FAIRHOPE, Alabama—Come Monday, the Fairhope Police Department will be under new leadership, following the resignation this week of the department’s chief and assistant chief.

The resignation letters of Police Chief Bill Press and Assistant Chief Terry Sanders were handed in Tuesday, Mayor Tim Kant said yesterday.

As of Sept. 24, Capt. Joe Petties, the department’s third-highest-ranking officer, will serve in an interim capacity until a new chief is hired, he said.

“I didn’t make any announcement out of respect to the chief,” Kant said. “He wanted to talk to his officers, and he went and visited with them (Wednesday). We then let everybody know.”

Their last day on the job will be today, but they will be paid through Nov. 5, he said. On that first Monday in November, the new City Council that was elected Sept. 11 will take office and is expected to begin a process to select a new chief, Kant said.

“Every four years, the city clerk, treasurer and police chief are reappointed, or not reappointed, by the council,” he said.

The mayor said he had met with some of the council-members-elect, who indicated they may go through a process similar to that used in 2009, when Press was hired, to select a new chief.

Such meetings of council-members-elect are covered by the Alabama Open Meetings Act, meaning there can be no meetings of a quorum of council members at one time, Kant said.

The hiring process in 2009 saw more than 100 applications received and numerous meetings of a council-appointed selection committee, concluding with interviews by the council of the final contenders conducted in open meetings.

From his first appearance at a council meeting shortly after his hiring in 2009, Press took an assertive stance in terms of the changes that he saw were needed to reform some practices in the department.

Those departmental changes often put him at odds with Kant. The conflicts reached a head less than a year after Press’ hiring, when Kant sent a letter to the Alabama Ethics Commission in 2010, which initiated an ethics complaint against the new chief over the handling of off-duty-officer employment.

Press was cleared of that complaint more than a year later in August 2011.

Press and Kant also butted heads over the use of free police escorts for funeral processions, which were ended by the department under the chief’s instructions.

During one council meeting at which that issue came up, a heated exchange occurred in which Kant threatened to fire Press.

The ending of free funeral escorts by the police department also led to local funeral home owner Gary Wolfe contemplating a run for council with the avowed goal of being part of a council that would fire Press. Because Wolfe lives outside city limits, he was not eligible to run for council, and his efforts to annex into the city were rejected by the current council.

But during the weeks and months leading up to the city election this year, Wolfe’s funeral home became the meeting place for Kant and several council challengers, Kant and some candidates confirmed. And earlier this year, a campaign run out of the Biscuit King restaurant stated its goal as electing a new council, which would then fire the chief.

The Sept. 11 election removed all incumbents that selected Press as chief in 2009 and added a majority of members who had been identified with the mayor’s campaign for re-election.

“With the change of council members in the election, we knew that it was inevitable that I would not be rehired,” Press said yesterday. “There was already talk about doing away with Terry Sanders’ position, who’s been nothing less than outstanding. I had executive-level training scheduled for October that was cancelled by the mayor. As a result, we saw the writing on the wall. I did what I thought was in the best interests of the department during this transitional phase of hiring a new chief.”

Kant said yesterday he thought it probable that the assistant police chief would be phased out, but a final decision on that would occur during discussions with the new police chief.

“The whole intent of this is to control the police department,” Press said, referring to efforts to hire a new council that would not reappoint him. “If you control it, you can control tickets and what your people do, unless you have an individual such as me, who is willing to fight ethically and legally to do what is right under every circumstance and without swaying under pressure.”

The new police chief will be subject to more direct control by the mayor because of his apparent majority on the new council, Press said.

“If they don’t do what the mayor wants, they are out of there,” said Press, referring to the new police chief to be selected by the council.

Press pointed to bringing the department into the 21^st century in terms of technological needs at the departments, as well as standardizing a number of procedures used by officers and staff in carrying out their duties, as among his major accomplishments of the past three years.

He also said significant progress had been made at the FPD for performance evaluations and disciplinary proceedings. He pointed to a new procedure requiring the use of an objective hearing officer in such cases instead of a police officer appointed by the mayor to conduct the hearings as one major step forward.

Those new procedures were used during the discipline and termination of half a dozen officers, he said.

“The biggest problem that I see with the department right now is that there will be a lack of consistent proven leadership,” Press said. “The word is that they will be bringing back the people we terminated, or who resigned because they were going to be terminated. These people will be returning. Maybe not all of them but some of them. If that is the case, it will be a huge setback for the department.”

Despite the power struggles, Kant had mostly positive things to say about Press’ tenure in office.

“I think he tried hard to change the direction of the department and was successful in a lot of areas,” Kant said. “I just believe the biggest challenge he and I had were over communication issues. Other than that, I think he’s instituted a lot of good programs.”

Kant discounted rumors that former police chiefs such as Chris Browning or Jerry Anderson had been considered and possibly already selected as finalists for the soon-to-be vacant police chief position.

“I’ve had rumors of a lot of people coming back, but there again we are going to post the job and have applicants fill out applications and submit those applications,” Kant said. “Once we gather them all, we’ll have to take direction from the new council on how they want to proceed.”