The Selma City Council and the Selma Water Board are two different entities. One body, the city council, consists of individuals elected by the voters of the city. The other body is made of appointments — some of those are elected council members and others are appointed by the city council from the general public.

Apparently, the crossover confuses some of the public. At least that’s the primary reason that observers could offer for two individuals stepping forward to complain about water board issues during Tuesday’s city council meeting. The other reason could be that members on the council are on opposing sides on the water board and that fight has carried over into the council chambers.

If the latter is the case, then the fight needs to return to the board room of the water board, instead of taking up valuable time in council chambers. Reminding the public of this is the duty of the council president. When those people want to have their names placed on the agenda, the council president should redirect them to the water board and allow that body’s president to handle the issue.

As far as paying legal fees — in this case, everyone should have paid their own legal fees or sought to have made legal fees a portion of the settlement. If the council felt it created the situation with the water board, then both sets of legal fees should have been paid.

The overriding issue lost in all this minutiae is what is happening with our infrastructure. More time should be spent by the water board on those issues of service and pipes and costs than on who doesn’t like whom. And certainly, these personality conflicts should not bleed over into council chambers.