Secret search for new water board CEO ‘all a lie,’ Birmingham mayor says

The process to hire a high dollar CEO of Birmingham’s regional water system is flawed, dishonest and contrary to what was promised by the new board, Mayor Randall Woodfin said, assailing the board’s leadership.

“I’m going to keep calling this out – because when a public utility that serves Birmingham families is being used for backroom deals, it is a betrayal of the duty they have to our people,” Woodfin wrote on social media today.

The CEO for Central Alabama Water, formerly known as the Birmingham Water Works Board, is set to earn $650,000 to $750,000.

Woodfin specially took aim at the lack of transparency in the selection process that has excluded two of the seven board members appointed by the city of Birmingham.

While the water board hired an outside firm to lead the process, officials also created a three-member committee with no information made public about the search.

“They hired Russell Reynolds Associates to find the ‘best possible’ CEO for Birmingham’s water system,” Woodfin wrote on Facebook today. “They signed the contract. They promised transparency. They promised integrity. And it was all a lie.”

Woodfin’s comments today come after an AL.com story Saturday that gave some details into the closed-door process that has resulted in one candidate rising as a top contender.

Secrecy surrounding the CEO search has spawned accusations of political favoritism and exclusion. Birmingham board members, Jarvis Patton and Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson said they have no details on candidates, the search firm or the status of the process.

Jeffrey Thompson, a former assistant general manager at the utility has been interviewed and seen as a prime candidate, but there has been no public discussion nor disclosure of any candidates. AL.com requests for details remain unanswered.

Woodfin accused the board of hypocrisy after pledging a new era when the state took out the previous Birmingham Water Works Board and formed a new board that is dominated by suburban representatives.

While Central Alabama Water services a five-county area, 92 percent of the customers live in Jefferson County and 44 percent of them live within the Birmingham city limits.

Woodfin, who had been critical of the former board for its actions, is fighting the state law that yanked the city’s dominance of the utility and diluted its appointing authority with suburban areas given more power. The new board is five suburban members versus two from Birmingham. The city filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the law.

Leaders of the new board “mentioned words like integrity, transparency and honesty and then violated each of those core values,” Woodfin told AL.com. “This is done under the cloak of darkness and secrecy, which means there is a plan and it is being politically driven, which is the opposite of why they said they were forming this organization.

“It’s very untrustworthy.”

CAW board chairman Tommy Hudson in July formed a three-member search committee naming himself, Phillip Wiedmeyer, and state Rep. David Standridge to vet candidates for the newly created CEO position.

But three months after the national search was announced, no finalists have been made public, and the utility has twice announced — then abruptly canceled — meetings to discuss the hire.

Multiple AL.com requests for details about the process, including the list of candidates, have gone unanswered by the utility’s leadership.

Thompson previously worked for the utility and served as assistant general manager of operations and technical operations from late 2019 until May 2023. He then went to DC Water as the authority’s new chief operating officer and executive vice president, where he served from May 2023 to August 2025.

Woodfin’s earlier criticisms of the former Birmingham Water Works Board for inefficiency and errors included the era where Thompson was part of senior management.

Multiple sources tell AL.com Thompson has already been tapped for the utility’s top job, despite no public disclosure of his candidacy or any others who may be under review by the search firm Russell Reynolds Associates of Chicago.

Thompson’s name also appeared on a recent national water conference attendance list as representing Central Alabama Water, even though he has not been officially hired. Thompson said he had no knowledge of the spreadsheet or why he was listed as a representative from Central Alabama Water.

“It’s just wrong and you have to call it what it is,” Woodfin said.