Monday morning, former Selma mayor James Perkins Jr. officially qualified to run in the Aug. 28 municipal elections. Monday evening, he held his first event as a qualified candidate as he held a “Bring Your Own Question” event at the Carl C. Morgan Convention Center.

In addition to answering questions from those in attendance, he also worked to outline the platforms of his campaign.

He said he believes a good mayor is a visionary, has a focus on people, is a manager, has integrity, is a decision maker and is always firm and fair.

“A good mayor will be fair and firm with their decisions,” Perkins said.

He outlined the reason for his run for mayor, saying he wants to build an inclusive community by making Freedom of Information Acts available to all among other things.

He challenged the current administration by addressing comparative statistics of his administration with that of current mayor George Evans. Statistics of the murder rate as well as salaries of those in public office were discussed by Perkins.

“No one is fighting for the people. There were 2,000 jobs created while I was in office,” Perkins said. “Less than 100 jobs have been created since I left.”

He also said he was running because he was unhappy with current administration problems such as illegal dumping, disappointed with the renovation with Memorial Stadium, the care of public works employees as well as the abandonment of buildings such as the Brown YMCA.

Perkins also spoke about the long-term debt of the city under his administration totaling, he said, about $9 million when he left office. He also claimed the city’s current long-term debt has bloomed to five times as much.

“From the time I was in office the long-term debt of the city was cut in half,” Perkins said. “Is that the sign of a broke city? Today the long-term debt of the city is about $45 million.”