In Fairhope we’re seeing the first change in the power structure since the current city council was constituted a year or so ago. At that time the council elected long-serving member Debbie Quinn as its president. And it is she who is stepping down, having experienced an exceptionally productive, but tumultuous, year leading what finally has become a strong council.

Debbie Quinn, Fairhope Council Place 1 Skate Boarding Supporter

This change doesn’t mean that council member Quinn will no longer be serving her community. As she noted in her announcement to local media, she will continue to work for the city from her position as Place 1 representative.

One of the oddities of how a city council operates under Alabama law is the relative lack of power invested in its president. When you look at what the person in that position is empowered to do, it really is mostly administrative: Ensuring meetings are called with appropriate notice, agendas are properly posted and that the council executes its responsibilities in a legally compliant manner.

For example, the president can’t introduce or second ordinances, while members have that authority. There has even been the assertion by a council member that the president is prohibited from participating in discussion before a vote.

When you get down to the nitty-gritty, there is little benefit to being council president. I suspect were it not for the honor, most council members would just as soon pass on the post – although President Quinn’s successor seems eager enough to sit in this seat of pseudo-power. It will be interesting if he can change the fractious nature of this council and the perpetually uncontrollable mayor. My observation is that experience in herding cats would be a better predictor of success than having a military command on ones résumé..

I recall the first time I met Debbie Quinn. She was in the middle of Bancroft Street in the late afternoon, watching exuberant skate-boarders using the temporary facility she had sponsored on the blocked-off street. At council meetings she advocated funding a permanent skate board park and worked for the passage of enabling ordinances. Not a world-changing activity and hardly her greatest achievement, but it responded to the needs of a group of people who enjoy what is in Fairhope, an orphan sport. I doubt her almost single-handed pursuit of the park would have been successful had she been serving as council president.

As I consider the time left in the terms of the council and mayor, I’m worried about what might not happen in the next three years – that progress will be hard to sustain. But right now, as the first strong president of the legally empowered strong Fairhope City Council hands over the gavel, let’s look at what has been accomplished on Debbie Quinn’s watch.

First, the majority of the council came together finally to implement the “Strong Council – Weak Mayor” form of government – four years late, but given the presence of a mayor who holds onto power like a leach holding onto a body part, far better than after the next election, or never. This move initiated open war between Fairhope’s Legislative and Executive Branches. Council President Quinn worked to develop consensus on power sharing, but got precious little cooperation from the majority of her colleagues, while the mayor repeatedly derailed efforts to achieve closure on how the city should be run and by whom. For me to note that the conflict still exists, is to be redundant.

Second, the council took on mucking through the budget morass and finding its way in the maze of processes used by the mayor and his helpers to conceal Fairhope’s fiscal reality. The work of Lonnie Mixon in exposing how poorly the financial affairs of the city were being conducted – and responding with the establishment of new procedures and public oversight – is to my mind the single most important thing done since this council was elected. Unfortunately countering this civic good was his, and ally Rick Kingrea’s, dogged determination (with ultimate success) to implement a city sales tax.

Third (and last for now) was beating back the cronyism that has been rampant in making personnel decisions. Newly established processes are both clear and fair so that first rate people are being hired and promoted. I point to Fairhope’s new police chief as a prime example of the goodness of the new procedures. And having mentioned Chief Bill Press, I’m going to say again he has brought a wonderfully refreshing new attitude to the department – as well as a new level of professionalism in law enforcement to Fairhope.

At this moment in the history of Fairhope, a city perhaps known better for its flowers (and litigation) than its governance, Debbie Quinn can look back on these and other solid successes during her tenure as council president. She has reason for optimism as she goes about her business serving the city from Place 1.

Events of the last year show that change is possible — a transparent city government, focused on the common good, is both attainable and sustainable. But continued progress is difficult. Attaining those goals may be long in coming —very possibly not until there is a change in who’s running the place. Neither she, nor any other council member can make that happen. It’s up to the voters in 2012.