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Selma interim fire chief William Dailey presented a new proposed policy that would make it easier for fire personnel to get promotions within the department.

One of the main issues that Dailey had was the ability for personnel to be promoted. This new policy would outline it and make it easier for firefighters to receive promotions when they passed certain tests required for the next position.

Using the old policies, nine firefighters passed exams administered by the Alabama Fire College in January, making them eligible for promotion. However, none of them have received promotions at this time.

“I need to know how to keep the goalposts from stop moving,” Dailey said during the joint meeting of the administrative and finance committees. “Every time we do anything, we are told that we’ve put together this. We get the testing. We put it out to the guys that here’s what you’ve got to study to pass the test. We tell them, we have to do this and we have to do this. When do the goalposts stop moving?”

The new policy presented to the council looked to address many of those concerns. However, council members were concerned that they had just updated the city’s policy manual two years ago with the help of Auburn University and were hesitant to change the policy.

Council President Warren “Billy” Young said the council went through a months-long process to review the policies and properly vetted the policies to prevent the possibility of a lawsuit.

“I might add, the reason why we went with them is because we wanted something that was produced that could hold up in a court of law if it had to,” Young said. “If we did that to come back and change after not a very long period of time, we need to really, really evaluate ourselves.”

Councilwoman Christie Thomas, administrative committee chairperson, said Dailey has the ability to make the promotions happen.

“You are the interim fire chief,” Thomas said. “You make the decisions on promotions. That’s in the policy.”

Councilman Troy Harvill, chairperson of the finance committee, said he was not aware of any vetoes of the salaries in the fire department.

“In my little Forest Gump brain, those positions are still there,” Harvill said. “It’s a matter of putting the people in those positions.”

Council President Warren “Billy” Young said that the council does not have the authority to make those promotions. However, he also said that something needs to be done with the nine firefighters who earned promotions under the current policy and not yet received them.

“We can hear you, and we can understand you and be frustrated with you, but that does not fall within our authority,” Young said. “And I’m just saying you had nine people take a test. They passed whatever. They followed the procedures. They were the good students. Before you make a change to any policy that applied to them, you must take care of them.”

Thomas asked previously retired fire chiefs Richard Byrd and Christopher Graham to explain the procedures that they used for promotions. Those procedures dated back to 2010, and the current list of requirements were implemented around 2015.

Those were the same requirements that these nine fulfilled to obtain a promotion and a raise. Byrd was still fire chief when tests were administered earlier this year and recommended those promotions before he retired.

While the committees didn’t want to act on updating the policy at this time, especially since elections are looming, Thomas asked if someone would begin working on the 2010 rules and regulations to update them to the current standard for the next council to take on when they take office in November.

Byrd said he would do that for the city.