Behavioral Health Board Annual Report/Integrated Plan Committee Meets

Greetings!

As you know, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors-approved Bylaws of the Behavioral Health Board (BHB) require the BHB to:

Submit an annual report to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on the needs and performance of the County’s behavioral health system.
Advise the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and the local behavioral health director as to any aspect of the local behavioral health and substance use disorder programs.
Review and approve the procedures used to ensure citizen and professional involvement at all stage of the planning process.
Review and comment on the County’s performance outcome data and communicate its findings to the State Behavioral Health Planning Council.

The BHB has determined that, in order to produce our bylaws-required Annual Report, to fulfill its remaining responsibilities under the bylaws, and to fulfill its responsibilities under the legislation known as Proposition One (to advise the Sonoma County Department of Health Services (DHS) on the development of its required three-year Integrated Plan), the BHB needed to establish a Standing Committee consisting of four members of the BHB. The BHB voted to establish an Annual Report/Integrated Plan Committee, and three of its members were appointed to the Committee at its meeting on November 18, 2025. The Committee members are Gregory Fearon (Chair), Alexandra Jacobs, and Angelina Grab.

The BHB’s Annual Report/Integrated Plan Committee (AR/IP) met for its first meeting on January 6th, 2026 from 4pm-5pm in the Santa Rosa Conference Room at 1450 Neotomas Way, Santa Rosa. BHB Members Alexandra Jacobs and Gregory Fearon were in attendance. Member Angelina Grab attempted to join via Zoom, but failed to succeed due to erroneous posting information from DHS on the published agenda.

The discussion which occurred focused on the two questions posed on the noticed agenda:

How to Gather Annual Report Material
How to Review and Advise the Department and Board on its Integrated Plan .

The AR/IP Committee decided to undertake three activities which will support its development of its Annual Report to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors over the next three months;

Assemble and publish, available to the public, all materials it can find on the “Health of Health Services” in a format which allows members of the public to comment in real time on the materials.
Prior to each monthly meeting of the AR/IP Committee, provide editorial direction toward phased completion of the Annual Report
By March 31st, approve and forward a proposed BHB AR/IP Committee-Recommended Annual Report to the BHB, and DHS.

The Committee also discussed a workplan to meet its responsibilities to advise DHS, and the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, on the Proposition One FY 26-29 Integrated Plan. The proposed Integrated Plan is being developed by DHS, and staff provided the BHB with a schedule last July which outlined DHS activities conducting stakeholder input, internal Department research, and collaboration with the California Department of Health Care Services (CDHCS) in anticipation of forwarding a draft Integrated Plan to the Sonoma County Executive Officer this month for approval, and to the CDHCS by March 31st. Upon receiving comments from CDHCS, DHS is then planning on producing a final draft of the Integrated Plan, which would then be published and set for a public hearing at the May 18th meeting of the BHB. Comments received from the BHB and the public would be considered for inclusion in the recommended Final Integrated Plan presented to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors for approval at its June 16th meeting.

The AR/IP Committee adjourned its first meeting at 5:20pm.

Behavioral Health Board

Recommendations to the Behavioral Health Board – July 15^th Meeting in Guerneville, 5-7pm, Russian River Resiliency Center, 16385 First Street.

Schedule Bi-Monthly Open Comment periods for the FY 26-29 Behavioral Health Integrated Plan, in September, November, January, March, and June.

Over the last month, the Behavioral Health Director and I have communicated concerning important Executive Committee recommendations about publishing recent behavioral health reports, guidelines, and the draft plan. The result is that, soon, the public will be able to find those reports and guidelines on the Department’s website. Their remaining decision, included in our recommendations, is to place the draft Integrated Plan, on the Department website in Open Comment Periods between now and the State submission deadline.

Motion: To advise the Department of Health Services and the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to place the developing Implementation Plan documents on the County website, inviting Open Comment by all stakeholders online over the next eight months. Governmental planning has utilized this procedure regularly to broaden the opportunity for public input on important strategic plans and policy changes.

Partner with the Community Foundation of Sonoma County to achieve their Strategic Plan Goal #2.

I’m asking the Board to act on a recent invitation by the Community Foundation of Sonoma County when it revealed on July 10^th.its new Strategic Plan, and expressed their desire to partner with us.

Motion: To advise the Department of Health Services and the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to invite the Community Foundation of Sonoma County into a partnership in the development of our Integrated Plan.

Community Foundation Strategic Plan Goal # 2:

“We will partner with organizations that expand access to healthcare and mental health support, especially for communities historically excluded from care. By centering community voice, we will support systems change that leads to more just, responsive health outcomes.”

Our Board’s responsibility under Proposition One is to develop this fall an Integrated Plan for all funding available, and I believe that partnering with the Community Foundation of Sonoma County would expand the resources and options available and would be an exciting message to our community.

Gregory

BOS Authorizes Payments

Oct 15th, BOS Agenda Item 8A

The Department of Health Services contracts with a network of providers to deliver behavioral health, homelessness and housing support, and other public and behavioral health wrap-around services. These services include mental health treatment, substance use recovery programs, housing assistance, and other services.

At the start of each fiscal year, the Department renews and updates provider contracts to reflect changes in service needs, funding levels, and regulatory requirements. This process can take several months for completion. While the FY 2024-25 contracts are in the process of development, providers have been rendering services without disruption since July 1, 2024. However, without fully executed agreements, payments have not been processed. Consequently, many of our providers are at risk experiencing financial challenges as a result of these delayed payments.

Given completion of current fiscal year agreements is expected to take an additional several months, staff is requesting authority to execute payments for properly supported providers invoices thru December 31, 2024, in advance of an executed FY 2024/25 agreement, for those providers that had fully executed agreements for similar FY 2023/24 services. The Department will utilize the terms of the FY 2023/24 agreements to current year payments, and execute a reconciliation process once current year agreements or amendments are fully executed. The Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector will use the Resolution adopted with this item as authority to release payments to service providers under the terms of the executed FY 2023/24 agreements listed in Attachment 2.

Attachment 2 to the requested Resolution includes a list of the FY 2023/24 contracts which the Department is requesting authority to utilize, for execution of FY 2024/25 payments, for services received thru December 31, 2024.

For transparency, this approach will not resolve all financial consideration for all current year partners. For contractors which are new to the Department and did not provide services in FY 2023/24, and for which a corresponding FY 2023/24 contract does not exist, payments in FY 2024/25 without a current year agreement will not be feasible and these are not included in the requested Resolution and Attachment 2. Department staff will prioritize the execution of contracts to these vendors immediately, should this requested action be approved.

Additionally, some providers are aware that the County does not historically pay invoices without an executed agreement. There may be providers which have not yet submitted invoices to the Department for audit review and payment processing as a result. The Department will actively communicate with all vendors listed on Attachment 2 to make them aware of the payment authority and encourage them to submit completed invoices for payment as soon as possible. Separately, item #2024-0935 on today’s agenda, is requesting the Board allow for 1/12^th monthly advance payment for thirteen Medi-Cal partners to deliver Specialty Mental Health Services across the county. This model was reviewed and is endorsed by County Counsel, the Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office, and the County Administrator’s Office.

Staff have been actively working to improve the contract development process to prevent such delays in future fiscal years. This includes implementing multi-year contract terms where appropriate and designing an internal system towards the goal of negotiating agreements which are ready for execution prior to the start of the next fiscal year. These improvements are intended to provide greater predictability for providers and ensure the uninterrupted delivery of essential services as well as payments to our community partners.

There is no new financial impact associated with this request. Payments for services will be made in accordance with the FY 2024-25 budget allocations for behavioral health, homelessness and housing support, and other public and behavioral health wrap-around services and the previous delegated authority provided by the Board for FY 2024/25 services and budget.