HAYS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT
The Hays County Commissioners Court held a discussion related to consideration of the expansion of a Mental Health Diversion Center along with a 60 bed expansion of the existing jail facility footprint and to proceed with negotiating an agreement with HOK, utilizing their existing architectural and engineering contract. Three commissioners expressed concern with the item — particularly the location of the center, the timing and the firm choice — and Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra tabled the item until it could be altered to satisfy those apprehensions.
According to court documents, the scope of design of the Diversion Center in the agenda item would include a new drop-off location, Intake Assessment and Sheriff Administrative Support spaces, a 60-bed Diversion Facility, additional high-security jail beds, expanded inmate visitation space to meet Texas Commission on Jail Standards requirements and increased parking capacity.
Elaine Brown, Mental Health Court and County Court at Law #3 judge, said she could support the creation of a diversion center but felt that there were still conversations that needed to occur before bringing the item to court.
“One of the things the Behavioral Advisory Team has been working on, for a while now, is the opportunity to develop a Diversion Center for Hays County,” Brown said. “I’m not sure about the status of this project, but I do believe that I can fully support the need for some kind of a Crisis Center, Evaluation Center, Extended Observation Center, Diversion Center, whatever you want to call it. We do have a real need. As the Judge of County Court at Law #3, I work with a lot of mental commitments as well as individuals who are in crisis that may be also criminally justice involved. So I do see a need for that center; I’m just not sure what that looks like, and I think we still need to have conversations about that.”
Hays County Commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe wanted to be clear that the court is in support of a Mental Health Diversion Center but believes they need more time to execute the plans correctly.
“I think we need a little bit more time because the BAT and [Hill Country] MHCC will be working with this,” Ingalsbe said. “I know you don’t like the speed at which government operates; some things just take time, and we need to get it right. I just believe that we need to know what our true needs are.”
Becerra said that he had spoken with former Hays County Sheriff Gary Cutler about a similar issue.
“He told me, ‘Judge, don’t get mad at me whenever we’re doing the ribbon cutting for the jail expansion and we’re still bussing inmates out even though we’ve done this expansion.’ And the long-term expansion of the jail is designed to be 1,000 beds or more,” Becerra said. “I’ll reiterate, my staging of the sections of the jail expansion are what I was referring to on the shelf. … We have the support to support mental health all the way to the Governor’s office. … As the expert just said, we have this need, and it is real. … I’m not saying where, what, how many or any of those things. I want to give the professionals — HOK, who we as a court hired before my time to do this work — to have them continue it. … They are most familiar with the terrain, with the topography, the underground utilities and everything else.”
Becerra added that he’s already had preliminary conversations with HOK and the Hays County Sheriff Anthony Hipolito.
“What I thought was, these items are already primed. These items are clearly needed,” Becerra said. “So this agenda item is exclusively, simply to say, ‘Ok HOK, we give you permission to officially engage in taking on the conversation with the BAT team and every other organization to help shape exactly what this needs to look like, where it needs to go and how it should take shape and unfold. Purely a soft cost contract extension is all I’m asking for, so we can keep the ball moving.”
Stephanie Hunt, Hays County purchasing agent, reviewed the previous contract between the county and HOK.
“That was related to a bond, so if we were to select HOK to do these services, it could not be through their existing contract; we would just need to execute a new contract. They did not respond to our engineering services pool, so we would only be able to do a Professional Services Agreement with HOK for architectural services,” Hunt said. “We would not be able to execute a contract with them for engineering services; we would have to use a firm out of our pool.”
Jeff Bradley, a representative of HOK, explained the firm’s experience in mental health diversion.
“Over the last ten years, we’ve done over 8,000 specialized beds, 2,000 in jails here in Texas,” Bradley said. “Dallas County gives us the credit for the success of their program; they had over 300 beds, 100 were medical and 200 were mental health. That was the first one I know of that was done in the nation.”
Becerra said if the police get called, and the person needs mental health services, “the aim and the hope is that we will put them in a place that supports them” instead of the jail.
Hays County Commissioner Michelle Cohen said she supports Mental Health Diversion initiatives.
“I do have issue with how this agenda item was rolled out. I did get calls that it caught everyone off guard, and there was no opportunity for input,” Cohen said. “I talked to the Sheriff too; they obviously were not aware this was on the agenda and many others [were also not aware].”
Hays County Commissioner Walt Smith said the county is currently within a Capital Improvement Plan, which is an opportunity to outline all of the structural needs of the county and will be done within eight to nine months, implying that would be the time to address the Diversion Center.
“When this agenda item popped up on Friday, I was shocked … as was a large number of our Behavioral Analysis Team,” Smith said. “We’ve been working on this for two and a half years. We’ve prioritized how we want to do that. This agenda item, in my view, is half cooked, and it’s half cocked.”
Smith added that the court has discussed partnering with local hospitals or other providers that would have the expertise and are already building facilities.
“It would be less expensive for the county, and we would have a better opportunity to have the right professionals and mental health professionals on site,” Smith said, adding that he had concerns about the mental health diversion center being located at the jail. “Anyone who has been in those meetings and had those discussions will tell you the last thing you want to do with someone that is having a mental health episode is to say, ‘I’m not taking you to jail.’ And then drive them to the jail. … It will exacerbate the situation they are in.”
Smith added that the point of the Diversion Center is to avoid taking these individuals to the jail.
Ingalsbe said she could understand why Becerra would believe that they should continue to use HOK, but she disagreed.
“But we haven’t even had those discussions. I think that we have a preferred list we can select from [regarding] … who we want to use,” Ingalsbe said. “And again, is this going to work with the plan of bringing all of our inmates back into Hays County. I don’t know. I think these are some of the discussions we need to have prior to engaging somebody to look at a design or whatever we’re going to do with HOK.”
Becerra said he was hoping that this agenda item would “move this along,” but he was open to using another firm.
Ingalsbe recommended Evoke Wellness.
“I think we can start those conversations fairly quickly. They’re established,” Ingalsbe said. “I think we could have something a lot faster with Evoke.”
Becerra said he would table the item, and work with Hunt to create an agenda item “with better language.”
