This particular tenure in office of the Selma City Council ends in about two years.

The question now is one often asked of those mid-term? What have you done for us lately?

The question to ask the voting public in Selma is: Are you better off than you were about two years ago?

There’s no doubt many of the voting public will answer with a resounding, “no.”

One could offer myriad reasons for the city council’s lack of progress. One is its seeming disregard for setting policy. The council will meet. It will hear the mayor’s report and the attorney’s report. Some council members will mouth about certain issues, i.e. litter and public safety.

Somewhere, the rubber just doesn’t meet the road.

It appears this particular council is incapable of setting strong policies to benefit the city. One of those reasons is the lack of participation by the city in any outside work other than showing up to its regular meetings to be heard on the radio.

Typical with city councils, much of the footwork is accomplished in committee meetings. Those committees make recommendations to the council as a whole.

Here’s the problem: this council just doesn’t meet. The council president assigns a topic to a particular committee, which is supposed to meet and hammer out the details. Most of the time those committees don’t meet. If they do, members of the committee just skip the meeting.

When the voters of Selma elected their council members, they elected representation.

Where is it?