The  San Luis Facility Development Corporation has never separately solicited bids for operators.  At the start of the project, SLFDC sent out a Request for Qualifications for design-build-operator.  Only one written response was received.  The first operator Civigenics was part of that package design-build-operate contract.  In March of 2007, Civigenics began operating after the construction was complete.  Also in 2007, CEC bought out Civigenics. The contract with CEC/Civigenics ended.  In 2009, the acting City Manager negotiated a contract with Emerald without an RFP.  SLFDC approved the contract. Emerald was the operator during the expansion, which began occupancy in April of 2012. Sam Youngblood purchased Emerald's stock and changed ownership.  The Youngblood management took over in January of 2015.  Due to low occupancy in the detention center, the Board negotiated and entered into a forbearance agreement on the bond payments in 2016. As part of this agreement changes were made to the operating agreement. Then, Emerald left suddenly in April of 2017, and LaSalle agreed to assume the Emerald contract and the Board approved. The Trustee ended the forbearance agreement which triggered the termination of the operating agreement.  In 2018, SLFDC approved a one-year negotiated contract with La Salle.