El Paso, Texas, weighs its role in funding MHMR agency

From ABC-7 in El Paso:

EL PASO, Texas -- As the debate over health care reform spilled onto the sidewalks near the El Paso's County Courthouse - thanks to demonstrators and their colorful signs - a new debate popped up between the county and the city of El Paso.

The issue: Who should pay for El Paso's Mental Health and Mental Retardation agency?

El Paso City Representatives Beto O'Rourke says, by law, MHMR is the responsibility of the county. So he along with special city council committee members Eddie Holguin and Carl Robinson voted to cut ties with the agency. Representative Emma Acosta voted against the idea.

O'Rourke says MHMR's highly-publicized funding issues are the result of the old cliché: too many chefs in the mental health care kitchen.

"Anytime you spread accountability to different political entities, you get a poor product as a result," O'Rourke told ABC-7.

MHMR spokesman Rene Hurtado says while every little bit of funding helps, this is all about more than losing the city's $100,000 yearly contribution.

"The mental health care system is very complex," said Hurtado. "The more people we have at the table, the better it is for everyone."

El Paso County Commissioner Anna Perez says, in her opinion, the city has a direct role in helping the sun city's mentally ill; adding there's too much at stake for city officials to hide behind a law.

"{The law} doesn't mean they don't have a place at the table," she said.

Hurtado says if the city goes through the with plan, there will be some difficulties for MHMR down the road, but he says the idea does no mean El Paso mental health patients will go on a waiting list for medication anytime soon.

El Paso's full city council is expected to take up the issue next month.