Whose Afraid of the Big BARD Wolf?

Some of the following passages following were posted to the Shelby County Reporter newspaper comment forum, but if you blinked you missed them--they quickly disappeared. Most likely the BARD Mules were behind the rapid disappearance after a phone call to SCR editor Tim Prince.

Tim Prince calls his paper "A champion voice for the community".
Really? A "champion" for whose voice exactly?

What or who are you afraid of Mr. Prince? The swift kick of the Mules if you don't continue to carry their water to the designated "troughs?" Or maybe it's all the advertising money that pours into the SCR and Shelby County from Alabama Power, one of BARD's grand mules, that you're afraid will dry up? Or maybe you just don't care about the people in the eastern section of Shelby County, (lovingly referred to by the Columbiana power players as the "armpit of the county") and see the area as a selectively beneficial opportunity rather than community of real people with real lives.

John Archibald SWMA Foes Are a Deep Threat

Posted by audacitydope
November 18, 2009, 11:09AM

Business Alliance for Responsible Development

Board of Directors

John Grogan Alabama Power Company
Don Erwin The Barber Companies, Inc.
Glenn Siddle Newcastle Homes
Bruce Windham Drummond Company, Inc.
Bart Fletcher Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders
Sam Lowrey Liberty Park Joint Venture, LLP
Jody Saiia Saiia Construction, LLC
Tom Howard USS Real Estate

Business Alliance for Responsible Development Members Include:

* Alabama Associated General Contractors
* Alabama Power Company
* Alagasco
* The Barber Companies, Inc.
* Bayer Properties
* Birmingham Association of Realtors
* Drummond Company, Inc.

http://birmingham.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2009/10/19/story7.html

* First Commercial Bank
* Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders
* Jenkins Brick
* Liberty Park Joint Venture, LLP
* Ready Mix USA
* RealtySouth
* Saiia Construction, LLC
* Sherman Industries
* Spectrum Environmental Services, Inc.
* Stonegate Realty
* Thompson Tractor
* US Steel
* USS Real Estate

Posted by ChocRivKeeper
January 18, 2010, 11:02AM

What's this?

Not all corporate folks are evil, most are good citizens.

However, knowing how BARD worked to gut a good storm water authority in Jefferson County leads me to believe that the list that was posted is the dirty nineteen of Alabama.

Just because you say you are for responsible development doesn't make it so!

Alabama Power Company hand-picked Trey Glenn and it is almost certain that the next Director will be hand-picked by the regulated community especially now that the EMC Chair is or soon will be BCA's top lobbyist!

BARD Requests Suit Dismissed Bham News 2009

Collins Push to Rejoin SWMA Fails 2009 Bham News


Posted by duennzwei
September 08, 2009, 1:34PM

Follow the money. BARD hedges its bets and has liberally sprinkled cash into the campaign coffers of all county commissioners. Before the primary in '06, however, they were spending their dollars on Carns and Humphryes opponents. After the primary, presto! BARD contributions shifted to Carns & Humphryes (who didn't have any opposition left, so what did they need to campaign for anymore?)

Just one example: Take a look at Sept and Oct '06 contributions to Carns, and then research who the "individuals" are:. executives with Malcolm Pirnie, Balch & Bingham (BARD lawyers), and BARD members.

Large Chunks of Cash Untraceable Bham News 2009

Bham News Commentary on SWMA 2009
 
Revoke ADEM Water Control Bham News 2010

John Archibald 2009 "New Mules" of BARD
 


SWMA: Lobbying efforts behind withdrawal (Your Views--Birmingham News)

First, I read that Jefferson County is so cash-strapped that severe cutbacks in services and probable layoffs of county employees are in store. Then, I read that a majority of commissioners supports incurring a new expense to absorb the employees of the Storm Water Management Authority, who have been on loan to SWMA for more than a decade at no cost to the county's budget.

I have read about the lobbying efforts of a coalition of real-estate developers, construction companies and the likes of Drummond Co., U.S. Steel and Alabama Power Co. to convince the Jefferson County Commission and area municipalities to withdraw from SWMA. Their complaints?

-- SWMA has done more work than is required of it.

-- After more than 10 years in operation, SWMA administration requested a fee increase.

SWMA has cost homeowners and businesses so little over its lifespan that most property owners don't even know the agency exists (it is included in property taxes). What citizens should know -- and what The Birmingham News should review for them -- is the largesse (PAC & campaign contributions) to public officials from both the coalition opposing SWMA and the engineering firm that gained a lucrative contract after Birmingham withdrew from SWMA.

Charles
Birmingham

Bham News Editorial SWMA JeffCo 2009


The reason is simple: The majority of commissioners, like the mayors of a half-dozen cities, drank the poisoned water peddled by the Business Alliance for Responsible Development.

BARD is the front group for developers and large corporate property owners that want fewer restrictions on where they can build. It has attacked SWMA as a hindrance to its development ambitions, falsely telling the county and city governments that SWMA was costly, bloated and did more than what it was supposed to do.

Now, the EPA is auditing Jefferson County's storm water program. In a letter to commissioners, the EPA said that with the county's recent withdrawal from SWMA, it had concerns about the timing of proposed changes to the county's construction runoff ordinance.

It just goes on and on, corruption, payoffs and BARD (the "brainchild" of Stephen Bradley) right in the middle of it every time.



White Rock Quarries has enlisted the terrible twosome of Stephen Bradley and Rob Fowler (Balch & Bingham BARD lawyer) to represent their interests in Vincent.

If the Mules did this in one county (actually Bradley is active in numerous Alabama counties) it certainly makes what they are doing here in Vincent highly suspect as polecats are not likely to deviate from their natural inclinations.