Claims accuse Pacific County of bungling health services funds

Published 1:30 am Monday, July 13, 2026

Former officers with Great Rivers Behavioral Health are suing the counties where the organization operates, including Pacific.

Two have filed tort claims against Pacific County alleging its and other parties played a direct part in them being wrongfully terminated from Great Rivers Behavioral Health Organization (GRBHO) and Community Integrated Health Services (CIHS).

Marc E. Bollinger, the agencies’ former chief executive officer, and Ronald A. Lehto, the former chief business officer, are seeking $3 million in damages they allege have been sustained by their “wrongful terminations” after whistleblowing.

Lawsuit claims

The claims — each 53 pages and completed by their legal counsel Maze Law Group — name a total of 24 involved parties/witnesses including Pacific County Commissioner David Tobin and Wahkiakum County Commissioner Gene Strong, Cowlitz County Commissioner Steve Rader and former commissioner Arne Mortensen, and Grays Harbor County Commissioner Vickie Raines.

According to the tort claim filed to the Pacific County General Administration on June 18, Bollinger and Lehto found approximately $1.3 million in “denied or uncollected claims for behavioral health services by CIHS.”

“Rather than meaningfully investigate those concerns, require transparent reporting, protect public funds and ensure that CIHS’s finance function remained accountable to proper executive and operating-board oversight, the GRBHO Governing Board allowed Commissioner Vickie Raines and others to redirect control of the finance department and its oversight away from Mr. Bollinger, Mr. Lehto, and the CIHS operating board,” the claim states.

“On or about Nov. 8, 2024, the GRBHO Governing Board, including Pacific County’s appointed representative Commissioner Tobin, voted to restructure CIHS’s finance reporting lines after an executive session. The restructuring stripped Mr. Lehto of his supervision, oversight, and responsibility for the CIHS Finance/Accounting Department, which is an essential component of his position.”

“It also placed Lisa Marsyla and the finance department under the control of Commissioner Raines and Commissioner Strong, bypassing Mr. Lehto, Mr. Bollinger, and the CIHS Operating Board. This was done without adequate explanation, without meaningful investigation, without proper involvement of HR, without notice to or approval by the CIHS Operating Board, and without a legitimate business justification.”

“Mr. Lehto promptly objected that the Board’s action removed core duties from his role, damaged his reputation, created confusion within the organization, and appeared to violate CIHS’s operating structure,” the claim added.

‘Sham’ investigation?

In response to Bollinger raising concerns about the financial discrepancies, alleged open public meeting violations and conflicts of interest, and concerns raised by Lehto, they claim they were targeted by a “sham” investigation that led to their May 5, 2025, termination.

“The information Mr. Bollinger presented included raw claims and denial data that Mr. Bollinger and Mr. Lehto had obtained from Netsmart and the managed care organizations as part of their effort to identify and recover public funds owed to CIHS,” the claim states.

“Upon seeing that information, Commissioner Tobin acknowledged that this was the first time he had received meaningful information about the denied-claims issue. Commissioner Tobin’s reaction confirmed that Pacific County’s GRBHO representative had either not been adequately informed before the Board approved the restructuring or had not exercised sufficient independent oversight before allowing Commissioners Raines and others to remove financial oversight from Mr. Bollinger, Mr. Lehto, and the CIHS Operating Board,” the claim adds.

According to the claim, the duo’s terminations followed months of what is described as “good faith efforts to raise concerns about public funds.”

In Bollinger’s claim, he alleges that he was stripped of executive financial authority and deprived of contractually entitled annual performance reviews and salary increases throughout his tenure.

Likewise, Lehto’s claim alleged that he was not only stripped of financial oversight abilities but has sustained significant damage to his reputation and independent consulting business, and that there has been “active interference” with him obtaining unemployment benefits.

Lehto, a licensed mental health professional who specializes in at-risk youth, was also allegedly removed and barred from regional community and crisis-planning roles in which he served as an expert, which he claims have inhibited his current and future public-service opportunities.

“The abrupt termination also placed Mr. Lehto’s professional reputation and clinical standing at risk,” the claim states. “Mr. Lehto developed an innovative program for at-risk youth that has been implemented to help vulnerable young people achieve better behavioral health and life outcomes.”

“Through his independent consulting business, he licenses and promotes that program to organizations and communities seeking evidence-informed approaches for serving at-risk youth.”

“The damage to Mr. Lehto’s reputation resulting from the restructuring, investigation, and termination has impaired his ability to market, license, and expand that program, causing additional economic harm and loss of business opportunities,” the claim adds.

Following Bollinger and Lehto’s terminations, Raines and Marsyla were promoted into their leadership positions.

“Mr. Lehto’s reputation was especially harmed because he had served for years as a respected behavioral health leader, clinician, crisis-response professional and public-facing representative of CIHS,” the claim states.

“His abrupt termination without legitimate explanation caused community partners, employees, managed care organizations, legislators, patients, families, and others to assume that he had done something wrong.”

“Pacific County is therefore responsible for the injuries caused by its appointed GRBHO board representative’s participation in, approval of, ratification of, and/or failure to prevent the wrongful governance actions, retaliatory restructuring, sham investigation and termination of Mr. Lehto,” the claim added.

Bollinger’s claim mirrored Lehto’s, also alleging a failure by Tobin that resulted in his termination without “legitimate explanation” that “caused community partners, employees, managed care organizations, legislators, patients, families, and others to assume that he had done something wrong.”

County response

Pacific County has declined to comment, citing the ongoing nature of the situation.

The county has 60 days to respond, and if a settlement is not reached then Bollinger and Lehto can take the matter to Pacific County Superior Court in an official lawsuit. It is likely they have filed claims with the other counties named in the tort claim.

Pacific County is already in the midst of a $12.5 million tort claim filed on Jan. 9 by the family of Curtis S. Kirschbaum, who died by suicide inside the Pacific County Jail on Oct. 7, 2024.

The Kirschbaum family’s tort claim has passed the state-mandated 60-day window, meaning it will likely be filed as a lawsuit in the near future.

Pacific County settled a major tort claim filed by the family of Crystal R. Greenler in connection to her death inside the jail on Dec. 13, 2022. The county settled with the family for $2.95 million, which went to legal counsel and her surviving children.