Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin is threatening to hold up Central Alabama Water's (CAW) ability to make critical repairs to its infrastructure.
In a recent letter to the Central Alabama Water Board, he put conditions on the City of Birmingham's approval of pending loans.
According to CAW's general manager, Mac Underwood, "Central Alabama Water received a letter from Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin related to the utility's application for the SRF loans from the Alabama Drinking Water Authority."
The Alabama Drinking Water Authority requested that the City of Birmingham agree to honor the terms of the loans in the event its lawsuit prevails.
Woodfin is suing the state and members of the Central Alabama Water Board, alleging that the legislation reconstituting the board into a regional one, which distributes power equally to those impacted by the board, was illegal.
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In the letter Woodfin sent to the board of the Central Alabama Water, Woodfin ceded, "While we certainly recognize the benefits from these repairs to the affected citizens of the City, we also recognize that there are other considerations of great interest to all Birmingham citizens."
He goes on to insist that three conditions are met before he will sign:
- No rate increases will occur in connection with the SRF Loan.
- The Board will create an in-house legal department to reduce the costs of legal services.
- The Board will adopt a 30% minority participation goal for construction projects.
Other legal costs have included forming and adopting bylaws for the new organization, reviewing previous contracts to confirm they are for services provided, canceling contracts when necessary, and addressing conflicts of interest and potential conflicts of interest, among other tasks. To date, millions have been saved by the new board through the cancellation of questionable contracts.
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Woodfin also requested that the board set an arbitrary "30% minority participation goal for construction projects", a condition that has already been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469 (1989).
Underwood said, "The Central Alabama Water Board will discuss Mayor Woodfin's request and respond as soon as practicable."
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