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Local residents press Cowlitz County commissioners to prioritize funds for a mental health facility; commissioners say allocation discussions are ongoing
Summary
Residents urged Cowlitz County commissioners during public comment to prioritize building a local mental health facility and asked for clarity about roughly $5.7 million in potential funds; commissioners said coordination with law enforcement, courts and other counties is underway and that funding decisions will be made in public meetings.
Several residents used the meeting’s public-comment period to urge Cowlitz County commissioners to pursue construction of a local mental health or behavioral-health facility and to seek transparency about available funding.
One resident asked whether a workshop had been scheduled to discuss a mental-health proposal discussed previously; county staff said no workshop had been scheduled yet and that the board was waiting for Commissioner Dahl’s availability to coordinate schedules.
Public commenters repeatedly urged commissioners to consider prevention- and treatment-focused uses of county public-health funds and other available monies. One commenter asked specifically about a reported pool of about $5,700,000 and whether those funds were already committed; the transcript records the figure and that county staff present said the allocation status was not yet finalized. A commissioner (name not specified) told the public that he had discussed the idea with the sheriff, juvenile court personnel, drug court and other stakeholders and that "everybody that I have spoken with...is onboard with needing a facility." The commissioner also said county staff were coordinating additional conversations and outreach with other counties to explore collaboration.
A resident raised a rumor about money from pharmaceutical companies being pre-allocated and asked if that were true; a county representative responded, "I'm not aware of that." The meeting record shows no formal decision or directive to allocate any funds from the meeting’s public comment period. A speaker emphasized that any decision about those funds would be made in public meetings and "not done in secret."
Why it matters: Community members and criminal-justice stakeholders have been discussing options for local behavioral-health capacity, and the availability and use of a multimillion-dollar funding pool would determine whether and how the county could develop a dedicated facility.
What’s next: County staff said they will continue coordinating stakeholders and that commissioners have not set a final schedule for a workshop; a public workshop or agenda item will likely be required before any funding decision is made.
