Committee agrees to add termination clause to workforce development lease tied to funding; legal review requested

Management Services Committee members voted Sept. 3 to add a termination provision to the county’s workforce development lease that would allow the county to end the lease if the lessee’s institutional purpose changes or if it can no longer operate due to loss of funding. Committee members said the draft language must be clarified to include a concrete trigger and notice process and asked for review by the county attorney before final board action.

At the meeting staff presented a comment from the workforce development agency asking for an automatic termination if it lost funding and could no longer pay rent. Committee members said the request raised a drafting issue: the proposed language read as if termination would occur automatically without an action or an agreed trigger. One committee member said, “There has to be action. … I feel like there needs to be something more proactive in the lease than just saying if we don't get funding … it will just terminate.”

Committee members reviewed existing draft lease language that allows termination where “the lessee’s institutional purpose has changed during the term of the lease to a format that is incompatible with [safety or institutional compatibility],” noting that provision contains a 120-day notice period and assigns moving costs to the lessee. Members said similar notice and decision procedures should be added to any funding-related termination clause so the county and lessee have a clear process.

The committee agreed to add the proposed paragraph to the lease (noting placement near Section 16/17 in the draft) conditioned on approval of the county’s legal counsel. The motion to add the provision carried by voice vote with the committee asking for review by the state's attorney (Michael Quinlan was identified by name in the discussion). Staff said the change would be prepared for full-board consideration after counsel’s review.

Committee members repeatedly asked staff to confirm what funding streams supported the lessee; staff said the program traditionally uses federal, state and county appropriations and grants but that specific funding certainty can vary. The committee did not set a final termination formula at the Sept. 3 meeting; instead it directed staff to produce revised lease language with a clear trigger and notice process and to obtain legal sign-off before the matter returns to the board.