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| Fairhope ballot. |
STAY THE COURSE OR CHANGE?
Fairhope voters will return to the polls for the first time in five years, since this election was delayed a year by the legislature --to avoid conflict with national general election years.
City council incumbents (excluding Place Five's Kevin Boone who decided not to seek re-election) all have at least one challenger this time. The Mayor had no opponent and that race does not appear on the ballot.
MANY FAMILIAR ISSUES
Criticisms raised by the challengers during a vigorous month-long campaign include some of the same as in previous elections: effective growth management, utility system management, traffic congestion and effective enforcement, parking shortages downtown, lackluster historical preservation efforts, environmental management (storm water runoff, bay pollution, etc.), shift to professional fire department, and transparency at city hall.
One of the new issue that came up is the placement of children's books with objectionable (to some parents) content in the library -- and the use of city property for LGBTQ+ Pride Day events.
INCUMBENTS DEFENDED RECORD
Incumbents generally defended their record on each point citing progress made on each -- such as numerous building moratoriums, ongoing comprehensive plan updates, parking study underway, ongoing utility upgrade projects, and the new historical preservation commission, among others; the library is an autonomous unit by design that makes its own decisions they say.
They emphasized the importance of keeping their effective "team" in place.
PLACE FIVE DIFFERENT
Candidate Andrea Faust Booth has generally aligned herself with the current council's policies and opponent George Ferniany more with the challengers.
When we asked him recently, incumbent Kevin Boone endorsed Faust-Booth, but said he knew Ferniany and thought he could do the job as well.
TURNOUT THE KEY?
Longtime Fairhope election-watchers say turnout is usually the key to winning here: which side is more motivated to show up to the polls?
This year's uncontested mayor's race may have an effect too -- by depressing turnout; the last time that happened was in 1996 when mayor Nix ran unopposed.
