FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The City Council passed a resolution Monday requiring all city bids to first be presented and approved by the council’s Finance Committee before being published.

“These bids used to go out without our consideration first,” Council President Debbie Quinn said. “The council will now decide if they need to go out.”

Quinn said the new procedure will promote better financial decisions by considering the bids earlier in the process.

“We’ll be looking at the (financial) numbers before it gets to this point,” said Quinn, referring to the decision at council meetings whether to award contracts let out to bid.

That action is the latest by the council in exercising more control over city financial matters.

At the last regular meeting, the council adopted an ordinance giving it ultimate authority in the hiring of many department heads and city managers. Previously, the mayor had that authority. An earlier proposed ordinance gave all power to the council in hiring those positions but at the last meeting, the ordinance passed was amended to require the mayor to first recommend a nominee for the job for the council’s approval.

That amendment signaled a shift by the council, that while exercising more control in various areas including financial matters, it also recognized the role of the mayor’s office in such decision-making.

The council has also been more active in its review of financial reports, holding regular Finance Committee meetings.

During Monday’s meeting, Councilman Lonnie Mixon, chairman of that committee, said his recent conversations with Mayor Tim Kant indicated the possibility of 5 to 10 percent cost reductions across the board early next year.

“Hopefully we can come up with some spending cuts by that time,” said Mixon, referring to a Jan. 12 financial update meeting of the Finance Committee.

Mixon’s statements followed a finance report by City Treasurer Nancy Wilson and Financial Reporting Manager Rose Fogarty.

“As you can see, income is down across the board,” said Mixon, referring to the financial reports for the first two months of the current fiscal year through Nov. 30.

Those reports indicated that revenue for all city funds for that period was $7,947,766 and expenses were $8,764,493, showing a deficit of $816,727. For the same period last year, the city financial reports showed $200,759 in revenues over expenses.

In other business, the council:

• Increased annual membership fees at the James P. Nix Center from $15 to $20.

“The last time the fees were increased was in 2003,” said Quinn, referring to an increase from $12 to $15 that year. “These will go into effect on Jan. 1.”

•Approved a restaurant liquor license for Christopher R. Darbe of Darbe LLC doing business as Gambino’s at 18 Laurel Ave. Darbe said he expected the restaurant to open in January. The restaurant was shut down recently when its last owner was discovered not to have a liquor license.

•Approved the minutes from the Dec. 8 council meeting. Prior to the vote to approve the minutes, Quinn stated she made a few changes.

“Shouldn’t we say what we changed,” Councilman Mike Ford asked.

“I just clarified a few things,” Quinn responded.

The council voted unanimously to approve the minutes without discussion of what the changes were.