In a surprise announcement, Mayor Richard M. Daley said at a press conference this morning that a plan to close four of Chicago’s city-run mental health clinics is on hold.

Daley's comments came on the day the South Side centers were scheduled to close, and following a report in the Daily News that billing problems and computer glitches caused the Chicago Department of Public Health to lose more than $1 million in state funds. The ensuing funding crisis led to the plans to close the four clinics.

When the mayor was asked about the controversy that led to the closures, he said, “We’re putting that on hold to find out some of the issues there.”

The announcement also came a day after protestors garnered a meeting with Paul Volpe, Daley’s chief of staff, to discuss the closures. Volpe invited a coalition of advocates to meet with him and Dr. Terry Mason, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, this evening to talk some more.

Despite Daley's comments, CDPH spokesman Tim Hadac says preparations for the closures are continuing.

“The logistics of the consolidation have been in motion for many weeks, and are right near conclusion. That continues,” he said in an email to the Daily News.

At the same time, he confirmed the decision to delay the closures: “If the Mayor said it, you can believe it," Hadac says. However, it was not clear today how long the centers would stay open.

“Things are on hold until they meet tonight,” says Daley spokesman Lance Lewis. “Even if we keep them open this year, we have to come up with money for next year.

This afternoon, the news of Daley's announcement had not yet reached at least one of the centers due to close.

Swing music surrounded mental health staffers at Chicago’s Woodlawn clinic as they cleaned up after a going away party.

With patient records boxed up, furniture wrapped in bubble wrap and movers milling around clinics, a months-long fight by advocates to keep the clinics open appeared to be on its last legs.

Calls to other centers slated to close were referred to the Department of Public Health.

Today’s announcement surprised those who had fought for months to keep the clinics open.

“If it’s true, I’m flabbergasted because we haven’t even met (with Volpe and Mason) yet,” says Darryl Gumm, chairman of the Community Mental Health Board. “I’m just flabbergasted to hear that.”

Bedonna Rheingold, a board member at the Woodlawn clinic, says she is happy the mayor is listening.

“I’m just elated,” she says. “I’m thrilled that it’s really gotten through, that they’ve put it on hold."

Alderman Ed Smith (D-28), chairman of the city council health committee, also welcomed the news.

“I’ll be very pleased if they’re going to leave them open because there are a lot of people who would have serious problems getting from one place to another,” he says.

City officials have previously blamed the closures in large part on state budget cutbacks.

But a trail of official paperwork, obtained by the Daily News through the Freedom of Information Act, shows that the department’s new computerized billing system was so flawed that patient bills weren’t submitted to the state for six months in 2008.

Billing the state was crucial to getting funds, because of the way the state allocates dollars for mental health services.

The city's current-year state payments are based on monthly reimbursements for service. When the state received no bills from the city for the last four months of the previous fiscal year, it amended the contract it had with the city to reflect the city's apparent lesser need for funds.

Hadac says CDPH will make sure patients are served as it looks for more funding.

“We will also continue to search for short- and long-term funding solutions, and we count on the advocates as valued partners in assisting us in that regard. We can’t guarantee that we’ll find those solutions today or even tomorrow, but we can guarantee that we will try our best,” he says.