A bitter legal fight that has divided leaders of a small Alabama town, pitting two mayors against each other is over for now.

The winner is Lipscomb Mayor Tanja Baldwin.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge David Hobdy ended months of wrangling over who has the authority to hire a city attorney for Lipscomb, a town of 2,000 people just west of Bessemer. The ruling settles a months-long feud between Baldwin and the Lipscomb City Council, which had hired Tarrant Mayor Wayman Newton to represent the city. Newton is also a lawyer.

Hobdy on Wednesday ruled that Lipscomb’s previous longtime attorney, Lucien Blankenship, remains city attorney, at least until this fall. Hodby set a hearing for Sept. 3 to hear additional arguments. The hearing will occur after the city’s August elections for mayor and council.

“Now that this is over we can move forward with the business of the city,” Baldwin told AL.com. “There are some things that we need to get done that are important for the city.”

Lipscomb city leaders remain divided over several ongoing disputes between the mayor and council. Drama escalated in February when the council removed Blankenship and replaced him with Newton, a move that Baldwin opposed. A private citizen in Lipscomb later sued to challenge the action.

Newton is also mayor of Tarrant, a nearby town of about 6,000, also known for hostile and litigious politics between its mayor and council.

AL.com’s efforts to reach Newton for comment have been unsuccessful. In previous interviews, however, Newton dismissed the lawsuit as a political attack from Baldwin to discredit his work.

Newton insisted his role as an attorney and the dispute in Lipscomb had no connection to his official duty as mayor of Tarrant.

Baldwin insisted the city council illegally hired Newton and called an illegal meeting to do so. Since then, the two mayors have clashed verbally and legally.

Baldwin said the council lacked authority to hire an attorney because, as mayor, she is the appointing authority.

Lipscomb, like Tarrant, has faced years of gridlock as Newton and the city council continue to disagree over basic government operations and blame each other for the dysfunction.

The ruling from Hobdy is the latest legal volley in the dispute. A previous ruling also favored the mayor’s contention that she was the hiring authority, and that the council had improperly hired Newton.

Back in April, Baldwin ejected Newton from Lipscomb City Hall and obtained an arrest warrant against him, accusing him of making threatening comments toward her. The allegations were classified as a misdemeanor.

While the initial warrant was revoked by a judge, a second warrant for trespassing was issued this week. Newton is accused of trespassing on city property after he was previously escorted out by Lipscomb police.

The current warrant for trespassing that was issued earlier this week is a third-degree misdemeanor that does not require a jail stay and carries no bond.

It is unclear whether the charges will be dropped.

“I’m hoping that the council members and myself can come together and move forward now that that big roadblock is out the way,” Baldwin said. “There is nothing left for us to do but come together and do what we were elected to do.”