County staff to place several human-services contract amendments on May 27 agenda, including consolidated-homeless grant reduction

County human-services staff told the Board of County Commissioners that several contract amendments and reallocations tied to state grant awards will appear on the May 27 consent or action agenda.

Human-services staff said the Washington State Department of Commerce asked Cowlitz County to return $40,000 from a consolidated homeless grant that staff now expect will go unspent this fiscal year; that adjustment will be processed as an amendment to the existing contract. "This amendment is removing a 40,000 from our contract that we anticipate being unspent," the staff member said.

Two amendments also proposed reallocating funds inside the county’s existing developmental-disability services contract to cover higher-than-expected service hours. The county will increase payments to Goodwill and Compass Career Solutions so the providers can complete services already authorized under the county’s state contract, staff said.

In addition, staff said they will add funds to the contract with Cowlitz Family Health Center under the criminal justice treatment account (CJTA) to cover more inpatient treatment services provided this year to participants in therapeutic-court programs. Staff emphasized these are reallocations of funds already in the county’s state contract, not new state funding requests.

Human-services staff said they will brief the board again at a June 4 work session on anticipated contract levels for the next fiscal year, after the July 1 state contracts begin. No formal amendments were adopted at the meeting; staff asked the board to allow the items to be placed on the May 27 agenda for formal action.