Orange County Superior Court Judge Luis Rodriguez denied a temporary restraining order request by the Costa Mesa City Employees’ Assn. to block the Costa Mesa City Council from voting tonight to outsource its jail operations.

Judge Rodriguez said the City Council would have to approve a contract with a private company to take over jail operations before he could weigh the merits of the employees’ association request.

After a thorough review and competitive-bidding process, city staff recommended that the city hire G4S—a company with 45,000 employees and $2.5 billion in revenue in North America—to run its jail operations. Irvine and Beverly Hills, among other cities, use G4S for their jail operations.

According to the City Council staff report, G4S would save an estimated $3 million over five years and provide the city jail with cutting-edge technology. As proposed, no city employees would be laid off.