photo credit: Marc Albert/KRCB
Sonoma County Administration Building

Owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for services already performed, a local nonprofit agency is expected to meet this week with Sonoma County health officials, to work out some sort of deal. 

This comes after CenterPoint DAAC---that stands for Drug Abuse Alternatives Center---briefly stopped accepting new patients last month, before resuming after a meeting with the county.

Whether and in what form the agency will continue operating locally, and if it will be reimbursed, is currently up in the air, according to Michael O'Brien, regional director for CenterPoint.

"It hasn't been resolved as of yet, right now it's our understanding that we have a meeting on December 6," O'Brien said.

O'Brien said he and his organization did not want to lead those in need down the proverbial garden path.

"it's really unethical for us to bring new clients into services if we think there's a possibility we're going to have to shut those down due to lack of funding," O'Brien said.

That changed after some reassurance was received about payment, though the suspension could resume depending on the outcome this week.

A residential treatment facility, long a major facet of DAAC's work, was transferred to another operator, reducing the group's footprint. Still, O'Brien said the nonprofit was blind-sided by subsequent changes.

"Until we actually saw these new contracts, without saying anything it was like, all of the sudden after four months we've already been delivering services, now they are going to let us know there's a budget issue. That's where the real problem, I think has come in," O'Brien said.

O'Brien added that the budget for outpatient programs provided by DAAC was basically cut in half.

KRCBNews reached out to the county health department for comment and perspective, but officials were unable to arrange an interview by deadline.