Post by tonythegator on Nov 16, 2010 9:55:10 GMT -5
Lobbyists tied to Universities
By PAUL DAVIS
Owner / President
Updated Oct 21, 2010 - 06:17:09 EDT
The lobbying firm of Fine Getty & Associates in Montgomery has its snout in so many troughs that a normal person would think the group would be satiated by now.
Fine-Geddie is the premier lobbying group in Alabama with a client list akin to the Fortune 500. The firm’s leaders are Joe Fine, a former University of Alabama trustee and legislator, and Robert Geddie, an Auburn graduate.
They’ve cut more deals than a blackjack player and now, according to the Department of Justice, one its key lobbyists, Geddie, has been indicted. He has allegedly been working with the state’s major gambling interests to influence a vote favoring the gambling houses.
So serious is the situation that his individual photo and biographical sketch, has been removed from the firm’s internet web page. The day after he was indicted, he took a leave of absence from the firm.
A whopping amount of the money flowing to the firm, almost a million dollars thus far, has been paid by the Auburn Athletics/Tigers Unlimited Foundation.
Some Auburn grads, who send in money which goes to Fine-Geddie, now say they want a review of the ties between the lobby giant and Auburn University. Geddie is tainted by the federal indictment and thus is tainting the University, according to concerns voiced in e-mails making the rounds in cyberspace
Fine Geddie is being paid by the Tigers Unlimited Foundation. A similar agreement exists with the University of Alabama. At Alabama, it's the University Foundation employing Fine Geddie.
Tigers Unlimited is a foundation that exists to raise money for Auburn's athletics program, while the University Foundation's main activity is to supplement the salary of University of Alabama System officials.
Both Universities simply say the contracts are between private corporations and don’t have to meeting public records laws. Several such foundations with similar contracts with lobbyists have been successful sued and forced to open their books. Such action is being considered in Alabama.
Getty was indicted largely on the basis of intercepts of cell phone and land line conversations with those in the alleged pay-for-play scheme.
Asked if the University is going to continue its contracts with Fine Geddie, Deedie Dowdell, who heads the marketing and communications department at Auburn, said there are no plans to end the contracts.
“I believe my fellow contributors to the Tigers Foundation would be outraged at these payments,” the e-mail message from an Auburn grad and a contributor to Tigers Unlimited said.
Tigers Unlimited Foundation files Federal tax form 990 which is for organizations exempt from income tax. Tigers Unlimited has millions of dollars at its disposal and it claims that it does not have to disclose the names of its donors. Dowdell agrees the private organization does not have to reveal its sources of millions of dollars. But most close to the University know who those big-cash donors are, or used to be.
I have looked at the tax forms covering five full years, part of one year and found that forms for 2009-10 and 2010-11 are not available.
Those forms are so complicated it would take a forensic accountant to make heads or tails of them. It’s not just money laundering, it’s more like pressure washing, steam cleaning and then dry cleaning.
In addition to Fine Geddie, the University has its own marketing and communication department that costs AU around a million per year, and a legislative liaison on staff, Sheri Fulford who is paid about$180,000 per year. And the trustees have been known to have another lobbyist for special projects. His name is Rick Hartselle.
All this rumbling, stumbling, lying and cheating is going on as we speak. Talk about public corruption. How obscene is it when it’s not just gambling, but in higher education. A lot of the lobbying by Auburn is on behalf of trustees seeking to hold on to their seats on the board.
We’ll elect a new governor and new lawmakers next month. Shortly thereafter, new trustees will be named at Auburn, maybe six or seven.
Some of the sitting trustees are pouring money into local races to insure that they keep their treasured seats on the board of trustees.
Bobby Lowder, who would like to be a trustee for life, is working as hard as he can to keep his post, although some of his clout may have slipped away when he lost his bank, Colonial. It was seized by the feds.
He has since left Montgomery where Colonial was once headquartered and moved to Auburn. He also holds onto his post as head of the University’s Finance Committee. Can you image a busted banker being in charge of Auburn’s money as head of its finance committee?
Having one of his lobbyists indicted may be the least of Lowder’s worries today. The feds are moving forward quickly toward prosecution of some 50 bank executives and directors of failed banks to recover as much as $1 billion paid out by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Federal attorneys are already setting up talks with the former bank executives trying to settle as many cases as possible.
Thus far in 2010, 287 banks have been seized by the FDIC. The federal insurance fund has had to cough up almost $12.7 billion to make depositors whole after the banks were seized. Know which was the biggest bank that went down last? It was Lowder's Colonial Banc Group. Lowder also had several of his Auburn trustee buddies and friends sitting on the board of Colonial. They included Jimmy Rane, Pat Dye. Another major stockholder was casino owner Milton McGregor who was talked into taking on another $13 million in shares just months before the bank failed.
The late John Miller, also on the AU board, was the primary attorney for Lowder’s bank and was paid millions. Trustee Paul Spina, who, another former board member, was associated with Lowder’s bank in a lesser capacity. Former trustee Earlon McWhorter, a contractor/builder, also found a friendly banking experience at Colonial where he also borrowed millions.
The late Jimmy Samford, who once headed Auburn trustees, maintained an office in Lowder's building in Montgomery where he engaged in lobbying for Lowder and the bank. The current head of the trustees is John Blackwell who has borrowed millions from Colonial. Ditto for Sen. Lowell Barron, a former AU trustee and the most powerful man in the Alabama Senate.
Lobbyist Geddie has also been working on another project in Lee County. He has supplied thousands to Republican Senatorial Candidate Tom Whatley, some of which supposedly obtained from gambling interests. Whatley says he has not “knowingly” accepted gambling.
Whatley is running against Democrat Sen. Ted Little. Little also has been accused of taking gambling money. He, too, says he has not knowingly done that. Little said he was told his large amount of cash came from the Alabama Education Association.
Little sits on the Senate committee charged with confirming Auburn’s board members, a place where confirmation can be stalled or killed. That’s where lobbyists do their dirty deeds.
Corruption, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I know each one when I see it. Hope you do, too. Election day is almost here.
(Paul Davis owns The Tuskegee News. You may contact him at
By PAUL DAVIS
Owner / President
Updated Oct 21, 2010 - 06:17:09 EDT
The lobbying firm of Fine Getty & Associates in Montgomery has its snout in so many troughs that a normal person would think the group would be satiated by now.
Fine-Geddie is the premier lobbying group in Alabama with a client list akin to the Fortune 500. The firm’s leaders are Joe Fine, a former University of Alabama trustee and legislator, and Robert Geddie, an Auburn graduate.
They’ve cut more deals than a blackjack player and now, according to the Department of Justice, one its key lobbyists, Geddie, has been indicted. He has allegedly been working with the state’s major gambling interests to influence a vote favoring the gambling houses.
So serious is the situation that his individual photo and biographical sketch, has been removed from the firm’s internet web page. The day after he was indicted, he took a leave of absence from the firm.
A whopping amount of the money flowing to the firm, almost a million dollars thus far, has been paid by the Auburn Athletics/Tigers Unlimited Foundation.
Some Auburn grads, who send in money which goes to Fine-Geddie, now say they want a review of the ties between the lobby giant and Auburn University. Geddie is tainted by the federal indictment and thus is tainting the University, according to concerns voiced in e-mails making the rounds in cyberspace
Fine Geddie is being paid by the Tigers Unlimited Foundation. A similar agreement exists with the University of Alabama. At Alabama, it's the University Foundation employing Fine Geddie.
Tigers Unlimited is a foundation that exists to raise money for Auburn's athletics program, while the University Foundation's main activity is to supplement the salary of University of Alabama System officials.
Both Universities simply say the contracts are between private corporations and don’t have to meeting public records laws. Several such foundations with similar contracts with lobbyists have been successful sued and forced to open their books. Such action is being considered in Alabama.
Getty was indicted largely on the basis of intercepts of cell phone and land line conversations with those in the alleged pay-for-play scheme.
Asked if the University is going to continue its contracts with Fine Geddie, Deedie Dowdell, who heads the marketing and communications department at Auburn, said there are no plans to end the contracts.
“I believe my fellow contributors to the Tigers Foundation would be outraged at these payments,” the e-mail message from an Auburn grad and a contributor to Tigers Unlimited said.
Tigers Unlimited Foundation files Federal tax form 990 which is for organizations exempt from income tax. Tigers Unlimited has millions of dollars at its disposal and it claims that it does not have to disclose the names of its donors. Dowdell agrees the private organization does not have to reveal its sources of millions of dollars. But most close to the University know who those big-cash donors are, or used to be.
I have looked at the tax forms covering five full years, part of one year and found that forms for 2009-10 and 2010-11 are not available.
Those forms are so complicated it would take a forensic accountant to make heads or tails of them. It’s not just money laundering, it’s more like pressure washing, steam cleaning and then dry cleaning.
In addition to Fine Geddie, the University has its own marketing and communication department that costs AU around a million per year, and a legislative liaison on staff, Sheri Fulford who is paid about$180,000 per year. And the trustees have been known to have another lobbyist for special projects. His name is Rick Hartselle.
All this rumbling, stumbling, lying and cheating is going on as we speak. Talk about public corruption. How obscene is it when it’s not just gambling, but in higher education. A lot of the lobbying by Auburn is on behalf of trustees seeking to hold on to their seats on the board.
We’ll elect a new governor and new lawmakers next month. Shortly thereafter, new trustees will be named at Auburn, maybe six or seven.
Some of the sitting trustees are pouring money into local races to insure that they keep their treasured seats on the board of trustees.
Bobby Lowder, who would like to be a trustee for life, is working as hard as he can to keep his post, although some of his clout may have slipped away when he lost his bank, Colonial. It was seized by the feds.
He has since left Montgomery where Colonial was once headquartered and moved to Auburn. He also holds onto his post as head of the University’s Finance Committee. Can you image a busted banker being in charge of Auburn’s money as head of its finance committee?
Having one of his lobbyists indicted may be the least of Lowder’s worries today. The feds are moving forward quickly toward prosecution of some 50 bank executives and directors of failed banks to recover as much as $1 billion paid out by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Federal attorneys are already setting up talks with the former bank executives trying to settle as many cases as possible.
Thus far in 2010, 287 banks have been seized by the FDIC. The federal insurance fund has had to cough up almost $12.7 billion to make depositors whole after the banks were seized. Know which was the biggest bank that went down last? It was Lowder's Colonial Banc Group. Lowder also had several of his Auburn trustee buddies and friends sitting on the board of Colonial. They included Jimmy Rane, Pat Dye. Another major stockholder was casino owner Milton McGregor who was talked into taking on another $13 million in shares just months before the bank failed.
The late John Miller, also on the AU board, was the primary attorney for Lowder’s bank and was paid millions. Trustee Paul Spina, who, another former board member, was associated with Lowder’s bank in a lesser capacity. Former trustee Earlon McWhorter, a contractor/builder, also found a friendly banking experience at Colonial where he also borrowed millions.
The late Jimmy Samford, who once headed Auburn trustees, maintained an office in Lowder's building in Montgomery where he engaged in lobbying for Lowder and the bank. The current head of the trustees is John Blackwell who has borrowed millions from Colonial. Ditto for Sen. Lowell Barron, a former AU trustee and the most powerful man in the Alabama Senate.
Lobbyist Geddie has also been working on another project in Lee County. He has supplied thousands to Republican Senatorial Candidate Tom Whatley, some of which supposedly obtained from gambling interests. Whatley says he has not “knowingly” accepted gambling.
Whatley is running against Democrat Sen. Ted Little. Little also has been accused of taking gambling money. He, too, says he has not knowingly done that. Little said he was told his large amount of cash came from the Alabama Education Association.
Little sits on the Senate committee charged with confirming Auburn’s board members, a place where confirmation can be stalled or killed. That’s where lobbyists do their dirty deeds.
Corruption, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I know each one when I see it. Hope you do, too. Election day is almost here.
(Paul Davis owns The Tuskegee News. You may contact him at