City Councilman Glenn Sexton served the citizens of Selma well this week. Sexton openly questioned why city money &045;&045; your money, if you live in Selma &045;&045; is sitting in a financial institution that is not approved by the state.

A few weeks ago, it was discovered that the city had placed money in the Dallas Credit Union.

The Dallas Credit Union is not an approved place to put public money. City funds can only be placed in financial institutions approved by the state. The state calls these places S.A.F.E. institutions because they meet certain requirements for public money.

When it was discovered earlier that public money was in the credit union, it was agreed that all city funds would be withdrawn from the credit union. The issue should have ended there.

Because of Sexton’s questioning, we learned that as of late last week city money still remained in the credit union.

Some money has been removed, but there still remains an amount close to $50,000.

We are not sure why the money in the credit union has been doled back out to its depositor so slowly.

Sexton made the obvious observation when he said, &uot;When you ask for your money, you should get it the next day.&uot;

We are asking the city to immediately remove all funds from the Dallas Credit Union on Tuesday morning. Selma is not following state law by placing money in an unapproved institution and this must stop.

Once funds are removed, it would be wise to generate a press release so that the citizens of Selma can learn of the change.

The issue should also be covered at the next council

meeting to bring official closure.

Because the city of Selma has been rocked by financial scandals in the past, we cannot afford to get lax in areas such as this.

This looks bad for the city and needs to be fixed.

Sexton’s questioning was on target and necessary in this situation. Often what we see between the council and mayor is political grandstanding, but in this case the public’s interest is at stake and this matter needs the city’s prompt attention.