By Justin Averette | The Selma Times-Journal

The Selma City Council deadlocked 3-3 Thursday to pay Sonja McCall $4,000 a month to manage the St. James Hotel.

The tied vote followed an hour-long meeting to discuss the contract and the downtown hotel’s future.

Angela Benjamin, Susan Keith and Michael Johnson voted in favor of the contract, while Corey Bowie, Greg Bjelke and Cecil Willamson voted against it. Bennie Ruth Crenshaw, B.L. Tucker and Sam Randolph were absent during the vote.

The city and Strand Development agreed Monday to terminate their contract. Strand had been operating the hotel since last summer.

McCall is a former manager of the St. James and was negotiating a contract to manage the hotel in the near-term.

Selma City Attorney Jimmy Nunn outlined the contract, which would have paid McCall to manage the St. James as an independent contractor until another management company is brought in or the hotel is sold.

Selma Mayor George Evans said he thought he could manage the hotel with city employees until a more permanent decision is made for no additional cost.

Evans said he has received proposals from companies wanting to manage the hotel and has some interest from buyers.

“In six months we need to make a decision,” Evans said. “My goal is as soon as we can, that’s what we need to do.”

Evans said he would appoint project manager Henry Thompson to work with St. James employees to keep things operating for now.

Under the one-year proposed contract with McCall, either party could cancel with a 60-day notice and immediately should the city find a buyer for a hotel.

Strand told employees Tuesday that they were no longer employed with the company.

Several were let go. The St. James had 17 employees as of Thursday.

“There are over 25 people roughly that were hired, and that is including everybody, including the chef and everybody else,” Evans said. “That number will pretty much be cut in half ideally to keep things going.”

Most of those will become temporary city employees and not independent contracts as previously proposed.

“We need to find a way to save money,” Evans said. “I know for a fact our staff could manage this hotel.”

Benjamin said city hall employees shouldn’t be managing the hotel.

“We need someone to manage that [and] get that out of our way so it’s not perceived that the city is still running this hotel,” Benjamin said. “We need to find this salary and let her manage this.”

Tucker left the council meeting before a vote was taken but also voiced his displeasure.

“Why don’t we go ahead and shut it down? People already booked can move to another hotel,” Tucker said. “How do you know all of this will work? We’ve got to get out of it.”

Others wanted to wait until the amphitheater is complete and see what impact that has on the St. James.

“I think we do need to do our best to sell it. If it doesn’t do anything when the amphitheater is done, we need to go ahead and sell it,” Johnson said.

Keith said shutting down the hotel wasn’t an option for the city.

“You know what happens to vacant properties. We cannot have a property like that being vacate,” Keith said. “It is a viable business. We have to keep the St. James open. We’re having a string of bad luck with some bad actors parading as management companies.”

Williamson, who has said he’s not voting to put anymore money into the St. James, said he didn’t understand why the city would pay someone $23 an hour when some police officers make barely more than half of that.

“There is no justification for spending another $50,000 a year that the city doesn’t need. It’s fiscal insanity,” Williamson said. “One day we will all have to answer to the taxpayers.”

After the vote was taken, Keith changed her vote to “no.” The issue is expected to be taken back up during Tuesday’s council meeting.