ST. LOUIS —A weeks-long dispute over funding for healthcare service at the St. Louis County detention center has been resolved.
In an emergency meeting Wednesday, the council unanimously voted to spend $3 million from the health fund to keep contracted nurses on staff less than a week before the current contract expires.
Council members attributed the last minute allocation to poor communication and issues with a new spending request policy.
“It’s disappointing that we got to this point when this was introduced to the council back in the first week of April,” said Health Director Dr. Kanika Cunningham. “There’s still a level of misunderstanding that this council has when it comes to running the budget. They don’t take healthcare serious.”
She said the county has been closely reviewing departmental budgets after discovering the county was facing an $81 million deficit and wanted to ensure spending requests were properly documented and justified. Councilwoman Shalonda Webb acknowledged a strained working relationship and communication issues between herself and Cunningham.
“The truth is that those who were supposed to know the details, including the directors, they did not have a full understanding,” Webb said.
The allocation is an increase from the initial plan that caused a weeks-long public dispute between county council members. It came to a head Tuesday when the Council delayed action to release the funds. County Executive Sam Page said it would lead the St. Louis County Justice Center and the County Juvenile Detention Center to lose most of its healthcare workforce– meaning a strain on local emergency hospitals and limited intake at the jail. That announcement came a day after the jail became accredited by the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare.
“This is a public safety crisis that could have been avoided with a simple vote Tuesday night by the County Council,” Page said in a statement Tuesday. “County Council members have surrendered their authority to release funds to one member, the chair of the Budget Committee, and now lives are on the line.”
But after the funding bill passed Wednesday, Page thanked the Council, “Justice Services and Public Health employees, and the many law enforcement, hospital, and community partners who came together this week as we prepared for the worst.”
He says he’ll sign the bill upon receival and the legislation will go into effect immediately.
