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Cleveland County approves $445,000 in opioid-settlement strategies, designates coordinator role
Summary
The board authorized county opioid-settlement strategies for 2024–25, approving $445,000 in requested allocations (to be drawn from settlement funds) including community navigation, naloxone distribution, workforce development, a settlement coordinator role and expansion of a post-overdose response team.
Cleveland County commissioners voted to authorize the health department’s proposed opioid-settlement strategies for 2024–25 and to allocate the requested funding from the county’s opioid settlement special revenue account.
Health Department Director Tiffany Hanson told the board that the county has signed the Department of Justice memorandum of agreement (MOA) and expects just over $13 million in total payments over roughly 16 years, with an annualized level of about $320,000 after initial front-loaded funding. Hanson said the county currently holds roughly $2 million in the settlement account and that DOJ compliance and reporting requirements attach to expenditures.
Hanson reviewed 2023–24 work funded from settlement dollars, including a community navigation contract awarded to Integrated Care of Greater Hickory (ICGH), naloxone distribution (about 1,000 kits: 2,210 units dispensed), provider trainings attended by 67 clinicians and small workforce stipends to credential three individuals. For 2024–25 she proposed six strategies: continued community navigation ($200,000 annually), naloxone distribution ($10,000), expanded evidence-based addiction treatment ($15,000), an opioid-settlement coordinator position (budgeted at roughly $95,000 using county grading/benefits), a collaborative strategic planning process (Exhibit C work, about $5,000), and an expanded post-overdose response/community paramedicine program ($120,000), totaling $445,000.
Commissioners asked whether programs would create an ongoing county obligation after settlement dollars decline, whether requested figures were guaranteed, and whether unspent funds could be carried forward. Hanson said the coordinator position is an existing county role whose salary could be offset by settlement funds, requested figures are budget requests derived from RFQs and internal grading, and settlement funds can remain in the special revenue fund and be carried forward if not spent immediately.
After discussion about timing and a request to allow the county manager to review the package, a motion was made and seconded to approve the authorizing resolution to implement the presented opioid strategies; the motion carried.
Hanson said she will return next July with annual impact and financial reports to the board.
