The ordinance to make the tapes of City Council Meeting

public record was tabled after debate at Monday’s meeting.

The ordinance

would keep the minutes of the meetings as the official record, but make the tapes available to anyone who wanted to listen to them.

Councilwoman Rita Sims Franklin entertained the ordinance at the previous meeting after she had been unable to obtain tapes of an earlier meeting.

The city clerk, Lois Williams, said she had not denied Franklin the tapes, she merely asked that proper procedure be followed.

“I just requested that we follow the proper procedure of going through the mayor’s office to department heads,” Williams said.

“I did not refuse to let anyone listen to the tapes.”

Franklin said after talking with Williams she did go through the mayor’s office.

“I have never heard that portion of the tape I have requested,” Franklin said.

Williams uses the tapes to help her type the written minutes, the official record of the meeting.

In the past, previous clerks have kept the tapes as well, but Williams has not been required by the council to record the meetings.

Councilwoman Bennie Ruth Crenshaw

said the ordinance was unfair to Williams.

“The main thing I’m

concerned about is she’s using those tapes to do those minutes.

Are we questioning her credibility here?” she asked. ” We really waste a lot of time second-guessing, bringing people on the carpet about their jobs and how they do them. It’s totally unfair.”

“It was not a means of controlling her at all,” Council President George Evans said. “All it means is if the minutes were in question,

or sometimes minutes are delayed, if

someone says I didn’t say that, then the tapes can be used.”

Crenshaw also asked about the procedure of

the public to come in and request tapes.

“Do you have anything Ms. Williams, put in place, some type of procedure where you won’t be bombarded by people coming in and looking at those tapes?” she asked.

Williams said she assumed it would be the same procedure as she uses for requests for official minutes.

The tapes have been considered an official document before.

They have been subpoenaed

for a court case.

“These tapes did come in handy during the Forrest case,” Evans said referring to the Friends of Forrest lawsuit regarding the move of the Nathan Bedford Forrest monument.

Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. said he felt that making the tapes an official document was simply adding duplication of

the already official minutes.

“This is really a duplication of

retention and retrieval, it’s going to be labor intensive,” he said. “I’m

going to strongly discourage the council from

doing this.”

Councilwoman Nancy Sewell pointed out that the tapes had already been on file from several years past and that people have requested them

in the past.

“The only thing you’re

doing is keeping it accessible until it is retrieved,” she said.

Before allowing the ordinance to be tabled, Evans expressed regret that the

issue was becoming

a problem.

“It’s just very regrettable that something like this has taken this tone and procedure,” Evans said. “I just really don’t understand it.

Those tapes did help this city when it came to that statue even though those tapes were not official.”