Politics & Government

County Supes Choose Concord for Obamacare Call Center

The board voted 3-2 to approve the contract during a long emergency meeting in Martinez that began Friday afternoon.

-By Bay City News

The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors voted to operate a new state health exchange call center in Concord tonight, despite a warning that the contract could expose the county to liability issues.

The board voted 3-2 to approve the contract during a long emergency meeting in Martinez that began this afternoon, ending a week that has seen the county all but lose a state contract to bring the call center and its 205 jobs to the area.

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Kathy Gallagher, the county's director of employment and human services, warned board members that the state contract did not protect the county from potential liability and allowed the state a great deal of leeway if it wanted to cancel the contract for any reason.

Supervisor Candace Anderson moved to drop the contract, but other board members expressed optimism that the issues could be worked out. "We have a need to have jobs in this county," said Board President Federal D. Glover. "There is a need to stimulate this economy and the only way we're going to do that is to create jobs."

Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Employees at the center will field calls from Californians enrolling in state health care coverage under the federal Affordable Care Act. In January, state officials announced they would choose Contra Costa County as the location for one of three call centers to be established statewide.

The vote to approve the state call center contract reverses a decision made earlier this week. The board had voted to reject the contract after negotiations reached an impasse between the county and one union involved in the project, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 512.

The deal was revived the following day when a last-minute agreement between AFSCME and the county was brokered. Leaders from both Concord and Richmond have been pushing to get the call center located in their cities since the contract was announced.

The board voted to select the Concord site at 2500 Bates Ave. after mulling two properties -- the Concord site and a building at 1400 Marina Way South in Richmond. Previously the board was considering a property at 1450 Marina Way in Richmond, but that property is no longer on the table, Gallagher said today.

Both facilities either measure around 32,000 square feet or can be expanded to that size, according to county staff. The Concord facility will cost about $1.7 million in rent for three years, while the Richmond site would run about $1.9 million, according to county documents.

Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.


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