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Council transfers limited opioid-settlement spending powers to borough to expand services
Summary
Wasilla adopted Ordinance Serial Number 25-06 to transfer limited health powers to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough to allow broader use of National Opioid Settlement funds for direct services in the community; the ordinance passed unanimously after public testimony in support.
The Wasilla City Council unanimously adopted Ordinance Serial Number 25-06, amending Chapter 1.08 (Form of government and general powers) to add a section transferring limited health powers to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough for use of funds paid to the borough under the National Opioid Settlement Agreements.
Speakers during the public hearing supported the transfer. Michael Carson, who identified himself as a founding board member of “My House” and chair of the MATSU Youth and Mental Behavioral Task Force, said moving the powers to the borough would permit direct services that the borough’s broader public-health authority can fund: “Direct services will be able to provide that vital relationship to be able to break through the addiction cycle and move the person into recovery,” Carson said.
Nick Spiroppolis, borough bureau attorney, explained the transfer is a limited delegation of spending authority rather than an exchange of money. “So the money that the city is receiving is unaffected by this. You are retaining your own power to spend your own money however you want,” Spiroppolis said, adding the borough has received settlement funds and that the transfer is intended to let the borough distribute grant awards across a broader set of allowable uses in the exhibit attached to the settlement agreements.
David Wilson, representing Massey Health Foundation, told the council the foundation endorses the transfer to allow the funds to support prevention, treatment, harm reduction and recovery services locally.
City attorneys and borough staff said the ordinance preserves the city’s authority to spend any settlement funds the city receives while enabling the borough to administer a broader local grant program across municipal boundaries. The measure passed on a unanimous roll-call vote.
