FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Any questions about whether Fairhope’s new City Council intends to act as a stronger council may have been put to rest this week.

The council took several actions Monday that indicated major changes will occur this year regarding the balance of power in Fairhope’s city government.

“These next three or four months are liable to be kind of rocky,” said Councilman Rick Kingrea, starting his first term in the council place held by Bob Gentle since 2000.

“It’s (going to be ) a little bit different than it has been in the past.”

Although the words “strong council-weak mayor” are not stated in any Alabama statute, the phrase is often invoked as to how a city government organizes itself once it passes certain population thresholds.

Fairhope passed the 12,000 population threshold with the 2000 census, and the first council on which the mayor did not sit as a member and preside was 2004. Thus, the council that took its oath Nov. 3 is the second one operating under Alabama law which, in theory, give the council additional authority.

“These are things that should have been done four years ago,” said Council President Debbie Quinn, responding to Councilman Mike Ford’s objections to proposals which limited Mayor Tim Kant’s participation in council meetings and other actions which shifted the balance of power between council and mayor.

At its second meeting Monday, the council not only adopted new rules of procedure that removed the mayor’s regular participation in council meetings, but also repealed the ordinance requiring the mayor to serve as Superintendent of Utilities.

In another action, although the item was not on the council agenda, Councilman Lonnie Mixon made a motion to temporarily freeze all hiring and promotion of city employees.

Councilman Dan Stankoski amended the motion, limiting the freeze to 60 days. That motion passed, with Ford as lone dissenter, as happened frequently during Monday’s meeting.

Kingrea said he understood the motion to freeze hirings and promotions was to allow the council to get a handle on the amount of employee salaries in terms of the overall budget.

The outgoing council passed a temporary budget through the end of the year in order for the new council to have input into the budget’s remaining 10 months of the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2009.

The council also proposed one sweeping change that would give it new authority over many city employees.

“I had an attorney for the (Alabama) League of Municipalities look at it,” said Mixon, referring to a two-page document he prepared that described the powers of the council and mayor. “He said it was right on target.”

That document was not adopted or approved by the council, but it was handed out to the audience at the start of the meeting and would become important later when the council discussed an ordinance authorizing it to appoint all department heads in a city, in addition to appointing officers such as City Treasurer and City Clerk.

The document contends that councils have that power, quoting several Alabama Attorney General opinions and state law.

The ordinance failed on a procedural vote with Ford preventing its adoption Monday night.

Quinn said the ordinance would be considered at the next council meeting on Nov. 24, at which time unanimous consent will not be required for the council to vote on it.

If the ordinance is adopted, it will be perhaps the most controversial and unprecedented action of the new council to date, giving it the authority to hire, fire and discipline all city department heads, including the following: city clerk, assistant city clerk, city treasurer, chief of police, assistant chief of police, municipal judge, city attorney, utilities superintendent, city manager, administrative assistant, planning director, engineer, purchasing director, senior services director, public works director, human resource director, personnel director, maintenance director, building official, recreation/youth director, revenue director, finance director, audit director, tax assessor, manager of business accounts, tax collector, golf director and superintendents of all utility departments, not limited to gas, water, sewer, electricity.

Monday’s council meeting was a standing-room-only event, with numerous city employees in attendance. They did not cheer and applaud as they did during a meeting of the outgoing council that gave them an across-the-board 4 percent salary increase.

But there was some clapping. After one action that gave the council new power, former council president Bob Gentle clapped loudly from where he stood in the back of the room.

Although the new rules adopted by the council Monday removed the “Mayor’s Comments” item from future agendas, Kant was on the agenda Monday night.

He addressed an issue where a bill had not been paid as he instructed and used that situation to illustrate the importance of city employees and others knowing the various lines of authority in the city.

“I suggest we have a meeting to discuss where the executive and legislative branches meet,” he said. “There is a lot of gray area. I have responsibilities, and (the council has) responsibilities.”

No one on the council responded to his statement.

In other action, the council:

•Appointed Harvey Joanning as the fourth member to the city’s Strategic Planning Steering Committee. The council delayed voting on the remaining three resident members until the next meeting. Quinn noted that Mixon was the council member appointed to the committee and that Kant also served on it.

Ford had earlier nominated former Mayor Jim Nix to the committee, but withdrew him from consideration Monday.

“I pulled Jim Nix because I could not get support to put him in,” Ford said. “I withdrew his name because I didn’t want to embarrass him.”

Kant also nominated Paulette Fedor and John Meyer to the committee on Monday. Meyer was defeated by Quinn in the recent council election, and Fedor has been attending and sitting in on recent Strategic Planning Steering Committee meetings. She also sat at the table with other department heads during a Finance Committee meeting last week. She was the only non-employee or elected official at the table.

• Changed the dates of council meetings as part of its new rules of procedure to 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Monday of each month. It also will hold one work session to precede the last council meeting of the month.