County moves to tighten oversight of Substance Abuse Connect after public pleas to maintain services

Chair opened debate March 28 on whether to terminate the county’s contract with Substance Abuse Connect (SAC), the coordinating body that helps deliver mental-health diversion services funded by a 3.2-mill mental-health levy approved by voters in 2010.

Zach Terakidas, SAC’s director, told the commission he was asking the board “to honor the contractual agreement” and to allow SAC to present additional data and an evidence-based, data-driven path forward before June. He said SAC’s executive committee includes partners such as Riverstone Health, Billings Clinic, the Yellowstone County Sheriff and Billings Police and that the program’s approach aligns with a statewide crisis-systems assessment published in 2022.

Multiple local officials and nonprofit leaders urged the board to delay abrupt changes. Katie Easton, CEO of the Downtown Billings Alliance, said SAC-enabled partnerships created a homeless outreach team and diversion programs that work with the Yellowstone County Detention Center. Carrie Boyter, president of the Yellowstone County Continuum of Care, summarized local outcomes and asked the county to keep a coordinated-entry coordinator position the commission is funding: "From May 1 ... we served 1,395 individuals," she said, noting 491 exits and 175 people housed in permanent destinations.

Commissioners said they share constituents’ concerns about transparency. One commissioner said the board has struggled to obtain a spreadsheet showing which organizations received mill-levy money and for what purpose, and asked SAC for bank and distribution records. Terakidas said administrative fees to SAC have been modest — about $16,000 on roughly $1.3 million — and that the executive director’s salary previously was covered by outside funders and will be covered by a crisis-diversion grant going forward.

Commissioner Morse moved to provide a 60-day notice of termination to SAC under the mental-health mill levy. Commissioner Morris offered an amendment to instead renegotiate and amend the contract so county oversight and explicit reporting requirements would be written into the agreement. After further discussion and a request for clearer definitions of "administration" and distribution details, the commission voted to amend the contract and direct county attorneys and staff to negotiate language that spells out reporting, oversight and spending transparency; termination remains a fallback if renegotiation fails.

The board also approved a consent package that included other routine items. The commission did not set a specific deadline for the renegotiation in the public discussion recorded at the meeting; commissioners said they expected to receive the accounting details and revised contract language in follow-up staff work.