Birmingham fights against losing control of its water board, citing racial discrimination

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Birmingham officials are fighting to keep control of the state’s largest water board, alleging in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that a new bill shifting power to Alabama’s Republican leadership and majority-white suburbs “constitutes blatant racial discrimination.”

The bill redistributes power from Birmingham city officials — who currently appoint a majority of the nine-person board — to the governor, the lieutenant governor and the surrounding suburbs that are also in the board’s jurisdiction. Board members approve rate hikes and manage infrastructure projects for the utility’s 770,000 customers.

The bill’s sponsors said the move was necessary to correct mismanagement and improve the system’s efficiency. The legislation passed 66-27 along party lines in the state House last week and now goes to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey ’s desk.

The federal lawsuit names the governor as a defendant, and seeks a temporary restraining order that would prevent the bill from going into effect. The suit says the bill would violate the equal protection clause, the voting rights act and both the state and federal constitution.

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Mayor Randall Woodfin, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, called the bill “unconstitutional on its face” at a press conference Tuesday.

Five counties rely on the Birmingham Water Works Board. Over 40% of customers are concentrated in the city of Birmingham, and 91% are in Jefferson County. The new system would give more weight to Jefferson County’s neighboring areas that have only a fraction of the customers, but which house some of the reservoirs that supply the system.

Woodfin said this would deny Jefferson County residents the opportunity for democratic input about the system’s governance.

“We live in America, representation matters. It matters at all levels of government — the federal level, the state level, the local level,” Woodfin said.

Proponents of the bill say aging infrastructure and a lack of investment mean residents pay for water that just gets leaked out of old pipes. The utility has been accused of ethics scandals and AL.com has reported on wasteful spending and costly errors in distributing bills.

“So many elected officials have been getting so many complaints, and I’m sure yours have too, about the quality and the price of Birmingham water,” said Republican Rep. Jim Carns, who represents Blount County, one of the places that would appoint a board member if the bill becomes law.

City council members said Tuesday that legislators dramatically exaggerated how much water was leaking out of the system.

“The implication that any perceived problems with the Water Works Board’s management are due to the majority of Board members being appointed by Birmingham is wholly unsupported,” the complaint said.

A lawyer for the city said the goal is for the governor to send the bill back to the legislature to make “appropriate changes” — but didn’t specify what those changes are. The lawsuit echoes testimony from state legislators who opposed the bill before it passed.

“We have not officially been served,” said Gina Maiola, a spokeswoman for the governor. “However, we are aware of the lawsuit and are reviewing this highly unusual attempt to stop the governor form signing a bill passed by the legislature.”

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Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.