The $613 million Alabama One Credit Union in Tuscaloosa, Ala. and the Alabama Credit Union Administration have settled their fight over an injunction to the agency's April 2 cease and desist order against the cooperative.
Alabama One's leading outside counsel, Victor Hayslip of the Birmingham, Ala. firm of Burr and Forman, had said in open court that the credit union wanted to continue the injunction case even after it failed to convince the court to issue a temporary restraining order, according to court observers and media outlets. Nevertheless, the 60,000-member Alabama One and the ACUA jointly agreed to dismiss the case on May 15, according to court documents.
Settling the court fights over the temporary restraining order and injunction set the stage for Alabama One's appeal of the cease and desist order before the ACUA in Montgomery, Ala. An administrative law judge has scheduled three days for the appeal beginning on June 9.
Meanwhile, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management has sought meetings with individuals in the Tuscaloosa, Ala. area about the ongoing situation at the Fosters Water Treatment plant, according to sources.
The facility requires an infusion of funds to pay for permits, testing and repairs that it needs in order to restart operations, according to documents filed with the U.S. bankruptcy court, but any additional loan to the facility would appear to violate the terms of the ACUA's cease and desist order. However, the ACUA's primary outside counsel – Robert Reynolds of the Tuscaloosa, Ala. firm of Reynolds, Reynolds and Little – has said the agency would be open to approving an additional loan to Fosters, provided the facility had a trustee in place and money would not be distributed to Danny Butler, the debtor in possession of the plant.
Butler began serving a 36-month sentence in federal prison in September 2014 for defrauding the Small Business Administration and conducting a check-kiting scheme between accounts at Alabama One and West Alabama Bank and Trust.
Paige Howard, Danny Butler's fiancée and power of attorney while he is in prison, said that ADEM officials had asked to meet her this week to receive an update on the plant's situation and find out who had been in charge of plant operations when a utility company cut its power for unpaid bills.
She said they also complained about not being able to find anyone to talk to at Alabama One in regards to the situation at the facility.
Neither executives with Alabama One nor officials with ADEM have responded to CU Times' requests for comment on the plant's situation or approaches to improving it.
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