PORT ANGELES — Cooperation will be key for a committee charged with allocating Clallam County’s new revenue to strengthen mental health and drug abuse programs.
A one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax that starts Saturday will provide the funds –$300,000 to $400,000 for the rest of 2006 and about $900,000 a year thereafter.
County commissioners today will create a 16-person board to advise them how to spend the money. They hope to appoint members within two months.
Not only will the Chemical Dependency/Mental Health Program Fund Advisory Board be a big group, but fleshing it out will require some cooperative appointments.
All three of the county’s cities, for instance, must agree on one representative to the panel.
So must all the law enforcement agencies, both hospital districts, the four tribes that share boundaries with the county, and several public and private agencies that serve brain-disordered and drug-dependent people.
What might seem an unwieldy process was done by design.
