Another order, another appeal.

Attorneys for Cullman County associate commissioners Doug Williams and Wayne Willingham filed a notice Friday afternoon to appeal a restraining order in the ongoing legal tussle over control of the county’s water department to the Alabama Supreme Court.

The appeal challenges an Oct. 18 restraining order granted by Cullman County Circuit Court Judge Don Hardeman, which prevents the county from entering into a contract with a newly formed water board; extending a contract for embattled water department manager David Bussman; and paying a Birmingham law firm for work done to create the water board. In the Oct. 18 order, Hardeman set the stipulations to remain in effect until “further order of the court.”

Williams and Willingham attempted to pass the aforementioned measures at an Oct. 7 meeting that lasted much of the day. That meeting included an attempted filibuster by Chairman James Graves to prevent the measures from passing. Willingham and Williams later passed the measures, after Graves declared the meeting adjourned and left the room.

Within a day, the four candidates vying for the two associate commissioner seats — Willy Hendrix, Stanley Yarbrough, Keith Smith and Darrell Hicks — filed a lawsuit to stop the measures from taking effect.

This is not the first time the associate commissioners have appealed a local ruling in the case, as Hardeman has recently held hearings on the issue at the request of the supreme court.

The legal drama ultimately stems from an April 27 county commission meeting where the associate commissioners created two water utility boards — the South Cumberland Cooperative District (SCCD) and the Governmental Utility Services Corporation of Cullman County (GUSC) — and attempted to give those boards discretion over the $30 million water department.

An initial lawsuit was filed in the wake of the April meeting that saw the formation of the SCCD and GUSC, along with the transfer of the water department to the custody of the SCCD. Within days, commission chairman James Graves and six county residents brought the suit against the two entities, as well as associate commissioner Doug Williams and Wayne Willingham, claiming — among other things — that the two commissioners had violated open meetings laws in planning the formation of the two utility boards.

Check an upcoming edition of The Times for further details.

* Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 220.