Selma City Council to vote on replacing interim treasurer with outside firm

Some members of the Selma City Council want to bring in an outside firm to straighten out the city’s finances.

The city council on Sept. 29 will consider a resolution to bring accounting firm BMSS to serve as interim city treasurer.

Finance Committee Chairman Troy Harvill said that the city council hasn’t gotten the financial information it needs.

 “We need to get our financial house in order,” Harvill said. “This isn’t getting solved the way we’ve been doing. We need experts who deal with this every day.”

The council approved BMSS to help Interim Treasurer Janice Stewart get the city’s books in order, but City Council President Pro-Tem Clay Carmichael said that nothing has been done because the current administration has not allowed the firm to access the city’s financial records.

Carmichael and Harvill said that appointing BMSS as the city’s treasurer would give them the authority to directly get any records they needed, which would save time and money.

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BMSS was selected because they are familiar with the city, having done the city’s policy and procedure manual, according to Carmichael.

Stewart has told the council that she can’t keep up with the work demands because she is doing three jobs. Some council members said they thought BMSS was coming in to help Stewart rather than replace her as interim treasurer. Stewart herself said she was surprised by the resolution to remove her as interim treasurer and return her to a lesser position.

The council also discussed advertising the job to find a permanent treasurer. Some council members said that hiring a new treasurer was unfair to Stewart, but Carmichael noted that Stewart doesn’t have the required certifications, and she can apply for the job if it’s opened.

City Councilman Michael Johnson said that the next mayor and council should be allowed to select their own treasurer.

The city council will also consider placing a tax on vape products. Vape products are currently exempt from tobacco taxes, but cities have until Oct. 1 to place a local tax on vape similar to the tax on tobacco products. The tax would be 20 cents per cartridge.

The tax could raise as much as $50,000.