County exec seeks funding to keep people with mental illness out of jail

A push to keep people with mental illness out of the Pierce County Jail and a costly cycle of despair represents the centerpiece of a $327 million budget proposal for 2018 introduced last week by County Executive Bruce Dammeier.

Behavioral health projects fall into the category of “vibrant communities,” one of three themes Dammeier touched on as he presented his budget to the Pierce County Council, which must adopt a final version before Dec. 1.

Dammeier’s other themes — “entrepreneurial climate” and “efficient government” — highlight a budget that includes a standard mix of expenditures for road projects, parks, and above all, public safety and legal and judicial services.

The last three items represent about 75 percent of proposed county spending, as they do every year. The category includes the sheriff’s department, jail and local courts.

One of Dammeier’s proposals would provide $500,000 in seed money for a 16-bed mental health diversion center in the Spanaway-Parkland area, an idea Dammeier has backed since he took office in January.

The facility would mirror a similar operation in Fife that targets people coping with mental health crises before they land in the swamps of the criminal justice system.

In tandem with the diversion center, the county hopes to receive a share of federal money that would pay for a new deputy prosecutor and two supporting employees in the county courts. They would channel people coping with mental issues away from jail and toward the services and treatment they need. The plan would cost about $2.9 million.

“You’ll see that money invested in ways that will divert citizens with mental crises away from law enforcement, away from our judicial system,” Dammeier said.

The federal money would come from the state, via funds linked to a U.S. District Court decision known as Trueblood. The decision, backed by continuing fines, orders the state Department of Social and Health Services to reduce the amount of time county jail inmates spend waiting for competency restoration at the state’s two mental hospitals.

To date, Trueblood fines have generated $15 million, said Carol Mitchell, the county’s director of justice services. An agreement among the parties in the Trueblood case invites local agencies to tap the flow of money by providing diversion services to people who otherwise might be trapped in the jail cycle.

Spearheaded by Mitchell, the county applied for a Trueblood grant last month, outlining its planned program. The grant won’t be awarded until later this year, but Mitchell and Dammeier are confident the county will obtain a share of Trueblood money that reflects the region’s burden, which they peg at a significant percentage of the statewide total.

“We worked very hard,” Dammeier said. “We’re about 25 percent of the class. It’s very appropriate, considering the location of Western State Hospital,” the state mental hospital in Lakewood.

STARTING A TWO-MONTH DEBATE

Whether Dammeier gets what he wants is up to the seven-member County Council, led by Republican Chairman Doug Richardson, who reacted to the first-draft budget with customary diplomacy.

“I was very pleased to see once again that the county’s priorities and the executive’s priorities are aligned,” he said. “There are some assumptions in the budget, not the least of which is we’ll receive that Trueblood grant. If we don’t receive the grant, you’ve got to make adjustments, but I think it’s a good likelihood that we’re gonna get it.”

Dammeier’s budget assumes that overall revenues will grow by 8 percent in 2018 — about $25 million. That money, and how to spend it (or not) will be the focus of budget discussions over the next two months.

One big chunk of projected revenue comes from the anticipated sales of county assets, including a 63-acre piece of land known as the Elk Plain property in Spanaway. Its assessed value is was $10.5 million in 2016. Zoned for mixed-used development, it sits near a shopping center and other retail developments.

“The famous Elk Plain,” Richardson said. “It seems like we’ve been talking about it forever.”

The budget would pay off $4 million in loans linked to county airports and the Chambers Bay golf course. It also proposes spending $6.3 million on the County-City Building downtown, including payments for deferred maintenance.

It would add three deputies to the sheriff’s department, and two more to the jail’s contingent of corrections officers.

ROADS EAST AND WEST

On the public works side, county residents will see progress on major road projects in the east and west. Most prominent will be continuing improvements to the Canyon Road East corridor linking Frederickson to the Puyallup Valley.

The Canyon corridor is a multistage project with six components. The budget pumps $4.2 million into widening and asphalt overlay between 192nd Street East and Frederickson, and another $2.6 million into road-widening from 99th Street East to 84th Street East.

“Construction will start as soon as the weather clears,” said county engineer Brian Stacy, referring to the Frederickson project.

Additional work in the Canyon corridor, including replacing the aging Milroy Bridge at River Road near Puyallup, is a longer-term project, with construction not expected until 2021.

To the west, two long-sought road improvement projects will take shape. An improved intersection at 62nd Avenue Northwest and 144th Street Northwest, near Peninsula High School will cost $2.5 million. Construction, expected to start by mid-to-late summer, will improve access to the often congested area.

Another Peninsula project will build a roundabout large enough to accommodate truck traffic at Point Fosdick Drive Northwest and 34th Avenue Northwest, near Anderson’s General Store.

This story was originally published September 24, 2017 at 8:00 PM with the headline "County exec seeks funding to keep people with mental illness out of jail."