Behavioral health commissioner tells committee life‑safety projects and an immediate $182 million need top capital priorities

Nelson Smith, commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, told the Senate Finance Appropriations Subcommittee that state behavioral health facilities face widespread aging systems and urgent life‑safety needs and that his department has an immediate capital requirement presented to the committee as $182 million.

Smith said the department operates 12 facilities — including eight adult behavioral health hospitals, one children and adolescent behavioral health hospital, one center for behavioral rehabilitation, one training center and one medical long‑term care facility — with more than 2,000 beds, about 4.2 million square feet across some 130 buildings on roughly 2,000 acres, more than 5,500 employees and just under 2,000 patients on an average day. He said many facilities are more than 50 years old and seven of the 12 have exceeded their useful life.

The commissioner described a pattern of emergent procurements: "Since this past year I've declared 11 emergencies," he said, and those emergency procurements have…