After what El Paso County Sheriff Joe Roybal described as a miscommunication, the National Alliance on Mental Illness Colorado Springs will not receive funding for a school-based addiction prevention program. 

The Region 16 Opioid Abatement Council granted and then revoked almost $40,000 in grant funding during its April meeting that NAMI Colorado Springs had expected to use to fund an existing program that provides coping strategies to use instead of substances in stressful times, among other resources. The nonprofit runs the program with Diversus Health and Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention Partnership.

The council distributed $3.8 million in April, the first round of grant funding that will total tens of millions flowing out to El Paso and Teller county organizations in the coming years. The council left about $1.1 million in reserve to fund additional youth prevention programs, The Gazette reported previously. The money is coming to the council for distribution from large federal settlements against opioid makers and pharmacies. 

El Paso and Teller counties to see $66 million in grants to address opioid epidemic

Earlier this week, Roybal asked for the board to reconsider the decision not to give NAMI funding, saying his voting proxy Laura Ridenour, misinterpreted a text message he sent her during the meeting. He was at the dentist during the meeting and Ridenour, the detention behavioral health manager for this office, was voting on his behalf.    

When he learned she had voted on the NAMI funding, his text response was “not my preference,” he said. During the first vote NAMI’s funding was approved on a 6-5 vote. 

Ridenour initially supported the funding for NAMI, but as a board member for the nonprofit, Roybal wanted her to abstain, because she is a NAMI board member.

She called for a reconsideration of the vote and during that second vote funding for the nonprofit failed on a 5-4 vote. She voted no because she misunderstood Roybal’s text message, the sheriff explained. Fewer people voted the second time, because the meeting ran late. 

Another board member, El Paso County Coroner Dr. Leon Kelly, expressed concern Monday that Commissioner Carrie Geitner put pressure on Ridenour during the April meeting to oppose the measure. Geitner fired back Monday, saying false statements were made about her during the meeting. She also expressed concern Kelly’s voting proxy did not disclose that he is the board president of NAMI Colorado Springs during the April meeting. 

On Monday, the board voted down Roybal’s request to reconsider funding for the nonprofit, with Kelly abstaining. Board members said it could set a precedent of reopening decisions in subsequent meetings. Geitner said she would start asking for decisions to be reconsidered, if the board adopted that practice. 

“If we open this door, I’m walking through it, because I won’t make decisions with rules that are unequally applied. So we’re going to start going down this road, if you can reconsider any decision, subsequent meetings afterwards, then that’s the rule that we all need to abide by,” she said. 

Without council funding, NAMI Colorado Springs said in a statement they are “committed to offering the program in schools next year and will find money — whether via another grant, or from within our general operating budget — in order to do so.” Next year, will be the program’s third year in schools. 

Last year, the presentations reached 1,346 students in eight school districts, documentation from the nonprofit showed.  

In a survey to evaluate the program, 87% of students said they agreed they are more confident about where to get help for a friend or a loved one who is having a mental health crisis. 

Nonprofit Executive Director Lori Jarvis said her group was “relieved to be spared ongoing involvement with the council.”

She noted the council needs to work out its internal processes, some of the grant reporting requirements are a little unclear, and the group was perhaps more political and complicated then similar councils across the state, because nearly all the board members all elected officials and it does not have any dedicated mental health professionals. 

During the meeting, board members also raised concerns about transparency, including the difficulty of finding board minutes and the clarity of those documents.

El Paso County Commissioner Holly Williams said she would like to see the minutes from the council meetings posted on the council website to help the public find them. City Councilwoman Nancy Henjum also called for better transparency, particularly around minutes. 

“It needs to be easy for the public to find,” Henjum said.