Selma Town Manager Jon Barlow has a job, at least for the now.
Following a lengthy closed session Tuesday night, the Selma Town Council voted 4-to-1 to retain Barlow as their town manager. Emerging from a closed session around 9:15pm, the council voted to allow Barlow to remain on as manager until December 31, 2017 at which time he plans to retire.
Mayor Cheryl Oliver voted against the allowing Barlow to stay, a reversal from a January 2015 decision when the board voted 3-to-2 to keep Barlow on the payroll. At that time, Mayor Oliver and councilmember’s Jackie Lacy and Eric Sellers voted to keep Barlow, while Councilmen Tommy Holmes and William Overby voted to fire the manager.
Last night, Holmes, Overby, Lacy and the newest councilmember Mark Petersen voted to keep Barlow as the manager, while Oliver casting the only vote against allowing Barlow to remain on through next year.
“My vote was based on a disagreement with the timeframe which I thought should be an earlier date,” Mayor Oliver said Wednesday. “I cast my vote based on what I consider to be the current needs of Selma. It was not a vote against Mr. Barlow. I was not advocating for an immediate end date but simply wanted a date earlier than December 2017.”
“When others were calling for his immediate resignation in the past, I itemized why I felt his presence was beneficial to Selma at that time. I stand by those comments. He has done, and is doing, a great job of ensuring that critical policies and procedures are in place along with many more “nuts and bolts” items related to our town’s infrastructure. I am greatly appreciative of those contributions,” Oliver said.
“My dissenting vote was meant to signal a change in focus for the town. We need an increased focus on marketing and proactively growing our town. Some believe that this is solely the work of the Economic Developer. I disagree. It is also the responsibility of the Town Manager and the Town Council. A Town Manager wears many hats. Selma needs one of those hats to be a marketing hat that helps sell Selma to new businesses and residents and who can guide staff members in doing the same.”
“In addition, I believe that at this time, Selma needs a Town Manager that lives in Selma. When Council made the decision to allow Mr. Barlow to reside outside of town, I stated that we should do so because of our needs at that time. Since the time of that discussion, there has been increasing unrest erupting in communities around our nation. It would be helpful to have our Town Manager live in our town and establish strong relationships through ongoing proactive interaction with our businesses and citizens. These relationships are very important to the stability of a community.
“While I had the dissenting vote, I accept and fully support the majority vote. That is the way our Council should always operate.”
In March 2016, the town council met in closed session for 90-minutes to discuss Barlow’s job performance. They emerged without taking any action.
In February 2016, Barlow’s living arrangements were questioned by one council member. Under his initial employment contract Barlow was suppose to maintain a residence in Selma, but he reportedly refused to tell the councilmember in January where he was living. An updated agreement no longer required Barlow to live in Selma.
Barlow has been on the job since January 2014.
