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Johnson County staff ask board for spending authority from opioid abatement fund
Summary
At a Jan. budget work session, grants staff said Johnson County has opioid settlement dollars on hand and asked the Board of Supervisors for permission to use roughly $740,000 of the balance in FY 2026 to launch a funding round; no formal vote was recorded.
Allison Wells, grants manager for Johnson County, told supervisors at a budget work session that the county has settlement money in its opioid abatement fund and is seeking authority to spend part of it in fiscal 2026.
Wells said the county is sitting on about $1.6 million in the opioid abatement account and expects to receive “a little over $331,000 in planned payments,” though the exact total could change if additional settlements are finalized. She asked the board to grant spending authority for roughly $740,000 so staff could run an initial funding round and pay for evaluation and tracking.
The request follows a community needs assessment prepared by community health partners that the board received in May. Wells said the board previously directed staff to pause an initial funding round; staff now plan to return with a detailed grant process and project proposals in the coming weeks and could distribute some dollars in fiscal 2025 if the board wants that.
Wells said the county’s internal work group that will help design reporting and grant processes has changed since an earlier, larger stakeholder group: it is currently led by the grants team with public health and sometimes assistance from the county attorney’s office. Supervisors said they expect other departments — including ambulance, the sheriff’s office and social services — to be consulted when the grant-review team develops recommendations.
No formal motion or roll-call vote on spending authority appears in the meeting transcript; staff presented the request and answered supervisors’ questions about the work group and timing. Wells said staff will bring a specific funding-round proposal and more detailed budget numbers to the board in the next couple of weeks.
The county’s next step is to present grant guidelines and proposed awards for board review before any funds are released.
