The city of Birmingham wants to buy the state’s largest water utility – for a dollar.

The deal is more complicated than it sounds. The city council approved a resolution today offering to buy the state’s largest water utility – with assets worth more than $1 billion – for a dollar, along with assuming its debt.

The 11th-hour strategy is part of the plan to salvage the water works by keeping it in the city’s hands before a state law brings major changes to the utility by stripping Birmingham of its dominance on the operating board.

The plan would effectively make the water works a Birmingham city department.

“The state legislature forced our hand on that and now we’re moving forward with some intentionality about making that happen,” Council President Darrell O’Quinn told AL.com. “If the city were to go through with making this purchase, essentially then we would become the governing body because it would be our asset.”

The city of Birmingham at times has officially owned the water works. The last time was in the late 90s before a controversial move when the assets were again transferred back to the independent board.

But the fate of the novel proposal is now in doubt as the Water Works Board today held what might be its last meeting and took no action on the offer.

Instead, the board in a special-called meeting shored up the employment contracts for its senior managers.

The city’s proposal to buy the water works was part of a two-front effort to thwart state legislation approved last week that will create a seven-member authority dominated by appointees from outside the city of Birmingham and reduce the city’s seats to two.

Mayor Randall Woodfin and council members this morning also announced a federal lawsuit to fight the bill, claiming that the legislation is motivated by racial discrimination.

The city argues that there is no rationale that that board would be better managed simply by changing the demographic proportion of people who sit on it.

Later today Chief U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks denied the city’s request for an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order before Gov. Ivey could respond, but set a hearing for May 15 on the request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.

The utility has total assets valued at about $1.26 billion.

Utility leaders met for more than an hour in a closed-door executive session today, returning only to offer contracts to system managers and the board’s executive assistant.

Details of the contracts were not discussed publicly, and officials said the arrangements were still being shored up.

Board Chairwoman Tereshia Huffman again assailed the bill and efforts to change the utility as filled with “misinformation about this utility and our leadership team.”

“We will continue fighting for this utility until that bill is signed,” she said.

The board then adjourned without taking any other action.

Today’s torrent of activity comes just a day after Woodfin, council members, and some Birmingham-area Democratic legislators gathered for an unpublicized strategy session in a conference room at the Birmingham Zoo.

The water board did not publicly discuss the city’s action. Instead, they agreed to new contracts or amended agreements with the executive assistant, four assistant general managers, and to creating a new position of deputy general manager and general counsel for Mark Parnell, their longtime lawyer.

The water board’s inaction on the proposal to join the city was a surprise, O’Quinn said.

“I would have expected them to coordinate their efforts with what we did today,” he said. “This is a rapidly developing situation. We’ve been in this together fighting for the same cause and I certainly hope they would be open to considering that type of deal.”

Governor Kay Ivey could sign the bill into law at any time ending the terms of the current board and ending the era of Birmingham dominance over the utility.