SAN DIEGO -- County supervisors Tuesday voted unanimously to award a $9 million, one-year contract -- with five additional "option" years for a potential total $61.2 million -- to the UC San Diego Medical Center to provide health care services to county inmates.

Officials from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday that the contract was not formally put out to bid -- mainly because local hospitals seemed disinterested. Sheriff's medical administrator Bruce Leicht said letters were sent to area hospitals in December to see if they were interested in the contract, but there was no response.

Sheriff's officials maintain infirmaries at six of the county's seven jails, including San Diego Central Jail, Las Colinas, George Bailey, South Bay and Descanso detention centers.

Leicht said the contract had been competitively bid on in the past, but in recent years, hospitals -- including North County's Palomar Medical Center and Pomerado Hospital -- have dropped the contract. Palomar Pomerado Health officials stopped providing nonemergency medical treatment for inmates in 2002 after an inmate grabbed a deputy's gun and shot a second deputy in the leg in Palomar Medical Center's emergency room before being subdued in 2001.

John Sansone, the county's top lawyer, said there is no state law requiring the county to formally bid service contracts, regardless of their monetary value.