GREEN ACRES ON ACID

December 16, 2016

In Baldwin County, the incentive to run for office and become a public servant is that there is no accountability and “conflict of interest” is just a pesky term. Many of our elected officials are in office for personal gain and use their positions to support like minded politicians.

The last time Baldwin County saw a conviction was Mayor Steve Russo in 2006.

Ten years and not one FBI, Ethics or Attorney General investigation resulted in even a TRIAL. It would make one think that Baldwin County is free of political corruption and that our elected officials are putting their constituents first. That is not the case. What we have is a failing by authorities to do their job. The burden is on us the citizens of this county to EXPOSE those who choose to manipulate our judiciary and Ethics.

The Alabama Ethics Commission has become a laughing stock of the state. They have not acted on one complaint arising from Baldwin County. The bureaucracy of filing a complaint mirrors the judicial and bar complaints— they are designed to fail.

State Senator Tripp Pittman is a classic example. The BP contracts he was awarded from Fairhope and Perdido beach netted him personally to the tune of $750,000.00 dollars. He was the designated trustee of BP funds for Baldwin County and his tractor company became a marine contractor— without a general contractor’s license, a felony, as the best contractor to install oil protective boom. Pittman wasn’t satisfied with just the contract amount. He cut every corner he could to make an extra buck. He supplied used or defective boom. Some so bad it was rejected. The contract required all boom anchors— hundreds, to be recovered. He and the former Mayor of Fairhope decided to just cut the ropes at the water level and leave them. No-one, absolutely no-one did a damn thing. Not the environmentalist, EPA, Coast Guard, County or City officials.

Pittman James Ethics Complaint by MaxShelby on Scribd

They were caught like rats in a trap.

A complaint was filed with both BP and the Ethics Commission and resulted in an FBI investigation, Grand jury and subpoena of City records and Pittman’s financials. The complaint slowly worked its way to the Alabama Attorney General, where it was later transferred to the Ag’s white collar crime division. There it has remained collecting dust. Some have speculated that the recent protracted trial of Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard spared Pittman his day in court.

Pittman has maintained Fairhope municipal contracts for hurricane emergency debris removal claiming there is no conflict of interest and he has in the past been supported by the previous Mayor and City Council of Fairhope. What other contracts has he secured in Baldwin County?

You can bet many.

If you have every tried to reach Senator Pittman for any County issue you wish to discuss, then you will find out real quick he does not return phone calls nor e-mails, unless it benefits him.

A political sequence of events has resulted in State Senator Pittman as a candidate to replace Jeff Sessions as a United States Senator, to be decided by Luv Gov. Bentley who used BP funds to renovate a beach mansion into his poody pad.