Fairhope Council Overrides Mayor’s Veto of Fly Creek PUD Ordinance; Questions Raised Over Lift Station Deed

FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Fairhope City Council on Monday voted to override the mayor’s veto of an ordinance amending Ordinance No. 1572, the Fly Creek PUD sunset provision, during a meeting that lasted about two and a half hours.

Questions About a 2016 Deed

In her comments on the veto, Mayor Karin Wilson raised questions about a resolution adopted at the previous council’s final meeting under former Mayor Tim Kant. The item, added to the agenda that day, accepted a deed from Angelo A. Corte to the City of Fairhope for property for a city sewer lift station. Kant was absent from that meeting; Council President Jack Burrell presided, and Councilman Kevin Boone was present.

According to the records, the deed covered by Resolution 2606-16 was recorded at the courthouse on Oct. 21, 2016, three days before the council adopted the resolution on Oct. 24. No map was attached to Exhibit A as presented to the council, but the copy recorded at the courthouse includes two maps. The recorded deed conveys more than three acres, including wetlands that receive stormwater runoff from the Publix site and the location of the outfall pipe from the site’s retention pond, rather than only the land beneath the lift station.

Burrell said he had not known that the deed covered the entire lot or that it had been recorded before the meeting. City Attorney Marion Wynne acknowledged during the meeting that the deed had already been recorded and dismissed concerns about the documents. Burrell said the matter should be investigated, and the mayor said it would be.

Burrell also said there was no conspiracy to keep the mayor from doing her job.

Budget

Burrell said he and Councilman Robert Brown, acting as a finance committee, spent 15 to 20 hours preparing a final budget. The budget reduced funding for the Economic and Community Development position, held for the past four months by Sherry-Lea Bloodworth-Botop. Bloodworth-Botop moved to Fairhope from Washington, D.C., for the job and was in Washington at the time of the meeting, representing the city in meetings with U.S. representatives.

The council also lifted a hiring freeze it had imposed after the mayor fired two employees.

Airport Authority Appointments

The council rejected the mayor’s appointments to the Fairhope Airport Authority board and indicated that current board members would remain in place if she did not present nominees acceptable to the council. Burrell, the council’s liaison to the Airport Authority, suggested requiring the mayor to present new appointments and, if she did not, imposing a 60- or 90-day delay before she could bring appointments to the council.

Recusal Request

During public participation, a speaker asked Boone to recuse himself from votes involving the Fly Creek PUD, Angelo Corte or Preble-Rish engineering, citing a conflict of interest. Boone said he had no conflict and no LLCs involving any of those parties.