The Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners approved a request by the county manager to negotiate a contract to operate the county’s crisis triage center.
The meeting included a large number of comments from community members asking the county to do a request for proposals in order to avoid a sole source contract with an Arizona firm, RI International.
The county had already paid RI $50,000 for a business plan to operate the center, which would evaluate people having mental health concerns.
County manager Fernando Macias asked the commission to allow him to negotiate the operating contract with RI, with the provision that the contract would still have to be approved by the commission.
Commissioner Shannon Reynolds said he was not satisfied with the business plan presented by RI International and voted against allowing the county to negotiate the operating contract.
But permission was granted, as all other county commissioners approved negotiation with RI International without opening the opportunity to other providers.