The two water utility entities whose creation and belabored existence dominated county politics for much of the past year capitulated to legal pressures Tuesday, formally filing dissolution documents with the Probate Judge of Cullman County.

The Governmental Utility Services Corporation of Cullman County (GUSC) and the South Cumberland Cooperative District (SCCD), each of which invited controversy from many county water customers and local politicians since the date of their creation last spring, both dissolved without fanfare after filing their dissolution certificates Tuesday.

The water boards, which were created at the April 27, 2010, meeting of the Cullman County Commission, were originally set over the Cullman County water department.

From the day the boards were created, the SCCD was deeded the assets of the department — valued at more than $30 million — and tasked with collecting revenues, making all personnel decisions, managing all of the department’s assets and approving the department’s strategic direction.

The GUSC was set over the SCCD as the corporate entity through which four of the five appointments to the SCCD board were to be made in perpetuity, with the county commission responsible for the fifth appointment.

None of that will happen now. From the second week of their existence, the two boards were hamstrung by lawsuits and resulting circuit court actions that prevented them from controlling the department until the longest-lived of the suits, filed by several county water customers, had been resolved.

That suit, which has been tied up in both local and state court almost as long as the two boards have existed, was dropped in the wake of the boards’ voluntary dissolution. There will be no more litigation against either the GUSC or the SCCD, since each has been dissolved.

The status of suspended water department manager David Bussman, whom the new boards bolstered as their pick to continue operating the department, was not resolved as part of the two boards’ dissolution. County officials said at their regular commission meeting Tuesday they were hoping to resolve Bussman’s employment limbo before the commission next meets.

Bussman became embroiled in the politics of carrying out the wishes of warring county commissioners last year. That battle intensified after lawsuit deposition testimony revealed that former commissioners Doug Williams and Wayne Willingham — who both formed the commission quorum last April that created the GUSC and SCCD over the objection of chairman James Graves — instructed him in the months leading up to the April meeting to research avenues whereby the county could create a utility board to operate the water department.

The dissolution of the two entities makes permanent the county’s ownership and control of the water department, a situation that a circuit court ruling had already established — at least until an appeal of the measure before the state Supreme Court had been resolved — when it issued an injunction last May ordering the GUSC and SCCD to relinquish control of the department to the county while the suit played out.

According to Graves, legal expenses incurred by the SCCD and the GUSC in defending the dropped suit will not be borne by the county. The county, as well as plaintiffs in the original suit, have been defended on a pro bono basis by local attorneys with the Knight Griffith McKenzie Knight & McLeroy. County attorney Rusty Turner has also represented the county in phases of the litigation.

 

* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.