By Chip Brownlee
Alabama Political Reporter
Gov. Kay Ivey, continuing her shakeup in Alabama’s executive branch, on Thursday signed an executive order banning lobbyists from serving on appointed State boards and commissions.
The executive order, her fourth so far, bans any executive officials from appointing a registered lobbyist to boards or commissions, effective immediately.
“Just minutes after taking the oath of office, I promised the people of Alabama that the Ivey administration would be open, transparent, and honest, and I am proud to be fulfilling that promise,” Ivey said.
The executive order comes a day after Ivey made two more major changes in the Governor’s Office, appointing Jim Purcell as acting Secretary of Information Technology and Todd Cotton as acting director of Senior Services.
She also disbanded more than a dozen Bentley-era special task forces, councils and commissions.
The Grocery Tax Task Force, which aimed to remove the 4-percent Alabama sales tax on food, and the Alabama Human Resources Task Force, which was set up to find better ways for DHR to deliver services and monitor for child abuse were on the chopping block, along with the Advisory Council on Gaming — a Bentley creation intended to find a solution for Alabama’s divide on gambling.
On lobbyists, Ivey said she wants to ensure that boards and commissions are more representative of Alabama, not of movers and shakers.
“As Governor I, and my office, have the responsibility to appoint members to various boards and commissions; this executive order ensures that we will no longer appoint registered lobbyists to those positions,” Ivey said.
“To have a government for and by the people, the people should be appointed to serve on state entities, not lobbyists who have an interest in representing their client rather than representing the folks of Alabama.”
Lobbyists who are currently serving on boards or commissions will be allowed to continue their term but will not be reappointed when their term ends. If they reregister as lobbyists, they will also be removed from their board or commission position.
