By John Archibald and Kyle Whitmire | AL.com

Former Alabama Rep. Oliver Robinson stood before environmental regulators in 2015 and urged them to resist EPA efforts to clean up polluted neighborhoods in and around north Birmingham.

"I've had a chance to meet with the EPA," Robinson told the Environmental Management Commission, which oversees the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. "I have yet to see any information that this area should be designated as a Superfund site."

It was a surprise to activists who had pushed the EPA to prioritize the area, where 400 of 1,100 properties sampled for lead and arsenic and other toxins showed potentially unhealthy levels of contamination.

What they didn't know at the time was that Robinson's nonprofit, the Oliver Robinson Foundation, received tens of thousands of dollars as payment for services from lobbyists for businesses and interests opposed to adding the area to the Superfund's National Priorities List of the nation's most polluted sites.

The EPA designated parts of north Birmingham as a Superfund site, but when the agency considered adding the area to its National Priorities List, Rep. Oliver Robinson pushed back, much to the surprise of environmental activists.

According to its IRS tax records, the Oliver Robinson Foundation received $134,000 from Balch & Bingham, a powerful law firm that represented the Drummond Company and its property ABC Coke in opposing the NPL listing. Eason Balch, a partner in the firm, serves as a lobbyist for Alabama Power and Jefferson County.

Julie Wall, spokeswoman for Balch & Bingham, said Robinson's foundation was "contracted to do work" and was paid for its services. She would not discuss what kind of work Robinson was paid to perform, and other public disclosures do not say.

About a year and a half after Robinson spoke out in that meeting, Robinson abruptly resigned from the Alabama Legislature.

His resignation late last year stunned many in Alabama political circles. He said at the time he was resigning so his daughter, Amanda Robinson, could keep a job as a legislative liaison in Gov. Robert Bentley's administration without her having a conflict of interest.

Robinson, a former basketball star at UAB, served in the Alabama Legislature for almost two decades. Despite being a Democrat in a Republican-controlled Legislature, he held considerable power before he resigned. He had seats on the House Rules Committee, the House Financial Services Committee, and served as co-chair of the Jefferson County delegation.

Nine days before vacating his seat, Robinson amended his disclosures with the Alabama Ethics Commission to report another "miscellaneous" contract.

Now, his lawyer confirms, Robinson is under investigation by federal prosecutors, and state investigators with the Alabama attorney general's office have begun to ask their own questions.

It is unknown exactly what investigators are looking into, but tax records, Alabama Ethics Commission disclosures and his correspondence with government agencies paint a picture of a lawmaker who solicited and received tens of thousands of dollars, not just from Balch & Bingham, but from some of Alabama's biggest business interests. He sought and received money in the name of neighborhood revitalization, financial literacy and his private business interests.

The foundation later paid Robinson's daughter, Amanda, who actively sought to discourage poor north Birmingham and Tarrant residents from testing their property for pollutants.

Multiple attempts to reach Oliver Robinson via text, phone and at his home failed, and he did not respond to messages. His lawyer, Doug Jones, said he had advised Robinson not to speak to the media.

"This matter is obviously under an investigation and I am just not at liberty to comment at this time," Jones said. "I hope to be able to do that in the future, but I cannot do that at this time."

Jones announced this week he will run for U.S. Senate.

Before Oliver Robinson, pictured right, was a state lawmaker, he was a Birmingham basketball star, first for Woodlawn High School.

A nonprofit and its profits

According to records from the Alabama secretary of state, Robinson incorporated the Oliver Robinson Foundation in 2004. Its purpose, according to IRS records, is to "teach and promote financial responsibility to lower income families and individuals."

The foundation appeared to serve two main functions -- hosting galas for minority business leaders and publishing a magazine, the Community Reinvestor, filled mostly with promotional material taken directly from the marketing departments of the featured corporations.

But a document filed last year by his daughter, Amanda, with the Alabama Ethics Commission shows the organization employed and paid at least one family member -- Amanda. And records from other entities show Robinson's foundation mixed its business with Robinson's for-profit company, Robinson & Robinson Communications, which the former lawmaker owns with his wife.

From the outset, the magazine -- which published as many as two issues a year on a standard template -- relied on ad buys from some of Alabama's biggest businesses. Advertisers in the magazine include Regions Bank, Alabama Power, Alagasco and many others. The Birmingham Airport Authority was also an advertiser.

Spokespersons for all three of those companies -- and others -- said they advertise with many media outlets, including AL.com, and feel the money to the Community Reinvestor was well spent.

Public records obtained from the Birmingham Airport Authority show that Robinson personally solicited the ads from the authority on the letterhead of his other private for-profit business, Robinson & Robinson Communications.

In those letters, Robinson asks the authority to make its checks -- $5,000 per issue in recent years -- payable to the for-profit Robinson & Robinson, not to the Oliver Robinson Foundation, which he claims in IRS documents owns and publishes the magazine.

Those records also show that Robinson invoiced the authority for a combined 12 pages of ads in three magazines published in 2015. However, the magazine's website shows only one magazine published in 2015, and that magazine had only three pages of advertising for the authority. The volume numbers of the magazines on the website are sequential and unbroken from 2009 to 2016.

Asked to explain the missing magazines, Robinson's lawyer declined to comment.

Despite being a Democrat in a Republican-controlled Legislature, Robinson was still among Alabama's more powerful lawmakers when he resigned last year. Here he's pictured in 2003, left, talking to Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, and former Birmingham Democratic lawmaker Eric Major.

Donations received and services rendered

But not all of the corporate money paid for ad buys. The most recent tax records available for the Oliver Robinson Foundation show at least some companies made payments for other purposes.

Largest among them is the $134,000 payment made in 2015 by Balch & Bingham. Alabama Power also paid Robinson's foundation $30,000 directly in 2015, according to the foundation's IRS forms, and Regions Bank paid $20,000.

Spokespersons for Alabama Power and Regions Bank said their payments went to sponsorship of the Alabama Black Achievers Awards Gala, which is held annually by Robinson's foundation.

"In 2015, Alabama Power contributed to the Oliver Robinson Foundation to sponsor the Alabama Black Achievers Awards Gala as part of our ongoing commitment to recognize the contributions of minority leaders in our state," Alabama Power spokesman Michael Sznajderman said in an email. "This annual event has been organized and hosted by the Oliver Robinson Foundation for many years. Alabama Power participates in various charitable efforts in communities across the state in accordance with all applicable laws."

A spokeswoman for Regions said the bank had also sponsored the gala for years.

Tax records show the foundation took in $60,000 from these and other organizations in 2015 for its gala, and it spent precisely $40,000 on the event, leaving it with precisely $20,000 in profit.

While residents were left behind in north Birmingham to live with contaminated soil, even churches moved away. In public meetings, Robinson argued that testing the soil would endanger property values. However his comments focused on the threats to industries nearby.

A question of ethics

Alabama ethics law bars public officials from using their offices to solicit money or other gain for themselves, their family members or businesses with whom they are associated, experts say. Lobbyists and principals - the people who hire lobbyists - are banned under the law from giving any thing of value to public officials, their family members or those with whom they are associated unless they fall within one of the narrow exceptions found in the Alabama Code.

Those exceptions include compensation and other benefits from non-government employers, as long as the circumstances make it clear that the exchange is unrelated to the official's public office, those experts said.

Unlike federal and state bribery laws, it does not require prosecutors to prove a quid pro quo to prove a violation, they said.

Most, if not all, of the businesses Robinson was dealing with have lobbyists and are themselves principals.

The issue is complicated further by the involvement of Robinson's daughter, Amanda. Her new job with the governor's office required her to file disclosures with the Alabama Ethics Commission. In those disclosures, Amanda Robinson acknowledged earning more than $10,000 from the Oliver Robinson Foundation in 2016. The disclosure does not require the public employee to be more specific. It is unknown if she received any money from the foundation prior to that.

Amanda Robinson declined to comment on questions about her work for the foundation.

The Oliver Robinson Foundation has not yet filed its 2016 IRS 990. So while Amanda Robinson's disclosure does not speak directly to the foundation's 2015 tax filing, it does indicate that Amanda, a family member, benefited from the nonprofit.

Oliver Robinson had failed to file his 2016 statement of economic interest by the April deadline until asked about it through his lawyer. On May 5, he submitted that disclosure to the Ethics Commission.

In that 2016 disclosure, Robinson reported personal income from Regions Bank, Alagasco, the Birmingham Airport Authority, Partnering for Progress and STRADA Corp.

Alagasco spokeswoman Jenny Gobble said the fees of $1,000 to $10,000 were paid to Robinson for advertising in his magazine.

State and federal prosecutors have been asking questions about Robinson's dealings for some time, and attorneys for Balch & Bingham, along with longtime Alabama Sen. Jabo Waggoner, were called before a federal grand jury in March.

Waggoner would not talk about Robinson or his appearance before the grand jury.

Despite being a Democrat in a majority-Republican Legislature, Rep. Oliver Robinson still had considerable power, with seats on the House Rules Committee and the Financial Services Committee. He also co-chaired the Jefferson County delegation, which decides whether local legislation in Alabama's most populous county lives or dies.

Aligning personal and political interests

Robinson's public office put him in a position to have influence on legislation making its way through the Alabama Legislature. His seat on the Financial Services Committee gave him sway over legislation that could impact banks, for example.

Robinson's previous ethics disclosures indicate he made between $100,000 and $150,000 a year from a bank.

Evelyn Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Regions, said Robinson's position in the Legislature had nothing to do with his contract work for the bank. She said Robinson & Robinson Communications "provides financial education to students and explores ways to work with organizations that support small-business development, neighborhood development and commercial revitalization."

"For example, Robinson is providing technical assistance to the Regions Financial Educational Institute and serves on the GEAR UP Advisory Committee, a multi-year college grant initiative in which Regions is the financial literacy partner," she said.

The company's work for the bank is ongoing, Mitchell said. She is confident it falls on the right side of the ethics laws, and said the money was well spent. Robinson provided quarterly progress reports and performed work of substance, she said.

Robinson used his position in the Legislature to help at least one client of Balch & Bingham.

The Jefferson County Commission over the last several years sought to redirect proceeds from a school tax to fund other departments and services. The bill, which passed in 2015, also created a discretionary fund from which the Jefferson County delegation -- which Robinson co-chaired -- could direct payments. Robinson sponsored the bill.

Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens says he did not know that Balch & Bingham had any kind of relationship with Robinson beyond its lobbying work.

"I'm actually kind of shocked at that," Stephens said. "And I'm a little disappointed that they weren't more forthcoming and that Oliver wasn't more forthcoming."

But perhaps nowhere do the questions linger like in north Birmingham and Tarrant, where some of Balch's clients found themselves face-to-face with the federal government.

A "redlining map" from the 1930s, shows that environmental concerns are nothing new. Much the the city was labeled hazardous -- a step above the lowest designation, "negro concentrations."

Robinson and Balch vs. the EPA

Pollution and contamination in north Birmingham is not a new concern. A 1930 "redlining map" labeled these communities "hazardous," or ascribed the designation, "negro concentrations." The latter were the neighborhoods where black citizens were permitted to live during segregation -- next door to some of the city's biggest polluters.

But in recent years, residents there and in nearby neighborhoods began to ask new questions. How did the soil get that way? What can be done about it? And ultimately, who should pay to fix it?

The Environmental Protection Agency in 2014 proposed adding the area around 35th Avenue North to the priorities list, which would give the EPA broad authority to investigate and clean industrial pollution and require nearby companies to pay for cleanup. The EPA had found high concentrations of lead, arsenic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or other chemicals in parts of the North Birmingham, Fairmont, Collegeville, and Harriman Park neighborhoods.

Around the same time, the Birmingham air quality group Gasp asked the EPA to assess the area around ABC Coke in Tarrant, about a mile northeast of the 35th Avenue site. That project would become known as the Pinson Valley Neighborhood Site. The EPA found reason to believe the areas should be examined further and conducted a site inspection, but ultimately decided no further action was warranted at the time.

Those efforts to add the areas to the EPA's priorities list triggered pushback -- from business interests, and from Robinson.

Around the north Birmingham Superfund site, signs appeared telling residents to resist fear EPA testing of their properties.

The Business Council of Alabama strongly opposed the effort, especially because the EPA wanted to charge nearby industries for deposits on the polluted ground. So did then-Attorney General Luther Strange, who warned that the state would refuse to fund any of the cleanup if the companies did not pay for it.

The EPA in letters named five companies -- U.S. Pipe, Alagasco, KMAC, Walter Coke and Drummond -- as potentially responsible for the pollution.

Alagasco's Gobble said the company "provided information to the EPA showing that we had no involvement with that site and are not responsible for any contaminants there. We have not been named as a Potentially Responsible Party in any legal proceedings and expect to have no involvement in the cleanup of the North Birmingham site."

She said "Alagasco did not request or receive any assistance from Mr. Robinson with respect to this matter."

Throughout this process, Balch & Bingham represented Drummond and ABC Coke. In August 2014, Balch & Bingham responded to the EPA on behalf of Drummond and ABC Coke, and later sued EPA seeking data the agency used to tie Drummond to the site.

The Jefferson County Commission -- a Balch & Bingham client -- also opposed the National Priorities List designation.

Alabama Power was not vocal at the time, but this week a spokesman said, "We would certainly be concerned about adverse impacts from a Superfund designation on property values and economic development in any community that we serve."

Near the end of 2015, signs began to appear around the area under the name "Get Smart Tarrant," which read "Don't let the EPA fool you," and urged residents to contact a Get Smart Gmail address for more information.

Not long after, in January 2016, an email went out from a "Get Smart Tarrant" email address to concerned citizens urging them not to have their soil tested.

That email bore the name of Amanda Robinson. When asked about the email, she had no comment.

"The EPA is testing the soil to determine whether there are contaminants in the area. If the amount of contaminates that the EPA deems necessary is found, then they will consider the Tarrant area a Superfund Site," the email read. "Get Smart is asking residents not to allow the EPA to test the soil their (sic) property. We are asking this because the residents will still have to pay property taxes, even though they (sic) property will have no value."

And Oliver Robinson resisted, too. In February 2015, he spoke against the designation in the meeting before the Environmental Management Commission.

Robinson began by saying his concern was for property owners living in the area, but he soon focused on the threat to the industries. Walter Coke had already agreed to pay for some of the cleanup, he said, so why was the EPA going after other industries in the area?

"The thing that gets me and what is in the process of hurting the residents in that area is that the EPA has included five other corporations in on this process, but there has been no reports stating that these individuals are culpable in any way," he said. "And where that hurts the residents is the fact that we will have decades of litigation that will occur because of these five individual companies being added to Walter Coke."

In his remarks, Robinson repeated the arguments made in the Get Smart emails, that the EPA efforts would destroy property values in these neighborhoods.

The EPA did not add the site to its National Priorities List.

Gasp Executive Director Michael Hansen, who is considering a run for U.S. Senate, said members of the organization were stunned to see Robinson opposing the petition.

"Residents who live in the affected communities had been calling on the EPA to designate the site as a Superfund priority well before it was formally proposed," Hansen said.

The neighborhood was toxic, and so was the effect. Residents, he said, were left "with dismay and exhaustion rather than hope."

The Tarrant site was in Robinson's House district, but the 35th Avenue project area was not. It was nearby, in the district of Rep. Mary Moore.

She was aghast when she heard residents had been advised not to test their property.

"If you encourage people not to have their soil tested you can't get a clear picture of what might be contaminated and what might be a health risk," she said. "That is detrimental to the people."

The people, she said, were betrayed.

It's like "making a deal with the devil," she said. "And all his children."

Updated: This post was edited to reflect the Doug Jones has declared his candidacy for the United States Senate, which had been excluded because the story was written before Jones' announcement.