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Selma rec board asks for special budget meeting as 26/27 draft raises questions over sports spending
Summary
Advisory members asked staff for a detailed line‑by‑line budget briefing and urged a special meeting before they finalize recommendations to town council after spotting unexplained variances in sports lines, referees pay, and football-related expenses.
Members of the Town of Selma Recreation Advisory Board on Tuesday asked staff for a special meeting to deep-dive the draft 26/27 recreation budget after identifying discrepancies and missing detail in the materials provided.
Board members said the packet showed mismatched historical numbers and ambiguous line items — including referee pay lines and a jump in requested funds for football officials — and that staff presence and subject-matter expertise were necessary for the board to make defensible recommendations to council. “We need a special meeting to talk about every line individually, and I want the subject matter expert who put the numbers on the paper to tell us why the number’s there,” one board member said.
Staff replied they will work with directors to produce a line-by-line justification of each sport’s requested amount, including equipment and uniform breakdowns, and will provide the date by which the board must submit recommendations. The board discussed the timing for a special meeting to allow sufficient lead time before the February budget deadline and requested at least two weeks to review staff-prepared detail prior to any special session.
The board also discussed capital outlay requests shown in the packet: examples cited included a $13,000 line to resurface tennis courts, $16,000 for a sound system, and a $15,000 volleyball system request; members asked staff to clarify what each capital request would purchase and whether any existing equipment could be repurposed or surplussed. Staff committed to returning with detailed justifications and, if necessary, to schedule a special meeting before the board forwards recommendations to council.
No final budget approvals were made at the meeting; members agreed to request targeted staff follow-up and a possible special meeting to review the 26/27 budget in detail.
