Agenda Item #14.3
For Council Meeting of: January 9, 2024
CITY OF SANTA ROSA
CITY COUNCIL
TO: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL
FROM: JOHN CREGAN, CHIEF
POLICE DEPARTMENT
SUBJECT: APPROVAL OF SECOND AMENDMENT TO PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH BUCKELEW PROGRAMS FOR THE INRESPONSE PROGRAM AGENDA ACTION: RESOLUTION
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended by the Police Department that the Council, by resolution, approve and authorize the City Manager or designee to negotiate and execute a Second Amendment to Professional Services Agreement Number F002413A with Buckelew Programs, a California non-profit corporation, Novato, California, related to program implementation for the inRESPONSE program extending the time of performance through January 31, 2027, and increasing compensation per year by $280,499 for a total contract amount not to exceed $3,463,563.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This Second Amendment to Professional Services Agreement Number F002413A with Buckelew Programs is to provide funding to increase staffing of the Buckelew team to continue to provide this successful program to our community. This includes increasing the administrative position from 20 hours to 40 hours per week which will improve the timely response to emails and phone calls to inRESPONSE, and once the office is open for drop-in services, they will assist with triaging available staff and support services.
A position of a Hospital Navigator at Memorial Hospital will also be added. This position will be a critical bridge between emergency rooms and patients experiencing a mental health crisis. The Hospital Navigator will help identify what is happening to patients after being placed on a mental health hold, provide them with resources while receiving care, and work to get them into permanent/temporary supportive housing. This will prevent vulnerable individuals from being released from a mental health hold and walking out of hospitals without resources. This will reduce the number of people on extended stays in hospitals, prevent additional crisis response and law enforcement responses for the same individual, and allow the patient to receive the necessary case management to prevent future crisis responses. This will improve the patient experience, reduce conflict between inRESPONSE and local emergency rooms, provide more data about patients served by inRESPONSE.
BACKGROUND
In January of 2022, the inRESPONSE team started with operational hours of noon to 10 p.m., seven days a week. By October of 2022, we launched a second team with operational hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday. The operational days and hours of the second team was based on historically high peak call volume period for inRESPONSE with the intent of making more personnel available at times the community needed them the most. With the addition of more mental health clinicians in July of 2023, we were able to extend the second team’s days of service from four to seven days a week. We now have two full teams providing 15 hours a day, seven days a week, mental health crisis response for our community.
In August of 2023, the inRESPONSE team moved into their new team building located at 983 Sonoma Avenue. We are working to have this building open to the public and help provide mental health support and supply other essential needs to community members who come in for services. We are planning to host a public open house event at the new building in spring of 2024.
PRIOR CITY COUNCIL REVIEW
October 12, 2021- Buckelew Agreement for inRESPONSE program.
ANALYSIS
The inRESPONSE program responds to calls in which individuals are experiencing a mental health crisis and are unarmed. The goal is for the inRESPONSE team to handle all calls for service where mental health is the primary concern. They will also partner with the City’s Homeless Outreach Services Team to identify unsheltered community members who may be experiencing a mental health crisis.
In 2022 the inRESPONSE team provided services to nearly 2,900 people in need and with the increased program teams and hours 2023 will serve even more people in need. This impacted not just the people who the services were provided to but also diverted calls that would usually have been handled by the Police or Fire Departments.
FISCAL IMPACT
Approval of this action does not have any additional fiscal impact on the General Fund or any Enterprise Funds. Funding has been approved in the current budget for the Police Department, utilizing American Rescue Plan (ARPA) and County Measure O funding.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15378 (b), because it is not a project which has the potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
BOARD/COMMISSION/COMMITTEE REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Not applicable.
NOTIFICATION
Not applicable.
ATTACHMENTS
Resolution / Exhibit A - Second amendment to agreement with Buckelew Programs
PRESENTER
Pam Lorence, Administrative Service Officer
APPROVAL OF SECOND AMENDMENT TO PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH BUCKELEW PROGRAMS FOR THE INRESPONSE PROGRAM PAGE 2 OF 3