FAIRHOPE, Ala. — A large group seeking to have Fairhope Police Department Capt. Steve Griffis appointed police chief is expected to attend Tuesday’s City Council meeting carrying signs, and to present a stack of petition signatures on his behalf.

That, at least, is what was said Monday by some people carrying signs and getting petitions signed at the May 18 council meeting when council members discussed the next steps for interviews of police chief applicants.

The May 26 council agenda (see the full agenda on Page 3A), shows that “Dan Corte (Jr.) and/or Mike Skinner representing Concerned Citizens of Fairhope for Steve Griffis” will be speaking during the public participation portion of the meeting.

But recent statements by Skinner, Corte Jr. (the father of Danny Corte III, who ran unsuccessfully against Councilman Dan Stankoski last year), and others, including another person identified on the signature petition as an organizer of the effort, have raised questions about what size turnout there will be, and just who this group represents and why.

“I don’t have a clue,” said Dilana Norman, about who is the main person or persons behind the group that materialized suddenly last weekend, when flyers were distributed around town touting Griffis’ qualifications for the job as a 25-year-veteran of the FPD.

However, Norman’s name (although misspelled) does appear on the petition with those of Corte and Skinner as the “Organizers For Concerned Citizens of Fairhope.”

In a phone conversation yesterday, Norman said she had been asked to support Griffis and did attend the May 18 meeting, but doesn’t know who is really behind the campaign. She also said she is not one of the organizers of the group.

She said she was surprised to see her name on the petition Monday night.

Norman also said that she has only made a few phone calls regarding the Griffis campaign.

She called Council President Debbie Quinn, speaking on behalf of Griffis, and she also called Corte (Jr.), she said, because she was told he was a main person behind the group, but he told her that he was not.

Corte said in a phone conversation with the Courier Thursday that Corte Jr. would not be at the Tuesday council meeting. He did say he had been called by someone to speak on behalf of the group, but he couldn’t remember who it was, although he does remember getting a call from Norman, which may have been a different call from the one asking him to speak, he said, but could not remember with certainty.

“They called and asked if I would speak,” Corte said Thursday. “I said, well if I was going to be here, I wouldn’t mind speaking, but that I won’t be in town.”

In Wednesday’s Fairhope Courier, a statement was attributed to Corte’s son as saying that they wanted him to be a spokesperson but that he could not. It should have been attributed to Dan Corte Jr.

The reason for the mistaken attribution was that someone claiming to be local realtor Donna Cook called the Courier Monday and gave a lengthy statement about the Griffis campaign that was reported in Wednesday’s paper.

The Fairhope Courier has spoken by phone several times with a female stating she is Donna Cook. When a Courier staffer returns these calls, the Donna Cook answering states she did not call in. The Courier is uncertain at this time whether it has spoken with one female or two.

On Friday, for example, the paper got a call from Cook asking for a return call. The paper did, at the number given, and that person said she had not called the paper. That person said she had not spoken with the reporter Monday as detailed in Wednesday’s story.

Cook has been identified as being at the Monday meeting by Quinn, in a picture taken by the newspaper and shown to her. A signature of a Donna Cook is also on the petition in a photo accompanying this story.

However, the newspaper staff has not yet met with Donna Cook in person.

The person calling herself Donna Cook also suggested some individuals to call and provided phone numbers for those she said are the main people working for the citizens group, such as Dan Corte. It was assumed when that Dan Corte was reached by the Courier reporter, he was the Corte who ran against Stankoski.

But that was cleared up Thursday in telephone conversations with Corte Jr. and Corte III. However, Corte III confirmed yesterday that he did attend the May 18 meeting.

Confused yet?

Skinner was, if not confused, at least greatly surprised, when he heard that Corte (Dan Jr.) was not going to be speaking at the Tuesday meeting. He was glad to learn that from the Courier because he had not been expecting to have to speak.

He did confirm that he was the person who delivered a memo to City Clerk Lisa Hanks Tuesday requesting permission for the Concerned Citizens of Fairhope to speak at the council meeting.

“The Concerned Citizens of Fairhope for Steve Griffis request to speak at the City Council meeting May 26, 2009, on behalf of our concerns regarding the Chief selection and process,” the memo states. “Dan Corte and/or Mike Skinner will speak on our behalf.”

Skinner also said that someone who called him Monday, and said they were “Robin,” and asked him to deliver the Griffis flyer to the Fairhope Courier office, may not have been Robin Griffis, the wife of Capt. Griffis.

He said he just assumed it was her, but that he talked with her later, and she said she did not call him as it was reported in the paper.

He said he doesn’t know who called him.

Robin Griffis was at the May 18 meeting and a picture of a boy holding a handwritten sign supporting her husband for chief, which ran this week in the Mobile Press Register, was identified by Quinn as Robin’s son and Griffis’ stepson.

Attempts to reach either Steve or Robin Griffis this week have been unsuccessful. The home phone has been steadily busy and Griffis was off work until yesterday, when he did not return a phone call by press time.

Skinner is also unclear about who was to pay for an ad, or who was behind it, to run in the Saturday, May 23 Fairhope Courier, but he had assumed it was going to run. It was to be a full-page ad of a verbatim transcript of a seven-page letter written by Doug Lamplugh, a candidate for the police chief job but not a finalist, which criticized in considerable detail the selection process, based on his review of city records and his experience with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The newspaper staff said it would need confirmation that Lamplugh had authorized the use of his letter.

He sent the following e-mail Wednesday and also confirmed by phone that he had sent the e-mail.

“I’m not involved in the advertisement at all,” he stated by e-mail on May 20. “I gave that letter to each member of the council on Monday and was asked if I would allow it to be published. Since I gave the letter to the council members and to your reporter Mike Odom on Monday night, I consider the letter a matter of public record and in the public domain. I was told some citizens wanted to have it published and was asked to send a copy to you. I’m not sure who is behind the ad.”

The newspaper received a call Wednesday from a woman, who would not give her name, who stated she wanted to run the ad and stated who would pay for it. Those individuals have not yet been reached to ask whether they knew they were part of the campaign effort. The newspaper reserved the space for the ad, prepared the ad, but the deadline for payment came and went without anyone coming in to pay.

Quinn said Norman did call her supporting Griffis, and she also said she received a call from Betsy Hunter on his behalf. A letter from Hunter was distributed at Monday’s meeting and in a package with a flyer and a petition to local businesses, Quinn said. Hunter works at Baldwin County Properties Inc., which is owned by Cook, according to its Web site. It was initially incorporated by Norman, according to state records. Norman said she sold the business, and Cook states on the Web site that she bought it.

Quinn also said she has received several anonymous calls since the citizens group materialized a week ago, one of which was of a threatening nature to her, from a woman who would not identify herself.

“This council’s intention was to take the politics out of the search for a new police chief that can lead Fairhope into the 21st century,” Quinn said. “I’m disappointed that this has become a political campaign full of rhetoric, intimidation tactics and no factual information. Many community volunteers and city staff have given countless hours of their time to this open, transparent process. I have great respect for our police department and hope that we can put this behind us soon.

Editor’s note: If anyone knows who is “behind” the ad mentioned in this story, or one of the main organizers of the Griffis campaign, or has knowledge of the identify of a woman who may have impersonated Donna Cook and Robin Griffis, please contact the reporter of this story.