MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The city of Birmingham is one step closer to losing control over Alabama's largest water utility after the governor signed a bill on Wednesday that would give more power to neighboring suburbs, despite a pending federal lawsuit alleging the move would constitute 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 four counties that are also in the board's jurisdiction. It also reduces the number of board members to seven. Board members approve rate hikes and manage infrastructure projects for the utility's 770,000 customers.
The state Senate voted unanimously to pass the bill, and the House of Representatives approved it along party lines.
''No doubt, this is an important issue to all those residents served by this utility board. The Alabama Legislature overwhelmingly passed SB330, and I was pleased to sign it into law,'' Republican Gov. Kay Ivey said in a written statement.
Proponents of the bill point to frequent rate hikes, old infrastructure and recent scandals. The legislation said that the power transfer will prevent catastrophic events that have happened in cities like Jackson, Mississippi, or Detroit, Michigan.
Opponents say that the restructured board wouldn't solve the utility's problems.
''This is a taking of power from the local rate payer by Republican politicians in Montgomery,'' Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said in a statement on Wednesday. ''We have seen this same thing happen in other cities throughout the southeast. Your water and sewer bill will keep going up.''
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.