Collin County's contract for medical care at its jail and juvenile detention center would grow by about $1.55 million a year under an amendment on the Commissioners Court's consent agenda for Monday, Nov. 16. The court meets at 1:30 p.m. at the Jack Hatchell Administration Building, 2300 Bloomdale Road in McKinney.
Wellpath LLC, the Tennessee-based company that has provided inmate health care under a 2022 contract, asked for a 7.6% raise tied to the federal consumer price index for medical care services in Dallas-Fort Worth. That alone would take the yearly contract from about $17.02 million to $18.32 million, according to Wellpath's Aug. 20 proposal to county purchasing.
Mental health hours for juveniles only
Wellpath offered two ways to add staff. The county chose the smaller one: 0.375 of a full-time psychiatrist position, or 15 hours, and 0.1 of a mental health professional position, or four hours, at the John R. Roach Juvenile Detention Center, for $254,839 a year. With that addition the contract total would be about $18.57 million, effective retroactively to Oct. 1.
The second option, which the county turned down, would have added day and night licensed vocational nurses and a full-time mental health professional at the adult detention facility on Community Avenue in McKinney, for $555,520 a year.
Sheriff Jim Skinner noted the trade-off in a memo to the court. He wrote that the amendment will not add staff at the adult jail, and that Wellpath has been an excellent provider there for several years. Public Health Director Candy Blair also submitted a memo supporting the change. The money comes from the county's general fund.
A $20 million kitchen move
A separate consent item would set a guaranteed maximum price of $20,101,519 for the first construction package of the jail's Phase 3 kitchen relocation, with Sedalco Inc. as construction manager at risk. The package covers demolition, new commercial kitchen equipment and utilities, coolers and freezers, a loading dock, parking, storage and elevators. It is paid for with money from the bonds voters approved in 2023.
A purchasing memo says any owner- or city-requested changes that would push the price higher would come back to commissioners before the added work is authorized, and that later construction packages will also go to the court.
