Grand Traverse County commissioners will discuss withdrawing from the region’s community mental health authority tonight (Wednesday) – a move that would effectively dissolve the six-county organization.

The move could be culmination of a long-running disagreement between county officials and Northern Lakes Community Mental Health (NLCMH) over who is responsible for providing psychiatric treatment and medication to inmates at Grand Traverse County Jail. The county pays roughly $682,000 annually to NLCMH – founded in 2003 in partnership with Crawford, Leelanau, Missaukee, Roscommon and Wexford counties – to provide mental health services to the community.

County Commissioners believe their contract mandates NLCMH to provide psychiatric services and drugs to prison inmates. But jail administrator Captain Robert Hall has told commissioners that the county has paid other contractors $20,000 annually since 2009 for such services because NLCMH refuses to pay for inmate medications and will only offer consultations to prisoners who were existing NLCMH clients prior to entering jail.

“Most inmates I have in the jail are not NLCMH clients, but they do present mental health issues,” reports Hall. “We are caught between a rock and a hard place to get inmates the psychiatric services they need.” Further complicating matters, says Hall, is that NLCMH requires those inmates it will see to come to its facility – necessitating staff to load and transport prisoners. “Anytime you transfer outside the jail, it’s risky,” says Hall.

While Grand Traverse County Prosecuting Attorney Bob Cooney told commissioners in a written opinion that state law mandates agencies like NLCMH to provide mental health services to inmates, it also says counties must bear the costs. The question then, according to Cooney, is whether the county has a financial obligation “separate and apart” from its NLCMH contract to pay for those services.

“The answer, in my opinion, is no,” says Cooney, noting the agreement specifically describes providing “mental health services to all the county correctional facilities, at no cost to the counties."

Commissioner Christine Maxbauer says she is “perfectly willing to push the envelope” and consider an extreme option like withdrawing from the agency if NLCMH refuses to provide services to inmates. “They are not, in my opinion, living up to the agreement,” she told fellow board members on April 15. “If they are in breach of the agreement, why should we continue to send them money as if they were not?”

Commissioner Sonny Wheelock – who said the county has “sent dozens of letters and had more meetings than I count on this (issue)” – agreed. “I firmly believe NLCMH owes us mental health services within our jail,” he said. While Wheelock noted the agency provides “ a lot of mental health services in our community and we can’t ignore the good services they do provide,” he also argued staff and prisoners “are being put at risk on a daily basis” under the current arrangement.

In a prepared brief for commissioners to review tonight, Deputy Civil Counsel Christopher Forsyth cautioned that withdrawing from NLCMH would dissolve the authority for all participating counties, and that without such an agency in place, “(Grand Traverse County’s) portion of costs for providing mental health services would more than likely increase.” He continued: “Given the ramifications of withdrawal…the board may want to consider discussing other alternatives.”

Some commissioners have expressed a willingness to explore other options or to revisit negotiations. “It might suffice to start a little bit lower than (withdrawing),” said Commissioner Carol Crawford.

NLCMH Chief Executive Officer Karl Kovacs tells The Ticker he plans to attend tonight’s meeting and says his agency is “looking forward to having an in-depth conversation about commissioners’ concerns and the language in the enabling resolution.”

“All I can say at this point in time is I’m hoping we’ll get together…gather some statistics and data and work on the issue to see what we can do,” says Kovacs.

Pictured: Northern Lakes Community Mental Health (NLCMH) building in Traverse City.