Editor’s Note: This article is the fifth in a series of articles examining Selma Mayor Darrio Melton’s draft budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2019 – the final article in the series will be published in the Weekend Edition. The full budget can be viewed online at www.selma-al.gov under Financial Reports.

Nearing the end of Selma Mayor Darrio Melton’s draft budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, beyond the revenue projections and departmental breakdowns, is a list of proposed salaries for various city positions.

Under the draft proposal, the mayor will collect an annual salary of $70,000, to be paid in bi-weekly increments of nearly $2,700, and the mayor’s Chief of Staff, a position previously held by Saprina Simmons before being defunded and abolished by the Selma City Council last year, is set to receive a salary of $60,000.

Melton’s proposal also calls for the executive assistant in the mayor’s office to receive a salary of $52,000.

The mayor’s office is slated to receive $7,200 annually for Melton’s $600-per-month vehicle allowance and more than $32,000 in benefits, bringing the total amount being paid to the three employees in the mayor’s office to just over $182,000 a year plus benefits.

By contrast, the nine members of the city council are receiving a collective annual salary of just under $136,000 – just shy of $14,500 annually for council members and barely more than $20,000 annually for the council president – with collective benefits registering at around $10,400 per year.

Under the legal office heading, Melton’s proposal has Selma City Attorney Woodruff Jones slated to collect more than $97,600 during the next fiscal year.

Three planning and development employees, identified in the budget as Selma Welcome Center attendants, are set to receive minimum wage, while annually the director will receive a salary of $60,000, the Tourism Coordinator will receive a salary of $30,000 and the Project Compliance Officer will receive a salary of more than $34,000.

The total for the department’s payroll comes out to just over $159,000, plus nearly $36,000 in benefits.

Elsewhere in the document, Melton calls for the city clerk to receive an annual salary of $52,000, with the assistant clerk collecting $32,000 annually and a part-time absentee election officer receiving $8,320, bringing the total for the clerk’s office $92,320 and more than $19,500 in benefits.

The building inspector’s office is on track to receive more than $113,400 in wages and salaries, as well as more than $23,500 in benefits, with the building inspector collecting an annual salary of $52,000, the assistant building inspector receiving $38,000 annually and the position of Clerk II receiving a salary of nearly $23,500.

The director of personnel is slated to make $62,000 next year under Melton’s proposal, with the four positions in the department collecting more than $160,600 in salaries and wages and just shy of $40,000 in benefits, while the tax collector and assistant tax collector are on track to receive $52,000 and $41,000 respectively – the total for the Tax and License Department is nearly $144,000 in wages and salaries and nearly $34,000 in benefits.

Other positions defunded by the council last year are also on track to again receive salaries under Melton’s proposal, including director of the city’s Recreation Department, which is marked to collect a salary of more than $68,000, and Selma Police Department (SPD) captain, for which there are two line items, one receiving a salary of just under $60,500 and another receiving a salary just over $67,000.

Under the mayor’s proposal, the chief of police will receive a salary of nearly $87,500 and the Selma Fire Department (SFD) chief will collect a salary of just over $71,000.