Posted by I am very pleased that Senate Republicans joined with the Senate Democratic Caucus this week to pass a major piece of our legislative agenda. SB 52, sponsored by Senator Lowell Barron, will end the abuse that we have seen of the awarding of no-bid contracts. During Governor Riley’s seven years in office, he has awarded more than $2.5 billion dollars in no-bid contracts–more than any other administration in the history of this State. Late last year, despite the objections of the Contract Review Committee, Governor Riley gave a $13 million dollar no-bid contract to a company that has no office, no phone, no website and apparently no employees. This bill will finally bring real accountability and transparency to state government by ending this abuse. Taxpayer money is sacred and we can easily save 10 percent by bidding all contracts, just like Alabama families save when they shop around. That’s how families handle their money and that’s how the state of Alabama should handle taxpayer money. I offered an amendment that makes the state re-bid any contract that is less than 50% complete. After a spirited debate, I was very pleased that the most of the Republican Senators agreed with me and my amendment was passed by a 22 to 1 margin. Not even Senate Republicans could defend Governor Riley’s record on no-bid contracts and this bill passed by a 30 to zero vote.
***Senator Zeb Little is an Attorney from Cullman, Alabama. He serves as the Senate Majority Leader. To learn more about Senator Zeb Little, go to: http://www.ZebLittle.com
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If a Democrat Governor would have given a contract to someone like Paragon the Republicans would have been all over it and probably wanted the Democrat Governor Impeached. However, they are defending Riley and trying to slow up good ethics bills like this one. What a shame.
Hmm, the bill passed 30 – 0. That doesn’t look like a real effort to slow down the bill.
Doubt anyone cares that Senator Little is playing politics with the $2.5 billion number, because that is standard with him, but not accurate at all.
Governor Riley’s criticism of the former administration stemmed from no bid contracts coming out of the governor’s office. The $2.5billion number includes contracts like Zeb has with Bill Drinkard, and then all the other agencies in state government. The comparison is flawed, but who really gives a damn about facts, right Zeb…
Paragon has done a great job for Alabama.
Zeb Little knows what this legislation really is: a terrible bill which will die in the House.
Lowell Barron knows that Seth Hammett won’t allow this to go to the Governor. It would be signed and would hurt many, many state agencies.
@OC….”Paragon has done a great job for Alabama.” — Could you please inform me of who the owner of Paragon is. Perhaps I’ll write my legislator and have them draft a resolution and have the owner and employees of Paragon honored for their dutiful service.
Janet (Juh’-nay) Lauderdale, who currently lives in Montgomery, is the head of Paragon.
Margaret:
The Republicans filibustered the bill for two hours. They voted for the bill b/c they knew it would pass and did not want to look like did not support “ethics”.
JJ,
Actually, if you check the many amendments added to the bill, you will see several were by Republicans, making the bill acceptable to both parties. I don’t think you can call that a 2 hour filibuster when it was actually productive. But if you watch each day, you will see that Senator Barron’s Special Order Calendar is not made known to the Republicans until it is read, meaning they have virtually no time to prepare for the bills on the day’s agenda. They absolutely must draw out the debate to give each other time to study up before the vote. Those mini-filibusters have to be expected as long as Barron continues that tactic, but it is refreshing when both parties do end up working together and passing some good legislation, which is rare indeed.
not that this is “good legislation”
JJ, I have heard before that Mr. Barron refuses to let the Republicans know what legislation is coming up. It seems that the finger of blame for slowing legislation should be pointed at him. Why he is voted into leadership by state Democrats boggles the mind.