New Interim Police Chief For Fairhope

The City of Fairhope has a new interim police chief. But before the vote Thursday night, there was some disagreement over the person picked to be the temporary top cop. The meeting began with Council Member Dan Stankoski introducing a resolution to appoint Terry Sanders as interim police chief. Sanders is a former police chief in Bay Minette. But Council Member Mike Ford wanted the council to go into executive session to discuss the appointment. Ford said, "We've got two men on this police force who can do this job. They're already on this payroll. They can do this job just as good." But the majority of the council voted not to go into executive session, and then the council voted four to one to appoint Sanders interim chief. Stankoski said, "He's extremely qualified and I think that he's going to do a good job." Sanders served as police chief in Bay Minette, but stepped down at the end of 2004 after he said the mayor told him the Bay Minette City Council wouldn't re-appoint him. This is what he said at the time: "There were some things I had dealt with as police chief in the last four years, some really tough personnel action, that I had to take and those things sometimes will work against you." During his tenure in Bay Minette, some city council members there complained Sanders was rarely seen by the public and didn't wear a uniform. Sanders responded to that at the Fairhope council meeting. He said, "I think it was probably more political than anything else, and I understood that, because you work in a very political environment. But I consider that water under the bridge." Sanders replaces Mike Comalander, who resigned but will remain on the Fairhope Police police force as a captain.