Alabama Educational Television Foundation Authority

“The information contained in the aetfa form 990 is prepared jointly by the organization's senior accountant and cfo and provided to an independent tax preparer. Upon receipt of the completed form 990 from the preparer, it is reviewed by the senior accountant and cfo for completeness, accuracy and continuity. It is then forwarded to the executive director for final review and approval. Once it is approved by the executive director, the cfo signs the form 990. The return is then provided to the board of directors and filed with the irs.”

“The employees of the aetfa have password access to an employee intranet site that has an on-line employee guide that contains the conflict of interest policy. New employees are required to review all organizational policies in the employee guide within two weeks of employment and sign a statement that they have reviewed and understand these policies. The board of directors adopted the conflict of interest policy by majority vote and is periodically provided a hard copy of the policy in their board materials. New board members receive a hard copy of the policy in their board books provided immediately upon their appointments. The board also adopted a confidential reporting system (more popularly known as a whistle-blower policy) available to all employees which is described in detail in the employee guide. This system provides a toll-free number for employees to call if they suspect any impropriety by managers and executives of the company in the form of misuse of company assets or that of other employees that they may feel have not been addressed appropriately. The phone call can be anonymous and goes to a third party provider that takes the information and then relays it directly to a board member who has accepted responsibility for handling such employee concerns. It is then the responsibility of that board member to take appropriate action depending on the nature of the concern. Since the implementation of the confidential reporting system in 2007, no complaints or concerns have been received.”

“Compensation recommendations and evaluation of the work performance of the executive director is conducted by a committee appointed by the chair of the alabama educational television commission on a periodic basis. This committee may use a number of resources to assist with their charge including use of salary surveys, interviews with key employees and officers, and other benchmarks that may have been previously established. Compensation for officers and key employees is generally similar to that established by the state of alabama personnel rules but not mandated to be followed by the aetfa. Officers and key employees receive semi-annual performance reviews conducted by their immediate supervisor that have been previously reviewed and approved by a reviewing officer. Performance reviews are documented on a standardized form and key tasks are rated on the annual reviews. Based on the resulting performance score, employees may receive a merit increase within their assigned pay grades. When the state provides aetc employees with a cost of living increase, the same percentage increase is provided to aetfa employees, including officers and key employees.”

“The aetfa is a public corporation and is therefore subject to the alabama open records act of 1915. All documents of the corporation must be made available to any member of the public requesting to see them. The requestor may physically examine these documents between 8:30 a.m. And 3:30 p.m. On standard business days at the corporate headquarters located in birmingham, alabama. Reasonable advance notice is requested in order for staff to have sufficient time to pull the requested documents from the public file maintained by apt and to reserve space for the requestor to conduct their examination.”