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Richland County committee approves $5,000 treatment-court incentive renewal, refers conference funding to county board
Summary
The committee approved a $5,000 renewal from opioid-settlement funds for treatment-court participant incentives and voted to forward a separate request (about $16,000–$17,000) to the county board for approval to send team members to the 2026 All Rise conference in Nashville.
The Richland County committee on [date not specified] approved a $5,000 renewal from opioid-settlement funds to continue incentive payments for the county’s treatment court and voted to forward a larger conference-funding request to the county board for final approval.
Treatment court staff told the committee the incentive program—used for small rewards, graduation items and limited participant transportation—received $5,000 from the opioid settlement last year; about $3,000 has been spent so far this year. The coordinator said the state grant that supports treatment court no longer permits purchasing participant incentives, so the incentive payments have been covered from the county’s opioid-settlement funds.
The coordinator said the second application requests funding to send as many as eight team members to the National Association of Drug Treatment Court Professionals’ All Rise conference in Nashville in July 2026. The application estimates total costs of roughly $16,000–$17,000 depending on travel arrangements and breaks budget items into travel, lodging, meals and registration. The coordinator described the training as valuable for rural programs and said the team aims to implement two new practices by June 2027 drawn from conference workshops.
When board members asked whether the opioid-settlement fund could cover both requests, the director said at least $167,000 is currently shown in the settlement fund (with additional amounts held in investments) and confirmed there would be sufficient balance to cover the conference request.
The committee approved the $5,000 incentive renewal by voice vote. The separate request to fund conference attendance was forwarded to the county board for approval by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded at the meeting. The county board will consider the conference funding request at its meeting.
Actions: The committee’s actions at the meeting included formal approval of the $5,000 treatment-court incentive renewal and a referral of the conference funding request to the county board for final approval.
What’s next: The treatment-court incentive funding is approved at the committee level and will be available for program use. The county board is set to review the approximately $16,000–$17,000 conference funding request before any expenditures occur.
