Mental health: community mental health board.

Existing law requires each community mental health service to have a mental health board consisting of 10 to 15 members who are appointed by the governing body, and encourages counties to appoint individuals who have experience with and knowledge of the mental health system. Existing law requires 50% of the board membership to be consumers, or the parents, spouses, siblings, or adult children of consumers, who are receiving or have received mental health services. Existing law prohibits a member of the board, or his or her spouse, from being a full-time or part-time county employee of a county mental health service, an employee of the State Department of Health Care Services, or an employee of, or a paid member of the governing body of, a mental health contract agency. This bill would exempt from this prohibition a consumer of mental health services who obtained employment with an employer described above and who holds a position in which he or she has no interest, influence, or authority over any financial or contractual matter concerning the employer, and would require that member to abstain from voting on any financial or contractual issue concerning his or her employer that may come before the board.