By Associated Press
Montgomery AL – The Alabama Department of Environmental Management on Wednesday announced an initiative to post records from its aerial reconnaissance program on its Web site.
The initiative follows a series of media reports saying that records have not been made available for public review, according to an ADEM statement released Wednesday.
The statement says the new initiative will guarantee that the records are automatically posted on a monthly basis. The monthly updates will contain information including the purpose of the flight, the destination and the names of all passengers.
ADEM director Trey Glenn said in the statement that the department has acted transparently and has never denied access to its public records.
"In an effort to ensure this confusion does not occur again and to improve our services to the citizens of Alabama, which includes the availability of public information, I am pleased to announce that the Department will begin posting all airplane logs on our website," Glenn said.
All existing records, from May 2006 to August 2007, should be online by early September. The Web site will then be updated at the beginning of each month with the previous month's records.
The Birmingham News reported earlier this month that Gov. Bob Riley had not paid for a flight he took with senior adviser Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, official photographer Robin Cooper and aide Nathan Lindsay from Montgomery to Birmingham to attend a fundraiser for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
A Riley spokesman said at the time that the governor had not paid for the flight because he had not received a bill. An ADEM spokesman said ADEM had considered the flight part of the 25 hours of flight time it grants Department of Transportation each year in return for DOT providing hangar and maintenance services.
Riley last week reimbursed ADEM for the flight.