The king, er, president stands alone.

The Jefferson County Commission today approved Commission President Jimmie Stephens’ hiring his own counsel in the city of Birmingham’s federal lawsuit contesting appointment of a new City of Birmingham Regional Water Works Board.

Stephens was named in the suit in his official capacity as well as the full commission being named, County Attorney Theo Lawson said.

“There will be a little bit different defense there,” Lawson said. “The law makes Commissioner Stephens one of the appointing authorities for the water board, as it currently stands. The commission, on the other hand, is not an appointing authority and has no role so there will be separate defenses.

“For that reason, Commissioner Stephens is going to have separate counsel to represent him,” the county attorney said. “Brent Grainger and I will represent the county.”

The Legislature earlier this year changed the makeup of the water works board, reducing the city’s influence and increasing suburban representation.

In other action, the commission executed an $18,400 community grant agreement with the city of Helena to assist the Police Department with the purchase of a police K-9 and two pole cameras. The funds will serve city residents who live in Jefferson County.

“There are 3,600 residents in the city of Helena that are Jefferson County residents,” said District 3 Commissioner Stephens, whose area includes parts of Helena. “These funds will be used to take care of and to have cameras in that particular part of Jefferson County in order to increase their police protection.”

Stephens called the new cameras “a force multiplier.”

“The city of Helena has grown by leaps and bounds,” he said. “They actually come up Morgan Road all the way to the Bessemer city limits now. There’s a number of residents that have been dependent on county protection. Now they have to rely on the city of Hellena. It’s our jobs to make sure Jefferson County residents are served well and do not lose any type of their police protection. We’re working with the city of Helena in order to assure that.”

The commission also authorized an agreement with ETC Institute to conduct a community satisfaction survey of Jefferson County residents. Public Information Officer Helen Hays said the survey is a follow up to a citizen survey conducted in 2021.

“We asked some general questions about transportation, how (they would) like for us to see ARPA funds spent,” Hays said. “ARPA funds are coming to an end at the end of this year so it’s a natural time to follow up.

“There are also some communications questions on there and I implemented some things that are as a result of that (first) survey,” she continued. “We now have the citizens app. We now have an e-newsletter. It’s kind of following up to see if citizens know that we have those tools. Based on that survey, they wanted more communication or needed more communication from the county.”