Lake County supervisors approve 90-day, $2 million short-term loan extension for behavioral health services

The Lake County Board of Supervisors on an ultimately successful reconsideration vote approved a revised resolution to extend a $2,000,000 short-term loan from the county general fund to the county Behavioral Health Services Department.

Alyce Jones, behavioral health services director for Lake County, told the board the department "has been able to pay off $2,000,000 of the previous loan" and that the new loan request is intended to "allow us to sustain services through a reimbursement gap coupled with our IGT reimbursement flow issues that are felt across the state." Jones said the funds cover contracted specialty mental health services, including psychiatrists and nursing services.

The loan item initially failed on a 3-2 vote. After county staff explained two options — either miss a June 30 deadline and return at the next meeting with an extension, or approve a corrected resolution now that would result in the county issuing $2,000,000 and the department using that money to retire the outstanding portion of the prior loan — a motion to reconsider was made and carried. The board then approved the resolution as amended to (1) correct clerical errors in the fund number listed in the draft and (2) require that loan repayment under the resolution be completed within 90 days (a three-month repayment window). The final vote to adopt the amended resolution was recorded as unanimous.

Why it mattered

Board members expressed concern…