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The Selma City Council will likely vote on an ordinance that would make BMSS Advisors & CPAs the interim finance director for the city to get the city’s financial reports up to date.

During a finance committee meeting on Wednesday, Councilman Troy Harvill, chairman of the committee, said he will present the resolution and ordinance at a special called meeting, likely on Monday, Sept. 29.

Committee members disagreed on removing interim treasurer Janice Stewart on a temporary basis to allow BMSS to work on the city’s financial statements.

Councilwoman Leisa James and Councilwoman Jannie Thomas both voiced concerns about having the firm take over the role of treasurer.

James asked about the resolution Harvill submitted that would let BMSS be the treasurer.

“Just the interim,” Harvill responded.

“What that will do will allow them to have access to the records,” Harvill said. “We’re gonna let her go back to her position so she can do the things that she needs to do on a day-to-day basis. We’re not going to get to the bottom of all this (unless we do this).”

Thomas said that is not what the council agreed to do.

“The words that came out were, we would let BMS come in here to assist Ms. Stewart on the things that we are requesting that we want BMS to do. And by her being overloaded, I thought we agreed to have them in there to help work with getting some of those answers that we were asking for.”

Stewart said that she was not aware that she would give up the role of interim treasurer if they allowed BMSS to do the work.

“To be honest, I didn’t know I would be returning back to my old job,” Stewart said.

Harvill explained that he felt BMSS would need the full access of the treasurer’s position so that they could have access to the files they needed in a timely manner. Once they completed their task, Stewart would go back to the role of being interim treasurer.

The main reason why is due to money. Harvill said they will be charging an hourly rate for their services, and the quicker they can perform their job, the less they would have to pay BMSS.

Councilwoman Christie Thomas reiterated Stewart’s concerns from a previous discussion where she mentioned that she is understaffed and is doing three jobs, which is the reason why “things are not in order.”

Harvill said they have been in this deficiency since the previous finance director retired earlier this year.

“Obviously, we have a deficiency. If we don’t get our crap straight and straight quick, we’re gonna be in deep kimchi,” Harvill said.

While this may solve the solution in the short term, James said it doesn’t solve the problem for the long term.

“Before it gets to Ms. Stewart, it has to go through so many different departments to be signed off on before she even gets her paperwork done,” James said. “See, that’s what I’m saying. It’s not only her that held the reason we were so behind. Even when we had Miss Smith in there, it was our fault that we made this mess with this loan.”

Christie Thomas pushed back on that say that it is beyond the responsibility of the council.

“We can only vote to allow them to do what they need to do,” Christy Thomas said. “We are not in day-to-day operations. We don’t control what each department does. We don’t control whether they give her the information or not.”

James said that if the treasurer was the issue, then the council should have done something about it, and she hopes that they will do whatever it takes to fix the problem.

“Now it’s a whole new ball game. Whatever we need to do now, we need to move forward and make sure we put the city where it needs to be,” James said. “We need not worry about what we did in the past. Let’s move this city forward. Because at this point, we can’t never try to correct what’s been going on.”

Councilman Clay Carmichael said they voted on BMSS in June or July, but yet the mayor’s office has not been able to make connections with them. And as they prepare to pass a new budget, they don’t have a firm grasp of what the financial condition of the city is.

The city’s audit for last year had three pages of findings compared to just a single page from previous years. That is why Carmichael supports putting BMSS in the role of treasurer on an interim basis.

“Because they are, by statutory law, they are the city attorney, I mean, the city treasurer. And so that puts them in the position where they can do anything that the council needs them to do,” Carmichael said.

Christie Thomas said Stewart’s appointment was only supposed to be for 90 days, and they are well past that point right now. Part of it is, Carmichael said, because there have been no recommendations for hiring new employees for the finance department. Before any hiring is made, the positions would have to be posted and allow time to get resumes and applications.

While the council members may not all agree on the issue, Harvill said he intends to bring the ordinance up at the special called meeting on Monday at 5:30 p.m.

Also at that special meeting, the finance committee will be recommending a $21 million budget for the city. Carmichael said the mayor’s office recommended a continuing budget resolution, but they cannot pass it because the current budget is not balanced.

Council President Warren “Billy” Young recommended that they adopt the personnel and contractual obligations from the current budget. Then, they would find areas to cut from the budget until they could get to a balanced budget.

Young said this budget would be adopted with the understanding that the incoming mayor and council would want to review the budget and make budget amendments as needed throughout the year.

“You could actually amend the budget at every meeting,” Young said. “It’s not recommended that you do that, but the council has the authority to do that.”

Carmichael, James and Harvill both came up with similar suggestions for cuts that would get them close to it.

Other monies that could help include the hotel tax and passing a new vape tax, which the council has until Oct. 1 to pass its own vape tax. Otherwise, they would not be able to set their own tax.