The Selma City Council began its work session Monday hearing from Selma-Dallas County YMCA CEO Leonard Speed and board member Juanda Maxwell about the desperate need for the council to resume lodging tax payments to the facility.

Speed noted that the facility is an asset to the community, but the lack of necessary funding has caused the local YMCA to take counter measures, including adjusting its staff and hours.

Maxwell added that the local YMCA is looking into partnerships with other chapters and talking with area corporations to bolster its membership numbers, which currently sit at roughly 1,500.

“The Y has never really had the logistical support it needs,” Maxwell said.

According to Speed, a recent audit found that the recreation facility will be in jeopardy if it continues along its current trend.

For his part, Selma City Councilman John Leashore supports returning the money to the organization, calling it “money well spent.”

Selma City Council President Corey Bowie assured Speed and Maxwell that the council would take up the issue during its upcoming budget talks.

Also on hand for the meeting was Clay Carmichael of the Black Belt Benefit Group (BBG), who was asking the council for support in applying for the Levitt AMP Music Series Grant.

Carmichael stated that the BBG would pay $500 per concert to host roughly 10 weeks of performances at the Selma amphitheater.

Selma City Councilwoman Jannie Thomas balked at the idea of providing the amphitheater at a cut rate – the facility is marked to rent for $1,500 – but Selma City Councilman Carl Bowline noted that the $5,000 the BBG would pay for the space would likely be more than it netted all last year.

Selma Police Department (SPD) Interim Chief Robert Green also addressed the council, first requesting that a badge and gun be returned to an officer who has spent 25 years with the department and is now facing retirement due to health reasons and affirming that he will be in attendance for a proposed business watch meeting to be held Sept. 30 at 6 p.m. at the George Evans Reception Hall.

In the end, much of Green’s time was spent detailing the difficulties the department has faced as a result of a downed computer system.

According to Green, the department has been unable to file police reports with the state since April, shortly before the computer system crashed completely.

Green stated that the most recent system crash at city hall has caused additional problems for the department.

The council went on to discuss the hacking of the city’s computer system last week, prompting Bowline to blast the city’s Information Technology (IT) Department for failing to address the issue, despite paying a consultant some $86-per-hour to stay on top of such issues.

Selma City Councilwoman Angela Benjamin added that the Alabama League of Municipalities has someone on staff that can pinpoint where the hack occurred and who was at its root – she advocated for the city to employ such a person, which Leashore estimated would cost around $750.

“This is a million-dollar computer system that we’re paying New World for,” Benjamin said. “I’d like to know who did this hacking.”

Thomas also addressed issues with traffic lights that have been plaguing the city, calling on the council to step up efforts to find out why the 10 electrical boxes purchased previously to update the city’s aging traffic lights have not been installed.

“We have a lot of problems right with with our lights in the City of Selma,” Thomas said. “We’ve got some serious problems. Do we have to wait for someone to get seriously hurt? This is a problem the day-to-day operations needs to move forward on.”