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Commissioners pause decision on funding for veterans track in therapeutic court pending audit checks
Summary
A judge asked the Franklin County Board of Commissioners to authorize hiring a case manager and to allow mental-health-sales-tax funds to fill a $55,000 gap in a state grant to launch a veterans track; commissioners asked staff and the auditor to confirm compliance and agreed to revisit the request next week.
A judge presiding over Franklin County's therapeutic court asked the Board of Commissioners on June 24 to approve hiring a veterans-focused case manager and to permit limited use of county mental-health-sales-tax funds to cover a shortfall in a state grant.
Judge Orozco (presenting) said the program currently has 24 active participants — 23 of them employed — and described recent grant award fluctuations. She said an earlier award had been described as $282,500, that a subsequent notice lowered that amount (roughly $238,000 in her files), and that later documentation increased the award to $292,500. To recruit a highly qualified candidate who is both a veteran and a licensed substance-use-disorder professional, the judge sought authority to offer a Grade 15, Step 3 salary and asked the board to permit the county's mental-health-sales-tax fund to cover an estimated $55,000 gap this year.
Commissioners asked detailed questions about audit risk and statutory authority. Staff cited RCW 82.14.460 (mental-health-sales-tax uses) and the therapeutic-court statute (listed in the record as RCW 2.30.010 / scope of therapeutic courts) and said that judicial officers and therapeutic-court staff may be supported from those funds when participants meet the qualifying clinical criteria (a mental-health diagnosis or a substance-use-disorder diagnosis). One commissioner noted the Veterans Fund balance (reported at $795,000 with approximately $190,000 annual receipts) and proposed splitting any county contribution between the Veterans Fund and the mental-health-sales-tax fund to reduce single-fund exposure.
The board declined to approve funding immediately. Instead, commissioners asked the county auditor and accounting staff to verify that using the mental-health-sales-tax funds as proposed would not create an audit finding and asked staff to return with a recommended funding split and cash-flow analysis at the next meeting. The judge said the position would enable a veterans track that is otherwise unavailable in Franklin County since a neighboring county contract was terminated and argued the position would improve access to treatment and employment supports for veterans in the program.
The matter remains pending; no final appropriation or hiring authorization was recorded on June 24. The board set the item for follow-up and requested documentation verifying compliance before any county fund was committed.
