An attorney general’s opinion allowing elected county officials who hold state constitutional positions to sidestep Cullman County’s current public notices printing agreement has resulted in the probate judge spending more than $19,000 to publish the qualified voters list for the June 5 primary election.

On Saturday, the list was published in both The Cullman Times and The Cullman Tribune. Cullman County Probate Judge Tammy Brown said she opted to publish the list in two newspapers to provide wider distribution after seeking outside legal counsel related to the AG opinion issued in March.

The opinion states that despite Cullman County agreeing to a one-year agreement last June to publish all its public or legal notices in The Times due to it being the low bidder, the county’s state constitutional offices can ignore the bid agreement and use any newspaper eligible to publish public notices, according to County Attorney Chad Floyd. State constitutional officers include the county’s probate judge, revenue commissioner, sheriff and coroner.

In March, Revenue Commissioner Barry Willingham, who sought the AG opinion in February, used the opinion when his office published the county’s annual delinquent tax list. However, Willingham requested bids and only published the information in one newspaper.

By publishing the voters list in both newspapers, Brown followed the AG opinion, but her office now has two invoices for the same information being published.

Additionally, when publishing the list, it must be printed per the Code of Alabama guidelines (17-4-1).

On Saturday, The Times followed the Code’s guidelines when publishing the list that contained more than 56,000 names at the minimum nine point type size, while the Tribune’s used a smaller type size for the list.

Brown said The Times charged $13,651 and The Tribune’s invoice was $5,704. The Times placed the information on 46 newspaper pages due to the type size requirement and The Tribune used 16 pages.

“Our concern in the probate office with the primary coming was to reach as many people as possible by using both publications,” Brown said. “We also checked with other counties and some use two publications for that reason.”

After publishing the initial voter list in the two newspapers, Brown said her office will likely to do the same with the supplemental voters list that prints before the June 5 election.

“We were just trying to be fair and try to reach as many people as possible,” Brown said.

It’s not the first time a county or city has published required public notices in more than one newspaper in Alabama’s 67 counties, but typically it deals with notices that do not contain thousands of words. Often in counties where more than one newspaper is qualified to print public notices, officials will either use the bid process or alternate between newspapers for larger documents similar to the voters list.

In a March 15 email to the county’s state constitutional officials highlighting the AG opinion, Floyd advised, “As you all know, the County Commission awarded a bid for print advertising to The Cullman Times in June 2017, valid for one year. In the time remaining on the bid, you are free to continue using the County Commission’s in-place bid. Pursuant to this Attorney General’s opinion you are free to solicit quotes for specific print jobs and select from your quotes.”

Floyd explained the ruling was addressing state-required public notices like the qualified voters list and the delinquent tax list.

“While the State Auditors and Association of County Commissions of Alabama (ACCA) have objected to the opinion, it is nonetheless an official opinion of the Attorney General,” Floyd wrote in the email.

Just days after the AG opinion was issued, Willingham fast-tracked the bid process for the tax list, requesting bids be submitted via email. The previous year, the bid process for the same project required sealed bids and extended for six days, which is more typical for governmental-related bids unless it’s an emergency situation.

Willingham used The Tribune which submitted a lower bid. However, to publish the same list in The Times is more expensive because its higher paid circulation base constitutes more copies being printed and distributed to thousands more Cullman County residents.

Even with the County Commission awarding a bid to The Times for public notices, Willingham said The Tribune contended the bid was not legal so he worked with Floyd to request the AG opinion.

“I wanted to do what was right for the taxpayers and this office, so I talked to (Floyd) about getting an opinion,” Willingham said.

To date, the county commission and its entities outside of the probate and revenue commissioner offices have followed the county’s bid agreement with The Times.