On Wednesday afternoon, the committee tasked with mulling the appointment of a new chief to lead the Selma Fire Department (SFD) held its first meeting at Selma City Hall.

Among those in attendance were the Public Safety Committee, consisting of Selma City Council members Corey Bowie, Jannie Thomas and Susan Youngblood, former Prattville Fire Department (PFD) Lt. Kenneth Rhodes, former SFD firefighter Edmund Peoples, former City of Selma Human Resources Director Valeria Jones and local Trust Mark Bank President Andy Stewart.

According to Bowie, the first meeting was aimed mostly at organizational efforts and making sure committee members are on the same page, though the committee was able to review the eight candidates’ résumés and establish dates for interviews, which will be held at the George P. Evans Building on Sept. 4 and Sept. 5.

Further, the committee was able to contact the three applicants currently living outside of Selma and get them to affirm that they would be willing to move to the Queen City, following a short grace period, should they be selected for the position.

Questions for the impending interview process are still being ironed out, Bowie said, and a second meeting will be held to finalize those questions.

“It was a great meeting,” Bowie said. “The resounding theme was ‘this is going to be a tough task. Everyone was very pleased with the candidates’ backgrounds and qualifications.”

Though a fairly brief meeting at roughly an hour, Bowie said the committee was able to have an “engaging conversation” about the applicants and the execution of the process moving forward.

Bowie noted that no clear frontrunner has yet emerged from the slate of “great candidates,” but he is confident that the committee will be able to decide on a chief to be named at a council meeting in September.

“It’s going to be a tough process,” Bowie said. “We just look forward to starting the process and engaging the candidates on who will prevail as the next fire chief.”

The success of the fire chief selection process also allows for city leaders to begin looking into candidates to serve as chief of the Selma Police Department (SPD), which is currently being led by Interim Chief Robert Green.

According to Bowie, the process for selecting the city’s next police will follow the same technique laid out in the current hunt – a committee of citizens, business leaders, committee members and former law enforcement officers, as well as Green, will collaborate to plow through résumés and choose the next chief of police for Selma.

Bowie hopes to have a choice by the middle of October and stated that the city has already received five or six applications from people interested in the position.