The Birmingham Water Works has signed an unlimited, all-but-unbreakable contract with a Huntsville firm to provide "programmatic and professional engineering services."

[UPDATE: Russell terminated the contract with the water works board the week of September 13.]

Even though:

The company has no engineers and is not licensed in Alabama to perform engineering work.

It has demonstrated no experience working with water companies, and has not met qualifications for water works contractors.

No specific work is needed at the water works.

Money for the Russell Management Group contract is not in the budget, and water works executive staff did not recommend the deal.

The water works executive director asked for the company's qualifications after the contract was rammed through by the board, but company owner Reuben Russell never supplied even his resume.

To make it even more incomprehensible, the contract can only be terminated by a supermajority of the water works board. Which means four out of five members must agree to end it.

There is no limit in the contract to the amount Russell Management Group can be paid, leading one board member to predict it could wind up in the millions.

Because the contract calls for Russell to be paid 3.1 times the amount of its costs.

Water Board members Kevin McKie and Sherry Lewis. Goofus and Gallant.

Just so you understand. If a Russell employee making $100 an hour works one hour on water works business, the company can bill $310.

"Shame on everybody who is involved in this," Water Board member Sherry Lewis told her peers at a meeting last week. "This is the people's money."

Repeatedly she asked why. Why was the company hired? Why are the services needed? Why did the contract bypass usual channels?

Repeatedly she was rebuffed. Board member Kevin McKie, who chaired the meeting in the absence of President Ron Mims, rushed her along like there was something to hide.

"You are being repetitive," he told Lewis over and - ironically -- over again. "Let's be mindful of everybody's time. We have a long agenda and you're being repetitive."

"I'm being repetitive because this is the people's money," Lewis countered.

And then, less than three minutes into the conversation, McKie said this:

"Being repetitive doesn't help the people's money. It costs time. And our staff doesn't get to go do the rest of their jobs outside of this."

That's right. He said the board should not debate a potentially gargantuan contract to save a few minutes of staff time.

Lewis, who said the vote on the contract was taken when she was away, asked water works general manager Mac Underwood to explain the normal process for hiring contractors.

Underwood said staff normally identifies work that needs to be done. It gives board members a pool of qualified contractors and the scope of services, and that didn't happen with Russell's contract. It was brought up by the board and signed by the board, and staff was left to do its due diligence after the fact. Underwood said staff sought information from Russell, but did not receive any evidence of water-related work, or a resume, or other standard documentation. He said Russell told staff he "was applying for a State of Alabama license."

Attempts to reach Russell were unsuccessful.

McKie told Lewis the company would work primarily on program management, but could not point to specific projects or reasons for the hiring.

"How much is he going to get paid?" Lewis asked.

"You have to talk to Reuben about that," McKie said.

Which is ... inexplicable.

Listen to the Birmingham Water Works Board meeting above

We still haven't found the answers Lewis sought. We still can't say ... why. Why this company? Why now?

Except that politics and cronyism have always ruled the Water Board, and rule it now.

If there was a hint it was in a photo on Russell Management Group's website. Birmingham City Councilman Marcus Lundy was there at the company's 2014 "Christmas soiree," smiling along with Russell.

The council, of course, appoints Birmingham Water Board members.

It is but a hint.

But it's nothing like the hint of what's to come for ratepayers.

"We have in a few months a vote on a rate increase," Lewis warned. "This is wrong. This is illegal. This should be rescinded."

Last week she made a motion to rescind the contract. A vote was taken, and she was all alone.

BWWB contract with RMG by John Archibald on Scribd