Post by Logan on Apr 10, 2016 18:25:16 GMT -6
HELENA – Many Montana lawmakers and state officials agreed facilities to house the state’s criminally convicted mental health patients were overcrowded.
Not as many agreed on how to pay to fix it.
Such was the conundrum Gov. Steve Bullock looked to resolve with September’s sudden announcement that the state would move those patients, and some state mental health workers, to a privately owned building in Galen, a stone's throw from developmentally disabled patients at the soon-be-shuttered Montana Developmental Center in Boulder.
Weeks later, Montana officials signed a 19-year lease at the 38,000-square-foot former federal juvenile placement facility in Galen -- terms that squeaked just under square footage and lease term requirements that would have triggered mandatory legislative review of the deal.
There was no competitive bidding process to award the Galen lease. In fact, officials said Wednesday they didn’t even look at potential alternatives to the $1.2 million annual agreement.
Read more: ravallirepublic.com/missoula/news/state-and-regional/article_b6ae9a27-095e-5e05-955d-98d8a22a5cac.html
Not as many agreed on how to pay to fix it.
Such was the conundrum Gov. Steve Bullock looked to resolve with September’s sudden announcement that the state would move those patients, and some state mental health workers, to a privately owned building in Galen, a stone's throw from developmentally disabled patients at the soon-be-shuttered Montana Developmental Center in Boulder.
Weeks later, Montana officials signed a 19-year lease at the 38,000-square-foot former federal juvenile placement facility in Galen -- terms that squeaked just under square footage and lease term requirements that would have triggered mandatory legislative review of the deal.
There was no competitive bidding process to award the Galen lease. In fact, officials said Wednesday they didn’t even look at potential alternatives to the $1.2 million annual agreement.
Read more: ravallirepublic.com/missoula/news/state-and-regional/article_b6ae9a27-095e-5e05-955d-98d8a22a5cac.html