Advocates for public health, public safety, affordable housing, seniors, children, counties and the vulnerable are all working to defeat the de facto ban on county contracts for services.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 30, 2017     

Contact: Shelly Sullivan, No on AB 1250 Coalition (916) 213-3700
Gregg Fishman, CSAC, (916) 342-9508
www.stopab1250.com   

Sacramento, CA – The coalition opposed to AB 1250 (Jones-Sawyer) has grown to nearly 500 organizations, including hundreds of non-profit local service providers, community-based organizations, small businesses and advocates for local governments, affordable housing, public safety, public health, mental health, children, seniors and the disabled.

AB 1250 is scheduled to be heard Friday this week in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

AB 1250 is a de facto ban on California’s counties’ abilities to deliver local services through private non-profits, local businesses, and other contracted service providers. Across California, counties contract with local organizations to provide family crisis counselors, substance abuse programs, community mental health facilities, physician care and other staff in community clinics and public hospitals, vocational training programs, cognitive behavior programs, mental health programs and substance abuse programs, and other public safety, social and health care services.

The onerous bureaucratic obligations placed on contractors in AB 1250 create a huge disincentive for non-profits, local businesses, and community- based organizations to bid on any county contracts. This could result in unnecessary gaps and delays in service delivery that can pose detrimental outcomes for the people benefiting from these programs.

Members of the No on AB 1250 coalition are speaking out against this unnecessary and harmful legislation:

“AB 1250 is politics at its worst. It jeopardizes county services for the most vulnerable among us – low-income families, battered women, children and seniors who rely on county services to improve their quality of life or just flat out survive.”
         Matt Cate, Executive Director, CSAC

“AB 1250 will increase the cost of services, eliminate critical local programs, and result in fewer families being served.”  
          First 5 Association of California 

“At Saint John’s, we believe in providing homeless women with the tools they need to take control of their situations and become productive community members. By design, AB 1250 will seriously curtail, if not eliminate, the County’s ability to contract with us as they have done for the past twenty years, to provide crucial services to the most vulnerable segment of the homeless population – women with children.”
         Saint John’s Program for Real Change

“Based on nearly 40 years of experience addressing the immediate and long-term needs of women overcoming homelessness in the Skid Row neighborhood of Los Angeles, we know the kinds of services AB 1250 would obstruct are crucial to effectively end homelessness. We need to continue investing in the supportive services and this will only be possible if Los Angeles County is allowed to contract for expertise and the most efficient delivery of services from organizations like DWC.”
          Downtown Women’s Center

“In the wake of criminal justice realignment, sheriffs and counties have had to meet obligations that stem from housing more inmates for longer terms. AB 1250 will hurt the very people jails are trying to serve: inmates and our communities at large.”
          California State Sheriffs’ Association

“The barriers to contracting created by this bill threaten the ability to adequately staff ERs, resulting in delays in patient care to our most vulnerable populations who rely on safety net hospitals.” 
          California Chapter, American College of Emergency Physicians

“This bill [AB 1250] would result in an upheaval of our county mental health systems and cause harm to those who need the help of our community behavioral health agencies who currently are contracted for the bulk of these services.”
          California Council of Community Behavioral Health Agencies

 “AB 1250 (Jones-Sawyer) threatens to take away our organization’s ability to help our community.  This de facto ban is, in essence, an affront to the work that all of our community organizations do to improve the livelihoods, education and living conditions of our Fresno County communities.”
         Reading and Beyond

“…California is committed to connecting those experiencing homelessness to a permanent home where they can access the services they may need and end experiences of homelessness… AB 1250 imposes burdensome regulatory restrictions on non-profits and developers who work with counties and discourages counties from working with these organizations.”
          Housing California and Corporation for Supportive Housing

“L.A. County’s most vulnerable populations would be especially negatively impacted by AB 1250. Thousands of County contracts that address homelessness, health and human services, mental health, children’s services, workforce development, public safety, and criminal justice programs would be in jeopardy.”
          LA Area Chamber of Commerce

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