Escobar, Ortega, & Larcenaire Debate MHMR

What the hell city council? Okay, not all of you, but post of you!

In the wake of the Tucson tragedy, when people are finally understanding the need for improved mental health care, you people decide to pull a Pontius Pilot and wash your hands of mental health?

Last night Darren Hunt of ABC 7 Extra hosted a great conversation between County Judge Veronica Escobar, City Rep Steve Ortega, and Gary Larcenaire of the El Paso MHMR.

Essentially the city of El Paso has decided that mental health care in El Paso is a broken system. I don't think too many people would debate that fact. But rather than endeavor to being part of the solution, the city has said they want to walk away from mental health and would just rather pay $100K a year in chump change (guilt money).

Larcenaire says that for every dollar that is put in to mental health resources, that saves $23 later.

Ortega makes a good point about dispersed accountability and government agencies. Its' hard to argue against his central point that government agencies that are shared responsibilities with more than one entity in charge tend to be the agencies with more problems. But I take issue with the city walking away and paying $100k a year in to the pot. PD will likely use more than $100k a year in responding to cases in which MHMR could be a big benefit.

Representative Ortega, why haven't you guys tried to fix the problem? Even worse, if it is as broken as you say it is, what the hell are you doing dumping more money in to it then? That completely undermines your argument.

Know what else undermines your argument? The fact that you and other members of council seem so passionate about fixing the drug problem and don't mind sticking your neck out or furthering the dialogue on the examination of legalization of drugs while at the same time walking away from MHMR when we are in a mental health crisis.

That is a little too Marie Antionette, “let them eat cake” for me Representative Ortega.

County Judge Escobar I think got sucked up in to a separate and less-important debate. I think contract of Larcenaire is a separate discussion. She made the point of explaining that how the contract was done was something that bothered her, which is certainly worth looking in to, but the amount of the contract really shouldn't be the issue. We all agree that MHMR issues are at a critical point, but now we are talking about doing it on the cheap?

You get what you pay for in terms of talent. Good people don't work out of the kindness of their hearts and a competitive salary is ultimately good for EP MHMR. It ensures that we have the best talent money can buy, and it puts Larcenaire further on the hook in terms of accountability. Now we can tell him, look pal we pay you a lot of money and we expect proportional results. If we don't get it, hit the bricks and we'll find someone else who can.

If there are issues about how it was done, secrecy, etc, then fine, we should deal with that in a public and transparent manner. But it shouldn't be the driving conversation about mental health when we have reached a crisis to the degree that we have.

Sidebar #1

Larcenaire came off as a total slick politician during the discussion about his salary. That immediately makes me suspicious, but if he gets the job done, I frankly don't give a shit what he makes. But for God's sake, take away the stupid allowances. Pay for his own gas, etc. Give him a competitive salary and get us off the hook for the silly extras.

Sidebar #2

I think its great that you have two people who are close friends, debate opposite sides of an issue with passion and vigor. The progressives have a lot of haters out there, but of all the factions in town, only that team could debate issues and it not affect personal relationships. That is how politics should be in this town, instead of all the bullshit infighting.

I bet when Steve was the Master of Ceremonies for Vero's inauguration on New Year's Day that he didn't think they'd be on opposite sides of an issue just a short couple of weeks later.