Residents will get their first look at some of the candidates vying to lead the Selma Fire Department (SFD) Wednesday, as the Selma City Council kicks off the first round of public interviews that afternoon at 4 p.m. in the George P. Evans building.

A second round of interviews will commence the following day at the same time in the same location.

According to Selma City Council President Corey Bowie, the interviews will be conducted by the search committee, which was established by the council and tasked with overseeing the application and interview process, who will ask about a dozen questions and rank each candidate’s response on a scale of one to five.

Though the search committee will oversee the interviews, and members of the Selma City Council will most certainly be on hand, Bowie believes the most important part of the process is the involvement of the community, which will be allowed to sit in on the interviews this week.

“We feel like it’s very important that the public be engaged and informed,” Bowie said. “we were put in a sort of quagmire position, where we had both of our top public safety officers leave. I felt like this not only lies in the hands of the Public Safety Committee and the council, but the entire community.”

Four candidates will be interviewed in one-hour increments Wednesday afternoon – SFD Lt. Walter Dailey will be the first to be interviewed, with fellow SFD colleagues Ernest Donaldson, Cpt. Franklin Edwards and Acting Chief Chris Graham following.

On Thursday, three more candidates will be interviewed – former SFD Sgt. Alton Green, SFD Fire Investigator Willie Mason and Cpt. Gabriel Sharpe – but Shane Phillips, the only candidate who has not served with the SFD, will have to have his interview postponed due to a prior obligation.

Phillips, who currently working as a flight paramedic and has previously led the Orange Beach Fire Department and others, said in an email that he will be in Atlanta for his annual Critical Care Skills Training until Thursday.

Bowie hopes to interview Phillips Friday afternoon.

According to Bowie, the top three candidates will appear before the council, which will take a vote on the next Selma Fire Chief at its second meeting in September – once that’s done, the council will begin following a similar process to hire a chief to lead the Selma Police Department (SPD).

Bowie noted that, currently, nearly 10 applications have already come in from law enforcement officers looking to lead the SPD, the majority from places beyond Selma.