Sumner County committee backs participating in Purdue opioid settlement, authorizes legal signoffs

Sumner County’s Opioid Maintenance Committee voted during a special-call meeting Aug. 6 to recommend that the county participate in state-administered allocations from the Purdue opioid settlement and to authorize the county’s law director to execute legal filings needed to meet bankruptcy-related deadlines.

The recommendation, presented by the county grant manager, would send a resolution to the legislative committee and the county budget office and would require the county mayor to sign a memorandum of understanding with the state before funds are released.

Dr. O'Fall, the county grant manager, said the settlement money would arrive in two streams the transcript described as less-restricted funds and state-restricted funds. “This is the money that's coming to us from the National Good Abatement Settlements,” Dr. O'Fall said. He told the committee the less-restricted share for Sumner County was presented as $320,398.30, to be paid in 16 installments of $20,024.89. He also described a separate state-administered, restricted share and gave figures that were unclear in the record: “that is at $860,000 $60,478.04, which after 16 payments would be roughly $53,779.88,” he said. The committee discussion treated those numbers as the staff-provided estimate for planning and referral.

The committee moved the resolution to the legislative committee for consideration. Committee member Paul Taylor moved to forward the resolution to legislators; the motion passed on a voice vote. A separate motion to send the item to the county budget office also passed on a voice vote.

Committee members also debated and approved a motion to give the county law director authority to sign and file time-sensitive legal documents related to the Purdue bankruptcy process so filings could proceed within court deadlines. The law director described the situation as tied to the bankruptcy proceedings for the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma and urged a streamlined signature authority to avoid repeated committee referrals. “This Purdue Sackler is a bankruptcy issue,” the law director said, adding that petitions and filings “gonna need to be signed and moved pretty quickly.” Committee members approved authorizing the law director to execute required attorney-signed documents; that motion was seconded and approved.

Meeting participants said the county’s mayor must sign an MOU with the state to finalize participation and that several documents and a local resolution must be submitted to the state within a timeframe discussed in the meeting. Staff said legal review and prompt signatures were necessary because of court and settlement deadlines; the committee authorized legal staff to act to avoid procedural delay.

The committee did not provide a final dollar allocation to programs in the meeting; staff told members the presented figures were the amounts Sumner County might receive under the state and national settlement distributions, and that the budget office and legislative committee would review and formalize allocations.

The committee referred the resolution to the legislative committee and the county budget office and authorized the law director to sign and file needed legal documents so the county could meet settlement and court deadlines. The committee did not set a date for the legislative committee’s review during the special-call meeting.