St. Louis City committee recommends two mayoral appointees to Mental Health Board

The St. Louis City Health and Human Development Committee on Dec. 11 recommended two mayoral appointees to the city's Mental Health Board after candidate statements and a short round of questions.

Donna Schmidt, an attorney at Armstrong Teasdale and the board's current chair, told the committee she has served on the Mental Health Board for about 10 years and wishes to continue. Schmidt summarized the board's role in administering property-tax funds for mental-health and children's services, saying the mental-health fund "collect[s] between 2 and $3,000,000 a year" and the children's services fund is "closer to $10,000,000 a year." She described routine work: issuing RFPs on a three-year rotation, helping smaller applicants with grant writing, running needs assessments, and overseeing reporting and contracts. She also said the board has at times managed or passed through federal grants, including awards from SAMHSA.

Committee members asked Schmidt how the board ensures equitable outreach across neighborhoods. She described staff-led community outreach through schools, churches and local commissions, use of needs assessments and a strategic plan, and allocating funds into categories or "buckets" so different areas and types of need receive support. On workforce issues, Schmidt told members preschool programs sometimes lack trained teachers; while the board cannot fund tuition under current funding rules, it can support training and technical assistance and maintains an emerging-needs fund to support neighborhood providers.

After questions, a committee member moved and the panel voted to recommend Schmidt to the Mayor; the clerk recorded four "aye" votes and the committee accepted her recommendation. Chair Boyd said the committee would report the nomination to the full Board for a final vote.

Carolyn Jackson was sworn in during the meeting and described more than a decade of prior service on the Mental Health Board and long-term residency in St. Louis. Jackson said her experiences in North St. Louis, including direct encounters with community trauma such as tornado damage, inform her view that early intervention and neighborhood-based services are essential. She told the committee she looks for grant applicants who can demonstrate outcomes even when they lack professional grant-writing support.

The committee moved and seconded a recommendation to return Jackson to the Mental Health Board; members completed the roll call, swore her in during the session, and indicated they would forward the recommendation to the full Board for confirmation.

The committee had no board bills or resolutions for review, recessed briefly to ensure both candidates could join remotely, and adjourned after completing the appointments.

The Health and Human Development Committee's actions are recommendations to the full Board; final confirmations will occur at the Board vote.