The Milwaukee County Mental Health Board’s finance committee held an open meeting last Thursday to allow the public to weigh in on the 2017 budget for the county’s Behavioral Health Division (BHD).
What the board got was feedback on BHD’s potential $2.7 million deficit in 2017—despite aggressively downsizing its in-patient operations—as well as the seeming lack of resources in the community and the tension in the Uncas Park neighborhood over the new county-contracted group home.
Few Details about Budget
The county’s Behavioral Health Division administers the county’s mental health and substance abuse programs. Since 2014, BHD has been governed by the Milwaukee County Mental Health Board, made up of appointed mental health experts, and not the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. The legislation that changed BHD’s governance was backed by Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, who now appoints all of its members.
The board’s goal is downsizing the county’s psychiatric hospital and providing more resources in the community so those who are living with a mental health or substance abuse issue can live independently. The hospital shut down the last of its long-term care units last year and transitioned most of those patients into community placements. The board is also seeking a private contractor—likely an out-of-state vendor, since the local hospital groups seem not to be interested—to take over the county’s hospital and emergency room.
The Mental Health Board follows a different budget process than the county board. BHD administrators craft the budget, which the board can alter via amendments. Health and Human Services Director Héctor Colón presents the board’s final budget to Abele, who can change anything. The board apparently cannot veto any of Abele’s changes. Nor does the county board have any say in the BHD budget. It must be included in the county’s overall budget with no amendments from county supervisors.
The Mental Health Board is allowed to set the property tax levy to support BHD services, but it must be within $53 million and $65 million, according to state law.
The current property tax levy supporting BHD is $59 million.
Randy Oleszak, fiscal administrator for BHD, told the committee Abele did not want to raise property taxes, which leaves BHD with a $2.7 million hole in 2017.
How to fill it?
Alicia Modjeska, a BHD administrator, suggested postponing a planned South Side community access hub, which would free up $1.2 million next year.
But Finance Committee Chair Thomas Lutzow countered that he didn’t want to take money out of community programming and asked if the $3 million set aside for electronic medical records could be cut to fill the budget gap.
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Lutzow charged Oleszak with coming up with a budget that funded programming and gave him the freedom to increase the tax levy, tap reserves or shift priorities.
“Protect programming wherever you can,” he said.
Oleszak said the public can submit written comments on the budget to Lutzow until June 6. Lutzow’s board-related email isn’t listed on the board’s website, but the general email for the board is mhb@milwaukeecountywi.gov. Colón will present a detailed budget proposal to the Finance Committee on June 16 and to the full Mental Health Board for final approval on June 23.
Because Abele is beginning a new term of office, a few of his department directors need to be reconfirmed by county supervisors. Colón is one of the directors who needs the supervisors’ approval. Colón’s confirmation hearing hasn’t yet been scheduled.
No Downsizing Dividend?
At the Thursday hearing at Washington Park Senior Center, members of the public stressed the need for more community resources. Reducing reliance on the hospital was supposed to free up money to support less-costly but effective community services. But there still aren’t enough community resources to meet the need for them, according to Thursday’s testimony.
Barbara Beckert, director of Disability Rights Wisconsin’s Milwaukee office, said that while the community initiatives were welcomed, she said the board needed to do more.
“I just feel that we’re at a crossroads here,” Beckert said. “There’s still a vision of transitioning to a community-based system but to date there hasn’t been very much progress in that regard. We downsized quite a bit. Where is the downsizing dividend? Where is the opportunity to jumpstart a major expansion of community services?”
AFSCME Council 32’s Dennis Hughes questioned the board’s priorities. The finance committee and the board approved in April an 18-month, $430,000 no-bid PR contract for Racine-based Kane Communications, which duplicates many services already provided by the county, Hughes said. Instead of spending money on a consultant hired to help raise employee morale and boost the department’s image, Hughes said the money should have been spent on the employees themselves.
“That money could be another 1% raise for our employees,” Hughes said.
Tension over Uncas Park Group Home
Residents of the Uncas Park neighborhood, on the city’s far South Side, raised their concerns about the new group home there. Last summer, the board had approved a no-bid contract worth $5.5 million to Matt Talbot Recovery Services for two group homes—one on Uncas Avenue and one in Franklin—for former long-term residents of the county’s psychiatric hospital. Uncas Park neighbors say HHS Director Colón and Matt Talbot’s Karl Rajani lied when they assured residents that no sex offenders would be placed there. Shortly before the facility opened last December, Colón admitted that at least one sex offender who’d been a long-term patient at the hospital would live in the group home and that neighbors couldn’t do anything about it.
Since then, “civil war” has broken out in the neighborhood, testified Supervisor Jason Haas at Thursday’s meeting, between the neighbors and the facility’s workers. Neighbors told the Shepherd workers speed down the cul-de-sac, almost hit a dog and have gotten into shouting matches with the neighbors. Kids are afraid to go to the park. A promised privacy fence hasn’t materialized. Teenager Kate Meyer testified before the Mental Health Board that when she took a tour of the facility she could see directly into her own bedroom window, and into her neighbors’ windows, from inside the facility.
At Thursday’s Mental Health Board meeting, Uncas Park neighbor Tom Kotowski asked committee members if there were any plans in the 2017 budget to create more group homes throughout the county. After much back and forth, Amy Lorenz, deputy administrator of BHD’s community services, said there were no planned facilities in the next budget but that there is funding for individuals who need housing assistance.
Uncas Park resident and Milwaukee Public Schools teacher Julie Meyer announced her candidacy for state Assembly. Policies related to the placement of group homes and sex offenders in the community seem to be a centerpiece of her campaign.
“We can do better for our neighbors, for our families, and for the health of our community at large,” Meyer said.
