As the Mobile City Council continues its debate on whether to annex neighborhoods west of Mobile, calls for Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s administration to release a proposed annexation plan increased.

“We believe these conversations should be made in public,” Beverly Cooper, co-founder of Stand-Up Mobile, a group advocating to increase Black voter engagement in the city, said during Tuesday’s city council meeting. “Please show us the plan and engage the community in the discussion. We just might surprise you.”

As it stands now, members of the city council have reviewed a draft of the plan, including a map. Stakeholder groups, such as Stand-Up Mobile, have also been shown a draft of the plan during meetings to discuss annexation. But a plan and map have not been released to the general public.

According to Councilman Scott Jones, a supporter of annexation, a plan and map can’t be released to the general public before they are finalized and sent to the city council. Once the plan is finalized, the council legally will have 120 days to vote on whether to authorize an election, so the people living in the annexed areas can vote on whether to be part of the city. Releasing a draft of the plan to the public early could disrupt that timeline, he says.

Candace Cooksey, a spokeswoman for Stimpson, hesitated to give a timeline on when a proposed map will be released, but confirmed that it will “fully vetted” by multiple entities before that occurs.