The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to bail out Santa Barbara County’s financially failing mental-health services department — but only partially.
The board decided to hold off on providing full restoration until the Department of Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services comes up with a viable plan for budget cuts. ADMHS will have a chance to present such a report March 11.
The department, which works with a total budget of $84 million, is $7 million short of a balanced budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year.
The biggest source of financial malaise is the department’s adult-services division, which makes up about $35 million of the total budget.
To help put the department back on track, the supervisors Tuesday dug into the county’s emergency reserves to provide $2.3 million. If the board is satisfied with ADMHS’ presentation in March, it will apportion more money to further close the gap.
Under regular circumstances, the mental-health department receives its money from the state, which is currently in the midst of a major budget crisis of its own. Typically, the county is only responsible for distributing the cash and administering the programs, not bankrolling them.
In recent years, the department has suffered financially from the growing number of uninsured adults who receive treatment. Also problematic has been the low Medi-Cal reimbursement rate of 50 percent for eligible adults, as compared to 90 percent for children, according to a county report.
Further adding to the problems are the growing costs of pharmaceuticals, contracted services and temporary doctors, the report said.
The department, which is operating under new leadership, also must figure out how to balance the budget for 2008-09.
“This is the easy one,” said 5th District Supervisor Joe Centeno. “The difficult one is going to be the ‘08-09 budget.”
Tuesday’s vote was not unanimous; the lone dissenter was an incredulous 3rd District Supervisor Brooks Firestone, who favored allowing the department to make the cuts necessary to produce a balanced budget.
“Here we have a department which has a deficit of $7 million — some 20 percent over budget,” he said. “(The department) comes to us today with a plan that has no debt reduction … retaining a full level of services knowing full well that that will incur more deficits. I think we are sending absolutely the wrong signal if we allow that.”
Meanwhile, the other four supervisors were not in lockstep.
Second District Supervisor Janet Wolf wanted to fully restore the budget for 2007-08, to provide a clean slate and better enable the department to tackle the problem next year.
“I don’t want to make a decision that negatively impacts those people who are struggling, who are on the line, yet who are so strong,” she said of those with mental illness who are able to function in society due largely to the county programs.
Wolf added that she has tremendous faith in the department’s new director, Ann Detrick, who began work in October. Detrick previously was deputy commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.
Fourth District Supervisor Joni Gray said she believes some cuts will be necessary.
“I’ve been in this chair about 10 years now, and this will be the third time I’ve heard ‘We just need time to fix the department,’” she said. “This state is in dire straits and I think we’ve got to cut.”
The agreed-upon compromise was a suggestion made by county Chief Executive Officer Mike Brown.
