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Commissioners back 10% cut to nonprofit allocations and debate moving Walden Sierra funding to emergency services
Summary
As part of budget reconciliation, commissioners agreed on a 10% reduction across nonprofit grants and discussed relocating a $340,447 Walden Sierra crisis-hotline allocation under Emergency Services to explore co-location with 911 call takers.
St. Mary's County commissioners directed department heads to implement a 10% reduction in recommended nonprofit funding and debated whether to shift Walden Sierra's crisis-hotline funding into the county's emergency services budget to allow co-location and potential cost savings.
During the budget presentation, Jean Cudmore noted nonprofit requests and scoring. A specific item drew attention: "I'd say on item p, Wald and Seer, $340,447. We've talked about maybe taking that funding and putting it under Bob Kelly's group emergency service," Cudmore said (transcript spelling as presented). Commissioners discussed whether co-locating crisis hotline staff with 911 would reduce overhead and improve coordination; Bob Kelly (emergency services) and Ken Walden (Walden Sierra) were named as participants in logistics talks.
Commissioner Hewitt and others raised concerns about removing community services or a telephone number that residents use in crisis. Dr. O'Brien (as discussed in the transcript) expressed conditional support for colocation if clinical and operational objectives were met. Commissioners agreed to leave the funding amount in the recommended budget for now and directed staff to study logistics (co-location, training, liability, and whether state or federal hotlines duplicate local services). Patty noted the county would not immediately reallocate the $340,447 but would return with options before any formal transfer.
Separately, commissioners debated overall nonprofit funding levels. After discussion about duplicative services and the new scoring process, the board settled on a 10% across-the-board reduction to nonprofit allocations for the recommended budget, with department heads given authority to prioritize the reduced totals. Commissioners said they would revisit individual allocations if the public hearing or subsequent information changed the calculus.
Directives and next steps: staff to prepare a logistics study on co-location of crisis hotline operations with 911/emergency services; department directors to re-score nonprofit requests within a 10% reduced envelope and supply a prioritized list for the public hearing.
No formal roll-call vote is recorded in the transcript for the 10% cut; the transcript records commissioners saying "10% good for everybody?" followed by consensus language.
