CROWN POINT | Lake County commissioners awarded $2.1 million in medical service contracts Wednesday in the face of criticism the no-bid process profited a politically connected firm.

Med-Staff Medical Inc., of Hobart, owned by the family of former Hobart mayor and current sheriff's employee Robert Malizzo, could receive as much as $1.8 million to for provide medical care to Lake County Jail inmates in the next 12 months.

Commissioners also awarded a $322,000 contract to Correct Care Solutions, of Nashville, Tenn., to provide mental-health services for inmates.

The Board of Lake County Commissioners voted their approval in a special meeting forced by the departure this weekend of Southlake Center for Mental Health, which has been providing medical care at the jail for 15 years.

Commissioner Gerry Scheub, D-Schererville, cast the lone dissenting vote against the contract with the Malizzo family firm.

"There is too much of a conflict," Scheub said.

Malizzo will resign his current job as an investigator for the sheriff's work-release center, Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez said Wednesday.

His background as a political figure and county employee gave a political edge to the health-care crisis in the Lake County Jail, which has seen a number of inmate suicides, an inmate beating allegedly administered by guards and an outbreak of infectious disease in the last year.

Southlake Center for Mental Health, which has provided medical and mental-health service in the jail since being installed there under a federal mandate 15 years ago, is withdrawing after its $2.3-million proposal to continue another year was rejected.

Commissioners complained they weren't promptly notified of Southlake's departure, forcing them into accepting Med Staff and Correct Care Solutions without seeking competitive bids from other firms.

Malizzo, a former county police officer and deputy clerk, served as Hobart mayor in the 1990s and has run unsuccessfully for other county offices.

Lake County Board of Commissioners President Roosevelt Allen, D-Gary, said he believes Med-Staff is a "good and reputable company."

And Dominguez said this was no backroom deal.

"This was all out in the open," the sheriff said. "Malizzo didn't support my election, and his business wasn't formed overnight. He doesn't manage it, and I didn't recommend him."

Dominguez said the two contracts can be canceled in 45 days if services are unsatisfactory.