Tarrant County ends jail staffing contract early after argument between members
The county prematurely ended a contract with a jail staffing agency without publicly giving the reason.
Discussion from Democratic Commissioner Alisa Simmons was cut short by Republican Commissioner Manny Ramirez and County Judge Tim O’Hare before the meeting was quickly ended by O’Hare.
Simmons was trying to show a video of the October 2025 commissioners court meeting where the court entered into the two-year contract with Recana Recruiting and Staffing Solutions by a 3-2 vote. Democrat Roderick Miles and Simmons were the dissenting votes.
Before the video was put up on screen, Ramirez called the action to question and O’Hare seconded it. Their 2-1 vote against Simmons ended the discussion. Miles and Republican Commissioner Matt Krause were not present.
The contract ended with another 2-1 where Simmons dissented, claiming the county was throwing the money away. O’Hare then gaveled out. All the while, Simmons was telling them they couldn’t end the discussion.
After the meeting ended, Simmons came down off the dais and accused the court attorney Mark Kratovil of working with the Republicans against her. Kratovil’s role in the courtroom is to serve as legal counsel to the commissioners court and make sure their actions are lawfully sound.
Before the kerfuffle, county staff told the dais that $500,000 had been paid to Recana and that any amount invoiced without services provided would not be paid.
Simmons said there were 35 detention officers recruited to work in the Tarrant County Jail and she’s not sure what will happen to them now that the contract is dissolved.
In October 2025, Simmons questioned the agreement because she was not given a contract to approve.
The agreement served as a way for Tarrant County Jail to fill out the empty detention officer positions and reduce the overtime hours jailers had to work.