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June 26, 2010

Depositions taken in GUSC lawsuit

By Benjamin Bullard The Cullman Times

CULLMAN — Depositions in the civil suit against the Cullman County Commission and the two county water utility boards it created got under way late this week, with plaintiffs’ attorneys calling the first round of defendants for testimony Thursday afternoon.

Associate county commissioners Doug Williams and Wayne Willingham, along with board member D.H. Haynes and water department manager David Bussman, answered questions from Steve Griffith and Todd McLeroy of Knight, Griffith McKenzie, Knight & McLeroy, LLP, the Cullman law firm representing those who filed the lawsuit in early May.

Much of the testimony revisited statements already documented in the case, although some new information emerged. Most notable was Bussman’s testimony that a portion of more than $140,000 in fees charged by a Birmingham law firm applied to background work done to research and draft documents related to the establishing of the two utility boards.

The two entities—the Government Utility Services Corporation of Cullman County (GUSC) and the South Cumberland Cooperative District (SCCD)—were formed at a county commission meeting on April 27 at which Williams and Willingham approved their creation over the objections of commission chairman James Graves.

While it is not yet clear which portion of the $137,000 paid to Johnston Barton Proctor & Rose, LLP of Birmingham was charged specifically for work done for—or to lay the groundwork for—the GUSC and SCCD, the revelation that the firm charged for their work calls into question a board member’s assertion earlier this month that the firm is representing the two entities on a pro bono basis.

“We just found out that the Johnston Barton law firm in Birmingham has in the past five or six months been paid $137,000 by customers of the Cullman County Water Department,” Griffth said in a prepared statement Friday. “That come out to $1,000 a page for the papers they fixed creating the GUSC and SCCD. No wonder our water rates are high. I promise we will get to the bottom of it come hell or high water.”

In their testimony, Williams and Willingham both informed attorneys that they were present at a series of meetings beginning in March that also involved at least one attorney with the firm, as well as engineering consultant Chris Cousins of Goodwyn Mills & Cawood, Inc. Bussman explained he organized the meetings at Williams’ behest, and that Cousins had referred him to the Birmingham law firm prior to retaining the firm’s services.

“We believe each one of those meetings was a violation of the open meetings act,” McLeroy said Friday.

The Alabama Open Meetings Act prohibits a quorum of a governing body—in this case, two or more county commissioners—from meeting to deliberate or decide on action outside a public meeting.

“James Graves was never brought into any of this,” McLeroy noted. “Wayne Willingham, Doug Williams and David Bussman never discussed any of these meetings or their actions with him.”

The depositions resume next week, with defense attorneys set to take statements from plaintiff witnesses Tuesday at 9 a.m. Defendants in the case will next be deposed on Thursday.



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 270.

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