County challenged on $1 million for human services Ross and Lyn Early speak on behalf of Ross's sister, Connie, hands together, at the Human Services board meeting at the Brown County Mental Health Center (photo by Tina Gohr). By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle Brown County Human Services Board chairman Pat Collins says a county official is taking away $1 million the County Board and county executive had designated for human services. Collins said administrator Jeff Landin wrote a letter saying that a designated $1 million would stay in the county's general fund rather than be earmarked for the Human Services Department. The money was left over from 2002 spending. The board voted in April to take $2 million of the $3.4 million left over from 2002 spending and earmark it for two items: $1 million for the department for 2004 funding and $1 million to reduce bonding on a proposed mental health center. The health center won't be built next year, so the $1 million will go back to the general fund. But the other $1 million should go to Human Services as the County Board voted, Collins said. "(County Executive) Carol Kelso signed this and the 'new' board approved it," Collins said. "But now we get a letter saying it won't happen." The discussion at Thursday's meeting of the Human Services Board came after several speakers spoke against cuts in the department's preliminary budget. Final budget numbers will be announced Oct. 15. Leading into Collins' complaint, Dave Johnson said the department should not "budget in" overages, and was told that was not the case. "If I find something extra in my checking account at the end of the month, I'm pretty happy," said Sup. Steve Fewell. "There's a Catch-22 here. If you spend all you're budgeted, you get called a tax-and-spend liberal. But if you have some left over, you haven't provided all the services you should have." Representatives of two programs getting county funding spoke for their agencies. The Family Violence Center, in preliminary numbers, would lose all of its county funding - about $60,000 to $70,000 - although it would continue to get money from county marriage licenses. Kathryn Chapman, the center's director of services, said the county executive's office had wanted to cut all funding but found out the license money was mandated by the County Board. "We have a budget of $840,000 a year. If we lose that county funding, that's about 8 to 10 percent of the budget," she said. Former Brown County Sheriff Tom Hinz, the center's board president, described the services the center provides not only to domestic abuse victims but in working with abusers. Lyn and Russ Early, who take care of a developmentally disabled sister, said they could not take care of the young woman alone without the help of "four or five" county staffers. Connie Early was kept in a convalescent home and heavily medicated before the aid allowed her family to take care of her. Connie now works with the Aspiro program, which faces a $60,000 cut. "We could manage for a year - then we'd burn out," said Lynn Early. She said other families were in the same situation, many with fewer resources. "If the cuts are made, in the long run it will be more expensive. This is the most cost effective way to handle this," she said.