FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Strategic Planning Process Committee met Thursday to begin work on a recommendation it will make to the City Council regarding a possible strategic planning process.

The council appointed the committee April 14 to explore options for the how the city could develop a strategic plan.

“We were not chartered to do a strategic plan,” said Chuck Zunk, the committee’s chairman. “But we were chartered to recommend what the process for doing a strategic plan might look like.”

The committee is composed of Zunk, who is also chairman of the Fairhope Airport Authority, John Gutknecht, Richard Kwapil, Councilwoman Debbie Quinn and Council President Bob Gentle, who did not attend the group’s first meeting.

“The strategic planning effort would serve to identify Fairhope’s long-term goals,” Zunk wrote in a April 28 memorandum to the council and mayor. “Strategic goals can be categorized in many ways but will likely be grouped by: how we work (economic and workforce development), how we play (arts/culture/entertainment, parks/recreations/libraries, physical amenities), how we live (housing/neighborhoods, utilities/infrastructure, governmental services), how we get around (transportation/streets/parking), how we grow (land use/zoning/comprehensive plan) and how we learn (K-12/post-high school/vocational/adult continuing education). Goal-setting and strategic planning would require input from elected officials, city staff, interest groups such as the Chamber of Commerce … and members of the public.”

The group met for an hour and plans to meet twice a month until its works is done, Zunk said.

“If you don’t get involvement in the process by city staff and officials, you can forget about any implementation,” Gutknecht said. “They’ve got to have ownership in the process.”

One issue the group discussed was whether the committee should recommend hiring a consultant to assist in all or part of the strategic planning process.

“Some of the questions we should ask ourselves are whether there are parts of the plan that could be done by a group like this and maybe have hire out other parts of it,” Quinn said. “Or do we hire out the whole thing, because if we recommend that, I’m not sure we’re going to get it done.”

Councilman Mike Ford opposed the idea of hiring an outside consultant at the April 14 counciil meeting. He raised the issue again during the council’s work session before the April 28 council meeting that day, stating he thought the council had decided against using a consultant.

Gentle read him the minutes from that meeting, showing the council made no decision about hiring a consultant, but that Ford’s opposition to hiring one was noted in the minutes.

During a Feb. 25 council meeting, Ford led a successful effort to have the council donate $25,000 of city funds to the Fairhope High School Band for its trip to play in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Chicago. The overall cost of the trip was $200,000.

“I think one of the hardest things any of us here on the council has had to do is turn down the Pirate band,” Ford said in a press account at the time, referring to an earlier decision when the council decided against donating the funds for the trip. “Now we have an opportunity to help after all.”

The funds were identified as “surplus funds” from the Airport Authority in a report made by Zunk to the council in February.

The committee discussed Thursday that one of the benefits of the city having a strategic plan would be assisting the city in making decisions about how and when to allocate taxpayer resources.

“The strategic planning process is basically about having a vision and mission for where we want to be and a plan for what it’s going to take to get us there,” Gutknecht said.

The committee will discuss an outline of what such a process might entail at its next meeting at the Nix Center at 3 p.m., May 27.

“I think it’s important that we move forward with some recommendation to the council,” Quinn said. “It’s important that we show to the public that we are looking to the future, but the decision about strategic planning is also going to come down to its cost.”