Richland County to seek new bids for jail food service after provider cancels contract

The Richland County commissioners are going to have to re-advertise for proposals for food service for the county jail and Community Alternative Center less than three months after awarding a contract to Trinity Services Group Inc.

The board learned at its meeting Thursday that the Oldsmar, Florida, company has exercised its contract right and given a 90-day cancellation notice.

“Captain (Chris) Blunk, who oversees the jail, received notice from Trinity, our food service vendor, that their submitted pricing was lower than they expected by mistake,” County Administrator Andrew Keller said. “Under the contract, Trinity does have the right to terminate the contract at will with 90 days' notice, and that’s what they’ve done, so it’s back to the drawing board in putting out an RFP for food services at the jail.”

Trinity was one of three firms that submitted proposals earlier this year and was awarded a one-year contract with the option for three one-year renewals at an initial cost of $2.02 per meal based on an average of 701 to 750 meals per day. The other proposals were from Summit Food Services of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with a price of $2.26 per meal, and Aramark, of Philadelphia, with a figure of $2.46 per meal.

“I believe Captain Blunk had some conversation with Trinity about some potential irregularities in their original submission and Trinity reassured him this is their intention. Now they’re telling us it’s lower than they intended,” Keller said.

Richland County paid $1.87 per meal under the contract with Trinity that expired May 28, which was an 8.6% increase over 2022. The contract that was awarded this year represented an 8% increase.

Richland County spent $458,928 for jail food service in 2023 and has budgeted $596,000 for this year.

Commissioners were asked if they will have to increase the budget considering that the county will have to seek new proposals.

“That’s to be determined,” Commissioner Tony Vero said. “You’re seeing why we’re looking at making some budget tweaks in terms of oversight in 2025.”

Officials expect the same three companies will respond when the county goes out again for proposals.

“These are larger companies that are in this business, so we would certainly hope for submissions from all the interested companies,” Keller said.

Commissioners OK COVID cost reimbursement

In other business, commissioners approved the expenditure of $381,442 from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation to reimburse the county for COVID-19-related inpatient, outpatient and professional medical expenses for county employees. The figure was obtained from the County Employee Benefits Consortium of Ohio, which administers the county’s self-funded health insurance program.

“Our intention is to reimburse those costs and we would direct those to each department in proportion to their relative share of the premium for CEBCO,” Keller told the board.

Commissioners also made a $22,050 allocation of ARPA funds to reimburse for administrative expenses for ARPA and $2,042 for the cost of a federally required audit of ARPA expenditures.

Regional planning contract approved

Commissioners also approved a two-year agreement with Richland County Regional Planning to administer the county’s longstanding revolving loan fund which has a current balance of around $50,000.

“This agreement is just laying out the terms that we will take good care of the funds while we do the proper due diligence reporting regarding the fund,” said Regional Planning director Jotika Shetty.

Shetty said the program provides loans that can be as much as 2% below current interest to provide gap funding for businesses applying for traditional loans for expansion or the purchase of equipment. Projects must create or retain low- and moderate-income jobs, must be approved by a program loan committee of financial professionals with loans providing up to half the cost.

Shetty told the board that while no loans have been made since one in 2008 to the Skyway East restaurant, an application can be made to the Ohio Department of Development for additional money if a request is more than what the loan fund has on hand. She said businesses interested in seeking a loan can contact her at regional planning, noting that the City of Mansfield has its own, similar revolving loan program.

In other business, commissioners approved a resolution accepting a $1.2 billion settlement with the Kroger Company involving litigation over the manufacturing and distribution of opioids. The State of Ohio will receive a share of the settlement and provide a share of that to Richland County to cover expenses related to the opioid crisis.