CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Nueces County has decided not to renew a contract with Armor Health Management, who provides medical services for the Nueces County Jail.
Recent court documents out of Florida show the company is going broke, with substantial debt and eighty pending lawsuits for things like wrongful deaths.
"Their contract expires at the end of this month, there is a provision in it for a month to month, so we will have the county attorney get with them to work out some sort of month-to-month arrangement until we can get the new one in there," said Nueces County Commissioner Brent Chesney.
The contract with Nueces County, which had an option of extending another year at the end of November, was the company's only major source of income.
Armor has asked a Florida judge to transfer that contract to another company headquartered at the same address which made some county officials skeptical about their future.
"If you've got some uncertainties on whether or not a company is or isn't going to continue to provide the services then you have to take that seriously and they'll either resolve their issues in court or they won't, that's not for me to decide, I'm here to decide what's in the best interest of the county," Chesney said.
The county will now go out for bids for healthcare at the jail, but noted the sheriff has had no complaints about the service that local Armor staff have provided over the last 3 years of service.
In other business:
Commissioners suspended the IT director without pay.
This comes nearly two weeks after the county's website went down following a failure to pay for domain renewal.
At the time, Nueces County Judge Connie Scott said the county was "caught off-guard" and it caused "mass confusion."
Commissioners also appointing Dr. Rajesh P. Kannan as the county's Chief Medical Examiner.
This appointment follows the resignation of Dr. Timothy Fagen, which came shortly after 6 Investigates obtained a letter citing "unethical behavior" by Fagen.
