Mc Henry Co. agencies question mental health board

Representatives of two mental health agencies are unhappy about how the McHenry County Mental Health Board has been allocating its funding, but board officials say the loss of state funding and the recent closure of another agency have put everyone on edge.

Lyn Orphal, development manager for Family Alliance in Woodstock, and Pat Owens, executive director of The Advantage Group Foundation (TAG) in Crystal Lake, aired their concerns during a mental health board meeting this week.

“I had questions about expenditures that the mental health board has made, and the validity behind the reason for doing that,” Orphal said.

Orphal said she asked whether board executive director Sandy Lewis would be asked to pay back the board the expense of the doctoral degree she recently received. Lewis is leaving in November to take a new post in Virginia.

Orphal also questioned why the board paid for Cobra health insurance for employees of the agency Family Services when it closed earlier this summer, and why her agency was denied capital funding for an emergency generator after last year’s storms when later similar expenses were granted to another agency.

Board president Lee Ellis defended the funding allocations, saying no preferential treatment has been given to any employees, and that tough choices have to be made depending on the availability of funding.

Lewis is not the only employee whose education was funded by the board, and none has been asked to repay the money, he added.

The closure of Family Services was a blow to the mental health community, Ellis said. “When the county was doing well, we were funding niche markets. The state was basically paying for all their core services. But with the state not following through on their contracts, who do they come to for services to be paid by? They come to us.”

The mental health board arbitrarily sets funding terms at the expense of small agencies like TAG, Owens said. “It’s like David and Goliath,” she said. Owens said she believes the mental health board has specifically targeted TAG by “reinterpreting contracts” and interfering with its ability to access funding and grants, she said. TAG is being audited by the mental health board.

The mental health board, whose funding comes from a portion of property taxes, contracts with 26 organizations throughout the county, executive director Lewis said. Its budget for the current fiscal year is almost $15.9 million with 47 full-time employees. In the fiscal year starting Dec. 1, the budget will decrease to about $13 million, with 33 full-time employees, due to a projected decrease in tax revenues and the end of a seven-year federal grant, Lewis said.

Lewis denied that TAG or any other agency is being targeted. She declined to comment on specific financial issues, citing the ongoing audit of TAG.

“This is an environment where funding is turbulent. The pressure of keeping their doors open and have to get funding are quite significant,” she said. “With every state cut that these agencies have received, the mental health board revenue is not enough to replace all of the funds lost at the state level.”

County board member Donna Kurtz, who also spoke at the mental health board meeting, said she questions why the agency allocates about one-third of its budget to its internal administration and programming.

“What is alarming to me is that the agency that’s supposed to get the money and distributed it to help clients is also the agency that is competing for those same funds for the projects that they can do,” Kurtz said.

The mental health board is committed to having open communication with local agencies and officials, Lewis said. “It is very important to us that we answer the questions asked by (Kurtz) and others, and we’re trying to do so.”