MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama House gave final passage Thursday to a bill that would change control of the public utility Birmingham Water Works, sending it off to Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk amid fierce opposition from Democrats, particularly those representing Jefferson County.
Sponsored by Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, Senate Bill 330 would shift the Birmingham Water Works Board from a city controlled board to a regional body. The bill would shrink the board from nine to seven members, as well as reduce the number of appointees made by the Birmingham City Council from six to one, with the remaining appointments made by a broader mix of state leaders and officials from counties serviced by the utility.
The impetus for the bill, according to Rep. Jim Carns, R-Birmingham, who carried the bill in the House and has introduced similar measures for years, was to address what he considered to be a pattern of mismanagement and fiscal irresponsibility.
“When I started the last bill in 2023, they were paying $45,000 a month for a lobbyist,” Carns said, speaking on the House floor at the Alabama State House in Montgomery.
“They were paying $50,000 a month for two different (public relations) firms at $25,000 each; they were paying $30,000 a month to an organization that made sure they had minority participation candidates lined up to fill in on capital projects. This is a monopoly.”
While more than 90% of the more than 770,000 people served by Birmingham Water Works reside in Jefferson County, the public utility also services four other counties; Shelby, Blount, St. Clair and Walker counties. Appointing authorities under the bill would include the governor, lieutenant governor, and county commissions that represent counties where a major reservoir is located, which includes Blount and Shelby counties.
Roberts has previously said the entire state should care about the fiscal health and management of the water utility.
“The rest of the state benefits from the taxes collected from the Birmingham-Hoover (metropolitan statistical area) and will suffer if the (area) suffers,” Roberts previously told Alabama Daily News. “Alabama and every serving legislator have a vital interest in reforming the Birmingham Water Works.”
While Carns argued that the more diverse appointing authority would help give surrounding counties more representation on the Birmingham Water Works board, Rep. Kelvin Datcher, D-Birmingham, said that the proposal gave far too much influence to neighboring counties considering their comparatively small share of Birmingham Water Works customers.
“We were invited there, and now the folks whose communities that we built; our resources, our dollars from Birmingham built these communities,” Datcher said.
“It’s like me showing up at Walmart and asking to be on their board of directors after shopping there. We have the numbers; 92% of the customers are in Jefferson County, 41.7% of the customers are in Birmingham, so shouldn’t the board reflect those numbers?”
When SB330 was first filed last month, it kicked off a filibuster on the Senate floor by Birmingham Democrats who accused Republicans of trying to seize control of among Birmingham’s most valuable public utilities. Last week, however, it managed to sail through the Senate with no discussion after Republicans agreed to increase the board size from the original five to seven, adding the governor and Birmingham City Council as the additional appointing authorities.
On the House floor, Carns defended the proposed appointing authorities for the Birmingham Water Works Board.
“The board is what it is, and I had a five-member board that I agreed to,” Carns said.
Another issue Democrats took with the bill was brought to light by Rep. Neil Rafferty, D-Birmingham, who invoked Birmingham’s storied history with segregation.
“We’re not confronting the elephant in the room, the historical context here; this legislation cannot be separated from Jefferson County’s complex history of race relations, immigration challenges, white flight and municipal fragmentation,” Rafferty said.
“The balkanization of Alabama’s largest metro area is fraught with history that I fear many in this chamber do not fully comprehend. At the end of the day, the proposed governance changes would shift control away from Birmingham, a majority-Black city, to state-level appointees in surrounding counties.”
Carns stood firm as four House members – three Democrats, and one Republican, Rep. Jim Hill, R-Odenville – offered amendments to tweak the bill, asking that all be tabled. The House voted to table every amendment offered, and went on to pass the bill in a partisan-split vote of 66-27, sending it to Ivey’s desk for final approval.
Rep. Patrick Sellers, D-Pleasant Grove, went on to call Thursday “a dark day in Jefferson County and in Birmingham,” and Datcher, speaking with members of the press, “undemocratic.”
“… It absolutely destroys the opportunity for us to continue to work together as a region. Today is a major step back for our community,” Datcher told reporters.