The lease for the cafe at the sheriff’s headquarters, now occupied by the relative of a high-ranking department official, will be up for public auction next month, officials said.
Owner Nikki Thompson notified the department that the restaurant for employees, called Off the Record — The Exclusive Cafe, will be closing as of June 17, said Pima County sheriff’s Capt. Buddy Janes.
The Star reported seven months ago that Thompson was the niece of Chief Deputy Christopher Radtke and was operating the restaurant in the headquarters and the county jail rent-free and without a contract.
Thompson has continued to operate the restaurant without paying rent and without a contract.
Off the Record’s second location in the jail was shut down after the Star discovered it was operating without a health permit.
Janes said the department won’t be opening a new cafe in the jail. “Without a willing vendor to operate, we won’t pursue doing anything,” he said.
It’s unclear if Thompson is planning to bid on the headquarters’ space at the June 20 auction, as she was unable to be reached for comment. Thompson, who also owns the downtown restaurant Nook, took over the sheriff’s spot in 2012, after the longtime vendor departed.
The Star reported that before allowing Thompson to open a food service business in the headquarters building, county officials failed to offer the contract to state-mandated vendor program before looking for outside tenants.
In December, the county did offer the lease to the DES’s Arizona Business Enterprise Program, which oversees vending opportunities for legally blind entrepreneurs. The DES review committee, however, turned down the contract, but it took the county three months to put it up for bid.
Public notices were placed in The Daily Territorial and the Star on April 25, and have run for the past four weeks, as Arizona statutes require, said Lisa Josker, director of Pima County Facilities Management.
“Normally Pima County only publishes in one place, but because there was so much discussion about the cafe, we figured we should advertise more widely,” Josker said.
The notice of auction has also been posted on the county’s procurement page, Josker said.
“We haven’t advertised for the jail cafe because there are still outstanding issues,” she said. “The lease up for auction is only for the location at headquarters.”
In order for the jail location to reopen, there are several modifications that need to be made to the food space before it will be approved for a health permit.
The FBI began an investigation into the use of department funds in connection with the cafes, after a Star public-records request revealed the department spent almost $20,000 of public funds on equipment and renovations to both locations.
The status of that investigation is not known.
