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County plans RFP and selection committee for $43 million behavioral health center; oversight board seeks role
Summary
Oklahoma County officials discussed forming a selection committee and recruiting behavioral-health experts to select an operator for a $43 million behavioral health care center funded with ARPA dollars; committee appointments were recommended but not formally made pending committee formation.
Steve Mason, chair of the Citizens Bond Oversight Advisory Board, told commissioners the county needs an operator on board to run the behavioral health care center by January and asked the Board of County Commissioners to allow citizens to participate in the operator selection process.
Mason said the facility is an approximately $43,000,000 project funded in part by American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars and that the oversight committee recommended appointing Mike Meis and Javier Rivera to serve on the review committee for the Request for Proposals (RFP) process to select an operator.
Commissioners and staff discussed the scope and membership of a yet-to-be-formed selection committee. Mason said the RFP targets an operator who would be in place by January, and he asked that mental-health professionals and construction experts both be part of the review process so technical and clinical needs are balanced. “We need that operator on board to operate behavioral care by next January,” Mason said.
Staff (identified in the transcript as Stacy) explained the RFP for the operator is separate from the jail trust’s planned medical/provider RFP and that the county is seeking medical and behavioral-health experts to advise the selection process; those experts may not be eligible to be selected vendors themselves if they serve on the committee.
Commissioners expressed concern about creating an overly large advisory group and asked that criteria and committee structure be finalized before formal appointments are made. One commissioner said the advisory board’s participation would be acceptable once the selection committee is formally created; another said the county should consider statewide experts who reside outside Oklahoma County.
Separately, commissioners approved a no-cost change order to substitute the actual plan sheets used by subs in pre-bid construction for the behavioral care center. County staff said the project’s guaranteed maximum price was set before the final plans were complete and that the change order did not add cost or days to the schedule. The county stated the project completion date remains December 30, 2026.
No formal appointments to the selection committee were recorded in the transcript. Mason said he will work with the jail trust, county purchasing and the county manager to draft committee criteria and return to the commission for approval.
