Voice of the Mid-Columbia | Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Wash. |
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closeFriday, Jul. 03, 2009
Mid-Columbia counties strike tentative compromise on health board
By Michelle Dupler, Herald staff writer
Greater Columbia Behavioral Health's member counties moved toward a tentative compromise Thursday that would rest budgetary decision making in the hands of elected officials.
The makeup of the board has been a point of controversy for several months, since Benton County Commissioner Max Benitz raised the question whether mental health providers should be voting members.
The agency makes policy and administers funding for public mental health services for a network of 11 member counties in Central and Southeast Washington and the Yakama Nation.
The board is made up of one county commissioner from each county and a designated alternate, many of whom are mental health providers.
Commissioners from outlying counties sometimes are unable to attend the monthly board meetings in Kennewick and send their alternates, which means mental health providers sometimes are called upon to vote on budgets or other policies that affect their mental health agencies.
But Benitz has said it should be elected county commissioners, and county commissioners alone, who make decisions about how mental health money is spent.
Four counties -- Kittitas, Klickitat, Whitman and Yakima -- previously rejected a proposed agreement that would have created a separate governance board for the agency made up only of county commissioners, saying it created unnecessary bureaucracy and prevented counties from making their own decisions about representation.
A revised agreement discussed Thursday would allow providers to continue to serve as alternates on the board, but strip them of the ability to vote on budgets, fiscal policies or the board's bylaws.
"We are working toward a spirit of compromise," said Kittitas County Commissioner Paul Jewell, who brought the new agreement to the board. "We have bounced this off of the other three counties and are bringing this forward as a unified proposal."
Benitz, who had threatened to pull Benton County out of Greater Columbia's network if an agreement couldn't be reached, wouldn't commit to accepting Jewell's proposal until the other Benton County commissioners and prosecutor review it, but did participate in a unanimous vote to send the new agreement out to the 11 member counties for approval.
If all 11 counties approve, the new agreement will be adopted at the board's August meeting.
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