The Birmingham City Council on Thursday voted to move forward with its plan to purchase the Birmingham Water Works.

The decision comes one day after the governor signed a law that reorganizes the makeup of the utility’s board, making it a regional body and giving Birmingham less representation.

But the state’s attorney general immediately raised obstacles to the sale. The board that has been overseeing Birmingham Water Works voted Wednesday night to accept the city’s offer to buy the utility – a move taken after the governor signed the new law.

“We do not believe the former directors of the Birmingham Water Works Board had the legal authority to vote on the transfer of assets to the City of Birmingham,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement Thursday. “Under Alabama law, their removal took effect immediately upon the enactment of SB330. Our office remains committed to upholding the law and protecting the people of Alabama from politically motivated decisions that jeopardize essential public services.”

Meanwhile, the president of the Jefferson County Commission made his appointment to the new board, and that new board member promptly filed suit asking a judge to rule that any actions taken by the former BWWB on or after Wednesday were invalid.

City leaders have opposed the bill as a power grab intended to lessen the city’s influence over decisions concerning water service in the area.

“This bill is an affront to the Birmingham customer,” Mayor Randall Woodfin said in a statement Wednesday. “This is a taking of power from the local rate payer by Republican politicians in Montgomery.  We have seen this same thing happen in other cities throughout the southeast. Your water and sewer bill will keep going up.”

City leaders also filed a federal lawsuit earlier this week calling the bill unconstitutional and motivated by racial discrimination. U.S. District Court Judge Emily C. Marks denied the city’s request to issue an emergency restraining order blocking Gov. Kay Ivey from signing the bill, but Marks set a May 15 hearing on arguments over whether to allow or block its implementation.

The new law reduces appointments by Birmingham officials from six to two. The BWWB as it existed before this week had two directors appointed by the mayor of Birmingham; four by the Birmingham City Council; one by the Jefferson County Mayors Association; one by the Shelby County Commission; and one by the Blount County Commission.

Under the new law, the governor would appoint one member, who would have to be from Jefferson County; and one member each would be appointed by the lieutenant governor, the Birmingham City Council, the Birmingham mayor, the Jefferson County Commission president, the governing body of each county in which a BWWB-owned major reservoir is principally located, and by the commission in the county where the second-largest number of water customers reside. Those last two provisions at this time give Blount and Shelby counties at least one appointment each.

According to BWW, 41% of its customers live in Birmingham and 91% reside in Jefferson County. The remaining ratepayers live in Shelby, Blount, St. Clair and Walker counties.

The council’s offer to buy the utility sets a price of $1, but the city would assume the board’s assets, worth more than $1.2 billion, and its debt of approximately $1 billion. After the BWWB voted to accept the offer, the council came back in a special called meeting Thursday morning and, after an hour-long executive session, voted unanimously to approve the purchase. Councilors J.T. Moore and LaTonya Tate were not present for the meeting.

Since 2001, the Birmingham Water Works Board has been a public corporation that owns and manages the Birmingham Water Works utility. The city of Birmingham purchased the water system in 1951 and has officially owned it at various times, most recently in the late 1990s.

New Members Appointed

Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens released a statement Thursday morning saying he had appointed Phillip R. Wiedmeyer, a Vestavia Hills resident who has 40 years of experience as an engineer with Alabama Power Co. Stephens said Wiedmeyer while at Alabama Power held leadership roles in power plant design, construction, licensing, governmental affairs and economic development.

Thursday afternoon, Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth appointed Bill Morris, the longtime General Manager of the Leeds Water Works, to the new Regional Water Board.

Solomon Crenshaw Jr. contributed to this report.