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Board continues opioid settlement items; Supervisor Ronan seeks closed session and debate over overdose prevention centers
Summary
Supervisors continued two resolutions on proposed opioid‑related abatement settlements with Walmart and CVS and Supervisor Ronan asked the board to meet in closed session with the city attorney to discuss use of settlement funds and to press for consideration of overdose prevention centers as part of the city's response to overdose deaths.
Supervisor Dean Ronan moved on April 4 to continue two resolutions tied to proposed opioid abatement settlements — one with Walmart and one with CVS — and the board agreed to continue the items to the next weekly meeting.
Ronan told colleagues she plans to ask the board to sit in closed session with the city attorney to discuss how any settlement money would be used and to resolve an apparent split with the city attorney’s office over legal versus policy decisions. “There is a difference of opinion on what is a legal decision and what is a policy decision,” Ronan said, and she said she expects to raise that difference with the city attorney in closed session.
Ronan framed the request in public‑health terms and urged the board to consider overdose prevention centers. “Every day approximately 2 people die from overdose in San Francisco,” she said. Ronan said supervisors, the mayor and the health department back overdose prevention centers and that “it is beyond time that we open these in San Francisco.”
Background on the items: The two agenda items described proposed abatement payments to be paid over multiple years: Walmart, Inc., in the range of $2.6 million to $6.8 million payable over six years; and CVS Health Corporation in the range of $4.5 million to $12.0 million payable over ten years. The items, presented together, would also authorize the city to accept joint and several liability tied to AHSC grants in separate items earlier in the agenda.
What happened in the meeting: After Ronan introduced the motion to continue, the clerk announced the items were continued to the board’s next meeting. Ronan said she will file a motion for closed session with the city attorney and asked colleagues to support the continuance so the legal and policy questions could be addressed in full view of the full board.
Why it matters: Settlement proceeds from national opioid litigation have been used by local governments for abatement and public‑health initiatives; Ronan’s request reflects a dispute about how the city should allocate and govern those funds and whether to pursue supervised consumption/overdose prevention centers as a use of settlement proceeds.
Provenance (transcript excerpts): “I will be introducing, later today a motion to sit in closed session with the city attorney… I would like to have that discussion here with all of you next week and, would ask you to support this motion.” — Supervisor Ronan (transcript block at s=859.365–s=1033.07). “Every day approximately 2 people die from overdose in San Francisco.” — Supervisor Ronan (transcript block at s=959.085–s=1024.625).
Ending: The two settlement items were continued to the board’s meeting the following week and Ronan said she will pursue a closed‑session discussion with the city attorney about legal authority and use of the funds.
