Outside lawyer fees for Birmingham’s regional water board, long a source of scrutiny, could be dramatically reduced if the agency formed its own legal department, one board member proposed.

Board member Jarvis Patton Thursday evening detailed his proposal to hire a team of lawyers to create an in-house law department.

“A lot of your major organizations, big businesses, have law departments, and it cuts down tremendously on expenses,” said Patton, a board member from Birmingham. “Maybe we can cut back on some of the other expenses and let some of our other attorneys be free to have other things to do.”

The selection of lawyers and their hefty legal fees have long been the subject of contention by past board members and observers of the former Birmingham Water Works Board.

Now restructured and renamed Central Alabama Water, the new name has not erased old issues of high-dollar spending for lawyers.

The water works last fiscal year spent $1.7 million in legal fees from several attorneys and firms.

“We want to save more money and there are enough attorneys around town who are very capable of performing the task,” Patton said.

While Patton pressed for action now, the board members declined to act before the utility hires a CEO.

A three member committee will lead the process of searching for and hiring the utility’s first CEO. The CEO post will not replace the position of general manager, who current handles daily operations.

Just before his presentation, Patton questioned the board’s upcoming legal invoices, including $54,700 from Paden and Paden, one of its newly hired outside firms. Patton said continuing outside legal bills illustrate the need to have internal lawyers.

“We want to save more money and there are enough attorneys around town who are very capable of performing the task,” he said.

The water works has traditionally used one firm to lead the legal team of several other lawyers.

On the other side, other board members questioned $105,000 in non-lawyer professional service fees from the Birmingham Business Resource Center, a non-profit small business development agency hired by the former board to increase minority vendor participation at the water works.

The invoices were for three months of work in March, April and May. The agency’s contract with the utility ends in December.

Jeffrey Brumlow, a board member from Shelby County, who is also a lawyer, expressed support for an in-house attorney, but said there would remain a need for some outside legal services. He also defended Paden’s work and billing.

“I think we have got to have a CEO who can organize all that,” Brumlow said. “I’m not questioning the need at all, I’m just looking at the time to move forward.”

In the end, the board declined to move forward immediately on Patton’s recommendation.

“I like the idea,” Brumlow said. “I want to see the CEO appointed because I want to see the overall picture of everything that’s going on at the board to get a view on how to tackle it in a responsible way.”

Patton questioned the delay, reminding the board that it sets policy for the agency, no matter who is selected to lead its daily operation.

“It’s never too early to bring them on board,” he said. “Every month we’re going to spend a lot of money on attorney’s fees.”

The water works briefly had an in-house lawyer when the former board approved a long-term contract to make Mark Parnell, its longtime outside lawyer, the agency’s general counsel.

That vote was taken just a day before Governor Kay Ivey signed the law that changed the water works board’s composition and kicked the old board out of office.

The new regional board later unanimously voted to cancel the contract and ended its relationship with Parnell. Brumlow led the effort to terminate him.

In Parnell’s place, the board hired three outside firms, Porter, Porter and Hassenger, Paden and Paden and attorney Reginald D. McDaniel.

The water works now pay those new lawyers hundreds of dollars per hour, for each of the attorneys handling the utility’s business.

The utility pays $400 an hour for Jim Porter and $300 an hour for an associate. Lawyers for Paden and Paden, led by former Bessemer city attorney Shan Paden, will also be paid $400 an hour. McDaniel also will receive $400 an hour.