GULF SHORES, Ala. - Several key items of Monday night’s 3 1/2 hour-long Gulf Shores City Council work session included: restaurants in restricted business zoning only by special permission, redistribution of funds generated in the police jurisdiction, and a request asking for support of a state legislative bill relative to businesses employing illegal aliens.

  Baldwin County Administrator Michael Thompson, who was first to speak, called on Council to consider joining other cities in a partnership with the county relative to a new county animal shelter and proposed county-wide pet licensing  program.

  According to Thompson, his current request is simply asking for consideration of a resolution that would express support for the new shelter and licensing program. “Because of its population Gulf Shores will soon be required by law to provide animal shelter facilities, we think a county program will be much cheaper for our municipalities than individual facilities,” Thompson said.

  Dennis Hatfield, chairman of the sustainable growth committee, provided an update to Council on conducting a phone survey within the city to determine the stance of citizens on key issues.

  “All of this is a result of a Town Hall meeting that was called late last year, the idea of conducting a survey came out of that meeting,” Hatfield said. “After thoughtful consideration we’ve decided a phone survey would work best for our situation.”

  Upon approval by Council the process would take about five weeks from start until completion with results, according to Hatfield. The survey, consisting of 50 questions or less, would be conducted by the University of South Alabama Polling Group under the direction of Dr. Keith Nichols.

  The group, which consists of students, guarantees 400 qualified responses at a cost of $12 each for a total of $4,800. However, Councilwoman Carolyn Doughty noted the city would be eligible for a grant to cover the expense.

  “We’d be able to cover those costs with a $5,000 economic development grant,” she said. “I really think right now during this election year is a great time for this survey to know what the public thinks and according to Dr. Nichols this survey would like cost three times more for the same results if conducted through a private consultant,” Hatfield added.

  Perhaps the topic that received the most input from the audience was the issue of whether restaurants should be allowed in restricted business zoning only by special permission. The city currently does not allow restaurants within BR zoning.

  The discussion comes as a result of requests by Rennard Knight among others to place a restaurant in BR zoning. According to Mayor Billy Duke, Council has been strongly opposed to even discussing the matter due to what he calls lack of knowledge concerning BR zoning.

  Sharon Moore confronted Council on the fact the issue has came up several times before without any resolution. “It seems as though the citizens have spoken as to how they feel on this matter but it just keeps coming up again,” she said.

  “The only reason this matter is being discussed now is because we submitted it to our consultant, KPS, who suggested small restaurants in certain areas of the BR zoning might be appropriate since citizens said they would like the convenience of businesses that are within walking distance,” Duke said.

  At least two men in the audience expressed dissent with the idea of restaurants in any part of the BR zoning district. “I live in the North Lagoon area and I would like BR to stay the way it is now, a buffer for residential areas,” one man said.

  Another man who also did not identify himself said as a single man he dines out frequently and believes that the city needs more restaurants. “I would be in favor of allowing restaurants in some of these areas to alleviate the shortage of restaurants the city has had since [Hurricane] Ivan,” he said.

  Planning Director Steve Foote said other language ought to be changed regarding the BR district regardless of the outcome of the restaurant issue. “We’d like to delete language allowing businesses within that district the ability to rent watercraft such as jetskis under certain conditions,” he said. “We’d like to see that removed whether changes are made concerning restaurants or not.”

  Council appeared ready to support the combating of employment of illegal aliens but in a direction other than offering support for a state legislative bill as a requested by the city of Montgomery. The bill would call for more enforcement at the state and local levels.

  However, Council members seemingly agreed the better approach to the situation would be to show support for legal immigration workers rather than steps that could place extra strain on the city’s police force.

  Richard Schwartz, an area restauranteur, expressed concern that more enforcement would not only place more strain on the state and city but on the business community as well. “We already have almost too many steps to complete in order to ensure the people we hire are legal workers, I’m concerned about the hoops we might have to jump through with extra levels of enforcement,” he said.

  Duke brought forward another topic which evoked plenty of discussion, the issue of funds generated within the police jurisdiction and the city’s responsibility under law to return at least an amount that is equal to those funds by way of services.

  According to Duke, the city has collected nearly $1.1 million in the jurisdiction area within the last year without regard to business licenses. He said of that amount, $798,000 dollars was generated by lodging tax and $400,000 of that was for beach renourishment which has not be specifically conducted in that area.

  “I will just say that we’d be hard pressed to find that amount in expenditures for that area,” Duke said. “We must decide how to address this issue.”

  The issue boils down to whether the city will provide the area with total or limited services. Both Police Chief Arthur Bourne and Fire Chief Tim Blakemore said they favor having a police jurisdiction but disagree with providing total services.

  “I’ve always believed the PJ should not receive total services because they do not pay property taxes to the City of Gulf Shores,” Bourne said. “If you provide total services we’re going to need more people.”

  “I’m not advocating full services but we’re not doing enough in our PJ and I think it’s important that we do more,” Councilman Robert Craft said. “When we start calculating money generated by the PJ we need to make sure that it is put back to that area including the beach renourishment dollars.”

  The consensus of the discussion was the greatest problem facing the city concerning the jurisdiction is that individual properties have been annexed in areas such as Fort Morgan and Plash Island while other properties have remained in the jurisdiction.

  “I believe the ultimate solution to this problem is a referendum for total annexation in those areas,” Councilman Philip Harris said.