Birmingham Water Works makes case to senators considering restructuring board of directors

The Alabama Senate County and Municipal Government Committee approved a bill making changes to the composition and procedures of certain municipal water works boards, specifically the Birmingham Water Works. Leaders of the organization and with the City of Birmingham argued against the bill during a public hearing.

Senate Bill 330 applies to water works boards that serve customers or have assets in four or more counties, excluding the county where the authorizing municipality is located.

Birmingham Water Works serves 770,000 people in the City of Birmingham and five counties, including Jefferson County. Currently, the nine member board of directors is made up of:

• Two directors appointed by the Mayor of Birmingham
• Four directors appointed by Birmingham City Council
• One director appointed by the Jefferson County Mayors Association
• One director appointed by the Shelby County Commission
• One director appointed by the Blount County Commission

“The essence of the bill is this. To have competent and efficient management of water works boards potable and raw water systems is strategically important and important to the health, safety, economic viability of our state and local governments, and the well-being of residents there of. Failure in the management of water systems will lead to unreasonable high rates that oppress residents and are barriers for economic development. It is vital that we improve the current situation here,” said Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook.

Roberts sponsors Senate Bill 330, which proposes converting certain municipal water works boards to regional boards.

READ BILL HERE:

All current directors on the BWW Board would be terminated and replaced with new directors selected in accordance with the format proposed under SB330.

The nine board members would go to six under the new rules which dictate:

• One director selected by the mayor of the authorizing municipality of the Board, which would be the City of Birmingham in BWWB’s case
• One director chosen by the Lt. Governor
• One director selected by the president of the county commission where the authorizing municipality is principally located, which would be Jefferson County Commission in regards to BWWB
• One director appointed by the governing body of each county in which the regional Board owns a major reservoir, which is Lake Purdy in Shelby County and Inland Lake in Blount County
• One director appointed by the governing body of the county with the largest number of customers, excluding the county where the authorizing municipality is located.

SB330 also requires directors to have financial, engineering, or business backgrounds. Directors must be residents in a county serviced by the Board.

An elected official may be appointed as a director. An appointing authority may also appoint themselves or a member of an appointing group.

Term limits are imposed on directors under SB330.

In addition to changing the make up of the Board, SB330 requires the Board go through yearly training on ethics laws, establishes duties and unlawful actions of the Board, requires boards to hire a consulting engineer to advise the Board, and requires the preparation of certain financial and statistical reports to be made available to the public.

Longtime lawmaker Senator Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, sponsored and passed a bill in 2015 that changed the waterworks board.

“It was primarily because I was receiving a number of complaints from constituents, water users from around Jefferson County, Shelby County and their service area,” Waggoner said. “The complaints went away for a few years but they are back.”

Birmingham Water Works Board Chairwoman Tereshia Huffman shared with the committee the improvements made during the last nine months to resolve issues that developed over time. She said SB330 would set Birmingham Water Works back and negatively impact the organizations future plans.

“The Board has united around addressing and excelerating key operational issues including pipeline replacement, increased focus on customer service, infrastructure improvement, and implementation of automated meter reading infrastructure for increased accuracy in our billing systems. All of these priorities will make a direct, positive impact for each of our customers,” Huffman said. “We have approved and implemented a customer advocate office that is led by our Customer Assistant General Manager Michael Parker so that we can be proactive in addressing customer issues and not just be reactive.”

“This bill as it is currently written is a significant step back and would undo the tremendous strides made by the system over the last nine months and set back to the projects we have planned for the next few years. The unceratintly caused by the introduction of this bill has generated concern from the amazing staff members, all 600 plus of our employees,” she added.

Birmingham Water Works General Manager Mac Underwood also acknowledge there have been issues in the BWW billing system in the past. Underwood stated that the organization’s management team has been changed, and BWW billing errors have been reduced.

Supporters of the legislation argue the current composition of the Board does not represent the customers of Birmingham Water Works.

“As it stands, four appointments come from the City Council of Birmingham. Two come from the mayor. They have total control over this. They have no assets in the game. They sold this to a separate corporation,” said Rep. Jim Carns, R- Vestavia Hills.

Carns believed only 25% of BWW customers were in Birmingham.

“195,000 citizens of Birmingham divided by 775,000 customers is 25%. That is it. You can’t change math,” Carns said.

Underwood stated that 91.78% of customers are in Jefferson County and 41% are in the City of Birmingham.

“I don’t know where we are getting all of these numbers from but we wanted to give you the facts,” Underwood told the committee. “Most of the customers are in Jefferson County.”

He asked the committee to give the Board more time to implement their plans.

Birmingham City Council President Darrell O’Quinn said the bill was about taking from the City of Birmingham.

“The 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,” O’Quinn said. “We want economic development for the City of Birmingham and for our entire metorpolitan statistical area. We believe we are working in that direction. This bill is fundamentally about, we believe, control. It represents a taking from the City of Birmingham.”

“We want all the reforms to happen at the water works Board and want to see them perform better. We think we are moving in that direction but what’s being proposed is fundamentally opposed to the interest of the City of Birmingham,” O’Quinn added.

Sen. Roberts said the legislation was about the future.

“We are trying to appoint professional board members with engineering and finance background who will come in and be a board that supports the general manager and collectively as a team move forward. Our history is riddled with people going to jail, corruption, and you name it. Right now, 50% of the water that is pumped out of our treatment centers is not billed for. That is a result of crumbling infrastructure,” Roberts said.

After the bill was approved in committee, it goes to the full Senate for consideration next. Senate Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, expected the issue to be brought to the Senate floor Thursday.