Much of the original intent of Measure B, the “Mental Health Treatment Act,” which was passed in November of 2017 by more than two thirds of Mendo’s voters, seems to have been forgotten.
The ballot measure declared that “Mendocino County is committed to improving residents’ lives and the public’s safety by strategically evaluating and enhancing resources for mental health treatment.” Measure B would “Provide for the necessary infrastructure to support and stabilize individuals with behavioral health conditions, including addiction and neurological disorders.”
Notice that it specifically said, “including addiction…”
“Conduct an independent annual audit and develop a performance management strategy which measures the effectiveness of the improved services, treatment and facilities and assesses the impact of the ‘Mental Health Treatment Act’.”
(This is listed separately from the requirement to create the Oversight Committee, which is required to “review the independent annual audit of expenditures and the performance management plan for compliance with the Specific Purpose of this ordinance.”
”For a period of five (5) years a maximum of 75% of the revenue deposited into the Mental Health Treatment Fund may be used for facilities, with not less than 25% dedicated to services and treatment; thereafter 100% of all revenue deposited into the Mental Health Treatment Fund shall be used for ongoing operations, services and treatment.”
The ballot “Argument in Favor” of Measure B said:
“Everyone agrees that people suffering from mental illness or drug addiction need treatment. Jail is not a solution. Nor is confinement in distant facilities far from home. …Traumatized veterans, the homeless, even some of our own family members or friends are paying the price of our neglected mental health system…”
The proponents, lead by then-Sheriff Tom Allman, concluded, “Vote YES on Measure B to save taxpayer dollars by providing early treatment of mental illness and drug addiction, breaking the cycle of homelessness and re-incarceration.”
According to the Measure B Oversight Committee minutes at one of their first meetings in July of 2018:
“Chair Allman [Founding Father of Measure B] shared that he reported to the Board of Supervisors in May that over a third of the jail population in May was taking some sort of psychiatric medication,” adding, “his overview of the purpose of Measure B and referenced a Board of Supervisors Resolution #15-079 on the topic. A reduction of people with mental health illness in the County Jail is the goal.”
Here we are more than four years later and there has never been an “annual audit.”
Nor has there ever been a single word about capping the sales tax earnings at 75% for facilities, nor ensuring that at least 25% of the earnings go to “services.”
There has never been any mention — none! — of using Measure B money for treatment of drug addiction.
There has never been any mention of a “performance management plan for compliance with the Specific Purpose of this ordinance.”
There has never been any discussion of aiming Measure B money at reducing the number of mentally ill people in jail.
There has never been any discussion of using Measure B money to help “break the cycle of homelessness.”
Instead, Mendocino County has purchased a nearly-unused “training facility” in Redwood Valley for which we have never seen a utilization report.
They’ve also spent $5 million on a glorified four-bedroom house — still not open despite a “grand opening” last year — which they call a “crisis residential treatment facility” which is not mentioned anywhere in the text pf Measure B.
They’ve committed to spending about $20 million on an all-new gold-plated 16-bed Psychiatric Health Facility on Whitmore Lane on South State Street in Ukiah after they demolish the old nursing home that’s now there.
Mendo formed the required “Measure B Oversight Committee,” which, in an only-in-Mendo version of Alfonse and Gaston, batted around vague opinions and recommendations for three years and did almost nothing before the Supervisors finally gave up and turned Measure B over to Mental Health Director Dr. Jenine Miller who has since made it quite clear that the only people she intends to help are the small number of Mendo’s “severely mentally ill” people with insurance, either government or private, plus a few more insured people imported from out-of-county to keep the beds full and balance the PHF’s books.
Essentially, Mendo has ignored the original intent of Measure B. The voters wanted mentally ill, addicted and homeless people to be helped, not just a few grossly overpriced buildings to house a few insured people. And no one in Official Mendocino County — especially the bureaucrats running the show, the Oversight Committee and the Elected Officials who appointed its members — seem to care.
Emily Strachan puts her finger square on it: “The Road Not Taken. First rate managers hire first rate staff. Second rate managers hire third rate staff. The County had a candidate for the Measure B project manager position who had the background and leadership skills to plan and implement Measure B. The excuse for not hiring her was her salary requirement. Considering all the creative monetary pencil sharpening the County engages in, I have a hard time believing that excuse. Instead of hiring an experienced manager the County chose to hire an inexperienced person who was incapable of wrestling the project away from the Measure B Committee which was engaging in shared non responsibility.”
John McCowen responded:
Emily Strachan – Good insight on the Measure B project manager position. Carmel Angelo brought forward a $3 million plus contract for Nacht and Lewis, the Measure B architects, so the salary requirement of the project manager candidate could not have been an issue. Especially since the money was not coming from the General Fund but from Measure B. The real reason? Personal loyalty and a willingness to follow orders are the only qualifications that really matter to Carmel Angelo who has a pattern of hiring people based on her ability to boss or bully them.
Carmel Angelo was one of eleven Measure B Committee members, but the Measure B project manager was completely under her thumb. To quote from the Measure B Clerking Instructions, an internal document: “Schedule time to meet with Carmel and Janelle [Rau] to review all items. Bring 3 complete copies of draft agenda and all agenda summaries to this meeting (1 for Carmel, 1 for Janelle, and one for yourself). Incorporate any directed changes into agenda summaries/agenda.”
Not only did Carmel Angelo assume the authority to direct any changes to the agenda and the agenda summaries, but she also held pre-meetings immediately before every Measure B Committee meeting. These meetings always included four or more of the Committee members and were most likely violations of the Brown Act. Carmel Angelo’s control of the Measure B project manager and the Committee continued right up until she realized Measure B had become a liability.
The project manager was abruptly fired and responsibility for the Committee was transferred to Behavioral Health. Although she ostensibly washed her hands of responsibility for Measure B, Carmel Angelo has continued to call the shots. The decision to discount partnering with Adventist Health and study Whitmore Lane as the only alternative was made by Carmel Angelo.
Partnership with Adventist Health would have facilitated shared use of facilities, professional personnel, access to the Adventist Health network and on-going economies of scale for all aspects of operations and maintenance. Without this partnership it will be much more difficult to cost effectively staff and operate the PHF (Psychiatric Health Facility) which was the keystone of Measure B.
From last week’s CEO Report: “Measure B: Mobile Crisis Response - Our second Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist for Mobile Crisis has completed training and will be adjusting his schedule by the end of January so Mobile Crisis will be operational in the inland region seven days a week 8 am to 6 pm. Recruitment continues to fill the vacancy on the coast. … Crisis Residential Treatment -The ribbon-cutting ceremony was a huge success. Attendees had glowing praise for the look of the facility. Progress continues toward licensing.”
Mendo has had years and an expensive consultant to produce the $5 million house (Crisis Residential Treatment) that could have been purchased for $1 million and they are are still “continuing toward licensing”? Pretty common timing, actually.
PS. Do you know why the county is trying to fill the third crisis van staffer position (aka “Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist”) for the Coast? Because it’s budgeted? No. Because it was funded two years ago and is still vacant? No. Because people in crisis on the Coast really need it? No. None of those reasons.
The CEO’s “justification of filled positions” chart reports that this position should be filled because: “Risk of not meeting State and Federal mandates, risk of overtime and/or assigning duties elsewhere, working someone out of class.”
If those “state and federal mandates” are going unmet, nobody seems concerned because they’ve been going unmet for decades now. And if anyone is providing crisis van services on the Coast via overtime it’s the Sheriff’s deputies on overtime and we all know how concerned the CEO is about Sheriff’s department overtime.
Notebook
Last Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting continued theie recent tradition of being as out of touch as they can possibly be. They blathered with their expensive Sonoma County consultants for an hour or so about their pointless Strategic Plan. Then they listened to some depressing news about the pot and grape crops, choosing at the end to decline the first-ever pot crop assessment as not having enough data to be useful, but not discussing the economic and budget implications of the depressing crop news. They bounced the failed pot permit program around for a while, trying to avoid dealing with it. The current “ad hoc” pot permit committee (Supervisors McGourty and Haschak) is only addressing the pot permit “portal” and the “equity” program which is supposed to help the few remaining pot permit applicants navigate the ever expanding pot permit process and bureaucracy. They asked Supervisor John Haschak to be the Board’s liaison to the pot people and set himself up as the Board’s one-man standing committee pot point person, but he didn’t like that idea, so they blathered about “red-lining” (aka tweaking) the pot permit county code and maybe holding a special pot permit board meeting.
Nobody thought of asking the County’s newish Grand Poobah “Cannabis Program Director” or the Planning Commission to recommend changes to the pot permit program.
They congratulated themselves for a few microscopic bureaucratic improvements the Planning Department has made of late.
Not a word about the looming two-year drought and the County’s (empty) big drought preparedness plans from last year which are going nowhere as Lake Mendocino is drained for downstream vineyard ponds — not one water storage project having been developed or submitted for grant funding, and the Town of Mendocino facing another, worse, water shortage this year, despite good water development ideas having been floated by Coast people like Steve Gomes. Not a word about the ill-considered consolidation of the Treasurer and Auditor offices. It was probably the most irrelevant board meeting we’ve ever witnessed, and we’ve witnessed quite a few.
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