Consultants present opioid settlement action plan; council reviews prevention, treatment and recovery funding
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Summary
The Stedman Group presented a community action plan for Florence’s opioid-settlement funds recommending governance, transparency and a triaged budget across prevention ($200,000), treatment/navigation ($140,000) and recovery supports ($160,000) drawn from roughly $560,000 currently available and future installments.
Consultants from the Stedman Group presented the City of Florence’s community action plan for opioid-settlement spending, explained the research and recommended a governance and funding framework for using settlement proceeds.
Bree Robles, a Stedman Group consultant, said the city is estimated to receive approximately $4,500,000 over time as part of a larger statewide settlement allocation. The city has already completed two award cycles, disbursing roughly $582,860 in 2023 and $554,524 in 2024 to local programs. The Stedman Group was contracted to produce a community-informed action plan and recommended three primary strategies: prevention/community awareness and harm reduction (recommended allocation $200,000), treatment access and navigation (recommended allocation $140,000), and strengthening the recovery ecosystem (recommended allocation $160,000). The plan also proposes a governance line, including a city opioid-response coordinator (estimated $60,000 across five years in the recommended model) and public-facing dashboards to track outcomes.
Courtney Lane of the Stedman Group said the plan rests on a gap analysis of secondary data and primary community input gathered through focus groups and community meetings, and stressed the need to improve treatment access for uninsured and underinsured residents. “Prevention efforts can really reach deeper into our youth and schools,” she said, while noting limitations in detox access and fragmented resource navigation across providers.
Councilmembers asked practical questions about timeline and compliance: Stedman Group representatives said the plan complies with settlement rules and suggested two-year funding cycles for grantees, scaling program spending over time rather than spending funds up front. Council also discussed whether the city should partner with Florence County to achieve greater regional impact and how the plan should align with other local initiatives such as homelessness and behavioral-health investments.
What happens next: The Stedman Group’s full reports and work plan are publicly available (presenters noted links in their slides). Council discussed adding the topic to upcoming budget planning and governance conversations and asked staff to work on coordination and a decision agenda for allocating settlement funds.
Provenance: Presentation begins at SEG 896 and related discussion continues through SEG 1467.
