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Company Sues Sarasota Sheriff Over Prison-Care Bidding Process

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By TODD RUGER and DOUG SWORD / Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: September 14, 2007

SARASOTA COUNTY - The company providing health care for the county's jail inmates has accused Sheriff Bill Balkwill of dumping them and awarding the $9 million contract to another firm without taking competitive bids.

Prison Health Services says Balkwill's staff recommended he extend the current contract for one year. But Balkwill went against that recommendation and instead granted a three-year contract to Armor Correctional Health Services, the lawsuit says.

Balkwill said Monday that he picked Armor because it was cheaper. Balkwill could not be reached for further comment Thursday, and a sheriff's spokesman said documents about the contract award could not immediately be made available to the media.

Through a memo, Balkwill told jail staff about the switch of providers on the same day he announced that he plans to retire in 15 months. The timing of the announcements and other factors "raised eyebrows" at Prison Health Services, which has asked for all correspondence between Balkwill and Armor, said Tom Shults, an attorney representing PHS.

The lawsuit accuses Balkwill of violating the county's procurement code, which requires contracts to be reached through competitive bids.

Although the sheriff's office sought bids, Balkwill rejected them all and then started negotiations with Armor instead of putting the contract out to bid again, Shults said.

County Commissioner Joe Barbetta, who has criticized the sheriff's spending during budget talks this month, said it appears that extending the contract with Prison Health Services would have been cheaper.

"It comes down to accountability, transparency and we need money," Barbetta said.

Prison Health had offered to extend its contract another year for $2.7 million, about $236,000 more than this year's contract. But during a budget hearing Monday, Balkwill told county commissioners that he had "just incurred an increase" of $600,000 to the jail medical services budget.

That suggests the first year of the Armor contract is more costly than the Prison Health extension, Barbetta said.

The sheriff's office told Prison Health that Balkwill is not subject to a county code that requires government agencies to seek formal bids for goods or services amounting to more than $50,000, the lawsuit states.

A 1978 opinion from the Florida attorney general's office apparently backs up that claim. But Shults argues that the opinion only holds if there are no local laws requiring bids.

Shults said the medical care contract is for a service but that the attorney general opinion covered only goods and equipment.

Armor has been accused in the past of using political connections to win contracts from Florida county sheriffs.

The company was founded in 2004 and quickly won more than $240 million in contracts.

The company hired an ex-Hillsborough County sheriff in 2005 as a consultant to tout the company in calls to Sarasota and other counties where contracts were available.

A year ago, a Pennsylvania county scrapped a contract with Armor because it discovered the company's founder and top executive at the time, Doyle H. Moore, had been convicted of felony tax evasion in Massachusetts.

Moore resigned as Armor's chief executive officer four days later citing health reasons, but remains a company consultant.

The Miami Herald reported in 2005 that three sheriffs changed bid requirements that helped qualify Armor for contracts, including its first, a $127 million, five-year contract awarded by Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne, who resigned this month after an unrelated corruption investigation.

Information from The Miami Herald was used in this report.

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