State senators file bill to make major changes to Birmingham Water Works Board
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) — A group of Jefferson County state senators filed a bill Tuesday that, if passed, would make major changes to the composition of the Birmingham Water Works Board.
Senate Bill 330 would convert the Birmingham Water Works Board into a regional board and terminate the terms of all current BWWB members upon passage.
The new regional board would include a director with “a financial background” appointed by the Lt. Governor, a director with an engineering and business background appointed by the president of the Jefferson County Commission, directors with business backgrounds appointed by each county “in which the regional board owns a major reservoir located principally within the county,” and a director appointed by the county commission of the county with the largest number of accounts that isn’t Jefferson County.
Those directors would serve five year terms (except for the first person to serve in each of those new seats, who would serve staggered terms), and would be banned from serving if they had worked for the BWWB or a company doing business with the utility in the two years prior to their appointment.
The new regional board directors would be term-limited to two terms, be paid $2,000 per month plus expenses, and be subject to state ethics laws and required to go through 10 hours of ethics training.
Senate Bill 330 would also require the new regional board to publish monthly reports online detailing stats like “the number of employees, number of customer connections by major geographical location, number of miles of pipe replaced as a percent of total miles of pipe in a system, volume of treated and untreated water introduced into transmission mains, volume of treated and untreated water billed to customers, and the number of leaks repaired.”
The new regional board would also be required to hire a consulting engineer to issue recommendations and assessments of projects with a price tag over $2 million, and any proposed rate increases.
Thursday afternoon, BWWB released the following statement:
“We are currently reviewing a copy of the legislation which is similar to bills that have died in recent years. Our focus is continuing to make improvements to our customer service, infrastructure and the overall operations of the Birmingham Water Works. We have made significant strides over the last few months. Our main priority remains our customers and ensuring the system continues to deliver the highest quality water to everyone across our five-county service area.”
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