The Selma City Council voted Monday to divert $400,000 to be used to hire back all of the employees recently laid off.

The money was earmarked for education spending in 1982 and has been paid annually since then with no set stop date. According to Councilman Samuel Randolph, the money was originally set for the construction of a gym at the School of Discovery.

Council President Corey Bowie abstained from the vote and Councilman Carl Bowline was absent for the vote. The action will take effect after correspondence with Selma City Schools following the Thanksgiving holiday.

Councilwoman Angela Benjamin also discussed the fact that the city is continuing to pay three employees in positions that the council voted to defund in October.

Benjamin received an email from attorney Julian McPhillips which raised concerns about the employees’ continued payment and noted that such payments could be considered illegal if those positions were defunded by the council.

According to McPhillips, the action is not only possibly illegal but also grounds for impeachment of Mayor Darrio Melton.

“He has done so much harm to the city,” McPhillips said in a phone call after the meeting.

The council also heard from Randolph regarding a motion to continue paying for the laid off employees’ health insurance, a move that he was informed is not allowed as it would provide public money to individuals without a contract.

“That’s not fair to our employees,“ Randolph said, during a tirade against the mayor. “This man is off his rocker. The mayor is unstable. He needs to be committed.”

Various members of the council complained about not having access to financial statements, as well as questionable payments which show up as line items with little description. Some noted that they have tried to speak with the finance department about getting access to financial documents and have been told that they were instructed not to talk to the council.

“I believe that we’re in a crunch time,” said Councilwoman Miah Jackson. “But we can’t do anything without any information.”

While looking over 700 pages of documents, Jackson said she discovered roughly $376,000 in spending that could have been avoided. According to Jackson, there were payments of more than $3,000 for cleaning and another $3,000 for digital thermostats, both of which were charged in lesser amounts only a few weeks later.

Multiple expenses of this type cropped up during Jackson’s investigation, including more than $15,000 in repairs and $2,000 to change air filters, and more likely will as she has only been able to examine about half of the documents she’s received.

“We have to stop spending frivolously,” Jackson said. “There’s no accountability to the people that are contracting with us.”

To that end, the council approved a motion to require that all businesses contracted by the city provide proof of a business license and insurance and that the city require at least three bids for all city work.

Council members also discussed surrendering money from their discretionary and travel funds in order to help pay off some of the city’s outstanding bills or bring back some of the laid-off employees. Councilman Johnnie Leashore went as far as encouraging fellow council members to sacrifice their salaries for the good of the city and its workers.

“Truth of the matter is, we’re in trouble and we need to acknowledge it,” Leashore said.

The council also unanimously approved a motion from Councilwoman Susan Youngblood to establish a “Retrace the Journey” tour, which would begin at Brown Chapel in Selma and take tourists through several spots important to the historic Selma to Montgomery march.

Bowline brought up the idea of reestablishing the city’s welcome center at the Old Depot Museum, but that idea was tabled for a later meeting.

The council also voted to used Public Safety funds to ensure that the Selma Police Department continues its holiday parking lot detail to ensure that shoppers are safe throughout the holiday season, noting multiple robberies that occurred last year during the holidays.

At the close of the meeting, council members asked Bowie to correspond with the mayor regarding multiple issues, including the fact that codes have been changed on doors and copy machines making the council unable to use them.