Selma mayor Darrio Melton sent an open letter to the City Council, allegedly over the rejection of his proposed $22 million project for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

The open letter was delivered Thursday to council members, hours before the scheduled Work Session. Melton presented a budget to the council on Aug. 3 and the council rejected it Aug. 28.

In the letter, Melton outlined the city’s issues that began before he was elected mayor two years ago.

“The city is experiencing financial distress,” Melton wrote. “Our municipal revenue crisis is not a new or recent phenomenon. For the past three years, the City of Selma has operated under a deficit. We are a full-service city. We provide the majority and basic services for daily life: public safety, streets and sidewalks, garbage and trash removal.

“Rather than cut services to the bone and send the city in a downward spiral, I proposed a budget that would maintain and grow revenues to support services and quality of life while also giving us the necessary resources to revitalize the local economy. It is unrealistic to think that we can meet these goals outside of increasing city revenues,” Melton said.

Melton wrote the council never considered his budget.

“The city council was never serious about negotiation of my proposed budget,” Melton wrote. “Without debate, they took a unanimous vote on the budget that we spent months to prepare. In unison, they all sang the slogan, ‘no new taxes.’’

“But what were they really saying? No to the safety of our children, no to new police officers, no to equipping our officers and firemen with the necessary protective gear, no to all city employees having raises, no to trash services, no to repaving neighborhood streets, no to better quality of living and no to moving Selma forward.”

Council President Corey Bowie disagrees. Bowie said he invited Melton and other department heads to budget hearings to hear their viewpoint.

“I will continue to extend the invitation to the mayor and departments, they are pivotal in the budget process,” Bowie said. “We can succeed together and we fail together.”

Melton wrote the council ‘‘chose to sign the blues rather than engage in serious debate regarding the contents of the proposed budget.’’

“The council turned its attention to personal attacks on the mayor’s office,” Melton wrote. “First, they softly shutdown government by limiting the administration from hiring in vital positions in departments such as public works, recreation, and public buildings. Their attempts went as far as trying to prevent the administration from hiring a HR director.

“They then turned their focus on prohibiting the mayor’s office from traveling and advocating on behalf of the city, thus limiting the mayor from economic development for Selma. It’s obvious the council’s priorities are in the wrong place. The city treasurer’s recommendation to the council to continue a budget that was passed three years ago is revelatory of the council’s inability to formulate a budget,” Melton said.

Melton referred to the law stating: “As chief executive and supervisor of municipal departments, the mayor is in the very best position to determine the requirements of the various departments. It is the usual procedure for the mayor to serve as the principal executive officer.”

Melton also wrote he met with all department heads and gave council their needs and established a reserve for the city in the proposed budget.

He wrote the law states: “the council is required to appropriate the sums necessary for the expenditures of the several city departments for interest on the bonded and other indebtedness, not exceeding in the aggregate within 10 percent of its estimate revenues.”

In the final sentence, Melton urged the council “to put down their swords and pick up their hammer and start building the city of Selma. It’s time to say yes to Selma.”

Councilwoman Susan Youngblood said she tried to give Melton the benefit of the doubt.

“I want to think he’s a good leader, I don’t know what to believe,” Youngblood said. “His ego and inability to allow people to help him got in the way.”

“There’s a brokenness between the two branches of government and it needs to be fixed,” Councilwoman Angela Benjamin said.