Supervisors want panel to look at opioid allocations

Fund allocation

We could set it up so a certain percent goes to prevention, a certain percent goes to treatment, a certain percent goes to law enforcement, however that may look,”

Garry Seyb, Lee County Supervisor Chairman

LEE COUNTY – County officials are looking to create a committee to handle the incoming opioid settlement funds.
At a workshop Monday following the regular county board of supervisors meeting, supervisor Garry Seyb asked that a committee of eight to ten people be assembled to review the legal language of the settlements already in place to determine the best course of action to spend the funds, which currently will total about $1.8 million after 15 years.
Seyb said that pot of money has a very good chance of growing as there are still several settlements being finalized, with some still being negotiated. National pharmacies including Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and others are still being finalized.
Those funds would likely come to the county in the same fashion that current funding is coming in. The state gets a portion of the national settlement based on factors such as opioid use, both legal and illegal, and distribution of the drugs. Then the state’s 98 counties pull half of the state’s portion. Only Davis County declined to be party to the settlements. That share is divided out based on the formulas in place.
Lee County gets 1.495% of the state’s portion, which is the 11th largest percentage in the state.
Last week supervisors got a presentation from Kathy Gabel, the previous owner of the Talbot House in Keokuk. Gabel was asking if any of the county’s opioid money could go towards costs of assisting residents at the home, whom she said regularly have addiction issues.
Seyb said he’s also had conversations with Alcohol and Drug Dependency Services (ADDS) about possible funding assistance.
“They only have one counselor in the county in one location,” Seyb said.
Seyb said he had originally thought of using some of the funding to prop up space at the new Lee County Health Department/EMS facility. But a core strategies listing that was part of all of the previous settlements makes using those funds for that precarious, even though the mitigation has gray areas for usage of the funds.
The committee is to be composed of one supervisor and an alternate, someone from Fort Madison and Keokuk, a faith-based representative, a member of the sheriff’s department, Lee County Health department, Lee County EMS, and an at-large representative.
The committee would make recommendations to the full of board of supervisors as to how the money could possibly be divvied up.
Seyb said it may be good practice to set up the fund allocations as the board did for the America Rescue Plan Act funding.
“We could set it up so a certain percent goes to prevention, a certain percent goes to treatment, a certain percent goes to law enforcement, however that may look,” Seyb said. “But that would be something that the committee would recommend.”
The county has already used about $250,000 to help train new EMS staff on opioid recognition, treatment, and first-contact counseling. There is about $56,000 still remaining in the fund with additional contributions scheduled now each spring.
The law firm of Crueger Dickinson out of Wisconsin is handling the settlements for Iowa counties.