$3.5M Crisis Response Contract OK’d

The Board of Alders green-lighted the Elicker Administration’s long-delayed plans to set up a non-cop crisis response team — as they approved a $3.5 million contract with Yale, and voted to accept a related $2 million federal grant amid criticism that crucial financial details are missing.

That was the outcome of Tuesday night’s latest bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders. The in-person meeting took place in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

The alders took two votes during the meeting in regards to the city’s proposed community crisis response team — now dubbed Compassionate Allies Serving our Streets, or COMPASS. That’s the yet-to-begin program that Mayor Justin Elicker and Community Services Administrator Mehul Dalal first announced in August 2020. It will have specially trained social workers and ​“peers with lived experience” rather than cops, firefighters, and medics respond to certain 911 calls related to homelessness, substance abuse, and mental health issues.

First, in a voice vote, the alders overwhelmingly voted in support of the city signing a contract with Yale University in the amount of $3,513,842 and extending from May 1, 2022 through June 30, 2025. That contract is designed to allow the project’s programmatic lead, the Consultation Center at Yale — which is a part of Yale University — to work with subcontractor Continuum of Care, the city’s Department of Community Resilience, and other city departments to set up and expand a COMPASS pilot program. Click here and here to read more about that contract.

Several alders voted against the contract and several others abstained (in a group voice vote). The only legislator to speak up against it was Beaver Hills Alder Shafiq Abdussabur, who said the $3.5 million contract as proposed was lacking in key financial details. (See below for more on Abdussabur’s critique.)

In a related matter, the alders also unanimously voted in support of accepting a $2 million federal earmark secured by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and designed to help the city implement ​“crisis response initiatives.”

“This particular item is very important because we are now going to address the issues of mental health, homelessness, and substance abuse, not from the criminal perspective, but from the perspective of social work, and social issues,” Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison said in support of the Yale contract.

She praised the crisis response plan for partnering specially trained social workers and mental health professionals with ​“peers” who have experienced some of the issues dealt with by the very people this program is trying to treat.

“This is the way that we should help people,” Morrison said. ​“We need to support people instead of criminalizing these social ills.”

After the meeting, city Department of Community Resilience Director Carlos Sosa-Lombardo said that the next step for this project is for the city to finalize and execute the contract with Yale.

He said the city is ​“working on the details” of the contract now.

After that contract is signed, he said, Yale, CMHC, and Continuum of Care are going to ​“hire the people, secure the equipment, and go through the training” in order to be able to set up an actual pilot program in which this team is actually responding to certain 911 calls.

He said he expects the city to sign the contract with Yale in the next few weeks.

This isn’t the first time the alders have voted in support of the Elicker Administration’s crisis response plan. In October 2020, they voted to spend $100,000 on a crisis team study. And in September 2021, they voted to create a new Department of Community Resilience — within which the crisis team program will exist — and to fund that new department with $8 million in federal pandemic-relief aid. 

Abdussabur: "We Need The #'s"

Skepticism around the $3.5 million Yale contract first emerged during the alders’ so-called ​“public information caucus” before the full board meeting, proper.

Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter asked if the $2 million federal earmark grant money will go towards funding the $3.5 million Yale contract. He said his impression after participating in the Finance Committee meeting on this subject was that the federal earmark will not go towards the contract.

“I’m trying to understand, as a budgeting matter, if we’re not using $2 million [from the earmark] for the contract, how do we make up that gap?” he asked.

City Budget Director Michael Gormany said ​“the majority” of the $2 million earmark will indeed likely go towards the contract. He said the city is still waiting on detailed guidance from the federal government as to exactly how this grant money can be spent.

But, he said, ​“the majority of it would probably fund the contract with Yale.”

“We need the numbers,” Abdussabur said during his time at the mic during the public information caucus. ​“What is the exact dollar amount?”

“We don’t have the factual, fiduciary breakdown for this that makes this an intelligent decision,” he said about the Yale contract.

Generally speaking, Gormany replied, the $2 million federal earmark will go towards this program. But the city does still need to wait for detailed guidance before knowing exactly how much and exactly what this will fund.

“I wouldn’t anticipate that the federal government wouldn’t allow us to spend the money on this,” added Dalal, ​“because we applied to the federal government through [U.S. Rep.] Rosa DeLauro’s office for a specific community project.” And that specific community project was a community crisis response team.

“We anticipate that the $2 million is earmarked for the crisis response team.”

Abdussabur remained unconvinced, and spoke up during the full board meeting to voice his dissent.

“I think this is a good program concept,” he said. But, ​“to enter into a contract of this magnitude, lacking some of the information that’s needed, I can’t support that right now.”

He said that the city could be on the hook for the rest of the $3.5 million Yale contract funding if the federal earmark spending guidance is narrower than expected.

He also expressed his concern that this program will not decrease police and fire overtime costs, but will instead be an overall cost driver, because, he suggested, law enforcement personnel will likely need to respond to some of these same calls, too.

“More time needs to be had to work out the financial details.”

Ultimately, a majority of his colleagues agreed with the Yale contract, voting by voice to support it. Abdussabur and a handful of other colleagues voted by voice against the contract, or abstained from the vote altogether.