QuickTake:
The agreement, unanimously approved by Lane County commissioners, follows months of negotiations with the state to iron out initial disagreements.
Lane County commissioners approved an 18-month agreement with the Oregon Health Authority that will deliver as much as $35 million in state funding for behavioral health services that serve some of the county’s most vulnerable residents.
The five-member board’s unanimous approval of the agreement Tuesday, Jan. 6, marks the culmination of intense negotiations — and at times disagreements — between the state and Lane County centered on legal issues such as liability and the role of counties.
The disagreements between the state and counties came in part due to concerns about Oregon State Hospital’s failure to meet a federal court order. The state-run psychiatric hospital faces judicial monitoring over the pace at which it transfers and treats patients facing criminal charges from jails to the hospital for court-ordered treatment.
“‘This is the most important contract between the state and our behavioral health division in order to provide services that are primarily safety-net services,” Eve Gray, director of Lane County Health and Human Services, told commissioners.
Nevertheless, counties statewide united in opposition to some of the terms the state initially tried to impose, which delayed the agreement but also led to a deal that officials could pass. For example, in the agreement, the Oregon Health Authority, which runs the state hospital, acknowledges that the county is not a party to the litigation against the state hospital.
That acknowledgment was necessary for county officials to sign off on the deal. In June, a federal judge found the state of Oregon in contempt of court due to the state hospital’s failure to comply with a judge’s ruling that patients in jail must be admitted to the hospital within seven days of a court order.
The agreement will provide an estimated $27 million to $35 million during the next 18 months to Lane County, depending in part on how many people access services. In the last two-year term agreement, which stretched from January 2024 through December 2025, the county received $35.7 million, which went toward contracts with 66 vendors, providers and local agencies.
Forty-five patients from Lane County are at Oregon State Hospital for court-ordered treatment to face charges, January state data show. That’s nearly 12% of the 385 patients who arrived from jails across the state. The county’s overall population represents about 9% of the state.
The county also is responsible for people when they leave Oregon State Hospital and return to their communities, often still in need of care and treatments.
County offers array of services
Lane County’s behavioral health services division also offers services for people who don’t need treatment at the state hospital. The county provides services for people in the criminal justice system as well as people who are civilly committed because they may harm themselves or others.
But officials across Oregon, including Lane County, say the funding is not enough to provide an adequate safety net to help people before they enter the criminal justice system.
“Part of the problem is we’re so inadequately resourced as a behavioral health resource system,” Commissioner Laurie Trieger said.
The county’s assistant legal counsel, Marcus Vejar, said talks with all the parties, with input from Gov. Tina Kotek’s office, the Oregon Department of Justice and the Association of Oregon Counties, played a key role. Everyone began “to all really talk and begin to understand each other’s perspective,” Vejar said.
County commissioners praised Vejar’s role in working on the deal, as did County Counsel Rob Bovett, who jokingly said he’s not going to let other counties recruit Vejar.
For two decades, Ben Botkin’s journalism career saw him criss-cross the West, a path with stops in rural Idaho, Las Vegas and, now, finally, Lane County. Ben reported on local government and the statehouse in Idaho before he moved to the Bulletin in Bend and covered education in central Oregon.
Then, for four years, he covered Clark County government, which has oversight over the Las Vegas Strip, and served as the lead political reporter during the 2016 election cycle. During that time, Ben wrote about the county’s child welfare agency, law enforcement, the start of Nevada’s medical marijuana industry and homeland security. His reporting sparked the criminal indictments and convictions of three government officials, including a city animal control supervisor convicted of animal cruelty.
He also covered national stories like the 2016 armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon and the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Since 2018, Ben has reported on Oregon state government, first for the Statesman-Journal in Salem and then for The Lund Report, a Portland-based nonprofit that covers health care. His reporting on gaps in children’s health coverage led to state Medicaid policy changes.
Most recently, Ben worked more than two years at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered criminal justice, health and human services. His work often incorporates the voices of vulnerable Oregonians from all walks of life.
As Lookout’s Politics & Policy Correspondent, Ben digs up the most intriguing and relevant stories about how Lane County decisions impact residents.