Senator's company awarded $639,000 while he supervised grants for boom work

Trip Pittman, State Sen. from Baldwin County.
This stinks.

FAIRHOPE, Alabama -- Of $1.15 million paid to Fairhope from BP grant funds overseen in part by state Sen. Trip Pittman for oil spill response work, the city awarded Pittman’s company $639,000, according to city records reviewed by a Fairhope councilwoman.

Pittman said this week he did nothing wrong, and acted only in his role as longtime contract-holder for the city in emergencies. He said that his company worked in boom deployment.

A request this week to Fairhope City Administrator Gregg Mims seeking more information about the boom work was referred to the city clerk, who asked that the Press-Register submit the request in writing.

But Councilwoman Debbie Quinn said that the city made payments totaling $639,000 to Pittman Tractor Co. for work on the project. “I checked city records,” Quinn said Thursday.

She said, “We made four payments to them. The first two were for about $606,000. That was paid from city finances because the BP money hadn’t arrived yet. When it did arrive, we immediately reimbursed our accounts.”

Two more payments went to Pittman Tractor after that, she said, bringing the overall amount to $639,000.
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/11/senators_company_awarded_63900.html