MONTGOMERY — Amended legislation changing the governance of Birmingham Water Works passed the Senate unanimously on Thursday.
The original Senate Bill 330, introduced by State Sen. Dan Roberts (R-Mountain Brook), would have reduced the number of board members from nine to five. The Birmingham mayor, lieutenant governor, Jefferson County Commission president, Blount County Commission and Shelby County Commission would each get one appointment to the board under the legislation.
The amended version would add two more appointments. The sixth appointment would be a Jefferson County resident with a "general business background" appointed by the governor. The seventh appointment would be made to a Jefferson County resident, appointed by the Birmingham City Council.
Currently, the nine-member board consists of two appointments from the Birmingham Mayor, four appointments by the Birmingham City Council, one appointment by the Jefferson County Mayors Association, one appointment by the Shelby County Commission, and one appointment by the Blount County Commission.
The bill, co-sponsored by state senators Jabo Waggoner (R-Vestavia Hills) and Shay Shelnutt (R-Trussville), now heads to the House for consideration.
The amended version passed without discussion on Thursday, following a heated public hearing in committee on Tuesday. Roberts has said the bill is necessary to correct billing, service, and past corruption issues at the Birmingham Water Works Board. Opponents said at the public hearing on Tuesday that they were working to improve shortcomings, and the original bill's outlined appointments didn't reflect the demographics of Birmingham Water Works' customers.
Roberts told reporters on Thursday that the bill was amended after "lots of negotiations."
"We ideally wanted a five-member board. If you look at board organizations and how they're put together, a five-member board is usually very, very effective. After hard negotiations for several hours yesterday again until late last night and then again until late this morning, it became clear that this is what needed to happen," Roberts said. "We sat down as a Jefferson County delegation and hammered it out in a backroom of what it would take to get this bill to pass without creating lots of problems for the rest of our colleagues here in the Senate and the House."
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