Two top officials from debt-laden Jefferson County, Ala. are traveling to New York City this week to restart talks with sewer creditors in an effort to avoid filing what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Commissioner David Carrington, the president of the five-person county commission, and Commissioner Jimmie Stephens, who oversees the county's finances, will be in New York Tuesday through Thursday to meet with county sewer debt holders.

The meeting is the first face-to-face gathering between the groups since early this year when Carrington and Stephens traveled to New York for a "meet-and-greet" session, according to Stephens.

The goal is "to try and get this settled once and for all," he said. "We are going to relay to them the desires and the needs of the citizens of Jefferson County."

A spokesman from J.P. Morgan (JPM), the county's largest sewer creditor, declined to comment on the matter.

The meetings come after Jefferson County leaders vowed earlier this month to engage in negotiations directly with creditors instead of through a court-appointed receiver, who they said didn't represent their best interests in the most recent round of negotiations. At that time, commissioners also rejected a settlement offer from creditors, which included roughly $1 billion in debt forgiveness as well as annual rate increases starting at just under 9% a year.

Sewer rate increases are a sticking point for the commission, who worry that unreasonable hikes would hurt the county's economic development and unfairly punish its poorest citizens. Jefferson County is home to the state's largest city, Birmingham.

Since 2008, Jefferson County has struggled under the weight of just over $3 billion in sewer debt, the result of soured sewer bond financing. The bond dealings were also tainted with corruption, with several former county officials convicted of wrongdoing related to them.

Separately, Jefferson County has also been hurting from the loss of a key revenue source, an occupational tax that brought roughly a third of its general fund revenue. A state Supreme Court ruled the tax unconstitutional in March, and the county has laid off hundreds of employees to try to make up for the shortfall. The loss of the tax, though separate from the sewer debt, has caused county leaders to consider bankruptcy more seriously in recent months.

- By Kelly Nolan; Dow Jones Newswires; 615-679-9299; kelly.nolan@dowjones.com