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Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. has issued a veto of the salary portion of the budget that was passed just before the beginning of the 2024-2025 fiscal year and amended on Oct. 3.

Perkins cited several reasons for vetoing the budget. He said the budget would cause terminations without cause for unfunded positions.

Perkins also accuses the council of discriminating “against certain employees by singling individuals out and placing them into subordinate classification with subordinate pay without any professional justification for the demotion.”

He also said the budget “discriminates against certain employees by politically moving certain executive level personnel into non-exempt status. Is it the intent of this budget to make some people exempt and others non-exempt who are serving in positions that are in the same job classification.”

Perkins also said the budget uses payroll to ”politically reward certain employees by giving as much as a $30,000 increase and then demanding that the budgeted amount be the required payroll amount. It must be clearly established that the budgeted amount is not synonymous with the payroll amount and the payroll amount cannot exceed the budgeted amount.”

Council President Billy Young said he would like to work with the mayor’s office to resolve the issues within the payroll part of the budget.

“I don’t know the Council’s exact next steps because I am only one voting member of the Council,” Young said. “Over the past four years, the Council has repeatedly made budget amendments throughout the fiscal year. Therefore I believe this situation like many others will be resolved over the course of the year like many other budget-related issues. It is our responsibility to act calmly and rationally for the City. I am going to continue to remain calm, vigilant and steadfast in my belief that Selma is best served when we act with honesty and lay politics aside.”

Young said that Perkins’ veto of the salary scale does not put the city out of compliance.

“It is my understanding that the budget is being implemented by the Treasurer with the exception of the salaries portion which was vetoed by the Mayor,” Young said. “Therefore, the city is operating under a balanced budget at this time. Furthermore, my understanding of Alabama law is that a municipality is not required to have a budget, but if a municipality has a budget it must be balanced.”

Perkins said he is hopeful that they can come to an agreement on the salary schedule for the fiscal year 2025.

“It is my hope that we can work together during a mutually scheduled public meeting to reconcile these concerns and move forward quickly,” Perkins said.

During a meeting on Oct. 3, the council amended the budget, but it was said at that meeting that the council’s salary schedule did not agree with the mayor’s projected salary budget. No amendments were made to the salary part of the budget, but both sides acknowledged that they would likely have to amend the budget again at a future meeting to resolve the salaries.