Rally Supports Mental Health Services : Finances: A crowd of 60 marched in Pomona in support of the Tri-City agency. Pomona, facing a budget deficit, may eliminate its share of funding.

The Tri-City Mental Health Authority, which provides mental health services to Pomona, Claremont and La Verne, will move into new quarters and celebrate its 30th anniversary this summer--or else close its doors forever.

A crowd of 60 Tri-City clients and supporters marched in front of Pomona City Hall on Tuesday to urge that the agency be kept open. Chanting and waving signs with such slogans as “Keep Tri-City Open,” “Don’t Lock Us Out” and “Tri-City Really Cares,” the group demonstrated against Pomona City Administrator Julio Fuentes’ recommendation that city funding for the agency be canceled.

Although Pomona provides only $78,430 of the agency’s $1.8 million annual budget, the city’s withdrawal would trigger a cutoff of state funds and force the agency to shut down, according to Douglas Buche, its executive director.

Buche added that the agency, which now occupies the second floor of a two-story office building in downtown Pomona, has been planning to move to new quarters on Garey Avenue, north of Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, in July. That would coincide with its 30th anniversary.

Mayor Donna Smith said Tri-City could be kept open if the City Council follows her suggestion for tax increases. Smith has called for returning the city utility tax to last year’s level and imposing other tax and fee increases to avoid most of the projected cuts in city services, including the layoff of 72 employees and the elimination of 40 vacant jobs.

Tri-City operates a day treatment program, a 24-hour crisis line and counseling for children who are victims of abuse or neglect. It also provides outpatient services, including psychotherapy and medication, for the acutely mentally ill.

The agency has 40 employees, ranging from psychiatrists to social workers, and serves 1,200 to 1,500 people a year.

Every city in Southern California except Pomona, Claremont and La Verne relies on county agencies to provide mental health services. The only city-sponsored program in northern California is in Berkeley.

Faced with a $5-million city budget deficit, Fuentes recommended deletion of Pomona’s funding of Tri-City on grounds that it “appears to be a duplication” of the service offered by the county.

But C. Allen Braswell, who runs three nursing homes and two psychiatric institutions in Pomona, said the county does not provide the high level of service offered by Tri-City. By relying on the county, Braswell said, “we’d be much worse off.”

Francis Dowling, chief deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, said the county would receive the state funds allocated to Tri-City if the agency closes.

“Dr. Buche and his staff provide excellent services,” Dowling said, and if Pomona cancels the funding, the easiest solution might be for the county to contract with Tri-City to continue in operation. But Dowling added that such an arrangement would require approval of county supervisors, and that he is not familiar enough with Tri-City’s programs to know whether all of them could be retained.

“We’d have to look at those things,” he said. “They’d have to do what we want done.”

Buche said the county “provides minimal services, not nearly as extensive as we do for our three cities. I’m not downgrading the Los Angeles system. They’ve just been put in an impossible situation (by funding cutbacks).”

“I think we will want to fight to retain our independence,” he said. “We’ve retained it for 30 years.

Claremont Councilwoman Diann Ring said her city also faces budget problems but has managed to include its share for Tri-City--$26,181. She said that failing to fund Tri-City would be “very short-sighted,” giving up a well-established, locally controlled program for uncertain county services.

But La Verne City Manager Martin R. Lomeli said he cannot criticize Pomona for considering withdrawal of city funding because he made the same recommendation to his City Council four years ago for budgetary reasons. Ultimately, though, La Verne was able to provide its share of money.

Lomeli said closure of Tri-City would hurt local police departments because they rely on the agency to evaluate the mental condition of people who are taken into custody as a possible danger to themselves or others. Without Tri-City’s staff, Lomeli said, police officers will have to spend long hours transporting people to county facilities for such evaluation.

Pomona Police Chief Lloyd Wood said Tri-City’s evaluation service is valuable but is only available eight hours a day. Wood said Tri-City’s services are important but he is even more concerned about the potential loss of police jobs. Cutbacks proposed by Fuentes to solve the budget deficit include the elimination of 26 police officer positions.

Fuentes, who also has proposed a variety of revenue increases to avoid layoffs, said he would urge the council to restore city positions before funding an outside agency, such as Tri-City.

But Councilman Willie White said he thinks the city should be able to restore Tri-City’s funding. Viewing Tuesday’s demonstration by the agency’s clients and supporters, White said: “If we’ve got enough money to pay $270,000 to the humane society (for animal control services), we have money for these folks.”

Several of those marching on behalf of the agency were people who said that they suffered from severe mental illness and that they survived only with the help of Tri-City.

One 28-year-old man who receives daily treatment at Tri-City said he entered the program when “I was hearing voices, having delusions and seeing things that weren’t there.” He said he was also cutting himself with razor blades. With Tri-City’s help, he said, he is gradually improving. Without Tri-City, he said, “I’d be dead right now.”

A 41-year-old grandmother who said she has eight personalities, said: “If they close down Tri-City, I’m afraid I won’t live very long. . . . Without them, I don’t think I could deal with the outside world.”