FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Fairhope Police Department Capt. Steve Griffis was placed on disciplinary administrative leave with pay a week ago.

“The chief called me about 11 o’clock Saturday,” Mayor Tim Kant said Friday, referring to interim Fairhope Police Chief Terry Sanders. “He said Steve Griffis has violated some policy rules, and I think he said nine policy rules, and that he was going to put him on administrative leave.”

Sanders also confirmed that Griffis, a 25-year veteran of the department, was placed on administrative leave with pay that day.

“But that’s all I can say because it’s an ongoing personnel issue,” Sanders said.

Rumors have swirled in the past week that Griffis was under at least one internal investigation by the department, but on Thursday at 12:49 p.m., an Internet response to a Fairhope Courier story about the selection process for a permanent police chief posted on the newspaper’s Web site earlier that day, stated that Griffis had been suspended.

“Now, probably at the direction of some of the (City) Council members, Officer Griffis has been suspended or placed on administrative leave until further notice, but haven’t seen any comments regarding same in paper or on news media….interesting!!!!” according to an individual writing with the user name fairhope913.

Internet posts of individuals via an anonymous user name are often criticized for their lack of reliability, but that post hit the mark. Subsequent calls to Kant and Sanders confirmed the blogger’s statement.

Councilman Mike Ford also said he knew that Griffis had been suspended with pay pending a pre-disciplinary review, pursuant to police department rules known as the Police General Orders (PGO).

“Yes, I did,” said Ford, referring to Griffis’ suspension with pay.

Ford also said he had heard that Griffis had been served notice earlier this week of a pending recommendation of a dismissal of employment pursuant to PGO disciplinary procedures.

“Yes, I heard that,” Ford said, referring to a suspension with pay pending discipline procedures for dismissal.

The Courier received a phone call Friday morning from a source, who is not a city employee but one who has spoken with Griffis during the past week, who said that the police captain had been served with a notice of intent to dismiss him this week.

“I cannot confirm or deny that because of the pending personnel issues,” Sanders said Friday morning.

Griffis has “10 full days to deliver to the Human Resources Director or to the Review Officer a written request before the Review Officer,” according to PGO Procedure: 3.400. “If the officer fails to request a hearing within the 10 days from the date he or she receives the notice, the officer shall be deemed to have waived his or her right to pre-disciplinary review hearing, and the Chief of Police may proceed with the proposed disciplinary action.”

Those PGO rules also set out the procedures for the hearing, which include presentation of evidence and other information by the officer facing discipline in order to afford that officer an opportunity “to give his or her ‘side of the story’ before the decision is made whether or not to impose discipline.”

Until April 13 this year, the mayor appointed an “impartial law enforcement officer” as the Department Review Officer to preside over the informal hearing and render a final judgment, which can be appealed within three days to the city’s personnel board, according to the city’s personnel manual.

But on that day, the council passed a resolution signed by Kant which removed the mayor as the appointing authority and gave that job to the city’s general superintendent, a position currently held by Gregg Mims.

Mims could not be reached for comment.

According to newspaper accounts at the time, which cited city records, Griffis was suspended for five days without pay from Dec. 12 through 16 in 2001, for allowing Fred “Hollywood” Barkley to be freed on bond within an hour of his arrest on a domestic violence charge despite a 12-hour cooling-off period requirement after domestic violence arrests. Griffis’ conduct regarding Barkley, identified as a convicted sex offender in those newspaper stories, disobeyed orders from then-Police Chief Jerry Anderson given in August 2001 not to get involved in future cases with Barkley, who was identified in some accounts as an informant for the department.

In 2002, the personnel board denied Griffis’ appeal, and Kant commented at that time in the Mobile Press Register of Feb. 22: “Things happen; people make mistakes or use poor judgment. To me, it’s just a supervisor/employee disciplinary action.”

Ford said Friday that the current police chief selection process has been flawed from the beginning and that he also questions the timing of the Griffis suspension and pending disciplinary action.

“I just wonder why (it has happened),” Ford said Friday. “It will all come out. This thing’s going to get bigger and bigger if we don’t get some answers from people and sit down and find out just what is going on. I’ll tell you, people in this city are mad — not just upset, but mad.”

Both Kant and Ford signed a petition supporting Griffis to become police chief during a rally of Griffis supporters following a May 18 council meeting.