Published: Saturday, November 20, 2010, 8:00 AM
FAIRHOPE, Alabama -- ?Of $1.15 million paid to Fairhope from BP grant funds overseen in part by state Sen. Trip Pittman for oil spill response work, the city awarded Pittman’s company $639,000, according to city records reviewed by a Fairhope councilwoman.
Pittman said this week he did nothing wrong, and acted only in his role as longtime contract-holder for the city in emergencies. He said that his company worked in boom deployment.
A Fairhope citizen has filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission and other agencies, alleging improprieties.
Early in the spill crisis, BP PLC gave Alabama $65 million as it urgently prepared to cope with the approaching oil slick. Gov. Bob Riley appointed Pittman, R-Montrose, and Rep. Steve McMillan, R-Gulf Shores, to head up plans for $15 million provided to Baldwin County.
McMillan said the lawmakers joined with county and city officials to divide the money according to the amount of water frontage in each jurisdiction. The focus was on getting protective boom in place, he said.
When Fairhope submitted its project proposals in May, county department heads realized Pittman’s potential involvement, according to County Commission member Charles “Skip” Gruber, who was commission chairman at the time.
“Fairhope had turned in the project proposals as having Pittman Tractor Co. doing the work,” Gruber said.
He said that Leigh Anne Ryals, who at that time was the county’s Emergency Management Agency director, called his attention to the paperwork.
Gruber said that Ryals contacted then-County Administrator Michael Thompson, who called in then-chief legal counsel Scott Barnett. Gruber said that Barnett indicated that the situation posed an ethics violation for Pittman.
In an interview this week, Thompson said that when Pittman was told about questions concerning his company’s role, he came back with a second set of paperwork that did not mention his company.
Gruber said that he was the one who spoke with Pittman about the questions. He said he also cautioned the senator about possible ethics conflicts.
In fact, there are two sets of official paperwork outlining Fairhope’s project proposal costing an estimated $650,000. Both sets have identical cover letters bearing the date May 8.
One set lists Pittman's company being the contractor and is signed by Pittman, while the second set shows Oil Recovery Co. Inc. of Alabama as the contractor.
A request this week to Fairhope City Administrator Gregg Mims seeking more information about the boom work was referred to the city clerk, who asked that the Press-Register submit the request in writing.
But Councilwoman Debbie Quinn said that the city made payments totaling $639,000 to Pittman Tractor Co. for work on the project. “I checked city records,” Quinn said Thursday.
She said, “We made four payments to them. The first two were for about $606,000. That was paid from city finances because the BP money hadn’t arrived yet. When it did arrive, we immediately reimbursed our accounts.”
Two more payments went to Pittman Tractor after that, she said, bringing the overall amount to $639,000.
“It came from BP money,” Quinn said.
Pittman agreed in an interview that his company “did most of the work” on the city’s boom project.
Pittman Tractor, emergency contractor for the city since 2007, handled what the Coast Guard didn’t do, he said, including purchasing and storing boom and getting it to the shoreline where Oil Recovery Co. took over placement.
Pittman said it was a “complex” situation, and that all work was performed under an emergency declaration.
He said that his tractor company has provided Fairhope’s emergency contract services for years, and the city asked for proposals to protect the shore as oil approached. He said his company was not in the oil boom business, but had some boom available.
He said he recalled Ryals and Gruber “being concerned” because the city “may have” submitted a proposal in which Pittman Tractor would benefit from BP funding.
He said that the two sets of project proposals were meant only “as a planning tool for the city,” and that they formed the basis of no actual contract. His company realized a profit of about 10 percent of the total paid through the city, he said in an e-mail Friday.
A Fairhope citizen, Paul Ripp, said Thursday that he wrote a letter in September to the Attorney General’s Office, Ethics Commission and others alleging multiple ethics violations in the Fairhope grant activity.
The Alabama Ethics Commission will neither confirm nor deny an ongoing investigation. Chief Counsel Hugh Evans III did say: “Any time you have a public official that through his or her office is in a position to benefit through personal gain, then it is questionable, and it would be something that would be looked into.”
Thompson, meanwhile, wondered this week whether a shakeup of Baldwin department heads and offices was linked to him and others questioning Pittman’s involvement in the Fairhope work.
Thompson was terminated at his own request this month, along with two other department heads; he and the others suggested in writing that a new slate of county commissioners was maneuvering against them.
Ryals was demoted by the commission at her request to a job protected by the public employee merit system, while Barnett’s job was eliminated.
Commissioner Bob James -- a business partner of Pittman -- said after taking office that he did not support continuing their contracts. He explained, for example, that he did not favor renewing Ryals’ contract because the “legislative delegation” had problems with her, among other criticism.
Reached this week, members of the local delegation to the Legislature said they had nothing bad to say about Ryals. Most praised her leadership.
James said Pittman was not the source of complaints, but rather those had come from “Seth Hammett’s office.” Hammett, D-Andalusia, is the most recent speaker of the state House of Representatives.
Reached Thursday by e-mail, Hammett said, “I have never expressed any opinion -- negative or positive -- about Baldwin County’s EMA director.”
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