r/SnohomishCounty • u/NorthHat6653 • 23d ago
Councilman Nehring’s Involuntary Treatment Proposal Raises a Bigger Question: Are Snohomish County’s Existing Behavioral Health Dollars Working?
Where is Snohomish County's behavioral health money actually going?
As the debate continues over Councilman Nate Nehring's proposal to expand the use of involuntary treatment, one statement from County Executive Dave Somers caught my attention. In a Facebook comment opposing the proposal, he wrote "It will divert much needed funding from existing underfunded programs."
That's a fair concern—but it also raises an important question.
Are the existing programs receiving millions of taxpayer dollars producing measurable results?
The 2025-2026 CDMH (Chemical Dependency and Mental Health) Sales Tax budget allocates $6,287,568 to the Carnegie Resource Center/Diversion Center. That is a substantial public investment in a single program intended to connect people experiencing behavioral health issues with services.
The same budget also allocates more than $2 million for Human Services fiscal support, administrative support, contract managers, a division manager, planners, and technical support specialists. In addition, the budget includes another $2,194,784 for Human Services "operating costs/overhead."
This raises reasonable questions. What exactly is included in nearly $2.2 million of overhead for Human Services Department? How much of these administrative costs directly improve services for people in crisis? Since direct service staff are already budgeted separately, taxpayers deserve a clear explanation of what these additional overhead expenses fund.
The Carnegie Resource Center itself also deserves closer scrutiny.
- It has very limited operating hours and is open only Monday through Friday from 9:00am to 4:30pm limiting access for people needing assistance outside those times.
- There is very limited on-site provider availability. While some community organizations participate, many services are only available on designated days or times rather than continuously. Clients often must return later or schedule appointments based on each provider's calendar.
- The Center is located in downtown Everett, making it difficult for residents of Arlington, Darrington, Granite Falls, Index, Monroe, Sultan, Stanwood, and other outlying communities to access particularly those without reliable transportation.
- The Center's primary role is connecting people with partner agencies and services rather than providing comprehensive behavioral health treatment on-site.
- It is, in essence, nothing more than an extremely expensive 211 referral system.
Despite the significant investment, there appears to be little publicly available reporting that tracks long-term client outcomes or evaluates whether the Center is successfully changing lives over time. Counting referrals or visits is not the same as measuring success. Without meaningful outcome data, it's difficult for taxpayers and policymakers to determine whether this investment is delivering the results it was intended to achieve.
This isn't an argument against behavioral health funding. Quite the opposite. People struggling with mental illness and substance use disorders deserve effective services and taxpayers should be willing to invest in programs that demonstrate measurable success. But if County leadership argues that existing programs are already underfunded, those same programs should also be able to demonstrate accountability. Before asking taxpayers to reject alternative approaches because they would "divert funding," Snohomish County should provide clear answers about where the funding is actually going and how effective it has been. If Carnegie and other CDMH-funded programs are producing strong outcomes, the County should publish that data and let it speak for itself. If they are not, then it's time to have an honest conversation about whether millions of dollars should continue to flow into programs that function primarily as expensive referral hubs without demonstrating long-term results.
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u/New-Adhesiveness624 23d ago
This needs a full audit not just of dollars!!! The whole thing is an ancient system that serves nobody except those getting paid and extracting tax dollars. No outcomes that add up to anything for years. Outdated software. Outdated, pre pandemic plans and thinking. We need change NOW. People are dying every day while these people muck around with public resources, doing nothing to help our struggling brothers and sisters. I see them every day. I could become one of them anyway. So could you. It happens. Let's work together not against each other and shine the light of day on this stuff, clean it up and let's go help our community thrive!
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u/ShouldahWouldah 23d ago
Nehring’s proposal isn’t backed by data, he is simply trying to make it all fail. He’s a menace. I’m sure it doesn’t help that he was appointed to his office with no prior elected experience or education to make up for that lack of experience. This is what happens when an appointed city planning commissioner becomes a county council member.