Riley responds to Johnson claims

The following is a statement from Todd Stacy, press secretary for Gov. Bob Riley, about a former cabinet member claiming the governor needed to recuse himself from negotiations on Jefferson County's sewer debt. Bill Johnson, the former head of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, sent a statement to the Montgomery Advertiser Monday night. He is a Republican candidate for governor and resigned from ADECA in late June after Riley said he needed to step down if he was running for governor.

"This guy has no idea what he's talking about," Stacy said. "Gov. Riley hasn't been involved in the sewer negotiations in almost a year, since he was able to reach an agreement with the county's creditors to reduce the county's sewer debt by more than one billion dollars. No one related to the governor benefits one bit from this. Rob Riley's legal work for the Jefferson County Sheriff's office has nothing to do with the sewer debt. Rob Campbell is one of hundreds of attorneys at one of the state's largest law firms and his work has nothing to do with the county's sewer debt. Either Johnson knows this and his complaining is a silly ploy to get attention for his campaign, or he has no clue what's going on with the state's largest county."

-- posted by Sebastian Kitchen