TALLADEGA — On the heels of a confirmed federal investigation into its operation, the Talladega Water and Sewer Board met with attorneys Monday morning and afternoon in closed door sessions.According to board secretary Cathie Fuller, the called meeting began about 11 a.m., and went into executive session immediately. Under the state's Open Meetings Law, often referred to as the Sunshine Law, boards may meet in private with their lawyers on matters of pending litigation.
Board chairman Wayne Kearley and board members Wayne Miller, Lawrence McGraw and David McGhee were present along with board general manager George Montgomery, board general counsel Jake Montgomery, board attorney Charlana Spencer and another attorney that Fuller knew only as "John."
Spencer, who practices law in Montgomery, is representing the board in a class action suit brought by residents of Grant Street against the board, the city of Talladega and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. The well in that neighborhood has been ordered closed since June by ADEM due to recurring contamination problems.
Miller said that notice of Monday's meeting was "posted on the door (of the water board office) since Friday." The board's offices are not open on Saturdays or Sundays.
The board members present left the meeting after about two hours, according to Fuller. The Montgomerys, Spencer and the other attorney were all present until around 3 p.m., when Jake Montgomery, who is George Montgomery's brother, left the office.
George Montgomery and the other attorneys remained in the basement meeting room of the board's offices until well after 5 p.m.
When a reporter for The Daily Home tried to enter the meeting, the outside door to the conference room was locked. Knocks on the door went unanswered.
The topic of the meeting is anyone's guess.
Currently, the board is a defendant in a class action suit brought by Talladega residents who say they fear their health has suffered due to contamination of the Grant Street well with tetrachloroethylene. The substance is a possible carcinogen that has been shown to cause liver and kidney damage in laboratory animals.
That case is currently pending in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
The water board operation also is apparently the subject of a federal criminal investigation. On Thursday, search warrants were served by agents of the FBI and the criminal investigative division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
