Alabama's two-year college system has paid more than three dozen state lawmakers or their relatives in recent years, including several legislators who received paychecks from two different colleges, system records show.

One quarter of the 140 members of the current Legislature, elected since 2002, has financial ties to the system, the records show. There are 28 legislators who were on community college payrolls; five whose wives were on payrolls; two legislators whose businesses received work; one whose brother was on the payroll; and one legislator whose business and wife were paid, records show.

Most of those jobs or contracts went to legislators after they were elected, records show.

The payments, made since 2002, ranged from $162,930 a year to Rep. Yvonne Kennedy as president of Bishop State Community College in Mobile to $2,340 paid to Rep. Charles O. Newton for history classes he taught in 2003 at Lurleen B. Wallace Community College in Andalusia.

Some of the Legislature's most powerful lawmakers received money. They include House Speaker Seth Hammett, who received $122,242 in 2002 before he retired that year as president of Lurleen B. Wallace, and House Speaker Pro Tem Demetrius Newton, who received $1,100 a month for legal services last year from Lawson State Community College in Birmingham.

In some cases, the wives of powerful legislators received pay, records show. Johna Lindsey, the wife of House Education Budget Committee Chairman Richard Lindsey, receives more than $25,000 a year as an employee of Gadsden State Community College; and Susan Barron, wife of Senate President Lowell Barron until their divorce last year, receives $54,506 a year from Northeast Alabama Community College in Rainsville, records show.

Need to earn living

Legislators defended the payments they received from the two-year college system, noting they need to earn a living. The lawmakers said they receive just over $30,000 a year in part-time salary and expenses from the Legislature.

"I'm just a small-town boy that works for a living," said Rep. Ralph Howard, D-Greensboro, who received a job at Shelton State Community College months after he won a special election in May 2005. "I'm not one of those people tied to any of those political machines or shenanigans."

Howard, who used to work for the Bibb County Board of Education, earns $45,423 a year as an adult education instructor with Shelton. He made about the same in Bibb County.

The payments to legislators and their relatives are the latest in a series of two-year college issues examined by The Birmingham News. Among other issues reported were system jobs and contracts given to relatives of administrators, including fired Chancellor Roy Johnson; payments and benefits given to Johnson and his relatives from businesses hired by the system; system jobs given to state Board Of Education members; and millions of dollars in lobbying contracts paid to former system administrators and firms they represent.

The News obtained the payment information concerning legislators from system payroll records, vendor payment records, contract records compiled for the state school board and financial disclosure forms filed by legislators.

When possible, the review included records dating back to 2002. The vendor payment information included expenses provided by 12 colleges from October 2003 through September 2005.

Separate paychecks

In three cases, legislators received pay from two colleges, records show.

House Majority Leader Ken Guin, a Carbon Hill Democrat who has a law practice, receives $49,677 annually from Shelton State Community College as a special population services coordinator and $48,721 annually from Bevill State Community College as an auxiliary services coordinator, records show.

Guin said his work for Shelton State in Tuscaloosa and Bevill State, based about 60 miles north in Sumiton, includes lobbying work in Washington, seminars on ethics and other issues for government leaders, and some fund raising.

"I provide a good service to the colleges," Guin said in a telephone interview from his law office. "I don't see it as a problem. I'm sitting here working."

Guin's work in the system came under scrutiny in 2000 when he received a separate contract from Bevill State to do $10,000 of legal work for the school. Guin, who had been on Bevill's payroll since 1999, withdrew the contract after being criticized for it, school records show.

Efforts to reach Shelton State President Rick Rogers and Bevill State President Harold Wade for comment last week failed. Shelton State spokeswoman Leigh Hays said Guin's salary was justified because "you have to remember, he's an attorney." Guin, however, said his school salary doesn't include legal work for the colleges.

"I would imagine the skills and expertise that he brings to the position would justify his salary," Hays said.

Colleges split pay

Rep. Todd Greeson, an Ider Republican who worked on the family farm when he was elected in 2002, is paid $22,260 annually by Northeast Alabama Community College as an industrial training coordinator and $22,260 annually by Athens State University as a recruiter, records show.

Greeson said his jobs with Northeast and Athens State, which is about 80 miles west in Athens, are possible because of an agreement the two schools have for his work. The two split his salary, and he splits his time on issues for both, working out of his office at Northeast.

"It was a job opening. I applied for it. I have the qualifications," said Greeson, who said he still does "a little farming" when possible.

Rep. Terry Spicer, an Elba Democrat, received $66,526 from Enterprise-Ozark Community College in Enterprise as executive assistant to the president in 2005 and $38,757 that same year from Lurleen B. Wallace as a dean, payroll records show.

Spicer said he was paid by two colleges in 2005 as he was leaving Lurleen B. Wallace to start a new job at Enterprise-Ozark. System payroll records show Spicer earned $42,698 in 2004 as a director of community services and continuing education at MacArthur State Technical College before its merger with Lurleen B. Wallace.

The next year, Spicer received more than $105,000 total from Lurleen B. Wallace and Enterprise-Ozark. Spicer said nearly $20,000 of that amount was for annual leave he earned while working 18 years at MacArthur and Lurleen B. Wallace.

"I had accumulated that much and they paid it to me," he said.

Spicer said he worked in the two-year college system before he was elected in 1998. "I put in more than a 40-hour week for the college," he said.

But most of the lawmakers working in the system received their jobs after their election. Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, began working in the system a few months after his 2002 election. He earns $81,496 as director of adult education at Trenholm State Technical College in Montgomery.

The two-year system is facing an employment lawsuit from a former Trenholm employee who argues he was unfairly bypassed for the job so that Ross could be hired. Ross said the claim comes from a disgruntled employee who wants his job.

"I met all the requirements they were looking for," Ross said. "Now the argument would have to be, what is more qualified?"

Businesses got work

In several cases, legislators' businesses received work from two-year colleges. Rep. James Thomas, a Selma Democrat who is a high school principal, also is listed as an officer of Thomas Construction Co. The family's construction business received more than $31,000 in work from Trenholm in 2005, according to school payment records.

Thomas said he hasn't received payments from the company. "I'm not involved in the day-to-day business," he said. "Sometimes we have meetings and I'll sit in just to see what's going on with the business."

But Thomas reported receiving payments from the company in his latest financial disclosure form, filed earlier this year. Thomas checked the box for income of $1,000 to $10,000, noting it was a commission payment.

Gadsden State officials decided to stop doing business with a local insurance company after Rep. Craig Ford was elected, said Garry Tucker, a former employee in the school's business office. Tucker said the insurance business was given to Ford's company.

His company, Hodges Ford Insurance Agency, received more than $32,000 from Gadsden in 2005, school payment records show. Ford's wife, Gwen, receives $43,387 as an instructor at the school, payroll records show.

Ford said he wasn't aware of Tucker's claim, but he said his company offered the lowest bid on insurance for Gadsden.

"We have to follow the bid law. If we're not low bidder, we don't get it," Ford said. "I can promise you, $32,000 isn't enough to get in trouble over."

Retired from system

Sen. Bobby Denton, a Muscle Shoals Democrat known as the dean of the Senate, said he left a consulting job with Northwest-Shoals Community College earlier this year because of concerns he had about recent developments in the two-year system. Denton retired from his full-time job at Northwest-Shoals in 2004 as a development director after working in the system 19 years.

After retiring, he received part-time annual pay of $18,000. He also received a consulting contract from the school in 2005, earning an additional $1,500 a month until the contract expired earlier this year, payroll and contract records show.

Denton said he was asked to help newly appointed President Humphrey Lee make contacts in the community. "You probably won't believe me, but they had asked me to stay on. But I really wanted to retire," he said.

Denton said he's glad he left, now that he's seen the extent of problems surfacing in the system.

"I think now is a little different story than when I began working," Denton said. "I've been quite surprised at some of the things I've read. I hope that we can restore the system's image."