Troy Harvill of Ward 1 removed from Selma City Council

Selma’s Ward 1 will be getting a new city councilperson.

The Selma City Council June 23 declined to reinstate Troy Harvill to the city council. The vote was required because Harvill has not attended council meetings since he was sworn in for his second term in November 2025.

City Attorney Graham Mosley told the city council that under state law a city councilperson is automatically removed from office if they don’t attend meetings for an extended period. The city council can reinstate the absent councilperson for a 90-day term.

The council voted to reinstate Harvill for 90 days at their Feb. 23 meeting, but that expired on May 25.  On June 23 all councilpersons present voted “yes” to a resolution not to reinstate Harvill for a second 90-day term. Councilpersons Leisa James, Christie Young and Clay Carmichael were absent.

The council must appoint a new councilperson within 60 days of when the reinstatement ran out on May 25. That’s about 30 days from now.

If the council doesn’t act, the mayor must call for a special election to fill the empty seat.

“This is not personal,” Council President Kennard Randolph said after the vote. “The citizens of Ward 1 deserve representation, and (Harvill) does not have the time to commit to this position.”

Harvill was reelected to represent Ward 1 in a runoff election in September 2025. He was sworn in with the rest of the council in November.

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Harvill was chairman of the finance committee during the second administration of Mayor James Perkins Jr.

Harvill has not responded to a request for comment.

In other business, the council approved a proposal to add five additional cameras to the city’s surveillance system. The motion-sensitive cameras provided by Alabama Power Company would cost almost $1,700 a month for five years, plus the energy use.

The council told Selma attorney Hank Sanders that they would consider a request to appropriate $25,000 to $50,000 to the Voting Rights Museum located in Dallas County just across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Selma citizen and Republican state Senate candidate Thayer Spencer addressed the council in a stormy exchange with Randolph. Spencer said that he was prevented from speaking to the council at an earlier meeting because he planned to express concerns that Randolph was both president of the council and executive director of the Selma Housing Authority.

Randolph denied from the dais that he had removed Spencer from the agenda and said that he would not allow Spencer to “bully” him.

Citizens who address the council are normally allowed to talk uninterrupted for five minutes, but Spencer and Randolph spoke over each other several times during Spencer’s remarks. Spencer and his wife left on their own after Randolph ordered Thayer Spencer removed from the council chambers.