Santa Barbara Sheriff Tangled in Mental-Health App Imbroglio

[Updated: Tue., Oct. 29, 2024, 5:15 p.m.]

The executive director of a statewide mental health commission resigned under fire late last Thursday in the wake of the controversy surrounding an expenses-paid six-day trip he took to England this past summer — accompanied by Santa Barbara Sheriff Bill Brown and two other members of the commission. The commission executive, Toby Ewing, resigned after the investigation into the trip, which had been paid for by a private British mental health contractor on whose behalf Ewing had lobbied members of the state legislature.

Ewing’s resignation was announced after a four-hour closed session during a meeting of the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, at which several mental-health advocates voiced objections to what they termed the bad optics and an apparent conflict of interest of the arrangement.

The company in question — Kooth — manufactures Soluna, a self-coaching mental-health app marketed to users ages 13-25. According to state records, Kooth paid $15,000 cumulatively to cover the travel costs for Ewing, Brown, and one of the two other commissioners who made the trip.

With the state facing a $45 billion deficit, funding for the app was slated to be cut by $140 million — more than half. The app fell substantially below projected performance benchmarks in its first year. Ewing met with staff from several key legislative leaders prior to the trip to argue against the proposed cuts. (The commission had nothing to do with the awarding of the grant; the grant was awarded by the Department of Health Care Services.) Those proposed cuts did not occur, and funding for Soluna remained intact despite its poor initial showing. As of this May, the Soluna app had garnered 20,000 subscribers out of a population pool of 12 million.

Sheriff Brown has been a member of the commission since 2010, which makes him its senior member. In addition to his duties as sheriff, Brown has played a high-profile role in statewide and national organizations dealing with law enforcement and, to a lesser extent, mental health. The commission was formed to ensure that the mental-health funds generated by a tax on millionaires approved by state voters in 2004 were spent according to what the voters approved.

In an email interview, Brown stated he did no lobbying of anyone on behalf of Kooth or the app. “Let me be clear; I had no part in Kooth being funded for their app, nor did I lobby or call or speak to anyone on behalf of Kooth in any way.”

Only after the trip was underway, Brown stated, did he become aware that Kooth’s app had been targeted for funding cuts in the proposed state budget and that this funding had subsequently been restored.

Brown said he took the trip because the “U.K. is widely recognized for its progress in meeting mental health needs, particularly with respect to early psychosis.” He noted that it’s well understood by Californians that family members struggling with psychosis “usually receive law enforcement responses.” Brown stated that as a leader on the commission in law enforcement diversion efforts, he was invited to participate.

He added that it was his understanding that the trip and its funding had been vetted and approved beforehand by the commission’s own attorney, the Fair Political Practices Commission, and by the governor’s own offices. With the exception of one open day, Brown said, his schedule was spent interfacing with mental-health-care experts, scholars, and providers.

The cuts initially proposed for Kooth’s app were part of a proposed $360 million cut to mental-health services. According to press reports, Ewing — who had been with the commission since 2015 and was paid $175,000 a year — was placed on administrative leave this September in response to conflict-of-interest concerns.

While his commission had no direct role in approving the contract with Kooth, it’s clear from emails, text messages, and appointment logs that Ewing went to bat for the company once funding for its app was under fire, meeting with Senate leaders and their staff, making the case the app needed more time to live up to its initial promise. The story broke when three whistleblowers from his office complained to the state auditor.

The spokesperson for the commission declined to comment, and a call to the commission’s attorney was not returned.

There’s no evidence that Ewing met with anyone from State Assemblymember Gregg Hart’s office or from State Senator Monique Limón’s.

During public comment before the commission went into closed-session deliberations last Thursday, the commission heard from several mental-health advocates who were upset that Ewing appeared to be favoring well-entrenched corporate providers and that he didn’t appreciate how poorly this reflected on the mission of the commission.