County and city task force proposes $8M opioid spending plan; Tucson council urges faster move on sobering center

Pima County Health Director Teresa Cullen and the Regional Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee (ROSAC) presented a draft plan April 22 for how local opioid settlement dollars would be spent across the city and county. The committee’s recommendation proposes using roughly $8 million in a first funding tranche (one-third of a projected $24–$85 million total settlement pool) to support youth prevention, peer navigation, transitional wrap‑around supports, co‑response for law enforcement, innovation grants, and planning for a sobering center.

Why it matters: Council members and many public speakers stressed immediate community needs — especially the absence of a local sobering center and rising overdose and unsheltered population challenges. Several council members argued the sobering center should be prioritized and receive additional early funding from the pooled settlement dollars. The council voted unanimously to ask ROSAC and the County Board of Supervisors to reconsider their recommended priorities and to return within 30 days with more focus on urgent sobering center startup funding and earlier implementation.

ROSAC’s process and recommendations - ROSAC convened representatives from the City of Tucson, Pima County, Town of Marana and South Tucson, along with community and subject-matter experts, to assemble priorities and a rubric for scoring proposed investments. The committee emphasized evidence‑based measures, impact on vulnerable populations, and sustainability. - The advisory group proposed a package of priorities to be funded across three years (dividing an assumed $24M allocation into three $8M tranches as a planning construct). The initial $8M tranche focused on: youth prevention; peer navigation and case‑management expansion; transitional wrap‑around supports (housing, transportation, food during treatment); law-enforcement co‑response and peer‑navigator support for first responders; innovation funding; staffing the regional coordination effort; and a planning grant for a sobering center implementation study. - ROSAC noted the total pool remains uncertain because some settling parties are insolvent; staff estimated the region might receive $80–$85 million per earlier communications but warned the final total could be lower.

Council and community push for a sobering center Council members from across the dais urged ROSAC to accelerate plans and add more funding for a sobering center — a staffed facility offering medically supervised sobering, withdrawal management, peer navigation and linkage to treatment — that could house people short‑term (pilot beds established quickly, scaling up over time). Council members and public speakers emphasized rising overdose activity and the urgent needs of unsheltered residents with substance use and mental health disorders. Several asked ROSAC to return with a clearer, accelerated-cost estimate to start a pilot within months rather than years.

Motion and vote At the end of the presentation the City Council voted (motion and second) to ask ROSAC and the County Board of Supervisors to reconsider the recommended allocations and fast‑track funding for sobering center planning and startup. The council’s motion carried unanimously; members also scheduled a focused meeting with regional law‑enforcement, county and court leadership to coordinate operational pathways for people who might otherwise cycle through arrest or emergency care.

Next steps - ROSAC will finalize a consolidated RFP and scope of work and said it expects to publish grant solicitations and evaluation metrics. The committee plans to return to the jurisdictions with more detailed scopes, budgets and metrics for evaluation; council asked for more urgency on sobering‑center implementation funding. - The council also set up a Monday meeting between Tucson, the County Board chair and justice system leaders to align options for diversion, booking, and alternatives to incarceration.

Ending: The county’s public health director urged investment in a mix of prevention, peer support and “creative solutions,” while council members emphasized that a sobering center could be the missing operational element to divert people from arrests and hospitalizations and to stabilize unsheltered neighbors in the weeks ahead.