Selma City Council talks fairness of COVID hazard pay, offering street parking to St. James Hotel

The Selma City Council Tuesday worked on cleaning up the mess from a “can of worms” of its own making.

The city council has given employees who have contact with the public extra “hazard pay” during the pandemic. Federal reimbursement from the CARES Act covered hazard pay for “sworn officers” like police and firemen, but the city council expanded the definition to include employees who have contact with the public. 

Mayor James Perkins Jr. told the council that he has received complaints from employees who feel they have sufficient contact with the public to justify receiving the hazard pay and did not receive it. And some who received the hazard pay in an earlier distribution did not receive it in a later distribution. 

“This is a morale issue for me and my staff,” Perkins told the council.

“We should never have gotten outside the federal guidelines,” Councilman Clay Carmichael said. “This is a can of worms. We need to close it back up. Stop it. Stop the bleed.” 

“I’m getting phone calls every day over this hazard pay,” Councilwoman Jannie Thomas said. “We need to make it right. As a council, we need to think this thing through.”

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The council agreed to discuss it in a future work session. 

The council also discussed some cleanup related to the opening of the St. James Hotel on Water Street. Rhaglan Hospitality CEO Jim Lewis asked the council via Zoom to grant the hotel a long-term lease for street parking in front of and across the street from the hotel. The plan had been to pave the Phoenix Park grass lot across Water Street from the hotel, but Lewis said “the highest and best purpose for the good of the city” is not to pave that lot and instead grant the hotel street parking. The council agreed to study the request.  

Lewis also asked the council to amend after the fact a completion deadline in an agreement between the city and Rhaglan. The city sold the property to Rhaglan in 2018, and the agreement called for a March 31, 2020, deadline for the completion of the renovation. That deadline was not met because of the pandemic. The request will be reviewed by City Attorney Major Madison Jr.  

The council agreed to have the city contact Alabama Power Co. to ensure the streetlights around the hotel are operating. 

The council also discussed a pending attorney general’s opinion about if and under what conditions Carmichael’s company can sell supplies to the city. Carmichael is plant manager at Cosby-Carmichael Ready Mix Concrete, Sand & Gravel, which Carmichael said is the only supplier in the area. Carmichael told the council he asked for a ruling from the Ethics Commission, but they said he needed an opinion from the attorney general’s office. Carmichael has spoken with Madison about writing a question the attorney general’s office can answer about his doing business with the city if he is an elected official. Councilman Michael Johnson asked if the question could be worded in a way to include his son’s business as well. The discussion was tabled for later discussion.