Editorial: This community had a solid plan for a crisis center. Then county officials hit pause.

On Tuesday, community members galvanized and unsuccessfully pleaded with the county's executive board to not put plans for a behavioral crisis center on the back burner.

The group delivered heartfelt pleas for the commissioners to put the issue back on the agenda, where it belongs, at the county commissioners meeting. Those in attendance included officials and representatives of agencies that have been actively involved in the two-year effort, which was expected to cross the finish line with commissioners' approval.

You read that right: Two years. That seems contrary to Commissioner President Carl Baxmeyer's assertion that he's seeking a more "fully thought-out" plan and that the county needs to "make sure we’re not rushing the process."

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If the commissioner seeks a "fully thought-out" plan, he should consider the work that organizers have already done. For two years, they've been planning and collaborating, all in the midst of a pandemic that has only exacerbated mental health issues. They have had multiple meetings, discussions with public officials and earned unanimous, bipartisan approval for $2.7 million of federal American Rescue Plan money to pay for construction and the first year of operation.

Oaklawn mental health center has been making arrangements to renovate space for a 14-bed center in its Epworth building in South Bend in spring 2023. South Bend Mayor James Mueller has pledged to match the county’s contribution for the center, and the current plan is to cover the first three years with a mix of COVID, county and city dollars and grants. Beyond that, Oaklawn CEO Laurie Nafziger expressed confidence that her company can secure long-term funding for the center.

As Rebekah Go, who serves on the crisis center’s advisory board, noted, “This is not some fly-by-night thing.”

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Some have connected this move with the oppositional attitude Republican commissioners have displayed toward the health department, dating back to the beginning of the pandemic. County health officer Dr. Bob Einterz says he perceives the commissioners' delay as a “vendetta.” He later told The Tribune he is resigning in March, in part because of the events of last week.

We don't know if his claims of a vendetta are true, but we hope commissioners aren't putting politics over the mental health of community residents.

Baxmeyer and Commissioner Derek Dieter expressed concerns about funding, with Dieter questioning whether the crisis center would reduce funding for Portage Manor and the Motels4Now homeless initiative. These are questions that Baxmeyer, who formed a committee in August to look into the county’s mental health and housing needs, could have ― and should have ― addressed long before the last commissioners' meeting of the year.

Instead, the commissioners chose to ignore the urgent words spoken by the people they were elected to serve, all after a number of officials ― including Mueller, Nafziger, Einterz and Sheriff Bill Redman ― emailed Baxmeyer, asking him to put the center back on the meeting agenda.

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Baxmeyer told a Tribune reporter that his pulling the item from the agenda is not "killing" the center, that it's a pause: “It’s a: Wait a minute. … Let’s meet all of the needs and proceed in the best path. … We need to have a plan.”

But there's already a plan, a solid plan, one that resulted from the sort of collaboration that's needed to tackle important issues like mental health. On Tuesday, the commissioners failed in their duty by putting a pause on the plan.

Editorials represent the opinion of the Tribune Editorial Board. Its members are Audience Engagement Editor Alesia I. Redding, Enterprise Editor Cory Havens and Executive Editor Ismail Turay Jr.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: St. Joseph County Commissioner put a pause on behavioral crisis center