by BC Watchdog
Pittman/James Ethics Complaint
12:20 pm in Ethics Complaint by BC Watchdog
Here is the full content of the ethics complaint against State Senator Lee “Trip” Pittman and County Commissioner Robert E. “Bob” James.
Please note the file is over 47 Mb so will take some time to download.
If you can’t wait that long, here is an abridged version of 7Mb.
Comments welcome.
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When I read about the ethics complaint concerning the “BP grants” fiasco in the Mobile Register, I thought to myself, can this really be true? Then, after reading the complaint to the Alabama Ethics Commission, the allegations appear to be supported by some serious evidence. Could Senator Pittman and the Fairhope elected official really attempt to illegally obtain the BP dollars for their own personal gain? It is difficult to comprehend that intelligent people would attempt such a scheme. However, stranger things have been proven true. A second part of the ethics complaint alleges that Senator Pittman and Commissioner Bob James may be using their positions to gain support for the proposed I-10 service road because they own property near the proposed service road and associated County Road 13/I-10 interchange. I do not know their real reason for their strong support of those projects but I believe they are using very poor judgement. I do know for a fact that both Senator Pittman and Commissioner James are working exceptionally hard to get the proposed service road and interchange built. And I do know that there is widspread opposition by citizens, including me, to the proposed I-10 service road. Those two projects are unneeded,would be a terrible use of taxpayer dollars, and the service road would be an environmental disaster. I personally cannot comprehend why these two elected officials would so strongly support a project that so many citizens oppose. Senator Pittman was quoted in the Mobile Register as saying, he welcomed the investigation so the “baseless complaint” could be quickly “dismisssed”. So, we must all wait to see how the Alabama Ethics Commission responds.
Paul Ripp’s ethics complaint about Senator Tripp Pittman and Commissioner Bob James appears to based on hard facts with documents to to back them up. Why would an elected official, namely Senator Pittman, become involved in contracts to supply ”boom” when he was also the guardian of the $15 million pot of money from which the contractors would be paid? Pittman was essentially the administrator of the $15 million that Gov. Riley trusted him with. According to the evidence in the complaint, it appears that there were illegal manuvers by Fairhope officials and Pittman, so that Pittman ends up with $639,000. Whether illegal or not, he did in fact dip money from the bucket of BP funds provided to Alabama for use during the oil spill. At the least this is serious unethical conduct. All of this illegal or unethical activity certainly creates even more suspicion about the political activities related to the planned I-10 service road and I-10/County Highway 13 interchange. According to the complaint, Senator Pittman is also involved in this along with his business and political partner Commissioner Bob James. Both James and Pittman own land near the service road and interchange and stand to gain huge sums of money if these two projects are completed. Quite frankly, all of this highly questionable illegal or unethical political activity by James and Pittman smells bad. I certainly hope and trust that the Alabama Ethics Commission and the appropriate law enforcement agencies will do a thorough job on these matters.