FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The City Council voted unanimously Monday evening to offer Bill Press, a 35-year veteran of the Miami-Dade Police Department the police chief job starting July 1 at a $95,000 annual salary. Yesterday morning, he accepted.

“He will be on the job next week,” said Council President Debbie Quinn.

“All six candidates were superb applicants,” Quinn said.

The council conducted interviews with those men Saturday at the James P. Nix Center, and five of them, not including acting Chief Terry Sanders, also met in private interviews with Mayor Tim Kant that day. Kant did not attend the public interviews, which lasted from 8:30 a.m. to after 2 p.m.

Several ranking police officers also attended the private interviews in the mayor’s office, Kant said, including Capt. Mike Comalander, Lt. Joe Petties, Sgt. Charles Sullivan, Sgt. Larry Sledge, and others whom he could not immediately remember.

“I’m proud that we have Bill Press,” Kant said. “He was my number one choice along with the other officers in the station. I think he’ll be a great asset to the community. When I interviewed him, he had a lot of great knowledge to bring to us. He has experience going through Hurricane Andrew, and I think it’s important to have a police chief who understands hurricanes. Another point was he spent a lot of his career out on the street patrolling, and he plans to be hands-on. He plans to be in the patrol car from time to time on different shifts to see what’s going on and make sure that people are doing what they’re supposed to.”

The council also decided Monday to keep Sanders on the job until July 8, and to prohibit any lateral transfers within the police department for three months after the new chief’s arrival.

“If selected, I’ll be here tomorrow,” Press said during his public interview Saturday with the council. “There’s a need to address things as quickly as possible.”

One of the six questions asked of each applicant Saturday included the following query: “Certain groups from within the police department feel that the new chief should have been promoted from within. How would you deal with this in order to form a strong, unified department and how will you win their confidence and respect. Be as specific as you can.”

Press said, “I’m of the same philosophy but sometimes that’s not an option,” adding that “when I leave there will be a successor program in place.”

During a May 18 special council meeting to discuss logistics for interviewing the finalists for the chief job, the council voted to move the date of public interviews from June 13 to June 20 to accommodate Kant’s request, who said he would be out of town the 13th

“I was surprised that the mayor didn’t attend the (public) interviews,” said Councilman Rick Kingrea, adding that he only learned of Kant’s plan for private interviews with the candidates on Saturday.

Kant said, “We talked amongst ourselves after each candidate,” referring to the other ranking police officers, who participated in the interviews.

On June 4, Kant said he had veto power over the council’s appointment of the police chief, but last week during a visit to brief local officials on legal issues facing cities, Ken Smith, deputy director and general counsel of the Alabama League of Municipalities, said the mayor did not have that power.

“No, I was never going to be doing any vetoing,” Kant said.

One immediate issue Press will face is the pending disciplinary against Capt. Steve Griffis, a 25-year veteran and second-in-command at the department. Griffis faces a July 2 disciplinary hearing on what Kant said might be nine charges of misconduct in office, which could result in his dismissal, according to some sources.

The hearing officer in that pre-disciplinary review, Fred King, an investigator in the department since July 2007, according to city records, attended the Monday council meeting. King was appointed to the hearing officer position for police disciplinary cases recently by General Superintendent Gregg Mims, pursuant to an amended rule in the department that shifted the appointing authority for that job from Kant to Mims earlier this year.

Despite his pending hearing and not being a finalist for the position, campaign signs supporting Griffis for the chief job appeared in various locations around town late last week. And last month, Kant and Councilman Mike Ford signed petitions in his support at a special council meeting attended by a number of Griffis supporters, including his wife and stepchildren, some of whom held handmade signs. The signs last week were professionally printed.

“No, he was not one of them,” said Kant, regarding whether Griffis was one of the ranking officers who participated in his private interviews with the candidates.

During his Saturday public interview with the council, Press answered that discipline of police officers was the most difficult task to perform as a supervisor.

Griffis was initially placed on paid administrative leave by Sanders on May 23, but he was returned to work shortly thereafter on Kant’s order.

Sanders, appointed as interim chief in January, attended Monday’s meeting and sat without any visible change in expression after the council voted to hire Press.

“We want to thank Terry Sanders,” Quinn said. “He has had to carry a heavy yoke. We appreciate everything he’s done.”

After Monday’s council meeting, Quinn said Human Resources Director Rhonda White would call Press to make the job offer on behalf of the city.

At his Saturday interview, Press said the greatest needs of the police department were money and “good leadership.”

“This has to come from the top,” Press said. “My organization will consist of complete transparency.”