Selma recreation board presses staff for line‑by‑line budget review, requests special meeting

At the meeting, board members repeatedly asked staff to reconcile numbers in the recreation packet with town records and to explain line-item requests in the proposed 2026–27 budget. Speaker 2 noted that several figures in the board packet did not match the town’s numbers and pressed for clarity on referee pay, uniform and equipment spending and why a $6,000 request appears for football when no 2024–25 tackle/flag season occurred.

Speaker 4 said directors are being asked to provide line-by-line justifications for requested amounts so that the board can take an informed position. Speaker 3 argued the board cannot responsibly sign off on a budget packet without subject-matter staff present and asked that the board hold a special meeting dedicated to the budget so staff experts can explain each line. “I want a special meeting just to dedicate to the budget itself to talk about every line individually, and I want the subject matter expert to put the numbers on the paper to tell us why the number’s there,” Speaker 3 said.

Board members also raised that the town’s master plan included outdated demographic figures (the plan’s most recent population number shown as 2020). Speaker 3 said the plan’s dated data has lowered the town’s scores on part f grant applications and urged a prioritized update of the document before future grant submissions.

Action and next steps: board members asked staff to prepare detailed justifications for each major line item (equipment, referee pay, concessions, and capital outlay) and to schedule a special meeting before the budget submission deadline so the board can provide a formal recommendation to council.

The board did not adopt the budget at this meeting; it directed staff to return with corrected figures and a proposed special-meeting date.