Earl Hilliard Interview, Jan. 4, 2006, Part 3

Reelscene : To come back to the general business aspects, the film industry is actually kind of small compared to Alabama, is there any other general business thing you might want to mention.

Earl Hilliard, Jr. : When it comes to general business one thing that I'm a proponent of is I believe in looking around you. I believe in looking at Atlanta, looking at Nashville, looking at other states and cities, see what kind of projects and programs they're doing to build their businesses. And than when you see what they have then you come back to Birmingham, Alabama and say what can we do here, what are they doing, how did they put it together. My thing is why re-invent the wheel. If you see people who have good programs going on then you look at what their doing and you duplicate that here. And that's one of the things we can do. We don't always have to try to do things the same way we've been doing them. Sometimes you can look at other cities and see what they're doing and if applicable then you can bring then here to Birmingham, Alabama.

Reelscene : Now to get away from the business, but to talk more about being in office or being a public servant. The public servant tends to be a steward of the people's money or the tax money and there's been a lot recently or it may be ongoing, particularly with [former] Gov. Seigelman being in trouble now because of some contract thing and public money's involved and so how would you characterize a public servant in taking care of the people's money and tax money and seeing how it's well spent? And not abused or anything.

Earl Hilliard, Jr. : To me the only thing I can say about that is that, I can't cast any judgment on those other situations you mentioned because honestly I don't know the whole circumstances...

Reelscene : Well, I meant that like an example but to move on, how you would view the situation or the person qualities of an elected official.

Earl Hilliard, Jr. : I think you know what the rules are. I mean honestly I think that 's what it comes down to. That's why you have an Ethics Committee or whatever, you can get rulings. The thing about it is you try to do what you can for your community, for your district and then the State as a whole. But you try to do that within the rules and boundaries that are set up. That's like going to school. You're trying to do everything you can to learn but you have to do that within a certain level of boundaries just like with any business. I think a public official tends to be held to a higher level of scrutiny because you are dealing with so much of the public's trust and so much of the public's money. So I think that's why those people are held to a higher standard. But I just think you, once again, just follow the rules. I think if you have a set of boundaries that what you within.

Reelscene : Have you had any discussions with any of the other State Representatives?

Earl Hilliard, Jr. : My family is a political family. So my father and uncle both have been in politics for basically over thirty years. So since age three I've been in politics for the due virtue of my father and my uncle and their friends, so I talked to a lot of Legislators that I've known them as a little kid.

Reelscene : To inform everyone your father was [U.S.] Congressman Earl Hilliard [Senior].

Earl Hilliard, Jr. : And my uncle was [Alabama] State Representative John Hilliard.

So yeah, I've talked to several people. Some people I just called and let them know what I was doing. Some people I asked them for any information or help they could give me. One thing is that I believe in guidance, I believe in listening to people, asking for help when you need help. I believe in taking that and using it to the best you can.

Reelscene : Well, I think that's pretty much it for now and I may come back and do something else later...

Earl Hilliard, Jr. : Defiantly, maybe a little bit further down the road...

Reelscene : Yeah, I appreciate it..

Earl Hilliard, Jr. : Thank you.

Reelscene : Thank you.

Related topics can be found at the following Reelscene pages

Alabama Point System for Film and Tax Credit
http://reelscene.com/law/alapoints1.html

Proposed Legislative bills for film incentives in the Alabama State House
http://reelscene.com/law/lawindex.html

Alabama Film & Television Alliance
http://reelscene.com/afta/aftaindex.html