Editorial:  Montgomery Advertiser

July 20, 2007

Power company hosts ADEM chief

Among environmentalists, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management has long been viewed as being entirely too cozy with the industries it is supposed to regulate. That image will only be bolstered by a new report that ADEM's director, Trey Glenn, has been the guest of Alabama Power Co. in the company box at a Montgomery Biscuits game.

The Birmingham News reported this week that Glenn accepted free tickets and food from the power company, despite the fact that the agency Glenn heads is supposed to regulate Alabama Power's impact on the state's environment.

Glenn told the News that he accepted the freebies because his family likes baseball. He said his mother, Wetumpka Mayor Jo Glenn, was the actual invitee to the game, and he came with his family.

It's not a good thing for any public official to go around accepting freebies from influential organizations and businesses such as Alabama Power, and that includes Mayor Glenn.

But is especially troublesome when the recipient of such favors heads a regulatory agency and the donor of such favors is one of the companies the agency is supposed to regulate.

Trey Glenn's insensitivity on the issue is inexplicable, considering that he is already under investigation for other potential ethical problems. The Alabama Ethics Commission found probable cause three months ago to refer ethical allegations against Trey Glenn to Montgomery County District Attorney Ellen Brooks for possible prosecution.

Even if Glenn doesn't grasp why it is wrong for him to accept freebies from a company that his agency regulates, one would think he would not want to do so while an ethics investigation is under way.

Glenn is the second top state official in recent months to come under press scrutiny for accepting free tickets and food to sporting events from Alabama Power.

Attorney General Troy King, whose office is supposed to represent the interests of consumers in utility rate matters before the Public Service Commission, used Alabama Power's luxury box at a Braves baseball game at Turner Field in Atlanta free of charge. If anything, King's excuses for his insensitivity when it comes to taking freebies were even more lame than Glenn's.

Here's a little advice for Glenn and King and all other public officials: Big companies and their lobbyists and representatives of other special interests aren't interested in wining and dining you because you're an interesting person. They want something; maybe not right now, but eventually.

Even if a public official doesn't let such freebies affect how he or she conducts public business, simply accepting them undermines the credibility of the official and the agency he or she represents.

Alabama has an incredibly weak ethics law governing the acceptance of freebies and the reporting of them by public officials. But legislators, who are among the beneficiaries of such generosity, are never going to strengthen that law unless enough Alabamians rise up and demand it.