Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. sent a public letter to the city council asking to meet with representatives of the council to work on the 2022-2023 budget.
The budget is supposed to be approved by Oct. 1 of each year. The city is operating for now under last year’s budget. By law, the city council has the authority to approve the budget.
Finance Committee Chairman Troy Harvill and Perkins were supposed to meet on Oct. 3 to discuss the budget. Harvill told the Selma Sun it was his understanding that the meeting was to compare the versions of the budgets the mayor’s office and the council were working from. Perkins told the Sun he thought he, Harvill and the city treasurer were going to negotiate the budget.
Either way, Perkins and Harvill told the Selma Sun that Harvill cancelled the meeting Monday afternoon. Today Perkins sent a letter to Harvill, which he also sent to the media and posted on social media, complaining that Harvill’s “actions (cancelling the meeting) unilaterally changed the city council and my agreed-to direction (on discussing the budget), and forged ahead with your own plan without any real explanation or discussion with me.”
In his letter, Perkins repeated his complaint that the council should listen to the city’s department heads when it comes to the budget. “It is best that you work from our proposal and that you listen to us,” Perkins said in the letter. “When you choose not to listen, this will always be the result, a dysfunctional government. In the meantime, I am still waiting on the meeting that was initially requested July 25, finally confirmed as necessary by the city council on Sept. 27, but still has not happened.”
The council and the mayor have been at odds over the budget all summer. Perkins proposed a $23.8 million budget that included a 5% raise for all employees and raising the minimum wage for city employees to $13 an hour. The council proposed a $19.6 million budget without the 5% raise and a minimum wage of $12 an hour.
Employees in public works, parks and recreation, and the cemetery departments went on strike for a day in September to protest the council’s version of the budget, and an informal work slowdown seems to be in place among some city employees.
The mayor’s posed budget of almost $24 million balances for the 2023 fiscal year because it includes American Rescue Fund monies and some budget surplus. The mayor and the council agree that the problem lies in the 2024 fiscal year when those funds will not be available. Perkins has said the city should seek more revenue by asking citizens to approve a property tax increase before 2024. The council has so far been unwilling to go that route.
The city council will meet again Oct. 11.
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