An Opelika contractor who worked on properties owned by fired two-year college Chancellor Roy Johnson and lobbyist Jimmie Clements said he was paid by Alabama Contract Sales, a company that has received more than $1.2 million in business from two-year colleges in recent years.

Phillip Lynn, an owner of House Dressings window treatments and designs, estimated that he completed as much as $20,000 worth of work on condominiums and homes owned by Johnson and Clements, a longtime friend of Johnson's. Lynn said he got the jobs over at least a 10-year period from Alabama Contract Sales of Opelika and was told by company officials to send the invoices for payment to the company.

"Roy never wrote a check to me for anything," Lynn said. Clements also did not pay him for his work, he said.

Alabama Contract Sales is owned by Pete and Tim Turnham. Pete Turnham, the former 40-year veteran and one-time dean of the Alabama Legislature, serves as president of the family business. His son, Tim, manages the business and serves as a corporate officer.

Pete Turnham's other son, Joe Turnham, left the company in 1999, but worked in the family business during some of the period that Lynn said he did the work for Johnson and Clements. Lynn said he recalled dealing with Tim Turnham on the jobs.

Alabama Contract Sales, which sells interior furnishings to schools, has received more than $1.2 million in business since 2004 from at least seven two-year colleges, including Southern Union State Community College, where Johnson once served as president, system financial records show.

Federal investigators recently subpoenaed records of Southern Union payments to Alabama Contract Sales, said Ben Jordan, the school's head of finance.

Joe Espy, a Montgomery lawyer representing Johnson, declined comment when contacted Friday. Efforts to contact Clements and his lawyer, Ron Wise of Montgomery, failed.

Efforts to reach Pete and Tim Turnham for comment also failed. Joe Turnham, now chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, said in a written statement that he was not aware of any business relating to Johnson and Clements.

"I have not had a financial interest in that company since 1997," Joe Turnham said in the statement. "I am neither an officer nor director of that company. Further, I have not in the conduct of my own business, or in the conduct of anyone else's business, had any involvement with Roy Johnson or Jimmie Clements, nor have I done any work for the Department of Postsecondary Education."

Ongoing investigation

The Birmingham News, in a series of articles in recent months, has reported that other contractors hired by two-year colleges worked on Johnson's new Opelika home. Other articles have outlined payments to Johnson's relatives by companies hired by colleges and twoyear college jobs that his family received.

The News also has reported that Clements and his consulting company received more than $262,000 in contracts from two-year colleges in recent years; that he personally loaned Johnson $125,000 last year; and that he received regular expense and part-time salary payments from Southern Union until several months ago.

The state Board of Education fired Johnson in July, citing concerns about payments and jobs given to his family. An ongoing state and federal investigation also is looking into those payments and jobs, along with other two-year college issues, according to witnesses who have testified before a federal grand jury in Birmingham.

Lynn said the Turnhams' company sent him to Johnson's Gulf Shores condo and a Johnson condo in Gatlinburg, Tenn., to work on window treatments.

"That was probably 10 years ago when I did that," Lynn said.

He said he also worked on Johnson's new home, built last year in Opelika, estimating that he provided more than $10,000 worth of designs and window treatments for the $1 million home.

"I've done a lot at that house," Lynn said.

He said he was paid for all of the work on Johnson's properties by Alabama Contract Sales. The company also paid him for work he did at a Franklin, N.C., condominium that Clements owns, Lynn said.

It wasn't unusual for Tim Turnham to contact him to work as a subcontractor on a job for Alabama Contract Sales, Lynn said. He said he worked as a subcontractor for the company at jobs at Southern Union, Bevill State Community College's Hamilton campus, and at elementary and secondary schools across the state.

Lynn initially declined to discuss his work with Alabama Contract Sales when contacted by The News, but later agreed to be interviewed. The assignment of jobs at properties owned by Johnson and Clements didn't appear that unusual, Lynn said, until he started reading news accounts in recent months about other contractors hired on twoyear college contracts who also worked on Johnson's new Opelika home.

"I never even thought of them because they were normal transactions really," Lynn said of his work through Alabama Contract Sales. "And then all this stuff started coming out."