The CEO of Drummond Company testified Monday that while he knew there was a contract between Balch & Bingham and the Oliver Robinson Foundation on behalf of Drummond, he thought the contract focused primarily on community outreach.

Mike Tracy, who has served as CEO of the company since Garry Drummond's death in 2016, said Vice President of Drummond's Government Relations David Roberson was tasked with monitoring the state legislature and keeping up relationships with state officials. He said Roberson, a registered lobbyist, agreed with Balch lawyer Joel Gilbert that the company needed to be in the north Birmingham community and work with its residents.

Monday's testimony marks the start of week two of the trial, where the Drummond VP along with Balch lawyers Gilbert and Steven McKinney are accused of bribing former state Rep. Oliver Robinson to oppose the expansion of an EPA Superfund site in north Birmingham and to oppose adding the area's cleanup to the National Priorities List.

"As a business, we do everything on top of the table. We try to be law abiding citizens," Tracy said.

During his testimony, Tracy said in 2013 the company received a letter from the EPA designating Drummond as a potentially responsible party for the cost of the Superfund site cleanup. Of the 1,100 residences sampled by the EPA, approximately 400 showed elevated levels of toxic chemicals. Of those, 50 exceeded the "higher risk levels."

Once the company received that letter, Tracy said they hired Balch to represent them in the matter. The cleanup was important to Drummond because the company has environmental controls in place to protect them, and also because the cleanup would cost the company substantial amounts of money, he said. The issue could have caused the ABC Coke plant in Tarrant to close.

"We don't want to lose that plant," Tracy said. He didn't want the 300 employees who work there to lose their jobs.

Drummond wanted Balch to get "our side of the story out," Tracy said. The residents of Tarrant needed "our facts... so they would have the full story."

The CEO said he met with Roberson, Gilbert, and a Drummond attorney to talk about a public relations plan, and Gilbert suggested they hire the Oliver Robinson Foundation to talk with north Birmingham residents and represent their interests. Gilbert said the foundation was run by Robinson's daughter, Amanda.

"I asked, 'is this legal and is this ethical,'" Tracy told prosecutors. He said Gilbert assured Tracy the issue had been cleared by lawyers in the Balch office, and everything was fine. Roberson said hiring the foundation was a good idea, and Tracy said he thought it was a good idea, too. He believed the foundation's primary focus was on community outreach.

He said he vaguely remembered being told the cost of the consulting contract would be $7,000 monthly, and he was aware the contract was between Balch and the Oliver Robinson Foundation. "That's very typical and very common," he said about why Drummond was not a direct party in the agreement. He said lawyers often hire consultants, and pay them directly.

The President and CEO of American Cast Iron Pipe Company, or ACIPCO, Van Richey also testified Monday morning. He said his company joined the Alliance for Jobs and the Economy in 2015, after seeing a presentation Gilbert made at the Balch office. The AJE was formed to educate business leaders in the Tarrant area about the "government overreach" in the community, he said.

Richey believed the purpose of his AJE dues-- $30,000 a year--were to be used for community outreach, scientific research, and legal help, Richey said. He did believe the group would hire a consultant at some point, but he didn't know they had hired the Oliver Robinson Foundation. "Now, sitting here today, I might have done something differently," Richey said. "I'd have contacted my lawyers."

He said the group was "trying to do something right for Tarrant" and question the EPA, and the AJE coordinated with the mayor of Tarrant to make sure residents in the city knew their rights and were informed about the upcoming soil sampling. ACIPCO renewed its AJE membership in 2016, and paid additional dues. When Richey said when he saw the 2017 invoice for yearly dues, the price had gone up to $60,000, and he didn't renew.

Richey said he wasn't aware of the AJE's payments to the Oliver Robinson Foundation, even though he had an invoice from the foundation in his email inbox. He said he didn't look at that specific invoice, because all of the other AJE invoices he had seen were payments to Balch.

Roberson, Gilbert, and McKinney are each charged with one count of conspiracy, one of bribery, three counts of honest services wire fraud, and one count of money laundering. The trial is expected to last between three and four weeks, and U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon is presiding over the case.

Robinson was charged in the scheme and pleaded guilty to charges related to bribery. He is expected to testify in the coming weeks.