CARMEL – The Putnam Legislature has unanimously approved a resolution expanding the county’s Mobile Crisis Team to 24-hour, seven-day-a-week coverage.
Legislator Nancy Montgomery of Philipstown, the lone Democrat on the nine-member governing body, introduced a resolution at this week’s meeting to separate $380,152 for Mobile Crisis services from a much larger mental health spending proposal submitted by County Executive Kevin Byrne, which was presented to Legislature Chair Dan Birmingham during his 2027 budget address on Monday.
For several months, Montgomery, who chairs the Legislature’s Health, Social, Educational and Environmental Committee, had been requesting a detailed plan for approximately $2.1 million that the county had committed to mental health services.
The money originated with federal ARPA funding that had been named for a public-facing mental health stabilization center and related services. After the stabilization-center project did not move forward, the administration redirected the federal dollars to paving and replaced the same amount with county general-fund dollars designated for mental health.
Montgomery repeatedly asked what the county intended to do with the replacement mental health funding.
Montgomery said she was pleased to receive a plan when Byrne submitted a Letter of Necessity with a broader spending proposal, asking the Legislature to act on it immediately.
Montgomery said despite receiving the proposal, “I did not think it was responsible for the Legislature to receive a significant new proposal on the day of the meeting and approve the entire thing without adequate review.”
Instead, she identified one measure ready for immediate action – allocating $380,152 to expand the county’s existing Mobile Crisis Team to 24/7 coverage.
Montgomery drafted a separate resolution and asked Birmingham to place it on the agenda under other business. The Legislature unanimously approved the measure, allocating the funds to provide Putnam County’s Mobile Crisis Team with 24-hour, seven-day-a-week coverage while reserving the remainder of the county executive’s proposal for further review.
Montgomery described the Mobile Crisis Team as an “established public-facing service,” adding, “We know what it does, we know there is a need for expanded coverage, and we know exactly what this funding is intended to accomplish. There was no reason to hold that up while we properly reviewed the new initiatives in the administration’s proposal.”
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