FARMINGTON – County commissioners agreed to discuss mental health and substance abuse service contracts at Franklin County Detention Center at their next regularly scheduled meeting, after the company that wasn’t awarded the bid said that the winning bid had not met the county’s request for proposals.
In September 2019, commissioners moved to terminate the county’s contract with Evergreen Behavioral Services. That decision reflected turnover within Evergreen’s organization, Sheriff Scott Nichols said at the time, as departing personnel meant that Evergreen couldn’t provide the jail with access to certified personnel required by state corrections requirements.
Individuals that had worked at Evergreen went on to form Clearwater Counseling and Consulting, owned by Dalene Sinskie. That company was then hired in September to provide county inmates with mental health and substance abuse services until the county could put out a new request for proposals.
That RFP went out in late 2019, with two companies submitting bids to provide services over a six-month period. That six-month period would provide the jail with services through June 2020, putting the county back on a July-June schedule – matching the county’s fiscal year – for future contracts. Proposals were submitted by Clearwater Counseling and Western Maine Behavioral Health, at the cost of $30,000 and $36,000, respectively.
Commissioners gave the proposals to Maj. Doug Blauvelt, the jail administrator, to review. He later recommended the county go with Clearwater Counseling, citing the lower cost and the company’s familiarity with the jail. The proposals offered a similar scope of services, Blauvelt said. Commissioners moved to accept Clearwater Counseling’s bid, at the $30,000 figure.
Bert Poisson, an owner of Western Maine Behavioral Health, appeared before the commissioners Tuesday, arguing that Clearwater Counseling had not met the requirements of the request for proposals. Specifically, Poisson said that Clearwater Counseling did not have a state mental health agency license. That license had been cited in the county’s RFP, Poisson said.
Sinskie, who was also present at Tuesday’s meeting, said that while Clearwater Counseling did not have that license, it wasn’t required to work in a county jail facility. Personnel at Clearwater did have the personal certifications that were required, she said.
Poisson also said that Clearwater Counseling did not provide psychiatric care as required by the request for proposals, and that Western Maine’s bid would have been $27,000 without that component. Sinskie said that those services would be provided through another contracted company.
Commissioners decided to wait for their next meeting, scheduled for Jan. 21, so Blauvelt and Nichols could be present.
In other business, commissioners approved a new requirement for county’s Tax Increment Financing education funding program. That program allows Unorganized Territory students attending courses to receive financial support through the TIF; it is overseen by the county’s TIF Committee, made up of U.T. residents. The committee recommended that commissioners add a requirement that U.T. residents seeking funds live in the U.T. for a consecutive 12 months before submitting their application. Commissioners agreed and approved the change.
Commissioner Clyde Barker of Strong also addressed an issue from the previous, Dec. 17 meeting, saying that he was opposed to not paying funds allocated through last year’s budget process. Western Maine Community Action, Western Maine Transportation and SeniorsPlus were to be appropriated $30,000, $10,000 and $1, respectively, by the Budget Committee through the budget process. Commissioners Terry Brann of Wilton and Charlie Webster of Farmington, citing a previous goal of eliminating nonprofit funding at the county level, have not released that funding.
Commissioners Brann and Webster took up the issue at the Dec. 17 meeting, instructing County Clerk Julie Magoon to draft letters to all three nonprofits, informing them that requests will not be considered this year. Barker was absent from that meeting.
Barker said that the county should release the previously-allocated funds, even if it chose to no longer fund the agencies in the future.
“I think we should pay our debts and start the new year right,” Barker said.
Brann and Webster reiterated that they had intended to de-fund most outside agency funding within a three-year span and said that additional money raised for those agencies would have used to cover salary increases. Webster said that commissioners had used an additional $40,000 out of the undesignated funds to help reduce the tax impact of the budget during last year’s process.
The allocated funds should go to the appropriate agencies. If the county commissioners do not spend the money as budgeted, the funds should be refunded to the tax payers.
Will Mills be doing the same after they raise the gas tax, and then take that money to set up “new mainers”? Asking for a friend.