The Birmingham Water Works Board Wednesday evening voted to sell the utility’s assets to the city of Birmingham, just hours after Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law that dissolved the current slate of leaders.

The move to make the state’s largest water utility a department of the city is an effort to circumvent the new law that adds new board members from suburban areas and ends Birmingham’s dominance over its operation.

However, the move may have come too late since Ivey signed the new law Wednesday afternoon that many interpret as dissolving the current board immediately.

The sale will be challenged in court as the state, the city of Birmingham and the beleaguered water board face off in lawsuits over the major overhaul of the utility’s governing board.

“The Birmingham Water Works Board has never given up on fighting for its customers and ensuring the make-up of this board reflects the people it serves,” members said in a statement following the vote this evening. “This system always has been, and will continue to be, an asset for the city of Birmingham, and our board took the steps necessary to keep it that way.”

Republican lawmakers have called changes to board long overdue, saying customers throughout the five-county area served by the water works lack representation at the utility, face poor customer service and annual rate increases.

The bill was sponsored by State Senator Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook and was carried in the House by Rep. Jim Carns of Vestavia Hills.

The members of the water board did not take questions after the vote to sell to the city. The vote was 5 to 2 with members Tom Henderson, a Jefferson County Mayors Association appointee, and Dalton NeSmith of Blount County voting no. Board members Butch Burbage of Shelby County and Monique Gardner Witherspoon of Birmingham were absent.

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.

The fate of Wednesday’s action remains a legal question over the legitimacy of the current board and whether it even existed when the vote was taken.

Shortly after the governor signed the bill into law, Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens appointed Phillip R. Wiedmeyer to the board. Wiedmeyer is a resident of Vestavia Hills and is a retired engineer with Alabama Power.

Wiedmeyer then filed a federal lawsuit in response to the city’s lawsuit and asking the U.S. District Court to stop the former board from taking any action after Wednesday.

Wednesday’s gathering was the second special meeting in two days to respond to the pending major changes and how the board could thwart them.

The city council approved a resolution Tuesday offering to buy the utility – with assets worth more than $1.26 billion – for a dollar, along with assuming its debt.

Mayor Randall Woodfin, who has been a critic of the water works board itself, said his effort to preserve Birmingham’s leadership over the utility was about defending the major asset for the citizens of the city.

“In no way am I here to defend the water works board and the politics surrounding it over the years. This bill adds more politics to the board: self-appointment from politicians, elected officials appointing other elected officials, and board members being paid more money,” he said in a statement.

Woodfin called the new law an affront to Birmingham customers.

“This is a taking of power from the local rate payers by Republican politicians in Montgomery,” he said.

The 11th-hour strategy by City Hall was part of a plan to salvage the water works by keeping it in the city’s hands before the state law went into effect, before the governor signed the bill.

But the water works took no action on the proposal on Tuesday.

Instead, they agreed to new contracts or amended agreements with the executive assistant, four assistant general managers, and to create a new position of deputy general manager and general counsel for Mark Parnell, their longtime lawyer.

The water board’s inaction Tuesday shocked and angered several city leaders who had worked on the 11th-hour proposal and even held an unpublicized strategy session with board members earlier in the week at a conference room at the Birmingham Zoo.

“We are still in active negotiations with the city to sell the assets of the Birmingham Water Works. This is a very detailed matter and both parties are making sure the process is as thorough as possible,” the water works statement reads. “However, we thank the city and its representatives for their urgent action and are proud to be working together to end these spiteful takeover attempts once and for all.”

Selling the water works to the city was part of a two-front strategy to thwart state legislation.

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

Wiedmeyer, the brand new appointee to the new regional board, argues in his suit that race is not the issue. “The Act complies with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act because it does not deprive individuals the right to vote on account of race of color,” he said in the suit.

Chief U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks set a hearing for May 15 on the request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to block the law.