Another Day in Alabama

Donated air travel for At torney General Bill Pryor’s 1998 campaign won’t influ ence his investigation into a state warehouse deal linked to one of his donors, Pryor’s chief aide said.

The Mobile Register re ported Thursday that Pryor’s campaign received more than $12,000 in contri butions, primarily air trav el, from lobbyist and land fill developer Lanny Young and his out-of-state part ners.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Richard Allen said the “in-kind” contributions were made prior to Young’s involvement in G.H. Con struction, which is under investigation for a now- canceled state warehouse project in Montgomery.

Pryor is investigating re ports of apparent double- billing by G.H. Construc tion and payments made by the state without a signed contract after the newly formed company, with Young’s help, was picked to manage the warehouse con struction.

5/31/01

ASU may lay off consultants

Alabama State University trustee Joe Reed plans to prune consulting contracts signed under his predecessor as chairman of the board's finance committee.

He said the university must slice at least $3 million from its budget by October and it can't afford the "political cronies."

"I think we need to get rid of every consultant and every insultant we have who has not delivered," Reed told The Birmingham News in a story Wednesday. "Many of these contracts were designed to pick up the political slack for folks in Birmingham."

That's where Reed rival Donald Watkins lives. Watkins resigned from the board after Reed was appointed chairman of the finance committee.

Many of the contracts Reed wants to review were installed during the two-year reign of former finance Chairman Buford Crutcher of Huntsville, who Reed says was the "handpicked adviser" of Watkins.

Reed was replaced as chairman of the board of trustees in 1999, also losing his place on the finance committee.

"(Cutting expenses) will be my challenge, along with the other board members," Reed said of his return to the committee.

Some of the contracts targeted involve former Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, State Rep. John Hilliard, D-Birmingham, Harvey E. Cauthen and Associates, Christopher W. Woods of Magic City Construction Inc., and state Rep. Thad McClammy, D-Montgomery, Reed said. He didn't accuse those people of failing to deliver, but said the university can't afford them.

"You can always cancel a contract that you can't pay for," he said. "Some we have never had reports on. I'm not picking on anybody — I'm just trying to carry out my fiduciary responsibilities."

Those contracts cost the university $352,705 a year, according to records.

Catherine Wright, chairwoman of the ASU board, said cuts also will be made in other areas.

"I think it's appropriate to say that every expenditure at the university should be looked at," she said. "We won't be limited to consulting contracts. There will be a review of all university expenditures."

The university has chosen not to fill about 100 positions on campus, and last week it began a four-day workweek for employees.

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Lawmaker didn’t file contract with state

State Rep. John Hilliard, D-Birmingham, did not file a copy of his contract with Alabama State University with the Alabama Ethics Commission, as required by law.

Jim Sumner, director of the Ethics Commission, said Wednesday that Hilli´ ard did not have a contract on file.

Joe Reed, finance chair´ man for the Alabama State board of trustees, men´ tioned Hilliard’s contract as one of several the university should eliminate as a cost-saving measure. Reed made the comments in an article published in the Birmingham News on May 30.

Hilliard receives $40,706 a year to work as a program coordinator for Alabama State in Birmingham.

Hilliard did not return three telephone messages left at his home Wednesday and Thursday.

“The difficulty with contracts is that we don’t know about them until something like this is written,” Sumn´ er said.

The Alabama ethics law, designed to keep public offi´ cials from using their posi´ tions for personal gain, requires lawmakers to disclose when they are paid under contract by public entities, including universi´ ties. The Legislature con´ trols state funding of schools and other agencies.

Failure to disclose con´ tracts is a misdemeanor under the ethics law, punish´ able by a fine of up to $2,000 and up to a year in jail. Short of criminal prosecu´ tion, the Ethics Commis´ sion can administer admin´ istrative penalties.

In February, the Ethics Commission issued a $12,000 administrative pen´ alty against state Rep. Per´ ry Hooper Jr., R-Montgomery, for failure to file copies of insurance contracts he sold to the state, the heavi´ est administrative penalty the agency has ever levied. Sumner said the penalty was harsh because Hooper had been reminded to file the contracts when he was cleared of an ethics com´ plaint in 1998.

Sumner said the commis´ sion has typically not issued penalties for an initial failure to disclose contracts. He said the commission would write Hilliard and ask him to file the contract.

“If they file it in a timely manner (after notification), the commission has generally not imposed a penalty in that situa´ tion,” Sumner said.

Sumner said public officials should be well aware of their responsibility to file copies of contracts.

“Quite honestly, as much as has been written about it in the past seven months, people ought to have a pretty high level of knowledge that these contracts ought to be filed,” Sumner said. “The burden is really on the in´ dividual.”

Reed became finance chair´ man of the Alabama State board two weeks ago. For months pre´ viously, he has spoken out against the school’s contractual arrangements with some politi´ cians.

Alabama State board chairwoman Catherine Wright has also said reducing contracts could be one way the university could save money. Alabama State has financial problems, partly caused by cuts in the state education budget.

“There will be a review of all university expenditures,” Wright said.

Rep. Thad McClammy, D- Montgomery, receives $50,000 a year to assist the university in land acquisition.

Sen. E.B. McClain, D-Brighton, resigned from a $48,000 a year contract in February after a dispute with Wright.