If you live in the city of Selma you may want to make a phone call to your city councilperson.

Residents represented by James Durry, B.L. Tucker, Nancy Sewell and Glenn Sexton need to call these folks and ask them why they chose not to attend a called session of City Council on Tuesday. Council president George Evans also did not attend.

The council was set to fill key positions in the city’s finance department at this meeting. But because the above did not show up, there was no quorum and no action was taken. The non-meeting was a waste of time.

Some of the council members who did attend speculated that those absent were absent for political reasons. We hope this isn’t true, but it fits the pattern. Our city government can’t appoint a dog catcher without delay and political maneuvering.

The sad thing is we aren’t discussing the hiring of a dog catcher. This city has three key positions in its finance department open. Selma is a city that has been rocked by financial scandal before. The city also went three months into this fiscal year without a budget.

We’re heading for big trouble if we don’t get these jobs filled. No city the size of Selma should delay in finding key help with its finances.

Not only are we delaying the resolution of this issue, but we have council members who are not showing up at meetings.

The residents represented by those who did not come to the meeting were cheated Tuesday night. Those residents at least are owed an explanation of why their councilperson chose not to attend a key meeting of the council.

Rita Sims Franklin, who was at Tuesday’s meeting, said council members have an obligation to attend meetings. She said not doing so borders on malfeasance.

She’s right. We’ve said it before and need to say it again. Selma’s residents deserve better.