During its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, the Selma City Council named Selma Police Department (SPD) Lt. Robert Green Interim Chief of the department.

A vote was taken following a roughly 30 minute executive session and Selma City Council members Sam Randolph and Angela Benjamin voted no on Green’s appointment.

Both Randolph and Benjamin spoke in favor of appointing SPD Lt. Kenta Fulford to the position, which is slated to last about 90 days.

“He’s a very fair person,” Randolph said of Fulford, who he served with in the military. “I feel we need a homegrown person to be our police chief. I don’t want to move backwards. We have a forward vision in Selma. I’m not satisfied with the situation we have at the police department.”

Despite their opposition, both Benjamin and Randolph praised Green, with Benjamin referring to him as a “Closer” and a person that “does what he has to do” to get the job done.

A plan proposed by Selma City Councilman John Leashore during Monday’s work session – to allocate $50,000 in unappropriated funds to bring back 13 city workers on a temporary basis to help clean up the city – nearly resulted in all of the workers laid-off last year being called back to work.

Leashore made the proposal, but multiple council members expressed concern that Selma Mayor Darrio Melton might not utilize the funds properly.

Selma City Councilwoman Miah Jackson asked Leashore if he had broached the subject with the mayor, to which Leashore replied that he had informed Melton of the plan but had gotten no response.

Jackson blasted the mayor for failing to make a “gentleman’s agreement” with the council on the issue.

“I’m just not in the position that I favor this,” Jackson said.

Ultimately, Randolph proposed an amendment to the proposal that would have allocated $300,000 to bring back all of the displaced workers, drawing support from all of the council members.

Benjamin noted that Selma City Treasurer Ronita Wade had previously informed the council that the laid-off workers should have never been removed from their jobs and the money is there to bring them back.

The council sought clarfication from Wade regarding precise employment data, specifically the number of people in total laid off and the number of former employees that have now retired or found new jobs.

Wade stated that in attempting to gather the information, which some reports list as low as 51 people laid off and others list as nearly 100 people, she received resistance from the city’s Human Resources Department.

“The employees should have never been laid off,” Wade said. “I can’t say that enough. I stand behind my numbers.”

Selma City Councilman Carl Bowline asked for clarification on the number of employees that would be brought back and how much it would cost to rehire them and the council eventually opted to give Wade more time to get additional information before a vote was taken on bring back laid-off workers.

Selma City Council President Corey Bowie stated that the council may schedule a special called meeting to take action on reinstating the workers as early as next week.

Elsewhere in the meeting, as part of his Recreation Committee report, Selma City Councilman Michael Johnson detailed the difficulties he’s faced in reopening the pool for the summer.

According to Johnson, the money to open the pool is available, but Melton has thus far not approved opening it.

“I’m very disappointed the kids are not able to swim,” Johnson said. Right now, we just need the green light to move forward.”

Again, multiple council members accused the mayor of holding up progress for the benefit of one employee, since he has cited the lack of a department head as a reason to keep the pool closed.

“The children are the people that are being affected,” Jackson said. “I will not allow the mayor to hinder the progress we’ve made in regard to these children.”

“We’ve got too much going on in our city to be in your feelings,” Randolph said. Leave your feelings at home. we’ve got work to do. We can’t continue to hurt people.”

Earlier in the meeting, Selma City Councilwoman Susan Youngblood made a motion that the city cancel any lingering radio contracts, which will not impact the airing of council meetings as they are funded through a sponsorship.

The council voted unanimously to cancel the contract, effectively stripping the mayor of his radio show.