The Birmingham Water Works Board (BWWB) voted to sell all of its assets to the City of Birmingham on Wednesday, despite Gov. Kay Ivey already having signed legislation changing the board's governance, effective immediately.
Over the past weeks, lawmakers, especially Democrats in Jefferson County, have pushed back heavily on the new law.
The original bill reduced the number of board members from nine to seven. The governor, Birmingham mayor, Birmingham City Council, lieutenant governor, Jefferson County Commission president, Blount County Commission and Shelby County Commission would each get one appointment to the board under the legislation.
This changed from the previous nine-member board, which consisted 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.
Ivey signed the bill at roughly 3 p.m. on Wednesday, despite a lawsuit from the City of Birmingham to “enjoin, restrain, and otherwise prevent” Ivey from signing the bill into law. The BWWB, in response, called an emergency meeting for 6:15 p.m. that same evening.
During the meeting, the BWWB voted to sell its assets to the city of Birmingham while it works “to end these spiteful takeover attempts once and for all.”
“The actions we took tonight were to ensure that every one of our customers, from all five counties, continue to feel the tremendous improvements the system has made in the last 10 months,” the BWWB said in a statement. “We remain committed to our customers, making improvements to the BWW and to leading ethically, with dignity and respect. The fight to get to this point has taken time, but that was an intentional decision to ensure we were as diligent and thorough with our decision as possible. We are still in active negotiations with the city to sell the assets of the Birmingham Water Works. This is a very detailed matter and both parties are making sure the process is as thorough as possible. However, we thank the City and its representatives for their urgent action and are proud to be working together to end these spiteful takeover attempts once and for all.”
Following the announcement, State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham), who resisted the bill from the beginning, questioned the legitimacy of the board’s vote.
The law Ivey signed states it goes into effect immediately, leaving the question of whether the BWWB is considered dissolved by the law’s passing open to interpretation.
“Make it make sense,” Givan said in a Facebook live. “What just happened at the [BWWB] when they have been dismantled by law in black and white? At 2:45 p.m., Governor Ivey called for the immediate dismantling and removal of board members.”
She continued. “They have no authority because they’re no longer a board under law, period. Every lawyer in the state of Alabama in Montgomery, from the attorney general’s office, from the governor’s office, every lawyer that has been engaged today has gone through that bill before it was signed with a fine-toothed comb. I’m not sure what kind of foolery…”
Republican lawmakers who backed the bill did so claiming years of mismanagement, incompetence and corruption on the part of the BWWB.
According to Givan, selling assets when your existence as a board is questionable is not the best way to prove competence.
“We had representatives and senators who said the board and those at the city of Birmingham were incompetent or has exhibited through their appointment power a level of incompetence,” Givan continued. “Who would hold a meeting tonight and make that decision to give the public the belief that they have the authority to do so, and they don’t?”
After the governor signed the bill into law, Jefferson County Commission president Jimmie Stephens appointed Phillip R. Wiedmeyer, a retired engineer with Alabama Power, to the board.
Wiedmeyer later filed suit in response to the city’s lawsuit, asking the U.S. District Court to stop the now-former board from taking action.
The BWWB and Birmingham city officials were not immediately available to speak on the legality of the board’s actions.
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