Southeastern leader of the EPA, charged for ethical reasons in Alabama | Alabama News



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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) – The man appointed by the administration of President Donald Trump to head the Southeast Regional Office of the Environmental Protection Agency has been put indicted, as well as a former trading partner, for ethical charges in Alabama.

The media reported Tuesday that Trey Glenn and a former trading partner, Scott Phillips, are accused of multiple ethical violations in Birmingham. The law on ethics prohibits officials from using their office for personal purposes and soliciting or receiving money or other valuables.

Glenn was appointed in August 2017 as a director of the EPA Regional Office in Atlanta, which oversees eight Southeast states. Previously, he had been director of the Alabama Environmental Management Department and had also worked as a corporate lobbyist who opposed the Superfund's cleanup efforts by the federal government in Birmingham.

A spokesman for the EPA did not immediately return an email on behalf of Glenn, and court records do not know whether Glenn or Phillips have lawyers.

Al.com reported that Glenn and Phillips maintained their innocence in statements sent by a worker at a law firm in Montgomery.

The newspaper reported that the charges against them included multiple violations of Alabama's ethics law, including soliciting something of value from a principal, from A lobbyist or a subordinate, and the receipt of money in addition to his official duties.

Glenn worked for nearly five years as director of Alabama's environmental department, where his term ended abruptly.

The Alabama Ethics Commission in 2007 unanimously felt that there was a probable cause that Glenn had violated the rules of ethics by accepting gifts from Alabama Power Co., which his agency regulated. He was also the subject of an investigation for a personal family trip to Disney World paid for by a public relations firm representing a client doing business with his agency.

Glenn was finally cleared of any criminal offense in the case, but resigned in 2009 after the investigations into ethics.

Phillips is a former president of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission.

After Glenn left the state agency for the environment, he created a lobbying company with Phillips. Both participated in the opposition to a federal cleaning of the Superfund in Birmingham. A former lawmaker, Oliver Robinson, pleaded guilty and two others, David Roberson, leader of Drummond Co., and lawyer Joel Gilbert, were convicted on charges related to this project.

Glenn and Phillips each testified in the Roberson and Gilbert trial this summer. Roberson and Gilbert were convicted of bribing Robinson to oppose EPA's efforts to clean up a Birmingham neighborhood in Robinson District.

Region 4 of the EPA, headquartered in Atlanta, includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

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