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Kootenai County commissioners debate whether to bring opioid settlement fund administration in-house
Summary
Commissioners discussed whether to move opioid settlement fund administration from the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) back to the Board of County Commissioners, agreed to have staff solicit spending proposals, and heard OEM report it has received $1.6 million since 2022 and spent more than $500,000.
Kootenai County commissioners on March 24 debated whether to bring management of the county's opioid settlement funds back under the Board of County Commissioners or leave administration with the Office of Emergency Management (OEM). The board agreed staff should solicit proposals and that OEM will continue vetting requests before they come to the board.
Commissioner Blind pressed for a more aggressive approach to spend the funds, saying, "having this money and sitting on it and not spending it is, you know, to me offensive to the families who have lost all their loved ones as a result of this." Blind said he favored seeking ideas that focus "further upstream before people get afflicted with these drugs as opposed to doing actual treatment afterwards."
Tiffany Westbrook,…
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