Each member of the Selma City Council has a discretionary fund used to help out ‘good causes.’

If you compare the amount of money those council members receive, about $15,000, to the rest of the city’s general fund budget of several million, the money doesn’t seem like much.

But if you consider $15,000 eight times over, that’s $120,000 or within $4,000 of replacing 740 linear feet of 8-inch sanitary sewer pipe and reconstruct the street on Parkman Avenue from Young Street to Dallas Avenue — an entire project on the proposed bond projects under consideration.

Yet, there’s no oversight on the expenditures by city council members.

They are not required to show how much they spend or on what they spend their dollars.

To find out how discretionary fund money is spent, a citizen has to file a public records request with the city.

This is wrong.

Council member Susan Keith of Ward 2 released her expenditures Monday night.

She said in the full spirit of transparency, taxpayers should know where their dollars are being spent.

Other council members should follow her example