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At Monday night’s City Council meeting, Mayor James Perkins Jr. addressed the council about three positions at city hall that need to be filled: city clerk, city treasurer and finance director.

Perkins added that the council appoints the city clerk while the finance director is chosen by the mayor.

A list of salary ranges was distributed to the council, and Councilwoman Bennie Ruth Crenshaw said that the range for the city clerk’s position was too wide. Crenshaw suggested that the council narrow that range before advertising the position.

The city clerk’s position on the list was shown as being $40,000 to $50,000.

Perkins said that the council needed to be sure that they didn’t close themselves off from getting the best candidates by not offering competitive salaries.

Personnel Director Valeria Jones added that in other cities city clerks often fill dual roles, just as City Clerk/Interim Finance Director Jackie Smith does in Selma, and that they are the ones getting the high salaries.

Smith’s last day is Jan. 31.

Crenshaw said if the salary was advertised as between $40,000 and $50,000 then that would draw in the best candidates. Salary could then be negotiated once they were pulled in.

Crenshaw added that those two numbers put definite limits on the salary. The phrase &uot;salary negotiable&uot; isn’t so precise, and negotiations could push the salary above the $50,000 mark.

President George Evans said that those looking at the position would focus on the high range advertised and not the lower number when considering the job. Councilwoman Rita Sims Franklin agreed, and added that people would want to start at the higher end and work their way up from there.

Franklin also said that even if an advertisement was published that day they still couldn’t find a city clerk by Feb. 1.

Crenshaw then proposed that a salary range of $40,000 to $45,000 be advertised. The motion passed unanimously .

The council also voted to change the city treasurer’s salary advertisement from $35,000 to $45,000 to a range of $40,000 to $45,000. That motion passed seven to two with Franklin and Councilman Glenn Sexton voting against.

The council also voted eight to none with Councilman James Durry abstaining to move forward with finding a finance director.

In other matters the council:

Councilwoman Nancy Sewell said that she thought they weren’t going to deal with the matter until a later date. Crenshaw said that the matter hadn’t even been discussed with the council members involved.

Rawls said that he wanted a commitment from the council to Selma’s Promise, and added that more publicity is needed.

Perkins did say that there was no intent to favor one ward over another.