Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: CONSENT CALENDAR (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: REQUEST TO SIGN ONTO LETTER FROM ASSEMBLY
MEMBER PELLERIN SUPPORTING FUNDING AT DEFINED
LEVELS FOR PREVENTION AND EARLY INTERVENTION
Date: August 11, 2026
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council consider the request from United Way Wine Country to authorize the Mayor, on behalf of the City, to sign onto a letter from State Assemblymember Pellerin, supporting funding at defined levels for certain prevention and early intervention services.
Background
Representatives from United Way Wine Country contacted the Mayor to request that the City sign onto a letter from State Assemblymember Pellerin to the leaders of the State Assembly and Senate (attached).
In accordance with City Policy, except in certain time sensitive situations, advocacy letters on behalf of the City must first be authorized by the City Council.
Analysis/Discussion
California’s Proposition 1, approved by voters in March 2024, transformed the 2004 Mental Health Services Act (Prop 63) into the Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA). It couples changes to existing millionaire-tax mental health funding with a new $6.4 billion bond for treatment housing and facilities.
Key Changes to the Law
• Substance Use Integration: Expands the original mental health-focused funding to explicitly cover treatment for substance use disorders (SUD). • Housing Priority: Requires counties to dedicate a substantial portion of BHSA funds toward housing interventions, including permanent supportive housing and operational subsidies for homeless individuals.
• Targeted Care: Directs a larger share of county behavioral health resources toward individuals with the most severe mental illnesses and significant needs. • Workforce & Accountability: Increases state oversight, transparency, and reporting requirements while allocating funding to expand the diverse behavioral health workforce.
Infrastructure Bond Components
• $4.4 billion to build and update treatment beds, residential care settings, and community behavioral health facilities.
• $2 billion dedicated to permanent supportive housing units, with a specific portion earmarked for veterans experiencing mental health or housing challenges.
While staff is not very familiar with social services funding streams, according to the attached letter, ”The Mental Health Services Act — the voter-approved millionaire's tax that funds close to a third of county behavioral health services — historically dedicated roughly 20 percent of its revenue to prevention and early intervention. Proposition 1 restructured that law into the Behavioral Health Services Act and now requires counties to spend 30 percent of those funds on housing interventions, replacing the dedicated prevention allocation with a smaller, contested pool in which prevention competes against workforce, innovation, and facilities. It also shifts roughly $140 million a year from counties to the state. The result is less money and less local discretion for prevention, and that pressure intensifies as the new requirements take hold beginning in July 2026.”
By signing onto the attached letter, the City would be supporting three programs that Assemblymember Pellerin claims are unfunded in the current State budget:
• Parent & Youth Helpline; and
• California Peer-Run Warm Line/CalHOPE; and
• 211 California (operated in Sonoma County by United Way Wine Country).
The request also includes supplemental funding for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Financial Considerations
The County of Sonoma and the other entitlement jurisdictions (Santa Rosa, Petaluma) are the only local agencies that deliver social services, so are the only jurisdictions that receive local, state or federal funding to deliver these services. Therefore, the changes under Proposition 1 do not have a direct effect on City operations or services.
Indirectly related funding supporting City-delivered services include a portion of BHSA funding that is paired with Measure O funds to support the mental health crisis teams in Sonoma County through a grant by the Sonoma County Department of Health Services. While the City directly dispatches the mental health crisis teams that serve our area, it’s staffs understanding that the 988 suicide prevention hotline may, from time to time, refer calls for services to the County MST central call line, which could then be referred out to the relevant service area, including Cotati.
Environmental Issues
Where it can be determined with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA review.
This general rule can be applied to activities which could be subject to the CEQA process, but which logic dictates should not be subject to CEQA review. Therefore, based on the information provided above, the proposed action is exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 14.03.021 of the CEQA Guidelines in that there is no possibility that the activity may have a significant impact on the environment.