Two Selma Council Members Resign As Divisions With Mayor Boil Over

Overby and Watson step down minutes apart following sharp criticism of Mayor Byron McAllister, and the way council business is conducted

SELMA, N.C. – Two members of the Selma Town Council resigned within minutes of each other Tuesday night, leaving the five-member board with two vacancies following a blistering public airing of divisions inside Town Hall.

Council Member William Overby announced his resignation first near the conclusion of the Aug. 11 meeting. Council Member Susan Parrish Watson followed with her own resignation moments later.

Both resignations were effective immediately.

Overby and Watson blamed Mayor Byron McAllister for many of the problems they said led to their decisions to leave office.

The two departing council members alleged McAllister worked cooperatively with Mayor Pro Tem Joe Scarboro and Council Member Amy West Whitley while excluding Overby and Watson from information and discussions involving matters coming before the council.

They also complained they had difficulty obtaining information from Town Hall and town employees that they believed was necessary to properly research issues and prepare for meetings.

Overby Resigns First

Overby’s written resignation letter, dated Aug. 11, did not detail those complaints. Instead, he thanked citizens for the opportunity to serve and said that after careful consideration he had decided leaving the council was the appropriate decision for him.

After the meeting, Overby told JoCoReport his frustration had been building for about a year and a half. Overby said he had grown tired of the situation and would rather spend his time at home with his family. He placed much of the blame directly on McAllister, alleging Mayor Pro Tem Joe Scarboro and Council Member Amy West Whitley were often made aware of town issues in advance while he and Watson were not given the same information before council meetings. Overby said he believes the mayor has exceeded the authority of his office and overstepped the boundaries of the position.

Watson Delivers Lengthy Statement

Watson’s resignation came after a lengthy statement in which she criticized McAllister, the operation of town government and fellow council members.

Watson said she could no longer remain on a board whose members and leadership she did not trust.

Her complete statement follows:

“Tonight I have several things that I want to talk about. And this may take a few minutes…and it may be uncomfortable for some people in this room…but I think these are things that are important for this community to hear.

First, I want to address the letter and audio that was released a few weeks ago by a former member of our police department, Major Jeffery Bass. If any of you paid attention, you saw that the letter was reported first, by the JoCo Report. In writing the article, several people were interviewed, but the one that stuck out to me the most was the interview with our Town manager Phillip McDaniel.

Mr. McDaniel was quick to jump to the Mayor’s defense…issuing the statement…‘Most of these allegations are false, embellished, or conveniently one sided’… only to learn a few days later that the whole conversation was recorded…..and we could all hear it for ourselves. I thank Major Bass for this transparency.

There were several things that alarmed me when I heard this recording. Recently, a mayor and several policemen in Chesterfield County, SC were arrested for a scarily…similar…incident. What saved our town was the integrity of Chief Hughes and Major Bass and their refusal to play along. I praise them both for standing their ground.

Folks, if you can’t see the problems that this type of overstepping by our Mayor can cause for Selma… I don’t know how else to help you. There are NC state laws that prohibit ticket quotas. And the right of an officer to use discretion is supported by both the US Supreme Court and NC state laws.

This is why I have been so opinionated about our charter and how our town government is supposed to operate.

In this audio you clearly hear our Mayor saying, and I’ll paraphrase, ‘in five years…the population of Selma North Carolina will be completely changed. The “riff-raff” will no longer exist…We are now a town with a Hobby Lobby…and that type of development brings a different kind of citizen…what I hear is “let’s make life uncomfortable for the people that we want out of Selma to make room for a new “Cary-type” resident”.’

You know, a town with all paved driveways…and God forbid…absolutely no ‘crush-and-run gravel’!

Our mayor then goes on to define the parameters of ‘speeding’ and what constitutes a complete stop at a stop sign. He actually tells our police Chief and Major Bass something to the effect: ‘I’m good with 10 over but anything beyond that you need to be tagging these people’.

…and some of you wonder why our turnover rate has been so high. Micromanagement is what I hear over and over again.

I’ll say it one more time…our mayor’s role is strictly defined in our charter. This town will continue to suffer as long as these instances of overreach are supported by council members who refuse to see it.

Suffering …if not by way of lawsuits…will continue to be the cause of employee complaints, resignations, mental stress and health issues.

The second thing about this audio that I found disturbing were the other town leaders that were denigrated.

Mayor Oliver was, once again, maligned and when I heard that I remembered a time that I tried to talk to mayor McAllister about his attitude toward Mayor Oliver to which he replied, she needs to stay in her lane. Fast-forward to all that I know about him now… that’s a pretty hilarious comment.

I’m bothered by his constant need to put down those who came before him.

But I think the people that my heart hurt for the most were the family members of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Hester, also a former mayor of Selma. I will not repeat the disgusting remark that Mayor McAllister made about Chuck, Ron and Missy’s father.

But I would like to tell you a bit about who Lieutenant Colonel Charles Ernest Hester was. By far, one of the best titles to describe him is leader.

Lt. Colonel Hester was a leader whose perseverance and determination moved those around him into action. Without that determination his family, this town, and his church would have never experienced the success that they have.

Three leadership traits in particular come to mind when speaking about Lt. Colonel Hester: decisiveness, enthusiasm and loyalty.

His decisiveness was shown in his willingness to take on the risk of decision making. He made decisions and took risks knowing that if things didn’t work out he would need to hold himself accountable first and foremost.

As for enthusiasm, being an enthusiastic leader helped him see problems and have the energy to resolve issues.

And finally, loyalty. The best leaders express their loyalty to their teams, to their church, their platoon, and their family.

Lt. Colonel Hester made sure that his team members had the training to do their job and live their lives. He stood up for his fellow man in times of crisis and conflict.

Lt. Colonel Hester entered the United States Marine Corps on May 18th, 1957 as a recent graduate of Barton College, formerly known as Atlantic Christian College in Wilson, NC.

He served this nation for 20 years.

He was stationed at the following bases:

Quantico, VA

Camp Lejeune, NC

Vietnam – August 1967 to September 1968

Okinawa, Japan

New Orleans, LA – officer in charge of recruiting for the state of Louisiana

Ft. Holabird, Maryland twice, Once as a student and once as an instructor

Newport, Rhode Island

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

And finally, at Washington, DC – Serving his final tour of duty at the Pentagon alongside Lt. Colonel Oliver North.

And somehow in his spare time he earned his master’s degree in international affairs from the prestigious George Washington University.

Lt. Colonel Charles Ernest Hester was a Bronze Star recipient, and also received Commendation medals from the Marine Corps for sustained acts of heroism, exceptional achievement, or meritorious service.

So, Lt. Colonel Hester was a big deal although he would have never told you that.

So, I speak out tonight to honor him in this town where he unselfishly served as mayor.

I waited…patiently…on Thursday night hoping that Mayor McAllister would humble himself enough to apologize to the Hester family concerning the comment that he made….but crickets.

Crickets from someone whose very freedom to use such derogatory words came from this Lt. Colonel’s bravery.

‘Simper Fidelis’, a Latin phrase meaning ‘always faithful’, a motto adopted by the marines expressing the lifelong standard of loyalty to one another.

Crickets from a fellow marine in the room that failed to defend Lt. Colonel Hester’s honor.

So, Chuck, Ron and Missy, ‘Simper Fidelis’ from me, the daughter of a fellow marine who knew what that motto meant and, no doubt, wouldn’t have let that comment slide.

I hope I gave you a bit of comfort in taking time to honor your Dad tonight. He was a true hero.

The last thing I want to address is code enforcement.

One of Mayor McAllister’s complaints in the Censure was that I didn’t use information that I collected. So I’m sure that he won’t mind if I share some insight on code enforcement with you.

From January 1, 2026 to the end of July 2026 the information that I requested from staff shows that the citizens of Selma were charged with $1.29 million in code enforcement fines.

Of that 1.29 million, $339,900 was charged for administration fees. The violations totaled $899,300. Then there were smaller figures for the cost to abate and a sanitation fee. Those items totaled approximately 50,000 of the $1.29 million.

Our code enforcement employee started her employment with the town of Selma as a custodian in July of 2023 with a salary of $43,000. In July of 2024 she pick up a stipend for code enforcement, so she was doing both jobs, and was given a raise to $53,750.

In July of 2025 her title changed to full time code enforcement with a salary of $50,000. In this budget cycle, she was given yet another raise, of $15,000, putting her salary at $65,000.

That’s quite a jump for one year.

And you may ask why William (Overby) and I voted to pass this budget that included this kind of raise. It’s because we have no in-depth conversations about the budget and this raise was buried in it.

Joe (Scarboro) and Amy (West Whitley) may have known about it but unless William and I had asked for a specific breakdown of each departments employee salaries we wouldn’t have seen it in the budget materials that we were given.

As a council member, we should not have to be that specific with our questions. If an employee is being given a $15,000 raise, with tax dollars, it should be made very clear that that is what we are voting on.

This is just one example of what we have put up with for three years now.

Being honest and transparent is not that hard. But it is a choice from your leadership.

These code enforcement ordinances are being used as weapons. In my opinion, every Town should have code enforcement, but it should be used with discretion and common sense when there are things that are seriously wrong in your community. Not to punish people $25 at a time because their trash can lid is cracked open 2 inches.

For folks that overload their trash bin EVERY week, we should enforce our ordinances and the fines that go along with them.

But to be paying a dedicated employee $65,000 to ride around and monitor trash cans and whether there is grease on your pizza box in the recycling container is a bit obsessive I think.

Is this truly about cleaning up Selma or is it about another income stream to support the Mayors many projects?

But you can expect more of this.

When we recently discussed someone dressing a deer in their backyard and our mayor said we have an ordinance against that (he said) ‘You can’t do anything in your backyard that makes your neighbor uncomfortable.’

So how far are we gonna take that and who is going to decide what is acceptable and what is not?

The other thing you need to understand is that I can’t fix any of this for you.

You, the citizens of Selma, have to fix this at the ballot box.

If you want to continue with rising code enforcement fees, and make Selma an HOA community keep voting for Amy and Joe and Byron.

If you want Byron to be your mayor, your town manager, your police advisor and have three votes on your council, vote for Amy and Joe and Byron.

If you want Selma to continue to have all of this drama, all of these employees who are taping meetings for evidence and ruining their health with stress, keep voting for Amy, Joe and Byron.

If you want to live in a community that is being gentrified right under your nose, a community where the town ordinances are being weaponized against you to the point that you can’t enjoy your own backyard, keep voting for Amy, Joe and Byron.

I have taken some heat, but I have also shown you who these people are.

If Selma is to turn this around, the citizens have to fill these seats with people that will research issues, people that understand the time and responsibility that these seats require.

Voting for people because they are nice…or fun…or popular…doesn’t put good people on your board.

Now, I have told you all, that I would leave this seat when I was good and ready. And I know my resignation will upset many of you. But it’s time for me to take care of me and my family.

So, I’m done here.

I cannot sit on a board with people that I don’t trust, with people that I have no faith in their leadership skills, or with people who are so spiteful and arrogant towards the members of this community that their attitude seems to be ‘Rules for thee but not for me’.

This is your town.

Are you going to show up next election and vote for sensible leadership?

It’s up to you.”

Watson’s Written Resignation

Following the remarks, Watson’s submitted her written resignation which became effective immediately.

In that letter, she said serving Selma had been an honor but concluded she could no longer be an effective leader under the council’s current operating practices.

Two Vacancies On Town Council

The town has not announced how it will fill the two vacant council seats or when the appointment process will begin.

Regardless of where one stands in the ongoing political disputes, having two elected council members resign minutes apart while publicly accusing the mayor of withholding information and overstepping his authority is a damaging look for Selma. At a time when the town is trying to attract new residents, businesses and investment, continued turmoil among its elected leaders risks overshadowing the progress Selma is working to make.