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Legislature approves opioid-settlement fund reallocation and budget correction; advisory-board appointments and minutes cleared
Summary
Tompkins County Health & Human Services Committee voted unanimously to repurpose an opioid-settlement grant awarded to CARS for electronic health-record costs and approved a budget timing correction for Whole Health opioid-housing funds; the committee also confirmed several advisory-board appointments and approved minutes.
Tompkins County’s Health and Human Services Committee on Jan. 15 approved two resolutions related to opioid-settlement funding, then completed a slate of advisory-board appointments and administrative approvals.
The committee approved a request to amend contract ID 12965 under the Tompkins County opioid settlement fund to repurpose previously awarded funds to Cayuga Addiction Recovery Services (CARS). Jessica Jansen, who said she works for Cayuga Health System and was representing CARS, told the committee the organization can obtain a Narcan vending machine at no cost through a statewide program and instead wants to apply the awarded funds to replace or support electronic health-record costs now that CARS has joined Cayuga Health. Jansen said some of the originally budgeted money had already been spent on software (Bell’s AI) and that the reallocation will expend the full award. The motion to approve the amendment was moved by Amanda Champion and seconded by Travis (last name not specified); the committee chair recorded the vote as unanimous.
The committee also approved a budget-adjustment resolution (ID 12985) to correct accounting timing for the Whole Health Department’s opioid-settlement housing program. Frank Krupa, departing commissioner of Whole Health, explained the change was an accounting correction to move planned funding across fiscal periods (recognizing the county fiscal year ends in December). The motion to approve the adjustment was moved by Travis, seconded by Amanda Champion, and recorded as unanimous.
Appointments and administrative votes: the committee approved a set of advisory-board appointments (Community Mental Health Services consumer representative Benjamin Kumar; Nancy Saltzman to the Developmental Disability Subcommittee; Jessica Massaro to the Substance Use Committee; and three at-large Youth Services Board members, Patty Van de, Jennifer Dean and Erica Crawley). Those appointments were moved by Travis and seconded by Randy Braun; the chair recorded the vote as 3–1 in favor. The committee also approved minutes from the Dec. 12, 2024 meeting (moved by Randy Braun, seconded by Travis) by a 4–0 vote.
Other procedural actions: the committee moved into an executive session on a personnel matter; the motion to enter executive session was moved by Randy Braun, seconded by Travis, and approved unanimously. The chair noted that no action would be taken following the executive session.
Why it matters: the opioid-settlement-fund amendment keeps grant dollars in active use for local addiction-recovery services as programs consolidate IT systems, while the Whole Health budget adjustment corrects a timing error and does not add new funds. The advisory-board appointments fill local volunteer positions that will feed into oversight or advisory work for county programs.
Ending: All votes reported in the Jan. 15 meeting were procedural or funding reallocations; the committee did not enter any new multi-year financial commitments at the meeting beyond previously awarded settlement dollars.
