After Abruptly Leaving 6 Years Ago, Mac Underwood Rehired as General Manager at Birmingham Water Works

By Joseph D. Bryant | jbryant@al.com The Birmingham Water Works Board has selected a new general manager, and it is a figure well-known to the agency. Mac Underwood, a former longtime general manager who abruptly left his role more than six years ago, was rehired for his old job this afternoon. Officials at the Water Works Board said they conducted a national search to select the utility’s next director. Underwood will receive an annual salary of $446,118, which officials said is based on a pay scale established through the most utility’s recent salary survey. The agency received 59 applications and narrowed it down to 20, but in the end, the best candidate was already nearby, said Ronald L. Burgess Jr., a retired Army general and Auburn University executive, who was hired as a consultant to evaluate and recommend changes at the utility including selecting the next general manager. “We had some very qualified candidates. Mac’s qualifications from a technical standpoint at the water works matched and clearly exceeded in a lot of cases,” Burgess said after the meeting. “What differentiates Mac is his understanding of culture, his understanding of the mission of this particular water works and the five counties...