Request By:
Mr. Ralph Ed Graves
Commissioner
Department for Local Government
Capitol Annex
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
In order to carry out your functions in the administration of various state statutes, the Department for Local Government, you say, needs a clarification of two recent enactments by the General Assembly.
KRS 424.260 presently provides that local governments, where the expenditure exceeds $2,500, must use bidding procedure, that is advertising for bids, etc.
On March 17, 1978, the General Assembly delivered to the Governor H.B. 675 (which he signed March 28, 1978), which contained this provision in Section 74:
"All contracts or purchases shall be awarded by competitive sealed bidding, except as otherwise provided by Sections 75, 76, 77 and 78 of this code."
Section 78 of this bill, subparagraph (2), provides that small purchase procedures may be used for the award of any contract or purchase which does not exceed an aggregate amount of $2,500. Subsection (1) of Section 78 provides that the local public agency shall establish small purchase procedures which shall be in writing and available to the public.
On March 18, 1978, the General Assembly delivered to the Governor H.B. 33, which he signed on March 30, 1978. Section 12 of that bill amended KRS 424.260 by deleting the language "two thousand five hundred dollars" and substituting therefor "five thousand dollars." As amended it simply means that bidding procedure is not required for purchases of local governments if the purchase does not exceed $5,000. Section 12 of H.B. 33 becomes effective on June 17, 1978.
Your question is whether or not a city, county or district, will be permitted [on and after June 17, 1978] to use small purchase procedures for a contract of over $2,500 but not more than $5,000. In other words, you ask, which amendment governs the requirements for bidding?
Since H.B. 675 and H.B. 33 were enacted at the same session of the legislature, and in connection with the amount of purchase requiring bidding, it is our opinion that the two bills are irreconcilable; and thus H.B. 33, which was the last enacted bill, must prevail. Sumpter v. Burchett, 304 Ky. 858, 202 S.W.2d 735 (1947) 736. Here both bills are construed in pari materia, and effect is given to both. See Sumpter, supra.
It is our view that § 78, subsection (2) of H.B. 675, which provides that small purchase procedures may be used where the purchase does not exceed $2500, was merely an inadvertent retention of the old amount contained in KRS 424.260. The legislature momentarily lost sight of the fact that in the later bill, H.B. 33, the $2,500 figure was being increased to $5,000. To hold that the $5,000 figure governs is logical and makes good sense in view of the stealthy and progressive advance of inflation. The value of the dollar is being progressively croded as time goes on. Therefore, the legislature finds it necessary periodically to adjust the cut off figure requiring bidding from time to time. In advancing the permissible amount for negotiated or small purchases, the legislature has relieved local governments of unnecessary administrative detail and expense.