Selma residents sought for water board seats
Published 11:20 pm Friday, September 24, 2010
Anybody who ever wanted to serve on the Selma Water and Sewer Board needs to dust off their resumes and submit them to the Selma City Council Administrative Committee by Oct. 8 at 4:30 p.m.
“We want one-page resumes, not a dissertation,” committee Chairman Corey Bowie said Friday. “We would like to have a good selection and a diverse group of people.”
The council has two vacancies to fill by Oct. 18, the next meeting of the Water and Sewer Board when the terms of Councilwoman Bennie Ruth Crenshaw and Water and Sewer Board Chairman the Rev. Lee Goodwin expire.
Traditionally, the council has appointed a council member to replace an outgoing council member. This particular council has broken with that tradition once and may well do it again.
The late Geraldine Allen, former president of the city council, also sat on the water board. After her death, the council voted to fill her vacated slot with her husband, Robert Allen.
“In this case, nobody on the council wants to serve on the water board,” said council President Cecil Williamson. “If that’s the case, it appears we’ll appoint two citizen members.”
The remainder of the water board includes Mayor George Evans as the superintendent, Councilman B.L. Tucker and Millie Vick, who was appointed as a citizen representative.
Bowie said his committee would take the resumes and conduct interviews with the intention of naming the two recommendations to the council before Oct. 18.
The water board has long been a plum for some, especially city council members, and as recently as 2007 a lawsuit generated over who would be appointed from the council, Allen or Sam Randolph, whose term had expired in October 2006.
Members of the Water Board refused to allow Allen to take her seat, alleging Allen voted for herself on the council, which gave her the five votes needed to move to the water board. By voting for herself, those water board members said, Allen violated the state Code of Ethics for Public Officials, which prevents elected officials or government employees or their families from financially benefiting from action by a governmental body on which the individual or relative serves.
The board sought and received an injunction from the courts to prevent Allen and Randolph from being seated as directors.
In 2008 after elections in November, a majority of the city council voted to appoint Allen and Tucker as directors of the Water Board. Allen did not vote for herself in that election.
In March 2009 Circuit Judge Thomas R. Jones signed an order immediately dissolving the injunction and allowing Allen her appointed seat on the board.
And the water board has not been without controversy.
In July 2008 the Alabama Examiner of Public Accounts released findings that showed some water board members prior to the changes in administration were overpaid. The study indicated that some of the directors, including former superintendent James Perkins Jr. and directors Goodwin, Crenshaw and former directors Johnnie M. Leashore and Randolph were overpaid thousands of dollars in salary.
The investigation was prompted through a request from the state Attorney General’s Office, which has done nothing to date to recover the payment of the money or say the study was wrong.