Salem City Council makes mobile crisis unit a low priority

If the efforts of city councilor Vanessa Nordyke to make a mobile crisis unit a reality in Salem ever come to fruition, she deserves a Perseverance Prize.

Because while the general public really likes the idea of having people other than police officers respond to mental health and other calls that don't require an officer, the Salem Police Department, City Manager, and her fellow city councilors haven't been nearly as enthusiastic. 

Last Monday the City Council dealt the mobile crisis unit proposal another setback when Nordyke's motion to seek $2 million in state funding for a multi-year pilot project failed to pass on a 4-4 vote. (Councilor Phillips was absent, leaving eight of the nine councilors present.)

As reported by the Salem Reporter, those supporting the motion were Nordyke, Jackie Leung, Jose Gonzalez, and Linda Nishioka. Opponents of the motion were Chris Hoy, Micki Varney, Virginia Stapleton and Mayor Chuck Bennett.

It's disappointing that Nordyke didn't have the support of progressives Hoy, Varney, and Stapleton. This was an opportunity for them to take a concrete step toward funding a mobile crisis unit. Instead, only a lackluster motion passed.

Salem city councilors on Monday unanimously voted to seek funding sources for a mobile crisis response team that could respond to some 911 calls instead of police.

But councilors narrowly voted against putting funding for such a project in the city’s list of priorities for the 2023 legislative session.

Only $700,000 is needed to fund a mobile crisis unit for a year. The 2022-23 budget for the Salem Police Department is $54,491,000. So $700,000 is a mere 1.3% of the police department budget. In Eugene, use of the widely acclaimed CAHOOTS mobile crisis response team answered 17% of the Eugene Police Department's call volume.

As I noted in "Police budget should be cut to pay for crisis response team," the CAHOOTS program more than pays for itself.

In 2017, the most recent year shown on the White Bird Clinic web page, CAHOOTS teams answered 17% of the Eugene Police Department's call volume. Yes, 17%. 

That's a big savings, given the much lower cost of CAHOOTS staff compared to police officers. This chart shows that in 2017 CAHOOTS diversions saved the Eugene Police Department $12 million, with the department budget being $51.3 million in that year.

...Eugene is about the same size as Salem. The CAHOOTS budget is about $2.1 million a year.

So it sure seems like one way to pay for a CAHOOTS-style crisis response team here would be to take a couple of million dollars from the Salem Police Department budget. 

Even if the initial savings from a Salem crisis response team was only 1/6 of the savings Eugene had in 2017, a Salem CAHOOTS costing $2 million a year would pay for itself.

Thus the search for funding sources to pay for a mobile crisis response team in Salem should start close to home: in the police department budget. It's extremely likely that somewhere in the $54,491,000 budget there's at least $700,000 to get a one-year pilot project underway. 

Instead, it looks like city officials are going to embark on a quest for grants, donations, and the like. Better than nothing, but way worse than funding a mobile crisis unit out of savings from 911 calls that police officers don't have to respond to.

Why isn't this being done?

Probably because Police Chief Womack wants to continue expanding the department, and a mobile crisis unit threatens his bureaucratic fiefdom. Sadly, half of the City Council is fine with this, leaving people in Salem unable to benefit from having trained mental health workers respond to many 911 calls. 

Councilor Nordyke shared her take on the City Council's action in a Facebook post.

COUNCIL VOTES FOR MY MOTION TO RESEARCH FUNDING SOURCES FOR MOBILE CRISIS UNIT; BUT IN A CLOSE VOTE, COUNCIL VOTES AGAINST MY MOTION TO ASK LEGISLATURE FOR FUNDING

The people of Salem have demanded that the City take action on our homelessness crisis. Mobile crisis units (MCUs) are a crucial part of the solution, by connecting persons experiencing homelessness with services and shelter, and much more. Far too many people are suffering who would benefit from this service.

 

FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS:

On September 26, Council unanimously supported my motion to direct city staff to identify funding sources for a mobile crisis unit (MCU). This vote was not surprising, given the outpouring of support from business owners, mental health professionals, homeless advocates, and concerned citizens urging City Council to pass the motion.

 

AND NOW, THE BAD NEWS:

By a razor-thin margin, City Council voted against adding funding for the MCU to our list of legislative funding priorities. Here’s what happened.

 

Every year, city staff recommend millions of dollars in funding priorities to request from the Oregon State Legislature. Salem City Council reviews the city staff’s recommendations and votes on which funding priorities to take to the legislature.

 

For the 2023 legislative session, city staff recommended funding for an MCU plus several other legislative funding priorities. Unfortunately, their recommendation did not make the final list of $34.1 million dollars in legislative funding priorities.

 

Now, several Councilors (myself included) are concerned about finding the funds to start an MCU. The city staff report states that the annual cost of an MCU is $700,000 per year. That’s less than 0.001% of Salem’s $700 million-plus annual budget. City staff have forecasted a budget deficit for fiscal year 2024. That deficit, however, assumes no major changes in revenue or expenditures.

 

So, I presented a solution to address our budgetary concerns and get the MCU started. I made a motion to add MCU funding ($2 million total, which would cover over two years of running the MCU) to the list of legislative funding priorities.

 

If the legislature approves this funding request in 2023, we could run the MCU for over two years without costing the city a dime.

 

Salem City Councilors Jackie Leung, Jose Gonzalez and Linda Nishioka voted in favor of my motion. Please join me in thanking Salem City Councilors Jackie Leung, Jose Gonzalez and Linda Nishioka for their support!

 

But we were one vote shy of victory. The Council was tied, and under Council rules, a tie means the motion fails. Because of this vote, the city will have to look elsewhere to fund the MCU.

 

There are, of course, no guarantees the legislature would have granted the request even if my motion passed. But there’s one thing we do know: the legislature of 2023 will look very different from the legislature of 2022. Several incumbents are leaving. Several legislative races are too close to call. Nobody has a crystal ball.

 

Refusing to ask the legislature for money is a missed opportunity. If Salem City Council does not advocate for Salem, then who will?

 

Thank you for reading, and for your support.

 

You can bet that I will continue to fight for our most vulnerable neighbors. I must speak up for those who have no voice.

 

Follow me for future advocacy opportunities!

 

For more information about the City Council meeting, watch the Council meeting here: https://youtu.be/8__GMwMNE2Q?t=945

 

Coverage in Salem Reporter: https://www.salemreporter.com/.../salem-city-council-may.../

Comments

[Micki Varney]

I recommend review of the 9/23 Legislative Committee meeting discussion of Legislative priorities to provide context for this post. MCU discussion is approximately 14:20-18:00 No members of the public provided public comment.

https://youtu.be/Wa17nG6HXIQ

[Jay]

The claimed CAHOOTS 17% call diversion rate is wildly inaccurate. An analysis based on data from January 1, 2019 through December, 31, 2019 found that the actual diversion rate is closer to 5% to 8%:

https://www.eugene-or.gov/DocumentCenter/View/56717/CAHOOTS-Program-Analysis#:~:text=ALL%20CAHOOTS%20ARRIVED%20CFS%3A&text=It%20is%20often%20caused%20by,is%20no%20longer%20on%20scene.