FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Strategic Planning Steering Committee met Thursday but with one member fewer than its first appointments in September, after the surprise resignation of committee member Dave Jester, who resigned per a letter dated Oct. 9 that was distributed at Monday’s City Council meeting.

Jester’s departure leaves John Gutknecht, Ron Heveran and Marvin Wilder on the committee, and one resident member vacancy.

In September, the council appointed those four members to the new committee that will help the city develop a formal strategic plan. They had also served on the Strategic Planning Process Committee that recommended a process for developing the plan, which included the appointment of the entire nine-person committee during the first council meeting in September.

The council adopted that recommendation of the committee on July 28, but during the Sept. 8 council meeting Councilman Mike Ford objected to appointing all seven resident members at that time. The other committee members are the mayor and a council person selected by council president.

After considerable discussion on what kind of members should be on the committee, the council appointed four initial members with plans to appoint the remaining three members after the new council is seated on Nov. 3.

During Monday’s council meeting, Ford announced the names of five people he would like to considered for the committee: Phil Dyson, Betsy Hunter, Bobby Mannich, former Mayor Jim Nix and Louis Zadnichek.

“I think Jim Nix has a wealth of knowledge,” Ford said. “Jim is agreeable to serve.”

One of Ford’s objections to the initial appointment of all seven resident members at the September meeting was some members had not lived in Fairhope a long time and did not bring that historical background to the committee.

“I think that (Nix) would balance the committee,” Ford said.

Jester’s letter, addressed to the current five-member council and copied to Mayor Tim Kant, incoming Councilmen Rick Kingrea and Lonnie Mixon (replacing Councilmen Bob Gentle and Cecil Christenberry) and local media, said he resigned because he could “not in good faith serve a mayor” for reasons connected to actions Kant took during the recent election campaign.

However, as set out in the July 28 final report of the Strategic Planning Process Committee of which Jester was a member, the steering committee is identified as providing assistance to the city as a whole and not the mayor.

Jester’s resignation does create a vacancy on the committee.

“The new council in November needs to consider appointing Bob Gentle” the letter states. Gentle will no longer be a council person at that time.

The current strategic planning initiative is the result of a Fairhope Governmental Structure Committee which submitted a final report to the council Oct. 8, 2007.

That committee included the following recommendations in its report, which the council accepted but did not adopt.

“A. Develop summarized, easy-to-read financial reports emphasizing graphs, trends and key performance indicators instead of traditional line-by-line detail.

B. Develop a 36-48 month projection of revenues, expenses, capital requirements and priorities, and sources/uses of cash.

C. Initiate a strategic planning process, using a consultant if necessary. Follow Government Finance Officers Association best practice guidelines.

D. Initiate all large requests for capital through the strategic planning process and defer all large requests until a 36-month financial projection is done.

E. The positions of mayor and superintendent of utilities should be separated effective immediately following the municipal elections of August 2012.

F. The City Council should retain its financial control and oversight responsibilities for the city utilities.”