Selma Mayor introduces plan to reduce city districts from eight to five, eliminate elected Council President

Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. gave the Selma City Council a plan that would reduce the council from eight wards to five wards and eliminate the elected position of council president.  

Perkins presented his plan at the City Council’s July 9 work session. He introduced the plan to the public at the first of five public meetings to discuss the budget and increasing property taxes last week.  

Perkins said he is “required by law” to introduce a plan that distributes voters across districts after the federal census. The census was completed in 2020. Rather than moving lines to make sure the population is equally distributed among the eight existing wards, Perkins’ plan calls for reducing the number of districts from eight to five.  

Perkins’ proposal also eliminates the at-large, elected position of Council President. Perkins’ plan calls for the five elected councilpersons to elect a council president among themselves, which is a common practice for many elected councils or boards.  

The Selma City Council must approve any change in districts. The council sent the proposal to their attorney for his review.  

After receiving Perkins’s proposal, Council President Pro Tem Clay Carmichael said he wasn’t opposed to the idea of reducing the number of wards, but he said “it needs to be done the right way.” He said he would rather see the city hold a referendum so the public could approve new districts. And Carmichael said he would like to ask voters to approve changing the city to a council-city manager form of government while they were at it. 

“Thank you for making the agenda clear,” Perkins told Carmichael after Carmichael suggested reducing the powers of the mayor.  

Carmichael said that changing districts is only required if there is a change of 10% in each district after the census. He asked Perkins if he had figures to show that wards had experienced the 10% change that would make reapportionment a requirement. Perkins did not address that question.  

Perkins acknowledged that reducing the number of wards is not required by law. “It’s my responsibility to produce a redistricting plan. I have done that,” Perkins said. “I look forward to receiving the council’s thoughts.” 

Perkins and a majority of the Selma City Council have been at odds since they all took office in 2020. While most issues presented by the mayor are approved by the council without opposition or controversy, high stakes votes often end with four councilpersons voting for the position presented by Perkins, and four voting in opposition to the mayor’s position. Council President Billy Young votes with the councilpersons who disagree with the mayor, giving that cohort the narrow majority.  

Perkins said reducing the council to five seats would make the Selma City Council the same size as the Dallas County Board of Education, the Dallas County Commission and many other county commissions and city councils in the state. He also said the public said they preferred a five-district council in a survey done several years ago.  

“This gets us the way everybody is who is our size,” Perkins said. He said he got the Reapportionment Office in Montgomery to help him draw up the map.  

“Nine is a lot of folks to be representing 17,000 people,” Perkins told the audience at his public meeting on July 1.  

The districts are numbered clockwise1 through 5, with District 1 starting in the southwest corner toward Bloch Park. District 1 is the only majority white district, with a white voting-age percentage of 50.9%. Perkins pointed out that the city of Selma is 85% Black.  

District 2 includes northwest Selma, with Highway 80 going through its center. District 3 is immediately to the east, sitting north and south of Highway 80. District 4 covers east Selma, from Duke Street east toward J.L. Chestnut Jr. Boulevard. District 5 comprises south Selma, including downtown Selma.