FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Although its members were appointed Jan. 25 by the City Council, the Fairhope School Feasibility Study Committee was never formally created by the council, and no written description of the committee’s purpose has yet been presented to the public.

The appointment of the committee members also did not follow a new procedure adopted by the council on Jan. 11 for filling vacancies on city boards and committees. Although that new procedure only requires that committees established by ordinance or resolution must comply with the new rule, when the idea for the committee was announced by Councilwoman Debbie Quinn two weeks ago, Council President Lonnie Mixon said if such a committee were established, it would follow the procedures of the new rule.

“There wasn’t time to do that because there’s supposed to be a 30-day notice,” Mixon said Monday, regarding one reason why appointments to the committee did not follow the new procedure. “This is not a committee to make any decision. What Dr. Harvey wanted is a group of people who could provide him with some information that he is going to need to do his study.”

Although the council did not entirely follow its new procedure for filling vacancies on existing or new committees, all committee members did file applications as required by the rule, as did two persons who were not appointed.

“I’ll give you names and applications on Friday,” Quinn wrote in an e-mail to City Clerk Lisa Hanks on Jan. 20. “We can place (the applications) in everyone’s (mail) box.”

When documents are submitted to the clerk’s office after Thursday, it is too late for them to be included in the council packet that is distributed to the media and public for the following Monday meeting.

When the committee members were appointed by the council on Jan. 25, there was no vote to establish such a committee first and no discussion about the individuals among the council members, although Quinn did make a few statements regarding the candidates she had nominated.

However, she did not mention that one of the nominees, Mike Keating, former director of planning and construction for Baldwin County Schools, resigned from that job in May 2008.

Mixon said he was not aware of that part of Keating’s background.

One of the requirements of the new appointing procedure is that the “appointing authority shall conduct such review, investigation and/or interviews as the appointing authority deems necessary or advisable.”

A public records request this week did obtain the committee applications, which included requests to serve on the committee by Kristie Street and John Meyer, but who were not appointed.

At an earlier council meeting, Quinn told Street that she would be “first on (her) list” to serve on the committee.

“Really it’s a group that can get him information, like from finance, and the schools and the general population,” Mixon said of the new committee requested by Harvey to fulfill his $25,000 contract with the city. “That’s the purpose of it. You can be sure that this is not going to be any kind of (committee) that is pro or anti a school system at all.