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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

SELMA – As a deadline approached with one fiscal year ending and another one readying to commence, the Selma City Council made a major advancement on an arduous task.

During a special called Selma City Council meeting on Monday, Sept. 29 at Selma City Hall, the council passed a resolution approving the city’s budget for the 2026 fiscal year, giving a road map for what the city is allocating for its finances over the next 12 months.

The council officially approved a budget that shows a total of $21,685,580 in general fund expenditures, a figure that had to be adjusted in order to balance the budget so that it could follow state protocol.

“We had to bring it down so that we could have what—a balanced budget,” said Warren “Billy” Young, president of the Selma City Council. “We had to get that number down… What we did to make it balanced is some of those things that were in last year’s budget isn’t necessary for this year’s budget. For instance, we had a contract last year dealing with litter control; that’s not going to be in this year’s budget, so that’s one of the particular cuts.”

The approval of the budget comes to be a crucial decision after the city overspent in the last fiscal year, having gone over mostly due to overtime in the police department.

Young added during the meeting that the budget will still likely incur amendments within the early portions of the 2026 fiscal year and that this budget was essentially last year’s budget with a few modifications in order to make sure balance was achieved.

Councilman Troy Harvill provided insight on how the calculations were made in order to make sure that this budget reflected the 2025 fiscal year’s budget accurately.

“I think what we did was try to just annualize actual numbers instead of just pulling up numbers out of the air, annualizing what we had,” Harvill said. “If we had it 10 months, we divided it by 10 and then multiplied it by 12 and that’s what we were looking at.”

The budget was officially voted on with a notation that during the beginning of the new fiscal year, additional amendments will be made if necessary. A motion was made by Christie Thomas with a second by Lesia James, and at the end, the vote was unanimous for approval.

In other news, the Selma City Council also held a heavy discussion on changing a city ordinance in order to allow firms outside of Dallas County come in to take a treasurer position with the city. The conversation was sparked over a matter that has been ongoing, as the city has discussed the potential of bringing in BMSS Advisors & CPAs, an outside accounting firm, to help fill the position.

After heavy discussion during the meeting, the council held a vote to immediately consider a change on the ordinance, which failed in a 5-4 vote. It will now come up again at the next regularly scheduled council meeting.

Additionally, the city acted on numerous items of business, including approving an ordinance that will regulate the sale and distribution of consumable vapor products within city limits.

The Selma City Council also approved a hiring freeze on employees of the city, placing the freeze to be in effect until the next administration takes office. Should any special cases come up where a hire is needed, Young stated that they could come before the council and request for one to be made.

The council also carried a motion to allow its members to receive a prepared job posting for the treasurer position for the city so that its physical posting can be voted on at the next meeting.

In other news, the Selma City Council approved resolutions on the following items:

• A subgrant agreement with the Alabama Governor’s Office of volunteer services for the 2025-2026 AmeriCorps program
• Awarding a Professional Services Agreement for OpenGov Local Government Software
• Permission to apply for Innovative Finance and Asset Concessions Grant
• A partnership with Reflections Coffee Shoppe for keeping a level of cleanliness and allowing community usage at the Songs of Selma Park
• The purchasing of a mobile police surveillance tower for about $156,000
• The purchasing of a mobile police command center not to exceed the price of $250,000
• The procurement of labor in order to replace deck boards at the Songs of Selma Park from Eovations