FAIRHOPE, Ala. - The Alabama Ethics Commission is “closing all files related to the complaint” that Fairhope resident Paul Ripp filed against state Sen. Lee “Trip” Pittman, according to a letter sent Feb. 4 to Ripp from the commission’s head attorney.

“You have now filed a complaint against the Ethics Commission with the Ethics Commission,” wrote Ethics Commission general counsel Hugh R. Evans III. “It is obvious that we cannot investigate ourselves; therefore, we are closing all matters that form the basis of your complaint against us.”

The three-page letter stated it was in response to a Feb. 3 complaint filed by Ripp with the Ethics Commission.

That Feb. 3 letter was entitled by Ripp as a “Complaint Directed to the Alabama Ethics Commission for Acting Unethically in their Purported Investigation of the Dubious Actions of Lee ‘Trip” Pittman and Timothy Kant, City of Fairhope.”

Ripp’s letter did not set out any specific allegations of how the Ethics Commission violated any specific sections of the state Ethics Act, but his letter apparently hit a nerve with the commission.

“The letter speaks for itself,” Evans said Wednesday, refusing to comment whether any investigation was continuing against Pittman or had been dropped.

Ripp’s initial complaint filed in September stemmed from a contract awarded last June by the Fairhope City Council to Pittman’s company, Pittman Tractor, for oil spill response work.

Although Evans would not comment on the existence of any ongoing investigation of Pittman, a statement in his letter to Ripp regarding a separate complaint sent from Baldwin businessman Don White indicates the matter might be closed.

“On Jan.16, 2011, you did send me a complaint from Mr. Don White,” Evans wrote. “ I will tell you that this complaint contains nothing other than White’s repeated allegations that his product was superior to Trip Pittman’s. He included no information regarding any use of office for personal gain by Senator Pittman.”

Evans refused to comment on whether the Ethics Commission had also closed its files on that complaint.

The first sentence of that January complaint addressed to Evans by White states in part as follows: “My complaint centers on the actions of (Pittman) in ‘steering’ the purchase of Fairhope’s $639,000 oil boom protection to his company.”

The state ethics law makes it a felony for an elected official to use his public position or office for personal gain.

Ripp responded this week to the Feb. 4 letter from the commission.

“Since you have closed the files and your ears, we, the taxpayer, can only hope the Alabama Attorney General and/or federal authorities will move forward,” Ripp wrote in a Feb. 9 e-mail to Evans.