FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Chief of Police Search Committee had what might have been its final meeting Thursday night. The meeting was convened to vote in person on minutes improperly approved by electronic mail, according to the city attorney.

“After an opinion from City Attorney Tut Wynne stating that minutes can’t be approved by electronic means, I am calling a short meeting for Thursday, May 21 … to approve the minutes of the (April 7 and May 5 meetings),” said Vann Saltz, committee chairman, in an e-mail he sent May 15 to other committee members. “The meeting has been posted, as required. Please try and be there, so that we can end our responsibilities for this committee.”

Saltz sent an e-mail to the committee members on May 11, stating that the minutes from both meetings had been approved by an e-mail process.

Mayor Tim Kant, a member of the committee, said that he had not voted by e-mail to approve the minutes, nor had he seen copies of them, until he reviewed hard copies of the minutes at the May 11 council meeting.

He said that such actions by committees needed to occur in public as required by the state sunshine law.

“It’s the Open Meetings Act being applied to the committee’s work,” Wynne said yesterday, referring to why minutes cannot be approved by e-mail. He said all the work of the committee must be done in public. By using e-mail to take an official action, the open meetings law is violated, he said.

Although Kant did not attend Thursday’s meeting, he did provide recommended written amendments to the April 7 minutes shortly before that meeting, according to Saltz and Human Resources Administrator Rhonda White.

Kant’s proposed changes were not considered formally because he was was not there to make a motion to have them discussed, Saltz said that night and later confirmed by White.

The minutes from the April 7 meeting disclosed how Kant delegated his duty to rank the 116 applicants for the police chief position to city staff, and how he later objected to the results.

The minutes also show what appear to be several heated exchanges between committee members, and statements by Kant raising doubts about the candidacy of interim Police Chief Terry Sanders for the job. Those statements were questioned for their reliability by other committee members.

The minutes also show a personal comment made by Kant about the impartiality of White regarding the selection process. White is not a member of the committee, but serves in an advisory capacity.

None of the proposed changes are to delete any of the existing minutes, only to add additional language.

The proposed changes were noted in boldface print. Most of the proposed amendments consist of a phrase or a sentence or two. For example, one suggested change reads, “Take out a piece of paper and write down Terry Sanders name because he will be appointed.”

That proposed change to the minutes came more than a week after the May 11 council meeting at which Sanders’ name was added to the group of five finalists. It also came three days after a search committee meeting to discuss the process for public interviews of the applicants, at which supporters of Fairhope Police Department Capt. Steve Griffis appeared with signs and petitions seeking to have him appointed chief or included in the interview process.

Although most of the proposed changes were a sentence or two, one suggested amendment ran five sentences and followed a sentence that stated “Mayor Kant went on to say that he has heard nothing but complaints come out of the police department since Chief Sanders was appointed.”

The proposed changes to the April 7 minutes state as follows:

“He (Kant) said, I personally witnessed seeing dispatchers crying during work. In talking with citizens from Bay Minette, he was a good man. He was replaced because he was spending too much time in his office, not getting out in the public; to his credit, he has been visiting the schools and churches of Fairhope. The police department is worse today than before he started. I (Kant) stated that I have heard rumors, not knowing who is right or wrong, when I was interrupted by Rhonda White …”

Another proposed change in that same paragraph would have added that Kant’s statements about Sanders came in response to a request from Saltz and another committee member for a report on Sanders.

The minutes as adopted Thursday state that, “Mayor Kant advised the committee that Terry Sanders had been relieved by the Bay Minette City Council in November 2004 and that the Bay Minette City Council only let him stay on longer so that he could retire in June 2005.”

Kant did not make any suggested changes to the May 5 minutes. Both sets of minutes previously approved by e-mail were approved without any changes at the May 21 meeting, with one exception.

A statement attributed to Councilman Dan Stankoski, a member of the committee who chaired the selection process for the council, was changed from “Stankoski asked for everyone to please keep everything confidential,” to a statement that noted that only the names of the applicants were to be kept confidential, not the entire content of the committee’s meeting.

It is unclear whether Kant will seek to have another meeting of the committee called to formally consider his proposed changes to the minutes.

Search committee members in attendance at Thursday’s search meeting were: Saltz, Pam Caudill, Stankoski and Rick Wilson. Not in attendnace were: Bob Callahan, Valerie Chaney and Kant.