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Uintah County approves ML Strategic contract for drug court, probation and pretrial services funded by state grants
Summary
The commission approved a contract for ML Strategic LLC for fiscal year 2025–26, funded through state grants and the governor’s base budget, covering drug court administration, pretrial and probation positions and other program services; commissioners discussed a possible future transition of the contractor to county employee status.
The Uintah County Commission on June 24, 2025, approved a fiscal-year 2025–26 contract with ML Strategic LLC to continue services the county said are funded entirely through state grants and do not cost the county general fund dollars.
Attorney Jabin Thomas presented the contract and said the current agreement for Charmaine (last name not specified in the transcript) expires at the end of the month and the proposed contract includes a modest increase tied to cost-of-living adjustments. Thomas said the county receives more than $450,000 annually through grant funding to run the program.
Thomas and county officials described the funding stream: a percentage is included in the governor’s base budget, with an additional percentage that pays for drug court services, pretrial employees, probation staffing and related administrative costs. Thomas said the grant-funded program covers the drug court administrator’s salary, two pretrial employees, two probation employees and an office staff member; testing costs were described as an exception in program coverage.
A commissioner asked whether the contract costs were already included in the county budget; county staff said the contract price has been set in the budget for the next year and paid through grant funding administered by the state. Thomas said the arrangement has not cost the county general fund dollars.
Commissioners praised the program’s results. One commissioner said the program reduced recidivism and improved drug court services. Thomas noted the county may need to consider converting the contractor to an employee during upcoming budget discussions to ensure compliance with applicable law; he said those conversations have already begun with several commissioners and will continue during budget season.
The commission approved the ML Strategic LLC FY25–26 contract by voice vote; the motion passed with affirmative votes recorded in the meeting transcript.
