I had a family member who needed a drainage ditch dug on his private property. The city sent some employees over to take care of it. It was just a few hours work and it didn’t seem to bother anyone. The same was true for many things such as using the city’s employee to run the city’s dozer or grader to do a little work on private property.
This all changed a little many years ago. The laws forbid anyone employed by the city, county, or state to do work on private property while being paid by the government. It also made it illegal to use city, state or county equipment on private property.
Now, however, the law is much tougher. The 2010 special session of Alabama legislature passed a new ethics law. This act became law on January 1st of this year. It requires all city mayors to attend a training session on the new law. It also requires that every state office holder to attend the ethics training sessions. The law makes it clear that any person that works for the state, an Alabama county, or city is forbidden from doing work on private property. In May of this year a mayor was accused of using city pump trucks to remove water from a parking lot where a for-profit event was scheduled. The law also makes it clear that any person that is an elected official of the state, an Alabama county or city is forbidden from receiving anything of value from another person. William B. "Bill" Blount was an investment banker, bond underwriter, and former Alabama Democratic Party chairman. Jefferson County Commissioner, Mary Buckelew was given a few gifts by Mr. Blount. These gifts included Italian designer shoes, purses and a spa treatment. She was given a light sentence under the old ethics law. Under this new law she could have receive substantial prison time. A conviction under the state ethics law can yield a prison sentence of two to 20 years on each offense and a fine of up to a $30,000 per offense.
Elected officials are not allowed to use their office for personal gain even if the gain is very small. There is controversy brewing in Montgomery over baseball tickets. The Montgomery Biscuits (here is their link http://www.biscuitsbaseball.com/schedule.html ) season ticket holders often took state officials out to the ball game. Now they are reluctant to do so. Some have said they don’t think they will be able to use the tickets anymore because they can’t take their elected friends with them. Let’s just hope they don’t buy them some peanuts and Cracker Jacks.
