While the Selma City Council is looking for ways to generate new revenue, the body also should examine how it handles the rental of public buildings.

Most recently, a dance at the Carl C. Morgan Convention Center turned into a rowdy affair with Selma police officers having to shut it down amid reports of underage drinking and other inappropriate behavior.

Teenagers should have fun. That’s not the point of this concern.

But the adults – especially city employees – who rent these buildings should have better control over the crowds who participate in the events.

A police report revealed suspects in a shooting that same night had just left the party at the convention center.

If that’s the case, then another issue of weapons on public property comes to the forefront.

Perhaps if the city quit giving so many people free or partial passes, access to public buildings would become more of a privilege with understood responsibilities, rather than an entitlement.

And, if grownups can’t control the children, perhaps the rules should be rewritten altogether limiting the kind of activities permissible in public buildings.