There have been clear lines drawn in the sand between the two appointees from Birmingham and the rest of the Board since the Birmingham Water Works board became Central Alabama Water.

Pressure reached a boiling point, however, after Thursday's Central Alabama Water (CAW) meeting to vote on the utility's first chief executive officer.

"We sit here, and we pray before we have every meeting; it's obvious we don't pray to the same God. I'm trying to figure out what the hell is going on here," Jarvis Patton Sr., the appointee of Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, said during the short but contentious meeting made longer by constant procedural attempts to delay or stop the vote.

Those attempts weren't successful, and the contract for the CEO, Jeff Thompson, was approved.

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