Edmond Watters
Edmond Vincent Watters (born c. 1967) is the CEO of Strada Professional Services.
Watters served as an unpaid aide to then-Birmingham City Council representative William Bell in 1989.
In 1998 Watters was paid $2 million from city coffers to educate voters about Richard Arrington's proposal to sell the assets of the Birmingham Water Works to a private operator to establish a trust fund for Birmingham City Schools capital projects. After the referendum failed, Bell introduced the "Bell Plan" to borrow on those same water works assets to secure $200 million in bonds for school construction. Former city attorney Donald Watkins, principal of the Chapman Company of Baltimore, Maryland, was selected as one of the underwriters for the bond issue. Watters' own company, the Watters Group, earned fees related to Porter White & Company's services in restructuring the Water Works' assets.
In 1999 Watters signed on as one of the founding investors in Watkins' Birmingham-based Alamerica Bank. After leaving the bank, he founded Underground Utility Services, which was awarded $1.7 million on grass-cutting and litter removal contracts from Jefferson County in 2005. The company later changed its named to Green Maintain LLC.
Watters was the owner of Southeast Environmental Infrastructure which was contracted to install water and sewer lines for the Park Place (Hope VI project) in 2004. The company was dissolved in 2009.
Watters was also a registered agent in several other companies, Haley-Bradford LLC, Safety Products Resources LLC, Southern Latino Communications LLC, and Urbane Development LLC, that all shared an address in Suite 100 at 2170 Highland Avenue. He is also the owner of concert promoter Infinite Group LLC and was a principal of Jackson-Haley Financial Services.
In 2018 Watters and Strada were named in a lawsuit brought against the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority by a former employee and a former board member alleging false reports to the Federal Transportation Authority regarding a grant for the city's bus rapid transit service. District Court Judge Corey Maze found the BJCTA liable, but dismissed the counts against Watters and Strada.
References
- Archibald, John (March 10, 2008) "Jefferson County grass man Watters had more county work." The Birmingham News
- Archibald, John (May 6, 2014) "Connections still count most at Birmingham City Hall." The Birmingham News
- Johnson, Roy S. (March 8, 2022) "Federal judge awards $1M in whistleblower lawsuit against Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority; CEO responds." The Birmingham News
External links
- Edmond Watters on Linkedin.com