LISBON Commissioners seek bids to run county jail

One commissioner objected to the bid specifications.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County is seeking bids from companies interested in running the county jail.
CiviGenics, the Milford, Mass., company that has run the lockup for about six years, is expected to be among those bidding. CiviGenics' contract expires Dec. 31.
Commissioners Jim Hoppel and Gary Williams approved a document Wednesday specifying what they expect from companies interested in the job.
Commissioner Sean Logan objected to the specifications and voted against them after the other two commissioners refused to agree on changes suggested by Logan, the sole Democrat on the panel.
Logan wanted a clause to be inserted that would require the company that gets the job to provide a comprehensive retirement plan similar to the public employee retirement system, which includes an employer match of employee retirement investments.
Hoppel opposed the idea, saying that it would drive up the cost of the jail contract.
Logan said his suggestion would enable the county sheriff's department to bid on the contract, if it wished.
Public employers must provide comprehensive retirement.
Sheriff Dave Smith did not attend Wednesday's commissioners' meeting. Smith said later he hasn't made up his mind whether he will bid.
But he noted that the cost of public employee retirement plans and health insurance is higher than the private sector's and wouldn't allow him to submit a competitive bid.
Smith added that he did not ask Logan to suggest the retirement clause in the bid specifications.
Columbiana County's 190-bed jail is the only county lockup in the state to be privately operated.
In other counties, jails are run by the sheriff's department.
Hoppel, a proponent of jail privatization, has argued that contracting for jail operations saves the county about $700,000 annually when compared with running it through the sheriff's department.
Current charges
CiviGenics charges the county $48.26 per day per inmate, which amounts to about $2 million annually.
Besides CiviGenics, only a Louisiana firm has expressed interest so far in running the jail, Hoppel said.
At Logan's insistence, commissioners agreed to amend the bid specifications to broaden experience requirements for bidders.
The original specifications demanded at least five years' experience in running county jails, which Logan said would unfairly favor CiviGenics.
The amendment removed the five-year requirement and allowed bidders whose experience is in running state lockups.