Kittitas County staff propose CHIP "crosswalk" to guide opioid-settlement spending

Kasey Knutson, a public health program staffer, told Kittitas County commissioners on June 24 that the county must set a methodology for requesting and reviewing proposals for opioid-settlement funds and report decisions to the Opioid Abatement Council. She said staff plan to use a crosswalk analysis that maps the county's Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) to the strategies listed in the settlement MOU to narrow priorities and document community-based input.

The crosswalk pairs local priorities identified in the CHIP with the settlement's eligible abatement strategies, Knutson said, and reduces the set of possible projects from an eleven-page strategy list to a shorter set of recommended activities. She emphasized that the crosswalk is intended both to focus funding and to provide the documentation the MOU requires for community input.

Commissioners discussed ensuring coordination with the City of Ellensburg, which also has opioid-settlement funds, before finalizing requests for proposals. Knutson said staff will present the proposed RFP methodology and any funding documents to the board at a future meeting; no funding awards were made at the June 24 session.

Why it matters: Opioid-settlement dollars are subject to MOU rules and oversight; the county's approach will determine which community programs are eligible for local support and how public input is documented. Next steps: staff will return with an RFP methodology and proposal-review process for the board's consideration.