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Fiscal Court approves participation in national opioid settlement and signs MOU template for local distribution
Summary
Franklin County approved a resolution to participate in the latest tranche of national opioid settlements and authorized memoranda of understanding to standardize accounting and reporting for agencies that will receive county-distributed opioid funds.
Franklin County Fiscal Court voted Sept. 24 to join a set of national opioid litigation settlements and to circulate memoranda of understanding and attestations to agencies that will receive county-administered opioid funds.
County Attorney Max told the court the packet contains settlement documents for eight secondary manufacturers with a combined amount in the packet described as $1,200,000,000; he said the state’s breakdown of shares has not been provided and the county must approve participation to access its portion of funds. "This is the next phase of the settlements for the opioid litigation that we're involved in," the county attorney said, noting the court must adopt the authorizing documents to participate.
Program coordinator Belinda introduced a set of documents — MOUs, attestations to follow accounting best practices and fiduciary-responsibility attestations — intended to require reporting with each quarterly invoice and to ensure agencies provide necessary data for state reporting. "We would like to have all of the agencies receiving opioid funds sign these documents, in an effort to establish best practices as we begin distribution of the opioid funds," Belinda said.
Magistrates pressed whether smaller nonprofit recipients could use award dollars to pay for accounting help; Belinda said she did not believe so and committed to confirm. The court also discussed keeping county-funded projects distinct from city-funded opioid projects to avoid overlap in reporting.
The court approved a resolution authorizing participation and approved a combined participation-and-release form for secondary manufacturers. Court members tabled no further action on distribution agreements themselves; Belinda said she will return with individual agreements for formal approval once details are finalized.
Next steps: the county will sign the participation documents and then send the MOUs to recipient agencies for signature; individual funding agreements will return to the fiscal court for approval.
