MONTGOMERY — Republican members of the Senate County and Municipal Government committee passed a bill changing the makeup of the Birmingham Water Works Board on Tuesday morning.
Senate Bill 330, introduced by State Sen. Dan Roberts (R-Mountain Brook), would reduce 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.
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 is also co-sponsored by State Sens. Jabo Waggoner (R-Vestavia Hills) and Shay Shelnutt (R-Trussville).
Mac Underwood, the board's general manager, said he was opposed to the legislation.
"We have fewer or less billing issues than we have had in the past," Underwood said. "91% of our customers are from Jefferson County. 41% of our customers are in the city of Birmingham. Most of the customers are in Jefferson County. We serve those customers and we do it diligently. I ask that you give us a little bit more time. We've made a tremendous effort in improving the operation of the system."
Birmingham City Council president Darrell O'Quinn said the City of Birmingham also opposed the legislation.
"We believe that the proposed bill does not reflect the demographics of the customers of the water works board. It does not reflect the historical investment of the city of Birmingham's role in various times owning the water works and having a vested interest. We want obviously economic development for the city of Birmingham and for our entire metropolitan statistical area and we believe we are working in that direction," O'Quinn told the committee.
Waggoner said he supported the bill because he still receives constituent complaints about billing and service.
"I'm receiving the same complaints today primarily billing and service complaints that I received 10 years ago. That's the reason I'm involved in it. If I'd received no complaints, I would not be standing here today. Many of my constituents that call me, my family members, people in Vestavia, Hoover, and Mountain Brook they're calling again," Waggoner said.
State Sen. Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham) called the bill a "public lynching."
"This is government taking. It's a governmental taking without just compensation. This is a pure taking," Smitherman said. "This is a city with 70% of African-Americans yet we're getting ready to take the most prized asset in this city and their ability to determine growth and put it in four other people's hands. What you're doing, you're ready to strangle Birmingham. You're ready to try to bring her to her knees. You're ready to try to put her in a situation where she can't even support her ownself to be able to operate. That's what's getting ready to happen here. It's like a lynching. It's a public lynching. That's what's happening to 200,000 people. It's a public lynching. That's what this is. You have to call it for what it is."
State Rep. Jim Carns (R-Vestavia Hills) said he supported the bill.
"There are no assets that are owned by the city of Birmingham. They sold those assets in 1999. It took two years to complete the process. In February of 2001, the Attorney General Bill Pryor at that time signed off on this. All through that process, he called this a monopoly and during that one of the agreements was this would come under the Public Service Commission at that time. For whatever reasons and I could go through a lot of legal documents, that never happened," Carns said. "As it stands today, four appointments come from the city council of Birmingham. Two come from the mayor. That is six out of nine so they have total control over this. They have no assets in this game. They sold this to a separate corporation for what is equivalent today for $500 million and this is a separate corporation to serve 775,000 people that are customers."
He continued, "I heard all day about 41% being in Birmingham. 195,000 citizens of Birmingham divided by 775,000 customers is 25% and that is it. You can't change math."
State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham), an opponent of the bill and a candidate for Birmingham mayor, said, "As we talk about all of these issues and the concerns, I've never seen this body take over the gas companies."
"I've never seen this body attempt to take over the Power Company when the rates skyrocketed," she added.
Roberts told the committee the legislation was about securing the "future economic viability and sustainability of our city."
"Where we're trying to here is we're not trying to go into history. We're trying to go forward. The city of Birmingham is shrinking in population. We're trying to make it attractive. I love Birmingham. I love our Jefferson County community and the areas that surround it. We're trying to have a vision for the future and without a vision the people perish," Roberts said.
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