Opinion ID: 1841030
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Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Competitive Bid Requirement

Text: Section 41-16-50(a)(1), Code 1975, provides in pertinent part that all service contracts involving $2,000.00 or more entered into by the governing boards of counties be awarded by free and open competitive bidding, on sealed bids, to the lowest responsible bidder .... Maintenance argues, however, that under the authority of Code 1975, § 22-27-27, the provisions of the Solid Wastes Disposal Act, Code 1975, § 22-27-1 et seq., are repugnant to and thereby supersede the competitive bid law. In support of this contention, Maintenance cites the following statutory provisions: 1) Code 1975, § 22-27-3(a), which provides that the county commission or municipal governing body may provide [garbage] collection or disposal services by contract with private ... agencies ...; and 2) Code 1975, § 22-27-5(a), which provides that a county commission or public authority may enter into mutual agreements or contracts with the government bodies of other counties, municipalities, corporations or individuals, where deemed to be mutually economical and feasible, to jointly or individually collect, haul and/or dispose of solid wastes .... Maintenance then refers to Code 1975, § 41-16-51(a)(10), the May 4, 1982, amendment to the competitive bid law, which exempts all existing contracts up for renewal for solid waste disposal from the competitive bid requirement. Maintenance posits that this amendment further clarifies the preexisting legislative intent to exclude its 1980 contract from the bid law. Although we do not question the authority of the County to enter into the 1980 contract with Maintenance pursuant to Code 1975, § 22-27-3(a), we do not agree with the conclusion that this contract was exempt from the competitive bid requirement of Code 1975, § 41-16-50(a)(1). A comparison of the Solid Wastes Disposal Act and the competitive bid law prior to the 1982 statutory amendment reveals no repugnancy between the two enactments. The former only grants counties the authority to contract with private agencies for the disposal of solid wastes and the latter, when incorporated therein, prescribes the procedure for awarding these contracts. Code 1975, § 22-27-27, moreover, only applies to the financing of these contracts, and can in no way uphold the negotiation and execution of a solid waste contract between a county and private agency which failed to comply with the bid law. Furthermore, the fact that the legislature expressly enacted an exemption for solid waste disposal contracts from the competitive bid law militates in favor of the view that, prior to the amendment, such contracts were subject to the bid law. Any interpretation to the contrary would render the amendment superfluous, and we cannot presume that the legislature used language without meaning or application. Robinson v. State, 361 So.2d 1113 (Ala.1978), on remand, 361 So.2d 1115 (Ala.1978). We therefore hold that the 1980 contract between the County and Maintenance was subject to the competitive bid requirement of § 41-16-50(a)(1).