There have been clear lines drawn in the sand between the two appointees from Birmingham and the rest of the Board since the Birmingham Water Works board became Central Alabama Water.
Pressure reached a boiling point, however, after Thursday's Central Alabama Water (CAW) meeting to vote on the utility's first chief executive officer.
"We sit here, and we pray before we have every meeting; it's obvious we don't pray to the same God. I'm trying to figure out what the hell is going on here," Jarvis Patton Sr., the appointee of Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, said during the short but contentious meeting made longer by constant procedural attempts to delay or stop the vote.
Those attempts weren't successful, and the contract for the CEO, Jeff Thompson, was approved.
Hours later, Patton and Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson, the Birmingham City Council appointee, filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction against the Board to "stop the appointment of the CEO."
"Plaintiffs have been denied access to material information regarding Defendant's executive search and the candidate that has ultimately been chosen to be appointed," the suit claims.
The pair cite that "multiple" meetings were "called and cancelled," and that the two of them have not been able to get answers to their inquiries about the search committees' progress or findings.
"They will not be able to fulfill their fiduciary duty as Directors on the Board because they are being prevented from exercising their duty of care. And because their decision cannot be undone, they will endure irreparable harm and hardship as they have reputations in the community of being strong advocates of the community," the lawsuit says.
During Thursday's short board meeting, Patton asked the Board to go into executive session. A request that was voted down 3-4, with search committee member and board vice-chairman Phillip Wiedmeyer voting with Patton and Tyson, something he did several times at the meeting before abstaining from the final vote to hire Jeffrey Thompson as CEO.
Tyson repeatedly expressed her frustration with the way she believes the majority of the Board has treated her since their first meeting. She also raised questions about information that sources say could have been obtained only through the leak of confidential personnel files, including details about Thompson's retirement account from his previous time at Birmingham Water Works.
A document was leaked to AL(dot)com that stated that Thompson agreed not to return to Birmingham Water Works (BWW). It is unclear how that information was accessed and leaked to the press; however, the new contract that was approved and signed was not with BWW, it was with Central Alabama Water. 1819 News reached out to Central Alabama Water for comment on the leaked documents; however, it has not received a response.
Thompson's major first course of action, within hours of the meeting, as first reported by AL.com, was to put the executive staff on paid leave.
The CAW website lists the Executive Management Team as including:
- Mac Underwood, General Manager
- Derrick Murphy, Assistant General Manager
- Philip King, Assistant General Manager
- Barry Williams, Assistant General Manager
- Michael Parker, Assistant General Manager
A request for comment from Central Alabama Water was acknowledged, but no response has been given.
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