After 26-and-a-half years of working for the Selma Police Department, Lt. Scott Swanson recently laid down his badge and stepped into retirement.

But that didn’t last long.

Three weeks ago, Swanson started working 20 hours a week for the city of Selma’s code enforcement office,

Selma Mayor George Evans called Swanson in front of Tuesday’s City Council meeting to not only thank him for accepting his new job patrolling for code violations around the city, but to also apologize that he wasn’t recognized at a previous Council meeting closer to his retirement from the police department.

“I want to publicly apologize for not bringing you in here,” Evans said. “Please accept my apology. I want to thank you so very much for those 26 years.”

Selma City Council approved funding in July which allows former police department officers to come back and work for a maximum of 20 hours a week.

Swanson said there has been a slight learning curve as he transitions into the new role, but he has no doubt his new co-workers will help the process.

“Everything’s going fine,” Swanson said. “I had been in internal affairs for four or five years, and everything was different than what I’m doing right now. I’m trying to learn from them.”

Swanson also asked members of council for help.

“I think Councilman Cecil Williamson sent me something,” Swanson said. “And Greg Bjelke has got an Encyclopedia Britannica of things he’s sending me.”

After Swanson spoke to council members Tuesday, Evans thanked him again for his work for the city.

“I just appreciate the job you are doing and you coming back to work with us to try to clean up some of the concerns we have in our city,” Evans said.