Authorize city staff to develop an MOU (memorandum of understanding) between the City and SAC (Substance Abuse Connect) to launch a Crisis Response Unit (CRU) to more efficiently respond to the ~7,7000 (~21 per day) behavioral health calls our police and fire departments are responding to annually.

SAC will present to the Council their proposal to create a Crisis Response Unit (CRU) in a partnership between the City and Rimrock.  SAC will provide a brief history on how our community's 80+ entities including ~200 volunteers created strategies to reduce crime by focusing on root causes and how the CRUs are becoming a best practice to serve those suffering from mental illness and substance abuse while also lowering costs to local governments and other service providers (most notably jails and hospitals).  Today, most costs associated with mental health calls to 911 are born through the City's police and fire departments.  SAC will present a brief history of how expensive the status quo approach is, discuss national best practices in this area as well as how the State and Federal Government encouraging local governments and other service providers to use this alternative approach.  

City Council may:

• Directing staff to include funding for the CRU program within the proposed 2023 budget or,
• Not to include it in the budget waiting to make a decision later in 2022.

The City's share is expected not to exceed $200,000 in each of the first two years.  This $200,000 represents approx. one half of the proceeds we included in our 2021 public safety levy presentations to more effectively deal with the root causes of crime.  The overall CRU budget will be presented by SAC (see attached powerpoint). 

The Council is being asked to engage in a dialogue with SAC and city staff to better understand why CRU is being proposed as a key component to improving the safety of Billings.  Additionally, the Council is being asked to include $200,000 in the proposed FY2023 budget to fund the City's share of the project or determine if more information is needed for a later determination or if the Council is not interested in pursuing CRU's being at all funded by the City.