FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The City Council voted Monday to establish a strategic planning steering committee, which will begin the first strategic planning process in the city’s history.

“I wanted to implement that recommendation and get the process started,” said City Council President Bob Gentle, referring to the first recommendation in a final report on the subject presented to the council Monday. “(The report) only recommends a process. It’s strictly the framework and is not the plan (itself).”

The final report of the Strategic Planning Process Committee was the result of frequent meetings of the group after being appointed by the council on April 14.

“Strategic planning is not going to cost the city a lot of money,” said Chuck Zunk, the committee’s chairman. “We have right here in Fairhope a lot of expertise among people who are willing to give their time and effort.”

The council voted to accept the committee’s report and implement that part of the first recommendation to appoint a steering committee, which reads as follows: “At the City Council meeting in September, the council will approve seven ‘citizen’ members to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, one of whom will be chairman. The committee would actually have a total of nine members, the other two being the mayor and a council member (named by the council president). The committee chairman will also serve as facilitator in meetings, as required.”

Councilwoman Debbie Quinn made the motion to accept the report and implement the first recommendation, stating that the effort needs to make sure that all stakeholders are included in the overall process, which offers the city a chance to be proactive rather than reactive.

Councilman Mike Ford voted for the motion but said he did not want the strategic planning process to become something to “hide behind” as he said the council sometimes does with the city’s Comprehensive Plan.

“If you’re serious about this effort, at the first meeting in September you will go forward and appoint a steering committee,” Zunk said during his presentation to the council. “Really, nothing of substance is going to happen until January of 2009, when there will be a four-year mandate to go forward.”

In other business, the council:

• Agreed to delay adopting a written public records policy for the city until after the Aug. 26 municipal elections. During the past seven months, the city has reduced the cost of copying public documents.

“Anything less than $25, we’re going to accommodate the citizens,” Mayor Tim Kant said Tuesday, referring to his statement at the Monday council meeting that the city would not charge for copies of less than that amount. “We don’t mind giving out the information. Anyone that would like to tell us how to do it better, that information would be welcome.”

Kant said he and the City Clerk have been discussing how the language of the policy should read and have invited council members to provide their comments but none has been received yet.

Quinn raised the issue about the status of the records policy at Monday’s council meeting.

• Heard a report on the city’s financial reports for the nine months ending June 30. City staff said that the city has borrowed $1 million on one of two lines of credit it establishes each year in the amount of $2 million each. One line is for the general fund and reserved for use in emergencies such as hurricanes, and the other is regularly used each year to offset decreases in the electric fund revenue caused by higher fuel costs and the delay in receiving electric bills during the summer.

“The electric fund credit line is available to help us with high energy costs during the summer months,” City Treasurer Nancy Wilson said. “We usually have it paid by March.”

Wilson said the shortfalls in the city’s cash this year as reflected in the figures reported Monday have been caused in part by the lack of revenue from the ongoing property tax appeals before the county revenue commissioner’s office. She said that office has reported to Kant that the city is due approximately $1.6 million.

“We still expect to get that by mid-August,” Wilson said. “But that also assumes that none of the appeals would be awarded.”

The Summary Financial Reports Nine Months Ended June 30, 2008 report presented to the council reads in part as follows: general fund: revenues, $15,146, 477; expenses, $15,470,952; gas fund: revenues, $6,410,842; cost of energy, $3,407,837; expenses, $2,555,031; electric fund : revenues, $11,766,662; cost of energy, $7,318,871; expenses, $4,377,740; water/sewer fund: revenues: $6,009,740; cost of energy, $481,876; expenses, $5,629,074; golf fund: revenues, $1,101,516; expenses, $1,161,059; all funds: revenues, $40,435,237; expenses, $40,402,440.

Cash balance comparison at June 30, 2008: totals (current), $9,646,129; prior month, $10,480,112; prior year (June 30, 2007), $12,999,570.

Cash balance comparison at June 30, 2008, after sinking and warrant funds( that is, debt service and bond payments) subtracted from amounts above: current, $5,704,096; prior month, $5,955,457; prior year, $6,010,941.

Copies of the city’s updated financial reports are provided at the Fairhope Public Library on a regular and timely basis, city staff said.