Where does Sheriff Vincent go from here?

Today, we are going to talk a bit about the CoreCivic contract and the desire for Sheriff Vincent to take over and operate the jail. This came to a head at the last BOCC meeting on May 12th when Commissioner Finegan brought forward a motion to cancel the current contract and begin the process of the CCSO taking it over. The board voted 3-2 against that (Davis, Kinnard, Bays)

The main issue for the board is the costs. They are concerned that we do not quite know how much it will cost for the county to operate it. There were also questions regarding how much equipment will remain at the jail and what CoreCivic would take with them if the contract were cancelled.

Here is the slide from a few weeks ago when Vincent presented this idea to the board. This shows what they believe would be the start up costs if they were to take it over.

These are some of the items that may or may not remain if CoreCivic were to leave. These belong to CoreCivic.

Vincent said it would cost at most $3 million in new money to take over the jail and get it under the Sheriff's office. He felt there were some grant funds available to cover some of the other items, but agreed there would be some upfront costs to this. Later in the discussion he mentioned that his number and the numbers from CoreCivic are about $1.6 million apart... meaning his office would be a bit more expensive out of the gate than what the county is currently paying CoreCivic, but felt as the transition happened and things got settled, there would be opportunities to recoup some of those funds via US Marshalls contracts and whatnot.

Commissioner Davis brought up concern about CoreCivic taking all their equipment with them and things like the electrified fence, leaving the county to foot the bill to replace them. She said she was told in her briefing by someone that it could be up to $40 million in expenses the county would be on the hook for and due to those unknowns, she was out for now.

Vincent responded that he spoke with some of the executives from Nashville, including Rusty Washburn, who told him they would be good partners and not take everything with them. However, he did say that the county has the contract with CoreCivic, not the CCSO, so that it is the responsibility of the county to reach out and work out a deal for the equipment and whatnot that would be left behind or taken and to get all of that in writing.

The question then shifted to how are we going to terminate this contract? The contract allows 2 options for termination... for cause or convenience.

To terminate for convenience, all that is needed is a 6 month notice that the contract will be terminated. Either side has the ability to cancel for this reason.

If it is cancelled for cause, that means a material breach occurred with the contract and the county is saying they are cancelling for that reason and can do so immediately.

Commissioner Bays raised the question on if we have legal cause to terminate the contract and what that looks like to CoreCivic. Would they be willing to leave things in the jail if the county too the terminate for cause action?

Vincent again suggested that the county dive into those discussions with CoreCivic and use them to negotiate. The county can start at the terminate for cause option and use that in negotiations to maybe keep more things if it ends up being terminated for convenience, which looks better for CoreCivic.

Keep in mind that aside from the recent CCSO arrests of several CoreCivic employees for things like bribery and smuggling contraband, CoreCivic has been fined for YEARS for failing to maintain staffing levels, which is a violation of their contract. Every single month the BOCC approves the fine for CoreCivic, so there is certainly the ability to terminate for cause.

The reason all this is important, aside from negotiations with CoreCivic is that they are required to maintain a $12 million performance bond that would help pay for transition costs if CoreCivic defaults on the contract. It appears this would require them to terminate for cause rather than convenience and show that CoreCivic violated the terms of their contract. Since this bond is paid for by an insurance company... which we all know do not really pay claims willingly... there is no guarantee that the county gets these funds. Kinnard expressed concern about more litigation, citing the Right Rudder and SWFWMD lawsuits the county is involved in.

I have a couple of questions.

1) Where was the contract monitor in these discussions. H was hired in 2024 to monitor the contract, largely the staffing issues... but why has he not been called up by the board and asked questions publicly? He is a county employee that is paid by CoreCivic. I presume he is the one that told Davis of the $40 million in costs to the county, as Finegan hinted to that in her comments.

So... why has he not been called in to give his thoughts or answer questions?

2) Where is Steve Howard on all this? A month or so ago, Vincent brings this presentation to the board. Why has Howard not directed staff to dive into this more? You could hear that frustration from Bays when she mentioned it has been on the radar for two years but they still have very little details from staff.

Why has he not been digging into this and working on ways to move that forward? What would the county be responsible for if the contract were cancelled. That is a big question that no one has an answer to... why not?

Vincent said he has spent enough time on this. He was willing to do a bit more if it appeared that the BOCC was willing, but since it appears they are not there yet, I feel he is done for now. He has spent a lot of man hours putting this together without the county doing the same. I do expect to see this again at some point this year... so we will see.

Have a great weekend everyone!