As Zeke Smith and his trusty checkbook hit the exits at Alabma Power, Clay Ryan enters from the University of Alabama to stanch the smell of cow manure in the air

Clay Ryan

 

An Alabama Power executive, who played a prominent role in funding a harassment and intimidation campaign against individuals who dared to take critical looks at scandals swirling around the Southern Company utility giant, has retired, according to a report today at banbalch.com. Zeke Smith is out, replaced by former University of Alabama vice chancellor Clay Ryan, reports K.B. Forbes, publisher of the Ban Balch blog and CEO of its parent organization -- the CDLU public charity and advocacy group. Under the headline "Manure Lagoon: Zeke Smith Out at Alabama Power," Forbes writes:

In between writing two hit pieces about F.L. “Bubba” Copeland, the mayor of Smiths Station, Alabama,  who committed suicide last Friday, Craig Monger of 1819 News squeezed in a short fluff piece about the “retirement” of Zeke Smith, the Alabama Power executive who allegedly approved more than $318,000 in expenditures to the obscure political consulting firm Matrix LLC in Southern Company’s campaign of fear and terror against us, the CDLU, and the Newsome and Forbes families during the summer of 2020.

As we wrote last December:

The Excel workbook titled APC CDLU SPECIAL lists the report for “Zeke 82520” or in other words, a financial report dated August 25, 2020 for Zeke Smith. The report was allegedly generated by “Sloppy Joe” Perkins' obscure political-consulting firm, Matrix LLC, for their top client, Alabama Power.

The data on the spreadsheets shows numerous line items that were heavy expenditures in the hundreds of thousands to terrorize the Forbes Family and their two young daughters, and to smear attorney Burt Newsome falsely as a rapist.

The data line up chronologically to independent sources and events.

It is getting hard to keep track of who is going in and out of the revolving door at Alabama Power. Writes Forbes:

This is the third leadership change at Alabama Power in less than a year, and like disgraced ex-CEO Mark A. Crosswhite, Zeke Smith, too, is “retiring.”

The King & Spalding law firm, of Atlanta, was hired by Southern Company last year to investigate the criminal misconduct and surveillance efforts within the company, but as sources have told federal investigators, the law firm appears to be covering up instead of cleaning up Southern Company’s alleged egregious misconduct that had no corporate purpose whatsoever.

In June, a Southern Company official foolishly told The Wall Street Journal that the internal investigation could not find who authorized the surveillance efforts of for what purpose. Southern Company declared that they had “moved on.”

No one believed Southern Company.

Its mumbo jumbo smells like a stack of fresh cow manure.

So bad is the stench that Southern Company went outside its norm and did not promote an insider after Zeke Smith's exit.

Instead, the company poached Clay Ryan from the University of Alabama hierarchy. Will that make a difference in the dysfunctional culture at Alabama Power? Forbes writes:

The first thing Mr. Ryan should do is fire Matrix, Mark White, Joe Perkins, and Balch & Bingham.

Time to haul off the manure.

Mr. Ryan should also solidify and build bridges with external community groups including the North Birmingham African American community.

Communication and community alliances would be a healthy reset after years of egregious misconduct.