City continues fight against mental health clinic

By Jack Elliott Jr.
Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court will referee a dispute between the city of Ocean Springs and a mental health clinic that wants to locate in the coastal city.

The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the case for Sept. 16 in Jackson.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Robert Krebs ruled last December that the city erred in denying a use permit to the Psycamore mental health clinic.

The clinic wanted to locate in an area zoned C-3, or highway commercial area. The company has rented an old house that was converted to an office.

Neighbors have complained that C-4 would be a better zone for the clinic because it specifically allows hospital-related businesses. They expressed concern that the clinic would pose a danger to the area and bring down property values.

Clinic managers said they offer an intensive, day program for working clients dealing with stress and other disorders. They said they aren’t a rehab center, don’t treat the severely mentally ill and won’t have clients overnight.

In his ruling, Krebs said much of the argument by local residents who opposed the clinic was “more speculation than fact.”

In 2011, the Board of Aldermen voted 5-1 to deny Psycamore a certificate of occupancy and a use permit. The clinic claimed the area it wanted to operate in was zoned to allow medical clinics but the city contended it was a largely residential area.

The city also argued that partial hospitalization facilities — which is how Psycamore is described on its web site — are not medical clinics.

Psycamore officials argued that “partial hospitalization” is simply an industry term and that the company operates as a medical clinic.

Psycamore ultimately opened a clinic in Biloxi, but filed an appeal of the city’s decision in Circuit court, which led to Krebs’ ruling.

The case is among dozens before the Mississippi court in its September-October term. Other cases will be decided without oral argument. Among them is Entergy Mississippi’s efforts to quash a subpoena for customer information on 25,000 residents by the Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest. Last September, Circuit Judge John Emfinger denied Entergy’s request to quash the grand jury subpoena, which sought to open the business records. Entergy appealed.

Guest, who is representing the county tax assessor’s office, said the county wants nothing more than the address and name where the services are provided as part of an ongoing investigation into homestead exemption fraud.

Entergy said the county’s subpoena request is “an impermissible fishing expedition that seeks confidential (Entergy) data for general inquiry purposes that are not based on probable cause as to a crime that may have been committed by any particular identifiable person or group of persons.”