FAIRHOPE, Ala. - A new dispute about a private police bank account arose Wednesday when City Treasurer Nancy Wilson disagreed with Police Chief Bill Press’ statements at Monday’s City Council meeting over who sought to close the account for improperly using a city tax ID number.

“In light of recent published articles and other communications concerning the Friends of the Fairhope Police Department, I feel it necessary to respond,” Wilson stated in a March 30 email to local officials and media. “Any implication that my office allowed this error to continue until the police chief came and requested the change is false.”

Her March 30 email came two days after Press raised the issue at the March 28 council meeting, when he said Mayor Tim Kant had filed an ethics complaint against him regarding the use of the account to pay off-duty police officers.

In a three-page letter delivered to the council and distributed that night, Press stated that shortly after being hired in July 2009 he learned that the FFPD bank account “was improperly using the City tax ID number” which he brought to his “boss’ attention, as well as the City Treasurer.”

In that letter, Press stated that “in order to remedy the improper use of the City tax ID number, as well as what some of this money was used for, I closed the account and, through the City’s Attorney, a new account was reopened.”

Wilson’s version of events differs from the police chief’s by her statement that she informed him of the improper use of the city tax ID number during a January 2010 meeting with her and City Administrator Gregg Mims, following a Jan. 12 two-page letter to him informing him of the city tax ID issue and some options to address it.

“The chief wasn’t aware of the tax ID error before I made it known to him in my letter,” Wilson stated in an email to The Courier yesterday. “He was hesitant about closing the account, but certainly did not refuse to cooperate in closing it.”

A nonprofit organization called the Friends of Fairhope Police Department was incorporated on Jan. 25, 2010 by Press, Assistant Chief Terry Sanders and Sgt. Craig Sawyers, according to state records. Another nonprofit organization of the same name incorporated on December 19, 1989 by Myron H. Miner and Gloria Jean Bishop continues to exist, according to records.

“I never objected to closing the account,” Press stated in a March 30 email to The Courier. “I was the one who decided to do it when I found out it was using the City ID number. The delay in closing the account was waiting for the new account to be opened by the City attorney. His delay was in-depth paperwork and his schedule. As soon as it was opened we closed the (old) account.”

City Attorney Marion “Tut” Wynne could not be reached for comment by press time.

The old account was closed by Press on March 25, 2010, Wilson stated, following several communications between the city treasurer and police of chief, according to a March 22 letter from Wilson to Mims.

“The Chief informed me, in your presence, on January 13 that the account would be closed by the requested deadline of February 25, 2010, and a new account opened, with a new tax identification number,” Wilson stated. “A reminder email was sent to the Chief on February 15, requesting that the account be closed immediately, with copies to you and others. Several verbal inquiries concerning the account have been made by me to the Chief since that date. All efforts to have this account separated from the City have failed and the account remains open, experiencing significant monthly activity.”

Wilson’s Jan. 12 letter to Press stated that once the existing FFPD account was opened with a city tax ID in 2007, the account became “owned by the City effective with the date of the identification change.”

Wilson stated in an email to The Courier that she first learned of the change in status of the account in December 2009.

“The account stayed open during that time to continue the practice of paying off-duty police,” Press stated yesterday in an email to The Courier.

The new bank account in the name of the nonprofit Friends of Fairhope Police Department had a balance of $16,693 as of March 30, with Press, Sander and Sawyers authorized to sign checks on the Compass Bank account.

The nature of the business of the nonprofit group formed in 2010 by Press, Sanders and Sawyers is stated to “support the Fairhope Police Department,” according to records.