Fairhope forum gives candidates one last push for votes

By The Courier Staff
Posted 8/22/16

Fairhope’s municipal election candidates gathered together for one final forum before this week’s election, as WABF’s Lori Dubose asked questions from Fairhope’s residents.

Growth and how …

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Fairhope forum gives candidates one last push for votes

Posted

Fairhope’s municipal election candidates gathered together for one final forum before this week’s election, as WABF’s Lori Dubose asked questions from Fairhope’s residents.

Growth and how to manage it was at the forefront of the evening’s questions and the candidates had a variety of responses on how they would try to manage it.

“We’re doing our best to follow the comprehensive plan that this city said they wanted to keep,” Councilman Rich Mueller said. “Expert planners have said it’s near possible to achieve this, but we’ve been able to try to keep to it. However, what happens outside the city is beyond our control.”

Jay Robinson, who is challenging Mueller, offered his ideas for helping to curb growth.

“The secret is out about Fairhope and people are coming here in droves,” Robinson said. “We could place a temporary moratorium on large family style apartment complexes, which would allow us time to see how these developments will affect our community. We can increase our impact fees on development, which would help prevent developers from coming in to our community for a quick dollar.”

When questioned about new apartment construction in the Fairhope city limits, District 4 candidates Robert Brown and Phil Nix Jr. differed in their answers.

“I am against any high density building in Fairhope,” Brown said.

Nix said if a development falls within the comprehensive plan’s parameters and meets available guidelines, it could have to be considered. However, Nix said he would have voted down changes to the Rock Creek PUD.

“If we’re referring to Rock Creek at this time, I was not there when decisions were made, but Mike Ford voted against it,” Nix said. “At this time, I would have voted against them.”

On the issue of supporting education, Council President Jack Burrell said he was comfortable with the current level of support the city was providing the area’s schools and reiterated his support of remaining within the county school system.

“We’re currently providing $350,000 in cash and $500,000 in in-kind contributions,” Burrell said. “It’s not uncommon for us to provide needs for the school on a small basis as well, so we’re already providing somewhere in the neighborhood of $900,000 a year to our schools.”

His opponent, Meredith Smith, said after reviewing the recent audit performed on the Fairhope area schools, she felt more could potentially be done.

“We should be looking at ways that we can provide money that’s existing in budget to allocate funds that are needed,” Smith said. “The suggestion from audit is for $682,000 to meet our goals. I believe that can be easily done without increasing taxes.”

Councilwoman Diana Brewer said she has been a strong supporter of the Fairhope schools since before she was on the council and said the city could do more.

“I think we can and we should find a way to provide the additional $682,000 our academic audit said we needed to become a Top 10 school system,” Brewer said. “That goal is certainly attainable and it’s something I think the people of Fairhope have shown us they want.”

Jimmy Conyers, one of the challengers facing Brewer, said they all could agree Fairhope should be a Top 10 school, but he said changes being implemented by new Baldwin County Schools Superintendent Eddie Tyler could help bring that goal to a reality, too.

“I would like to see the city continue to fund the schools,” Conyers said. “But, I believe we are seeing some changes that the new superintendent has made that are showing some positive results and we should give them time to develop.”

Candidate Murray Lawrence said he asked school officials what they thought would be best.

“I talked to Cecil (Christenberry, Fairhope’s board of education member) and he said we need to keep everything the same,” Lawrence said.

When asked if the mayoral position and the head of the city’s utilities position should be separated, Councilman Kevin Boone expressed his support for pairing the two.

“I feel this is the best way to run the city and run the system,” Boone said.

Challenger Gary Gover said his answer largely depended on whom might be the next mayor.

“The answer to that may lay largely with the next elected mayor,” Gover said. “A mayor probably has a lot to say about his or her style of leadership and what role they feel comfortable filling in our city government.”

The issue of lawsuits against the city dominated the conversation in the mayoral race, with challenger Karin Wilson saying that she would work to make sure the number of suits against the town would be lessened.

“Right now, the voters pay for the lawsuits through their utility bills and their property taxes,” Wilson said. “The reason we have so many lawsuits is because we don’t have a comprehensive plan that is enforceable.”

Mayor Tim Kant said the lawsuits filed against the city were covered by insurance the city pays for and said the city had filed some suits itself to get money they were owed from others.

“Unfortunately, lawsuits have become a common part of governing a city anywhere,” Kant said. “When we say yes or say no, we still get sued.”