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The Council President Shadow Program students held their first “mock” council meeting Saturday within the Selma City Hall chambers, discussing city business and the possible solutions to reduce excessive and loud noise throughout the city.

Council president Warren Young of the Selma City Council said the program was an opportunity for the students to show their development skills that they have learned through the shadow program from their ability to make motions, carry motions, and to conduct business of the city while doing it in a very civil manner.

“What we are trying to do is motivate young people to go into government because we know as our population continues to age, that we need to have and fill some voids,” Young said. “We are going to need people to be able to sit in these seats and be able to transact the business of Selma, and they are going to need to come in with some information and some knowledge on day one. So, this is an opportunity to train young leaders and also an opportunity to motivate those young people now that are interested about those things that are impacting our community to let them know they have an opportunity to participate, make improvements and make change.”

During the council meeting, Aryon Rucker, Kennedi Rackley, Jolie Jackson, Cassidy Hatcher, Lequan Washington, Sydney Pritchett and Radiance Ransom, represented the wards of Selma from Ward 1 to Ward 8 including Marquavion Sellers, who was an absentee council member of the meeting.

The council started the meeting off with the discussion of the minutes from their Sept. 7 meeting, acknowledging any corrections, additions or deletions the council may have had.

Two members within the council said their names were spelled incorrectly within the minutes from September’s meeting and outside of those two members, there were no other comments and the council approved the corrections for the minutes meeting and proceeded to discuss the council members’ announcements.

“I, first wanted to announce that I have been accepted to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and also offered a full ride and I also would like to announce that our attorney, Zachenzie Millhouse will be having her very first black history musical play, starting in 2025, Feb.1.,” Pritchett said.

Other announcements were made from other members of the council including updates about Morgan Academy Senators basketball schedule, their progression to the tournaments playing Monday and Tuesday of next week including good news from one of the council members saying she received a follow-up email to visit her dream college, Howard University in Washington D.C.

Public comments were held at the meetingm and three citizens spoke up about their concerns: City Judge Donovan McGuire, police officer Makqueis “Mark” Neely and resident Thayer Spencer.

“I come in the capacity of the citizens of Selma, Alabama,” said McGuire. “I was born and raised right here in Selma, Alabama all my life, stayed and grew up in Ward four and I currently live in Ward seven. My parents still live in Ward four. I have two group homes, nursing homes, there is one in Ward one and one in Ward two, so a lot of things you guys do up here is affecting wholeheartedly.”

McGuire said his concerns within the city are excessive noise happening in and around his neighborhood, crime is also happening within the area, and he posed to the council a suggestion about the possibility of a curfew time for the youth in Selma.

“What are we going to do about the crime that’s going on?” McGuire said. We got kids around here that are walking from school and bullets flying all over us and what are we going to do about it? I’m tired of us just sitting here and talking about it, we have to start putting things in action because quite frankly, that’s what we voted for, for the council and mayor to put things in action.

McGuire said he would like to see the council put in a curfew with an effective date and time for the youth within the community and if there’s no one else that has the power to put it in place, that the council does.

“Kids shouldn’t be out at 11 and 12 o’clock at night,” McGuire said. “The next thing I got is work sessions.” It seems like the work sessions are really just “talk” sessions. What I would like to see happen is the council, the mayor and all the department heads come to work session and actually get stuff done.”

McGuire said he understands the council may have disagreements but said they cannot be disagreeable. McGuire also mentioned he would like to see more activities for the youth so they can have a safe place to be kids and enjoy more things other than the typical recreation facilities that Selma has in places such as Bloch Park.

“We have to invest in our youth,” McGuire said. There’s a cliché that says “The Children are our future” and well we have to act like it, not just the council, the mayor but the citizens as well.  We have to get together and invest in our youth. There’s things other than physical sports that the kids can do, there’s also E-Sports.”

Council president Martasia Hardy said to McGuire that they are working on improving the noise ordinance because it has been a public issue that they see in the community and that she agrees with the other points he made about the crime within the community and the activities for the youth.

“That’s also been a notable issue in our community,” Hardy said. “And, me and my fellow members have been working with those concerns.

During the meeting, as well, Neely spoke on the behalf of code enforcement and the debris and clutter from residents that are left on the streets and Spencer spoke about the issue of the roadways not being paved and how taxes are being collected and nothing is being done.

Within the meeting, the attorney’s report was read, highlighting the amended ordinance that provides control of excessive and loud noise and the consequences of penalty or punishment if residents do not abide.

The council collectively agreed that the ordinance ‘fines’ section of the agreement should change, allowing residents to be a recipient of a warning about such noise first before they get an official fine and if the warning continues to said residents, that the fine should increase, depending on the amount of warnings received.

The council also discussed and had a majority vote about a curfew time of 9 p.m. throughout the weekdays and 10 p.m. on the weekends that way all residents including the kids of the community can be home safe.

All items discussed and voted for at the Council President Shadow Program meeting, will be presented to the city council for its approval, according to Young.

“I am extremely delighted and proud of the students that are participating in the shadow program and what was shown today was an organic activity. “They worked the issues, they were civil in their engagement but they were also very firm,” said Young.