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Council previews interlocal to use opioid-settlement funds for local needs assessment and dashboard enhancements
Summary
Staff described a proposed interlocal agreement with Spokane Regional Health District to use opioid-settlement funds for a Valley-specific needs assessment and to enhance a regional opioid dashboard to show Spokane Valley-level geographic data; council asked for action to return with final documents.
City staff briefed the council on a proposed interlocal agreement with the Spokane Regional Health District that would allocate portions of opioid-settlement funds to two projects: (1) an enhancement of the regional opioid dashboard to permit Spokane Valley'level geographic breakdowns, and (2) a needs assessment focused on Spokane Valley.
Gloria Mance, city services administrator, said the city expects to receive approximately $337,000 from five settlements over time and that the council previously directed staff to negotiate agreements for certain projects. The dashboard enhancement is a one-time cost of about $17,000 and would allow the regional dashboard to filter by addresses or ZIP codes to identify overdoses and related indicators occurring within Spokane Valley. The needs-assessment item was described as approximately $40,000 and would gather data from first responders, schools, community organizations and people impacted by opioid use to identify local assets and gaps and to recommend actionable priorities.
Councilmember Merkel requested that the needs-assessment scope include an explicit requirement that recommendations be actionable and prioritized so the council can use the report to set funding or policy priorities. Councilmember Patton asked whether the dashboard enhancement will require recurring updates and recurring costs; staff said the enhancement will enable location-based filtering going forward so new data would be included without a new one-time build if the incoming data uses consistent identifiers.
Staff said the council previously gave consensus to negotiate an interlocal with the health district; staff will return with a motion consideration and finalized agreement language. The council did not take final action at this meeting but indicated support for completing the agreements and asked staff to include clear deliverables and action-oriented recommendations in the needs assessment.
