(a) The authority shall be governed by a board of directors, and all powers of the authority shall be exercised by the board or pursuant to its authorization.
(b) The board shall consist of seven directors. The Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, the Director of Finance and the Superintendent of Banking shall be ex officio members of the board of directors. The remaining four directors shall be appointed, by the persons and in the manner hereinafter prescribed, as soon as may be practicable after the incorporation of the authority, for staggered terms as follows: The Speaker of the House of Representatives shall appoint one director and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate shall appoint one director each of whose initial terms shall begin immediately upon his respective appointment and shall end on September 30 in the fourth calendar year next following the calendar year in which the certificate of incorporation of the authority was issued; and the Governor shall appoint each of the two remaining directors whose initial terms shall begin immediately upon their respective appointments and shall end on September 30 in the second calendar year next following the calendar year in which the certificate of incorporation of the authority was issued. Thereafter, the term of office of each appointed director shall be four years, commencing on the October 1 next following the September 30 on which the term of the immediate predecessor director ended. If at any time there should be a vacancy on the board not heretofore provided for, a successor director shall be appointed to serve for the unexpired term applicable to such vacancy. The appointment of each appointed director (other than those initially appointed), whether for a full four-year term or to complete an unexpired term, shall be made by the same state officer who appointed the director whose term has expired or is to expire or in whose office a vacancy otherwise exists and shall be made not earlier than 30 days prior to the date on which such director is to take office as such. If the term of office of any appointed director shall expire prior to the reappointment of such director or prior to the appointment of his successor, such director shall continue to serve until his successor is appointed and qualified, and if such director is reappointed for a new term after the expiration of the immediately preceding term which he has been serving, his new term of office shall be deemed to have commenced on the October 1 next following the expiration of such immediately preceding term. Directors shall be eligible for reappointment.
(c) Each appointed director shall, at the time of his appointment and at all times during his term of office, be a qualified elector of the state; and a failure by any appointed director to remain so qualified during such term shall cause a vacancy of the office of such director. No officer or employee of the state or of any county, city or town therein, and no officer, employee, director or trustee of any lender or any affiliate thereof, shall be eligible for appointment as a director. The acceptance by an appointed director of any office or employment which, had such director held such office or been so employed at the time of his appointment as a director, would have rendered him ineligible for appointment as a director, shall cause a vacancy of the office of such director. Each director shall serve without compensation, except that he may be reimbursed for expenses actually incurred by him in and about the performance of his duties.
(d) A majority of the directors shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. No vacancy in the membership of the board or the voluntary disqualification or abstention of any member thereof shall impair the right of a quorum of the board to exercise all the powers and duties of the authority. Any appointed director may be impeached and removed from office in the same manner and on the same grounds provided by Section 175 of the Constitution of Alabama, or successor provision thereof, and the general laws of the state for impeachment and removal of the officers mentioned in said Section 175, or successor provisions thereof. All proceedings of the board shall be reduced to writing by the secretary of the authority and maintained in the permanent records of the authority. Copies of such proceedings, when certified by the secretary of the authority under the seal of the authority, shall be received in all courts as evidence of the matters therein certified.
Last modified: May 3, 2021