FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The public had a rare window into municipal finances this week when a committee appointed by the City Council held two days of open budget hearings.

The Finance Advisory Committee met for more than 12 hours on Wednesday and Thursday to review a budget submitted by Mayor Tim Kant and hear from a number of city department heads regarding their department’s budgets, which they had prepared themselves for the first time for such a process, according to city officials.

“A lot of us (on the council) have had questions in the past about the budget that have never been answered,” said Council President Debbie Quinn, an ex-officio member of the committee. “Some of those same questions have been asked again during the past two days by people with relevant financial and professional experience. It’s been a very interesting and constructive process.”

The next fiscal year starts Oct. 1 and, by that time, the committee will be making recommendations to the council, which will formally adopt the budget, said Chuck Zunk, FAC chairman.

“The purpose of these (two days of) meetings is to gather information and get some questions on the table,” Zunk said at the start of the hearings Wednesday. “We view this as a cooperative effort. We’re here to learn. The time for analysis will come later.”

During the two days, the committee heard from the heads of the three public utilities, golf course, information technology services, police department, recreation department, library, and from City Administrator Gregg Mims and Administrative Superintendent James Gillespie.

The committee adopted the nine following areas for the committee to focus its work on: (1) ongoing budget process; (2) improved financial reports; (3) city debt; (4) vehicle policy and replacement process; (5) Fairhope’s cash flow model; (6) cost reduction program; (7) consultants versus on-roll (in-house) expertise; (8) health care; and (9) building public confidence.

At its initial meeting in July, Councilman Lonnie Mixon, chair of the council’s finance committee, stated that, “(The Finance Advisory Committee) is one of the most important committee that the council has formed this year. This will dovetail with what the mayor did a month ago to open the books on city finances. This will make our system totally transparent.”

At that July meeting, the committee adopted the following mission statement: “To investigate and analyze all aspects of city finances including assets and liabilities, income and expenditures and cash flow. Special emphasis shall be placed on current and future potential debt, and upon future potential investments in large assets. After investigation and analyses, the FAC shall make appropriate recommendations to the City Council, taking into consideration the recommendations of the Strategic Planning Committee.”

All council members and Kant are ex-officio members of the committee, Zunk said. Quinn and Mixon attended the entire time, with Councilmen Dan Stankoski and Rick Kingrea attending parts of the meeting. Neither Kant nor Councilman Mike Ford attended the meetings.

The next meeting of the FAC will occur at 3 p.m., Sept. 9, in the Delchamps Room at the Civic Center.