Selma City Council approves salary budget that includes raises for fire chief and police chief

The Selma City Council approved a salary budget for the city. Again.

The city council approved a salary budget along with the city’s operating budget in September, but Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. vetoed the salary portion of the budget. The city has since paid employees based on last year’s budget.

The subject of salaries came up again Jan. 28 when Finance Chairman Troy Harvill asked the council to increase the interim fire chief’s salary from $80,000 to $100,000, the amount called for in the budget vetoed by Perkins.

Harvill said Interim Fire Chief Richard Byrd approached him about a raise because he said would earn more if he retired than if he continued working.

Councilperson Samuel Randolph pointed out that the Selma police chief and fire chief have always earned the same salary, which began a discussion about increasing the salary for the police chief as well.

The council decided to settle the issue by reapproving the salary budget vetoed by Perkins. That budget included salaries of $100,000 for both the police and fire chiefs, as well as raises for some other city employees. The motion to reinstate the salary budget passed with five votes, with councilpersons Randolph and Lesia James voting no.

Councilperson Clay Carmichael told the Sun after the meeting that Byrd and Police Chief Kenta Fulford have worked for the city for more than 20 years, and increasing their salaries would help keep them on the job.

“They are the kind of employees you want to keep,” Carmichael said. “Some firefighters are earning $100,000 with overtime. Chief Byrd supervises them. Shouldn’t he be making at least that (much)?”

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Some department directors haven’t received a raise since the council was elected almost five years ago. In the new budget, no director will earn less than $45,000 a year, according to Carmichael.

The council voted to give school crossing guards a one-time pay raise of $250. Randolph, who pushed for the raise, called it “Christmas in January.”

The five school crossing guards were excluded from the Christmas one-time pay raise approved by the city council in December because only fulltime employees were eligible.

“Why not pay folks at bottom of the totem pole?” Randolph asked his colleagues. “We find money for other things we want to do.”

Carmichael said he would work on a resolution that sets out exactly what the city will do concerning one-time pay raises in the future. Council President Billy Young welcomed the idea. “We need some consistency,” Young said.

In other personnel matters, the council voted to make Janice Stewart interim treasurer for 90 days or until a new treasurer can be hired. Treasurer Terri Barnes-Smith retired at the end of January. Stewart, a longtime member of the city’s finance department, served as interim treasurer before the council hired Barnes-Smith.

After an executive session with City Attorney Major Madison Jr., the council voted to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit for $280,000. Former Selma Police Officers Toriano Neely, Kendall Thomas and the late Jeffrey Hardy won a federal lawsuit seeking back pay after being fired from the department during the Darrio Melton administration.

After a jury found in favor of the former officers, the city and attorneys for the former officers argued in federal court about the amount owed, eventually settling on the $280,000 figure approved by the council Jan. 28.