FAIRHOPE, Ala. - The appeal by a top city employee of her dismissal last month will be the first case heard by the City Council under an ordinance passed two years ago, which shifted final decisions regarding senior staff employment terminations from the mayor to the council.

Rhonda Bishop, the city’s human resources director, confirmed this week that she had been dismissed by Mayor Tim Kant, and that she had appealed his action to the council under the new ordinance.

Her case could be heard as early as the council’s next meeting March 14, according to city staff.

“If an employee is going to be dismissed, there is an appeal right, and that appeal would be to the City Council,” City Administrator Gregg Mims said Thursday. “But I’m not going to address anybody individually.”

Mims did confirm that such an appeal to the council would be the first taken under the ordinance since it became effective about two years ago.

Revisions to Section 2-2 of the city’s Code of Ordinances became effective shortly after a new council took office in November 2008, following municipal elections that year, and in early 2009.

Section 2-2(a) shifted the ultimate hiring and firing authority for a number of senior staff positions, including for the HR director, from the mayor to the council.

“The city council delegates to the mayor the authority to discipline and to dismiss these employees subject to the Personnel Rules, Policies and Procedures of the city,” Section 2-2(a) states. “Provided, dismissal, a demotion, or a suspension without pay, shall be subject to such employees’ appeal of the mayor's decision to the city council within ten (10) days after, an employee receives written notice of the mayor’s decision.”

Bishop said that Mims asked her to resign about three weeks ago, and she refused. She then had a meeting with Kant and Mims pursuant to the personnel rules, at which time, or shortly thereafter, she then appealed the dismissal to the council, becoming the first city employee to do so under the new ordinance.

She said she believed that she was “technically still an employee” because she was still receiving a paycheck, but that she had not reported to work for several weeks.

The HR office and its duties are being handled by the city clerk’s office, according to city staff.

Bishop’s appeal will be conducted pursuant to Section 2-2(a) which further states that, “After a hearing before the city council on appeal, the city council shall make the final decision by majority vote of the elected members of the council. In its sole discretion, the city council may approve, rescind or modify the mayor’s decision.”

The proposed revisions to Section 2-2 were harshly criticized at the time by Mayor Tim Kant and Councilman Mike Ford, a frequent ally of the mayor. But the revisions passed 4-1 over their objections.

That significant shift of power from mayor to council was one of a series of similar actions taken by the new council in late 2008 and early 2009.

At that time, some council members stated the actions were taken to enable the council to exercise its statutory duties in a “strong council-weak mayor” system, which Fairhope became after it reached a threshold population of 12,000 residents several years earlier.

At the time of her “dismissal,” Bishop’s salary was approximately $79,000 a year.

Bishop’s predecessor as HR director, Bryan Seibt, resigned in 2008. At that time, Bishop was human resources administrator. She was promoted to the director job a year later and her salary increased to that of Seibt’s, but an additional staff person was never added to the city’s small HR department, which was comprised of just Bishop since Seibt’s resignation.

According to the Alabama Open Meetings Act, discussions and hearings by the council regarding employment issues of municipal employees who make more than $50,000 annually cannot be conducted in private executive sessions, except in limited circumstances.