Ethics Commission fines Calhoun Commissioners

Rudy Abbott

The Alabama Ethics Commission passed administrative resolutions wednesday on two Calhoun County commissioners for violations regarding use of the county’s animal control center.
Jim Sumner, director of the Ethics Commission, said J.D. Hess was fined $150 and Rudy Abbott was fined $228 for the violations. Both violations stem from a complaint to the commission that stated Abbott had kept his pet dogs at the animal control center, while Hess kept a mule there. Sumner said the fines were based on estimates of how much it would have cost the center to keep the animals. Sumner said both fines represented “low-level violations,” and that both commissioners agreed to pay the fines. The Ethics Commission will take no further action on the matter.
Hess said he surrendered the mule to the center legally, and had paid a fee, but no paperwork existed for the transaction. According to Jane Cunningham, chairwoman of the Cheaha Regional Humane Center, the group that now controls County Animal Control, most of the paperwork that existed prior to the group’s takeover was either destroyed or lost in the transition. Hess said he did not bother to fight the complaint because of the lack of paperwork, but said his agreement to pay the fine was not an admission of guilt.
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The complaint was filed by  John Wippler. Wippler previously served on a board of directors that oversaw animal control. He also filed similar complaints with the Ethics Commission against commissioner Don Hudson, as well as Cheaha Regional Humane Society board members Brian McVeigh, Calhoun County's district attorney,  and Calhoun County Sheriff Larry Amerson.