As the Business Council of Alabama ship continued to take on water, Chairman Perry Hand and the BCA board kept on fiddling.
In a letter released to members on Monday afternoon, Hand announced that the BCA board of directors had determined that the “transition and succession plan” that was adopted last week would include identifying a new CEO to replace Billy Canary by Sept. 1, and no later than Jan. 1, 2019.
The adopted timeline doesn’t deviate from previous announcements by Hand, but curiously, there is no longer talk of Canary, who has drawn the ire of several top members, sticking around through 2020.
Even as Hand and the board were meeting on Monday, there was more bad news heading BCA’s way. The organization’s law firm, Maynard, Cooper & Gale, resigned from representing the BCA.
It was the latest in a series of devastating blows for an organization that has been one of the top lobbyist groups in Alabama. In just more than a week, it has lost Alabama Power, Regions Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, PowerSouth and Protective Life Insurance. BCA’s legal counsel and a board member who managed the organization’s primary political action committee also resigned.
Still, Hand is ever the optimist.
“We believe that the BCA will be an even better organization in the future because of the process and changes being implemented,” he wrote.
