Request By:
Mr. T. M. Davis
Morgan County Attorney
P.O. Box 98
West Liberty, Kentucky 41472
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The franchise for Emergency Ambulance Service for Morgan County is up for bids on September 1, 1979. An emergency ambulance service district tax will go on the ballot pursuant to KRS 108.100 in November, 1979.
The question is whether the fiscal court could continue to operate the ambulance service for an additional three months without advertising for bids. According to our telephone conversation with you, it has been determined that no eligible bidder would bid on a 90 day contract period.
It is our opinion that, for this emergency 90 day period, the fiscal court can negotiate a contract with the people whose franchise will expire September 1, 1979, for continued ambulance service for that period only. No franchise would be involved as envisioned in § 164, Kentucky Constitution. Thus no bidding would be required. In an early case, Frankfort Telephone Co. v. Common Council, 125 Ky. 59, 100 S.W. 310 (1907) 311, the court ruled in effect that § 164 of the Constitution requires bidding on the granting of a franchise by a city, but that the granting of a franchise involves a term of years, even though the city does not bind itself to continue the franchise for more than a year. That opinion sugguests the view that where there is no franchise or contract for a term of years, and the legislature provides by statute for contracting for less than a term of years (see KRS 65.710), no bidding would be required under § 164. However, here, since the contract period is only 90 days, not even a one year term is involved. Importantly, no bidding could be procured. The law will not require the doing of a useless thing. Kentucky Title Co. v. Hail, 219 Ky. 256, 292 S.W. 817 (1927) 821.