Sometimes the easiest route to choose is not the best one.

This is something the Selma City Council Administrative Committee settled on several months ago as it set about to update the city’s personnel manual. The committee, then under the leadership of Dr. Monica Newton, began the task by each taking a part and reading and marking it up for revisions by city Human Resources Director Val Jones.

The committee did not finish its work by the time council President Dr. Geraldine Allen appointed new committee members. However, she reappointed council member Corey Bowie to the committee for a second time and made him chair. Bowie was familiar with all that had transpired beforehand.

On Monday when the new members of the committee, council members B.L. Tucker and Angela Benjamin, joined Bowie, they all agreed the best way to handle matters under the current fiscal circumstance was to continue to work the rewriting with in-house people. Bowie said there was enough expertise among board members with human resources experience, Jones and City Attorney Jimmy Nunn to get the job done without taking anything extra from city coffers.

And another key phrase: Get the job done.

The city hasn’t updated its personnel manual since 1996.