FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The City Council appointed four members to the city’s new Strategic Planning Steering Committee Monday after objections were made to the process during the work session held prior to the meeting.

“Long-range planning will ensure that the city’s resources will be focused on the needs and priorities of the community, and that adequate funding will be available even in the event of an emergency,” said Chuck Zunk, chairman of the Fairhope Airport Authority, who chaired a committee to develop a process for strategic planning in the city. “The primary role of the steering committee is to facilitate the planning process, and with the four members appointed (Monday night), they are already off to a great start.”

The council voted unanimously to appoint Ron Heveran, John Gutknecht, Dave Jester and Marvin Wilder, all four of whom had served on the Strategic Planning Process Committee created by the council on April 14 to recommend a process for accomplishing a strategic plan for Fairhope.

That committee, in its final report to the council on July 28, recommended the City Council appoint seven “citizen” members at the council’s first meeting in September. It also recommended the committee have nine members including the mayor and a council member named by the council president.

Following that report, the council voted unanimously to appoint the first seven members in September as recommended. The agenda for Monday’s meeting indicated seven members were proposed for appointment.

However, during Monday’s work session, Councilman Mike Ford raised questions about whether the qualifications of the proposed members had been reviewed and objected to the appointment of any members that night. He said the committee needed members who had lived in the area a long time.

“I personally would like to put it off until the next meeting to see the qualifications instead of voting blindly,” Ford said. “I think we ought to wait. It’s too important. We need to see their qualifications.”

Councilwoman Debbie Quinn said the council had already voted to appoint seven members, and that no council members other than herself and Council President Bob Gentle had nominated any candidates for the committee.

According to council records, she recommended the four members who were appointed Monday night, as well as Paulette Fedor who was not appointed. Gentle also recommended Heveran and Jester, as well as Pamela S. Caudill, who was not appointed.

“I recommended Jim Nix and somebody laughed at me,” said Ford, referring to the former Fairhope mayor. He did not state when he made the recommendation.

“Do you think he would be willing to serve,” Councilman Cecil Christenberry said.

“I don’t think he would,” Mayor Tim Kant said.

At the council meeting, Quinn recommended that four members be appointed with the additional three citizen members to be appointed later.

“I’ve got no real problem with the four you have suggested,” Ford said during the regular meeting. “I think that with the other three we need to dig a little deeper and (consider some) that have been here longer.”

Kant recommended the council consider diversity in future appointments, because the four members appointed were all white males.

“Before the end of the year the other five members of the steering committee will be appointed, and the strategic planning process will begin,” Zunk said after the Monday meeting. “One of the first considerations of the steering committee will be whether to recommend to City Council that an advisory group of perhaps 25 members be appointed to be a sounding board for the steering committee as it performs its duties. The advisory group would be as diverse as possible in membership, to ensure that all parts of the community have direct input into the planning process. Of course, the Steering Committee will also schedule many meetings with the community at-large, and with city staff, so that in the end, the long-range Strategic and Financial Plan will be the product of community members, city staff and elected officials.”

In other business, the council:

• Appointed Pamela S. Caudill to the Fairhope Airport Authority to fill the position of Louis Mapp, who resigned.

• Approved cash disbursements for the following accounts payable: (1) general fund, $1,687,271; (2) gas fund, $462,701; (3) electric fund, $1,939,865; (4) water and sewer fund, $402,477; (4) golf fund, $129,999; (5) gas tax, $2,030; (6) capital projects, $90,781; total, $4,725,127.