Escambia County opioid-abatement board approves Brightbridge adjustment, accepts REAP reprogram amid debate over participant fees

The Escambia County Opioid Abatement Funding Advisory Board on Wednesday reviewed provider reports, confirmed budget totals and approved two funding actions, including a Brightbridge Ministries salary-line adjustment and a REAP reprogramming, while members raised concerns about charging program fees soon after participant intake.

The board’s staff reported $5,498,458.51 in opioid-abatement funding received to date, with $3,647,362.36 allocated and $1,851,096.15 remaining for future notices of funding availability.

At the meeting the board elected Catherine White as chair (two votes to one for Tommy White) and Tommy White as vice chair (two votes to one for John Mathis). Staff also noted term expirations: Catherine White and Tommy White are scheduled to expire in May 2026; John Mathis’s term expires in September 2026.

Providers delivering services funded by the board gave brief updates. CORE (emergency management core) reported it has transitioned 514 patients to recovery out of 591 served, “maintained an 87 percent success rate” and increased patient encounters from 1,249 in 2024 to 2,711 year-to-date, while stressing ongoing community stigma and noting Americans with Disabilities Act protections for people receiving medication-assisted treatment.

OPUS reported outreach and harm-reduction activity for September and October: 179 boxes of Narcan, 160 fentanyl test strips, seven wound-care kits, seven rapid hepatitis C tests and 10 rapid HIV tests; OPUS said it conducted eight education sessions, expanded outreach to several encampments and made multiple referrals to treatment and health services.

Brightbridge Ministries requested a minor adjustment to a grant salary line because of a delayed start. Cheryl Hennen and Ashley Brown said $27,945 (the amount representing 44% of a case-manager salary line) would be divided between two case managers so each would receive about $13,945.50 (reducing each from 44% to 22%). A board member moved to accept the change, a second was recorded, and the motion passed.

REAP’s executive director described a short-term intake-and-stabilization model the organization expects to run for roughly six weeks per participant. The proposal includes an early program-participation fee structure (the proposal cited $12.50 per day after an initial window in one version), which prompted multiple board members to question whether a two-week window is practicable for people entering programs with no resources. Board members sought clarification about how case managers would handle clients who lack income and asked staff to include program duration and anticipated participant costs in the contracts and a tracking spreadsheet for each provider.

A motion to accept REAP’s reprogramming passed after discussion; the record includes multiple recorded “Aye” votes and one recorded “No” by a board member who cited concerns about the proposed two-week fee trigger. The transcript does not identify individual vote names for each tally.

Staff told the board the 2025–26 applications will go to the Board of County Commissioners on Thursday, December 11 and that contracts should be prepared for each nonprofit ahead of the next advisory-board meeting. The board set its next meeting for Feb. 9 (subject to follow-up on availability by staff).

The meeting closed with a reminder that, if awardees do not use allocated funds by the end of their contract year, unused funds will return to the funding pool when contracts end.