State Sen. Trip Pittman’s company Pittman Tractor Co. was awarded $639,000 by the city of Fairhope for oil spill response work. At the time, Pittman was in charge of disbursing the $15 million provided to Baldwin County by BP.

When Baldwin County EMA Director Leigh Anne Ryals called attention to this conflict of interest and Baldwin County legal counsel Scott Barnett decided the situation posed an ethics violation, Pittman came back with a second set of paperwork that listed Oil Recovery Co. Inc. as the contractor instead of Pittman Tractor. But the city still paid Pittman for the work.

Other local businessmen told the Press-Register they were shut out of the process: “I showed Trip Pittman our absorbent barrier boom. … Not only did he not forward this info to anyone weeks before any votes for boom were cast, but he never told me that he was in charge of the BP funds,” Silverhill’s Don White said.

Pittman told the Press-Register it was a “complex” situation.

Fairhope citizen Paul Ripp has filed complaints with the state’s Attorney General’s Office, Ethics Commission and others. The Constitution Party of Alabama has called for Pittman’s resignation.

Meanwhile, Ryals and other Baldwin department heads that questioned Pittman’s involvement, such as County Administrator Michael Thompson, have resigned or been demoted.

According to the Press-Register:

Baldwin County Commissioner Bob James — a business partner of Pittman (in Eastern Shore Materials Inc.) — said after taking office that he did not support continuing their contracts. He explained that he did not favor renewing Ryals’ contract because the “legislative delegation” had problems with her.

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.”

Perdido Beach also paid Pittman $98,000, while City Councilman William Kelley received more than $300,000 and Councilman Ronnie Resmondo almost $10,000.

Meanwhile, Pittman has been pushing for an interchange at Baldwin County 13 and I-10 at the expense of other road projects. “This is still a very important project for Baldwin County,” Pittman said, “and very important for the whole Eastern Shore.” According to the Press-Register, County and state records show Pittman and Commissioner Bob James hold financial interest in property located near the proposed interchange at Baldwin County 13.

Bob James’ James Bros. Excavating Inc. was also recently awarded a $1.1 million contract by Fairhope for disaster (i.e. hurricane) debris removal. The contract was previously held by Pittman Tractor Co. Both companies are located next to each other on Milton Jones Road in Daphne, with their joint-company Eastern Shore Materials Inc. behind.

Former Daphne Mayor Harry Brown has also questioned the no-bid contracts given by Renaissance LLC, which received a large municipal bond issue and is part owned by Pittman and Eastern Shore Materials (Pittman and James), and pointed out the political contributions involved.

Profiteering, falsified documents, retaliation. What is the new, ethical state legislature going to do about it? What about Baldwin County? Are its citizens going to tolerate it becoming a banana republic? This not only reflects poorly on the county, but reinforces the opinions of those in other parts of the country that coastal politicians are abusing BP and taxpayer money, thus depleting sympathy for the small business owners that really do deserve help.

Pittman and James