Mobile attorney Jim Zeigler announced that he would file a complaint with the Alabama Ethics Commission against City Councilman John Peavy, alleging that the mayoral candidate and his construction company improperly sought and performed work on a city project that Peavy voted on as a council member.
Zeigler said he would present the complaint at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at the commission’s office in Montgomery. He alleged that Peavy had committed “multiple violations of state ethics laws.”
“He and his business, Peavy Construction Company, intentionally sought and performed work on a city project on which John Peavy participated as council member,” Zeigler charged in the complaint.
Peavy: ‘The Complaint Is Without Merit’
Peavy rejected the allegations outright and said he would answer them in full at a press conference at City Hall that afternoon.
“The complaint is without merit,” Peavy said. “Some of the things in it are clearly fallacious from what I’ve been told. I think it will be dismissed easily just by looking at the documentation. It’s ridiculous really. But this is what politics is about, I guess. It’s starting to kick up, so we must be doing something right.”
The Azalea Road Contract
At the center of the complaint was an emergency drainage repair on Azalea Road. According to the allegations laid out by Zeigler:
- Heavy rains in the spring of 2005 damaged the Bolton Branch drainage canal on Azalea Road, and erosion made the roadway unstable, forcing its closure.
- On April 5, 2005, the Mobile City Council approved a $424,755 emergency contract with Construction Labor Services, or CLS, to make the repair.
- CLS subcontracted 62 percent of the work — $266,306.25 — to Grady Dortch & Sons.
- Peavy and his company, the complaint alleged, helped Dortch prepare the bid for that subcontract, and Peavy recommended Dortch to CLS.
Zeigler argued that the arrangement violated the city’s standard construction contract, which requires a general contractor to perform at least half of the work with its own organization. The contract language he cited reads: “The contractor shall not sublet the contract or any portion thereof without written permission from the City Engineer. If consent is given, the contractor will be permitted to sublet a portion of the work, but shall perform with his own organization work amounting to not less than fifty percent of the total contract price.”
The complaint went further, asserting that Peavy Construction was in practical terms the real subcontractor. It quoted an inspector, Tim Dixon, as saying Dortch was used as a front. It alleged that Peavy employees worked on the site and were paid by Dortch, that Peavy heavy equipment was used on the job, and that Ken Peavy — the councilman’s brother and business partner — was regularly at the site shooting grades, directing work and consulting with Dortch.
Finally, the complaint pointed to the council’s own minutes, which show Peavy voting “aye” on the resolution awarding the emergency contract, and then participating in the unanimous approval of those minutes at subsequent meetings.
The Law Cited
Zeigler grounded the complaint in Section 36-25-5 of the Code of Alabama, which bars a public official from using his office to obtain personal gain for himself, a family member, or “any business with which the person is associated,” unless specifically authorized by law. He also cited Section 36-25-99(c), which prohibits a member of a county or municipal board from voting on a matter in which he or a family member has a financial interest, and Section 41-16-6 and following, which bars officers of municipal governing bodies from holding a beneficial interest in public contracts.
He asked the commission to open a preliminary inquiry, find reasonable cause for an investigation, hold a hearing, determine whether probable cause existed that the ethics law had been violated, and forward the case to Alabama Attorney General Troy King for prosecution.
The Complainant
Zeigler was no newcomer to Alabama politics. An ally of ousted state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, he had been politically active for more than thirty years and was a former member of the Alabama Public Service Commission. He would go on to a long career as a self-described taxpayer advocate.
The Timing
The complaint landed in the middle of a hard-fought mayoral campaign. Peavy, who represented District 7 on the council, was running for mayor in the Aug. 23 municipal election against former state Sen. Ann Bedsole, former City Councilwoman Bess Rich and Mobile County Commissioner Sam Jones. All four were seeking to succeed Mayor Mike Dow.
Ethics complaints filed against candidates during a campaign occupy an uncomfortable place in public life: the accusation is immediate and public, while any resolution — dismissal or otherwise — typically arrives long after the votes are counted. Peavy’s own framing acknowledged as much. Politics, he said, was starting to kick up.