AG 2001 03 26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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March 7, 2001 Daniel R. Coughlin Area Director Piedmont Behavioral Healthcare 245 Le Phillip Court, NE Concord, North Carolina 28025 Dear Dan: You have asked me to compare and contrast the legal status, powers and duties of a multi-county area authority, such as Piedmont Area Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Authority, constituted under current G.S. Chapter 122C and a joint agency established by an interlocal agreement between two or more counties under G.S. Chapter 160A, Article 20, G.S. 160A-460 et seq. As I understand it, this question has arisen because some have pointed out that under the draft Mental Health System Reform legislation currently before the General Assembly's Oversight Committee, it appears that a multi-county program can be created under the provisions of proposed 122C-88(e) of the draft legislation which reads, A county may operate a local program as a single county program or, pursuant to Article 20 of Chapter 160A of the General Statutes, may enter into an interlocal agreement with one or more other counties for the administration of a multi-county program. However, the draft G.S. 122C-88(e) goes on to provide, a single administering county must retain budgetary and accounting control of the local multi-county program and the authority to hire and fire the program director. My initial comment is that the focus on the point that a multi-county program may be created by an interlocal agreement is a red herring if that focus is meant to raise the implication that a multi-county program under the draft legislation would be more similar to a current multi-county area program than a single county program under the draft legislation, for such an implication, were it to be made, would not be true in any real sense, other than possibly the appearance of the forms. Let us clearly understand that the status of a current multi-county area program is to be fundamentally changed'under the draft legislation. Under current G.S. 122C-116, the status of a multi-county area authority is "a local political subdivision of the State." By contrast, the drat~ proposed G.S. 122C-89A (b) provides, "A county program is a department of the administering county for the purposes of personnel administration of employees appointed by the local program director and Chapter 159 of the General Statutes and such Other purposes as may be agreed to by participating counties."