A Senate bill to shrink the Birmingham Water Works Board and change how and from where new members are selected only directly impacts five Alabama counties.
But Senate Bill 330’s advancement, supported by Republicans and decried by Democrats, could impact the remaining days and bills in this legislative session.
Republican backers of Senate Bill 330 say it’s needed to “have competent and efficient management” of the water system in a region that’s economic prosperity impacts the entire state.
“We’re trying to have a vision for the future,” bill sponsor Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, said in a nearly hour-long committee meeting and public hearing Tuesday. “Without a vision, the people perish.”
He said the Birmingham area has lost economic development projects because of the poorly managed utility.
His bill takes the board from nine members to five and requires financial expertise for some members.
The bill advanced on a party-line vote from the County and Municipal Government Committee Tuesday morning. Democrats criticized their GOP colleagues for the bill they said was a move to take control of the board from Birmingham and Jefferson County. The water system serves 770,000 people in five counties, the majority of them in Jefferson County.
Some opponents to the bill said during the public hearing that the legislation was about taking power from the predominantly Black city. Six of the nine current BWW board members are appointed from Birmingham. Roberts’ bill makes the board more regional with appointments from the Alabama lieutenant governor, the mayor of Birmingham and the Jefferson, Blount and Shelby county commissions.
“You’re ready to strangle Birmingham,” Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, said in committee. “It’s like a lynching, it’s a public lynching.”
Later, on the Senate floor, Smitherman slowed some action and votes by taking his allotted time to talk at the podium, something he regularly does. Republicans passed two bills Tuesday without cloturing Smitherman to cut off his opportunities to speak. Cloture was needed Thursday when Smitherman protested over SB330.
There are now six legislative days spread over two to three weeks remaining in this legislative session that began in early February.
At least seven BWW board officials and employees and local officials spoke in opposition to the bill Tuesday.
Board Chair Tereshia Huffman acknowledged that the utility has had management and billing issues in the past, but has made improvements in the last year.
“The management team assembled over the last nine months is making tremendous progress in addressing issues that took decades to develop,” Huffman told the committee. “The board has united around addressing and accelerating key operational issues, including pipeline replacement, increased focus on customer service, infrastructure improvement and implementation of automated meter reading infrastructure for increased accuracy within our billing system.”
The BWW board was last overhauled in the Legislature a decade ago. Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, was involved in that bill. He said Tuesday he’s getting as many complaints about the utility now from constituents as he did 10 years ago. He’s a co-sponsor on the bill.
Democrats criticized Roberts for filing the statewide bill without trying to handle concerns about the board within the Jefferson County delegation via a local bill.
The bill could get a Senate vote Thursday.