Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday agreed to pay a portion of its outstanding bills to the company operating its Holistic Assistance Response Teams amid speculation the firm may have invoiced the county for the same hours it was working for a California county.
The $272,000 payment to Disaster Emergency Medical Assistance Consulting and Management for previously billed services over the past two months was a source of contention when the court met nearly two weeks ago.
The county’s Holistic Assistance Response Team was created in 2022 as an alternative response to police for 911 calls involving residents experiencing non-emergency mental and behavioral health or homelessness issues.
Debate on the $272,000 payment centered around a Commissioners Court directive to the county auditor’s office at the end of April to open an investigation into DEMA.
The call for an investigation followed an audit by Sonoma County, Calif., that found officials there could not account for 40 percent of DEMA’s billing. The auditors also said they struggled to properly assess DEMA because the company had not tracked the work of its salaried employees.
Though the Harris County Auditor’s office at the last court meeting said it did not believe there were any issues with the payment, its own audit was not fully complete, and County Auditor Michael Post was not present to answer court members’ questions.
A motion to pay the $272,000 then failed to garner enough support.
On Monday, Post issued a letter to court members confirming that his office approved the payment and did not find any problems with its billing. He told the court on Tuesday that his audit of DEMA’s contract compliance would be finished next week.
County Judge Lina Hidalgo criticized the commissioners on Tuesday for wasting time by discussing the payment at length and said they were “micromanaging” the auditor’s office.
“I just don’t see the reason,” she said. “I think, obviously, these folks are working on it. We have identified challenges. These are competent people that are working on those challenges.”
“Several things changed today,” Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones shot back, noting the auditor’s remarks and that county public health had verified that DEMA performed the work in question..
After debating for more than an hour, the court voted 4-1 to approve the payment. Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey was the lone dissenting vote.
The court did not take action on more than $860,000 DEMA has billed the county. DEMA owner Michelle Patino last week said the county has failed to pay her company for the last 11 months.
The county auditor said the invoices submitted by DEMA do not match the contract.
The discrepancy, Post said, likely stems from the addition of new positions and pay rates that have not been approved by Commissioners Court. Once that is presented to the court for approval after the completion of the audit, Post said he would recommend the payment be approved.
Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis and Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones also created a plan to improve invoicing requirements by DEMA. The plan also requires the Office of County Administration and the health department to come up with a plan by July 15 to bring the HART program in-house and a timeline for expanding the program.
The court approved the plan by a 4-1 vote, with Ramsey opposed.
The auditor’s office also reviewed DEMA billings for a 2022 contract with Harris County to run its SmartPod Services Program, which aims to bring mental health resources to underserved parts of the county. There were at least four instances of double billing with Harris and Sonoma counties under the SmartPod program, auditors found.
The auditor’s review was prompted by a Waste, Fraud and Abuse complaint triggered by Sonoma County, which contacted Harris County officials in April about the possibility DEMA was double-billing both jurisdictions.
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