FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The public interviews with the six finalists for the city’s top law enforcement job are this Saturday, and the City Council is expected to appoint a new police chief at its Monday meeting.

The police chief selection process has had its share of high drama during the past six months, including the emergence of an apparent grass-roots campaign supporting Fairhope Police Department Capt. Steve Griffis for the position.

After Griffis was not added to the list of finalists, it was learned he had been under internal police investigation and was suspended with pay last month pending disciplinary action or dismissal.

Last week, he was back on the job on Mayor Tim Kant’s orders.

Griffis still faces a July 2 disciplinary hearing, but the nature of the charges have not been disclosed by the city, citing the confidentiality of personnel proceedings.

Even after the council’s expected appointment of a new police chief next week, the curtain might not yet fall on the ongoing drama. Kant stated earlier this month that he had veto power over that selection.

In short, the turnout for this Saturday’s public interviews could be heavy.

“Interviews will be open to the public, as room space will allow,” according to the public notice for the meeting. “However, the public must be in place before interviews begin. Once an interview begins, the doors will be closed until the interview is complete. Public and media will not be allowed to ask questions, talk or make any noise or distractions during the interviews. ”

The notice also states that the public and media are requested not to make any kind of recording of the interviews, “in an effort to avoid any distraction to the candidates or process.”

The state’s Open Meeting Act states that such meetings “may be openly recorded by any person in attendance … provided the recording does not disrupt the conduct of the meeting.” That section of the statute also provides that “the governmental body may adopt reasonable rules for the implementation of this section.”

The six finalists for the job are:

•Daniel Busken, former chief of police in Madison and in Crystal City, Miss.

•Richard Moss, of Canton, Ga., current police chief of Woodstock, Ga., and former captain in the Broward County Sheriff's Office in Florida.

•Bill Press, captain with the Miami-Dade Police Department.

•Terry Sanders, interim police chief in Fairhope, and former police chief in Bay Minette.

•William “Charlie” Sewell, police chief in McMinnville, Tenn., and former chief in Morrow, Ga.

•Curtis VanderKooi, captain with Michigan's Grand Rapids Police Department.

Sanders was appointed by the council to the Fairhope job on a temporary basis in January pending the selection of a permanent police chief.

At that Jan. 22 special meeting, Councilman Mike Ford, who has supported the Griffis candidacy, made a motion to go into executive session “to discuss why the Chief is being replaced and the character of Terry Sanders,” according to the minutes.

City Attorney Marion “Tut” Wynne explained the general procedure for going into executive session, and Councilman Rick Kingrea seconded the motion; but the other three council members voted against it, and it failed.

The Alabama OMA provides that while executive sessions can be called to discuss “the general reputation and character” of “certain public employees,” that “discussions of the job performance of specific public officials or specific public employees may not be discussed in executive session if the person is an elected or appointed public official,” according to the Open Meetings Act.

That statute distinguishes between “between general reputation and character” and “job performance” in its definitional section, as follows:

General reputation and character: “Characteristics or actions of a person directly involving good or bad ethical conduct, moral turpitude, or suspected criminal activity, not including job performance.”

Job performance: “The observed conduct or actions of a public employee or public official while on the job in furtherance of his or her assigned duties. Job performance includes whether a person is meeting, exceeding, or failing to meet job requirements or whether formal employment actions should be taken by the governmental body. Job performance does not include the general reputation and character of the person being discussed.”

During the recent selection process of a police in Madison, Ala., the background of some of the finalists were discussed in open meetings, according to the Huntsville Times, including “a disciplinary suspension in Florida” of Moss, who was also seeking the Madison job, and his “negotiated resignation in Georgia,” according to the Huntsville Times.

“Mayor Paul Finley said Moss addressed many of the issues during his public interview on May 13,” according to the May 31 article by Wendy Reeves.

That article also stated that another of the Fairhope finalists, former Madison Police Chief Daniel Busken, “resigned in December when the council didn’t offer him a new contract.”

In a statement attributed to Moss in that article, which he might now regret, he said regarding the two positions in Fairhope and Madison he had applied for: “My obvious preference would be Madison.”

The Madison council selected another applicant for the job last week.