The Selma City Council voted Tuesday night to double the salaries of Selma Water and Sewer Board members.

The council first discussed the idea back in September, but passed the raises this week in a 4-3 vote.

Council members Sam Randolph, who proposed the increase, Angela Benjamin, Bennie Ruth Crenshaw and Michael Johnson voted for the increase, while Corey Bowie, Greg Bjelke and Cecil Willamson voted against it. B.L. Tucker and Susan Keith were absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

Under state law, the maximum amount water board members can make monthly is $400. Randolph said he would like to see Selma board members make that.

Randolph also asked if the raise could be made retroactive back to October.

City attorney Jimmy Nunn said he would answer that question and determine if the increases could even go into effect with the current board or if they would have to wait until after next year’s election.

Water Board member Rod West spoke about why he felt the board deserved the increases during a council committee meeting in September.

“I’m doing more reading and more work being on the water board than when I was a high school teacher. It’s a lot of work,” West said at the time.

Williamson voted against the increase, pointing out how a bond the water board approved for upgrades in 2006 will result in annual rate increases of 2.5 percent for three decades.

By the time the bond is paid back, everyone’s water rates will have doubled, according to Williamson.

“They approved a bond that’s going to increase everyone’s water bill for the next 25 years. That’s a hardship on some people,” Williamson said. “I can’t vote to give some people a raise who did that.”

Benjamin voted for the increase noting the board that voted for the bond issue isn’t the current board.

“I don’t think this current board is the board that raised people’s water bills for the next 20 something years,” Benjamin said.

Williamson responded that the board has since refinanced the debt at a lower interest rate than the original 2006 bond but decided to keep the annual 2.5 percent rate increases in place.

Back when the committee first discussed the increases this fall, water board chairman Robert Allen said the upgrades and yearly rate increases are necessary to provide clean water.

“The system that we have needs to be upgraded, the whole system,” Allen said in September. “If you don’t, the next group that comes in [is] going to have some issues. The only way that you can pay for such upgrades is that you have to issue bonds or borrow money one way or another. The only way that you have revenue to do that is from the citizens.”