for the city to take over the airport property

- Mayor Wilson continues attack on the Airport Authority with claims of corruption, and filed an ethics Complaint against Council President Jack Burrell and board member, both ruled baseless

- Mayor Wilson holds meetings with employees telling them that their health insurance plans are going to change and that they are going to have to start paying for some of it.

- Sara Smith turns in her resignation as Nix Center Director

- Mayor Wilson conducts meetings telling the Library Board that they are going to lose their independence and become a department under the city

- Claim filed against Mayor Wilson for assault

- Mayor Wilson places tracking software on targeted supervisors

“These are all actions taken by or against Mayor Wilson, not the Council in 8 months. None of these actions are speculation or misunderstandings. They have happened. With this said, I find it difficult to believe the Council is totally responsible for the current political atmosphere of the City of Fairhope. Mayor Wilson continues to believe that it is 100% the Councils (sic) fault, and to me that is the issue.

"Please allow me now to address the portion of your June 23rd letter pertaining to the Council's encroachment of the Mayor's powers and duties. First you mention lack of communication and cooperation. I cannot speak for the other four councilmen. My initial concern in regards to communicating was raised in a meeting February 6, 2017 with Mayor Wilson and Councilman Conyers. I can't recall exactly what the meeting was about, but at one point in the meeting Mayor Wilson stated and I quote, "We wasted millions of dollars on the soccer fields." I questioned the Mayor about this false statement and she raised her arms and shouted and I quote, "Are you kidding me, am I living in a twilight zone!" This early interaction with Mayor Wilson has made it difficult to have particular conversations without prejudice.

“The budget presented by Mayor Wilson was incomplete. We received the budget literally as it was being printed at a work session. Three revisions were given over the next week or so. Everything in the budget was annualized except for salaries. There was a new department we were told would never exist. Councilman Burrell and I took the lead in amending the budget. Councilman Boone trusted our judgment. Councilman Robinson expressed he wanted the Economic and Community Development Department eliminated. Councilman Conyers expressed his desire to eliminate the department as well as other cuts. We never met as a quorum to constitute a meeting or deliberated in a serial meeting.

“Deliberation under Alabama Act 2015-340 is defined as, "an exchange of information or ideas among a quorum of members of a subcommittee, committee, or full governmental body intended to arrive at or influence a decision as to how any members of the subcommittee, committee or full governmental body should vote on a specific matter that, at the time of the exchange, the participating members expect to come before the subcommittee, committee or full body immediately following the discussion or at a later time." Under Ala. Code§ 36-25A-2(13) b, "gatherings" are not considered serial meetings if:

“There is no deliberation, or

- The sole purpose of the gathering was to exchange background and education information with members on specific issues

“The council enacted a hiring freeze on February 27, 2017. I believe four different legal opinions have been issued on this and they all state that it was within the Council's authority. Mayor Wilson stated in this special meeting, go back and watch it and I quote, "I don't take any of my decisions lightly, and I do it through prayerful thought, and consideration of my trusted council." This statement by Mayor Wilson exhibits her exclusion of the elected city council in the majority of her actions. "My trusted council", who exactly is this because it is not and I feel it never, has been Jack Burrell, Jay Robinson, and Jimmy Conyers, myself or Kevin Boone. During the hiring freeze period I did tell Mayor Wilson, not department heads, if she had any urgent needs to bring it to the Council. The hiring freeze is old news and is no longer an issue unless Mayor Wilson continues to bring it up.

“The Council has refused to nominate two of Mayor Wilson's appointments for the Airport Authority. Mayor Wilson nominates, the council appoints. One of the current Airport Authority members has not served a full term and I understand that Mr. Booth is an asset to the board. I will vote to appoint one of Mayor Wilson's nominations to replace Pam Caudill later this year after major events take place at the airport in which Pam is the contact person. With Mayor Wilson's continued attack of everything about the airport, my reasoning for not nominating Mayor Wilson's appointment to date is to maintain some stability wherever I can for now.

“The council preempted the Mayor's personnel decisions. Mayor Wilson can establish whatever role she desires for SLB (Sherry Lea Botop). The elected Council did not support the creation of a new department and therefore defunded it. Mayor Wilson has stated numerous times that her hires are going to save the city money. Council President Burrell has asked for any documentation to support these claims and to my knowledge has never been given any data.

“As for the reduction of the amount Mayor Wilson can enter into a professional contract for. The elected Council is responsible for the finances of the city. Governing is a slow process, and Mayor Wilson has taken actions that indicate she doesn't respect the process.

“The Council did not substitute our plan for Mayor Wilson's plan. Mayor Wilson wanted to hire a structural engineering firm in Mobile who was going to subcontract it out to a firm in Northport. This reeks of cronyism and I am a strong supporter of supporting local businesses as is Mayor Wilson. I saw no reason to hire a firm outside Baldwin County when there are multiple firms capable that the city can support. Hutchinson Moore and Rauch removed their firm from consideration.

“To your point of Council delegating Mayoral duties to an employee, maybe we did. I don't know if this is part of the city treasurer or not. I felt that after Mayor Wilson held meetings with city employees to inform them that their health insurance policies were going to change, which is outside her authority, this step was necessary. Health insurance coverage is a budget item and clearly within the duties of the elected Council. The actions that Mayor Wilson has taken without council's knowledge gave me the proof needed to support this action. And I can only speculate how the city employee's (sic) morale was after said meeting.

“The lack of cooperation on the agenda shouldn't be an issue. There are three ways for an item to be placed on the agenda. Council President places it, two council members agree to place an item, or the mayor and one council member can place an item. If Mayor Wilson wants an item placed on the agenda she would need to have the support of one council member.

“Mayor Wilson has sent numerous letters to businesses and held multiple meetings without consideration of the elected Council. The letters have ranged from cutting services to citizens because the Council has not passed her budget to now a letter to the Navy with three available dates to discuss their training habits. For me it becomes difficult to work with Mayor Wilson on certain issues when the majority of my time is spent defending what I believe the majority of the citizens of Fairhope truly wants.

“Mayor Wilson was elected because the citizens wanted change. However we didn't want everything changed, but I feel that has been the direction Mayor Wilson has taken over the last 8 months. Mayor Wilson won the election by 451 votes out of 6,593 total. In my opinion, that is not a mandate to uproot everything that makes Fairhope the special town it is.

“Nobody wants our city in a state of turmoil. My suggestion for Mayor Wilson is to meet with the elected council to find common interest for moving the city forward. Infrastructure improvement plans, enhancing downtown safety, promoting Fairhope's charm and address the concerns of citizens of controlling growth with including the community on regulations and ordinances. And stop the aggressiveness and threatening actions such as police and fire services are going to be relinquished if you don't annex into Fairhope. We have to exhibit as a city a desire to work with our surrounding communities land residents, otherwise we achieve nothing. I am ready to move forward, but threatening to take me to court if I don't sign a written agreement is a step backwards.”

On June 29, Wilson told Gulf Coast Media she had received Brown’s letter and wanted to be able to meet with him to discuss the points he laid out in the letter. She added she had just returned from a conference in Miami and had not fully had time to process a full response.

“I appreciate the invitation and look forward to meeting with Councilman Brown to discuss the concerns mentioned in his letter,” Wilson wrote in a statement to Gulf Coast Media that was also sent to Brown. “The citizens of Fairhope spoke loud and clear about the future of Fairhope by choosing me as their new mayor. There are fundamental policy and financial issues that need to be addressed and I hope this will be the start a collaborative process to find common ground. My door is always open to council members and the public to discuss ways to improve our City.”

Editor’s note: Because of the July 4 holiday, Gulf Coast Media experienced pushed back print deadlines. Mayor Karin Wilson has been offered the ability to respond more fully to Brown’s letter in a future edition of The Courier.