The Alabama Ethics Commission is scheduled to meet on Wednesday and deliver, as promised at its last meeting, answers to several questions presented to it by the Birmingham Airport Authority.
As the governing body for the state’s largest and busiest airport, the Birmingham Airport Authority serves an important function in the state’s overall economic development strategy.
As a result, maintaining a highly-qualified board will always be a priority for the group. Receiving clarity on several issues the board has encountered under Alabama’s ethics laws will go a long way toward that effort.
At its April meeting, attorney Mark White spoke in front of the commission on behalf of the Birmingham Airport Authority and presented several issues which remain unclear for nonprofits and their board members.
White outlined that he sought a formal opinion for his client based on the commission’s own recommendation.
“In fact, part of the reason we are asking this is when the commission staff did the training for the Birmingham Airport Authority in December, they were told – three brand new board members, by the way – they were told the only way you could really be sure about something was to get a formal opinion,” White told the commission. “Frankly, I think that’s good advice.”
In an insightful exchange between White, commission member Charles Price and executive director Tom Albritton, White received assurances, from both officials, that the commission would follow through on its statutorily-mandated duty to answer the Birmingham Airport Authority’s questions at its June meeting — scheduled for Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.
The commission passed a motion to carry the advisory opinion and its issues over until Wednesday after the following exchange:
PRICE: Will you be able to answer this by June?
ALBRITTON: Yes, sir.
WHITE: Will the commission on the record say that pending the June meeting, my board members don’t have to file the quarterly reports?
ALBRITTON: We’re more than happy to tell them that while we are sorting all these issues.
PRICE: You are going to get it resolved by June.
The treatment of certain nonprofit organizations under Alabama’s ethics laws has remained unclear for some time. Even the status of charities started by University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban and Auburn University football coach Gus Malzahn remain in limbo.
This has resulted in groups such as the Birmingham Airport Authority and the Alabama Association of Nonprofits seeking guidance from the Alabama Ethics Commission.
Tim Howe is an owner and editor of Yellowhammer News
