W

onder why the Birmingham City Council

to merely rent an old building for 30 years?

Follow the money. And follow it deep.

Between July and December of last year – mostly after council members had secured election -- the owner of the Social Security Building shoveled money to the campaigns of city council members, according to records from the Alabama Secretary of State's office.

Franklin L. Haney of Chattanooga contributed at least $193,500 to seven political action committees run by PACmaster Clark Richardson. During that same time period – often on the same day or the day after the Haney contribution, those PACs turned around and flooded Birmingham City Council members with campaign cash.

In that period, six of the nine current council members were given $129,500 in what was clearly pass-through money from Haney.

Want to know how much that is? In August, at the time of the council election, winning candidates reported taking in $107,610.

Total. Period.

In fact, I don't believe I have ever seen this kind of money poured into a Birmingham City Council race, particularly after the race was run. But the money is clear.

Money from Haney pass-throughs breaks down like this, according to the secretary of state records:

Council President Johnathan Austin, $18,000,

Council member Steven Hoyt, $20,000,

Council member Marcus Lundy, $29,000,

Council member Kim Rafferty, $7,500,

Council member Jay Roberson, $25,000,

Council member Sheila Tyson, $30,000.

The only council members who did not receive money from Haney – at least during that time period – were Valerie Abbott, Lashunda Scales and William Parker (who took office in December after replacing his mother, who died in office). His mother did not receive Haney money during that time period either.

Hoyt says he returned the money to Haney, saying he could not be bought.

Attempts to reach PAC administrator Richardson for clarification, or to determine if other money was returned, were unsuccessful.

Tyson's office issued a statement today saying:

"Despite the implications of Mr. Archibald's article today, I do not support the proposal for the City of Birmingham to lease space in the Social Security building."

The contributions were not immediately obvious in campaign filings, but were easy to trace.

It started after council members began to push back against talk of leasing the Social Security building. And it proceeded like this.

On Sept. 18, Haney gave $78,500 to various PACs.

Haney gave $10,000 to United PAC, which that very day gave $5,000 to the campaign of Kim Rafferty. He gave $10,500 to 1st Decade PAC, which that very day gave $5,000 to the campaign of Marcus Lundy.

He gave $15,700 to Mainstream PAC, which gave $5,000 that day to Lundy. On the next day, Sept. 19, it gave $10,000 to the campaign of Steven Hoyt.

Haney gave $10,500 to 1st Decade PAC, which on the next day gave another $10,000 to Hoyt, and the following week -- on Sept. 26 -- gave $2,000 to Rafferty, who was competing in a runoff.

Shall we go on?

On Oct. 8, Haney gave $22,000 to four different PACs. In the next 10 days Lundy received $15,000 from one of them, Tyson's campaign got $10,000 from another and Rafferty took in another $500.

I know it gets tedious, but it just keeps coming.

In December, as council members discussed the lease proposal publicly, Haney gave another $88,000 to the PACs.

On Dec. 9, he gave $15,000 to CRA PAC. Two days later CRA PAC gave Jay Roberson's campaign $15,000.

On Dec. 9, Haney gave Bizpac $9,000. That same day Bizpac gave Tyson $10,000.

On Dec. 9 Haney contributed $13,000 more to 1st Decade PAC. The same day First Decade gave $8,000 to Johnathan Austin's campaign.

Even though all these candidates had already won election.

Want to know why Birmingham would even think about leasing a building for $139 million?

You have the answer.

John Archibald is a columnist for Alabama Media Group. jarchibald@al.com



Updaded 11:35 a.m. Feb. 11 to add Tyson comment.

Updated Feb. 12 to correct amount given to Kim Rafferty.

To access the data, follow this link and enter "haney" in the "last name" field under "Contributor or Other Receipt Source." Page through the results, click on the PAC link, cycle through finance reports.

Here is my breakdown: