Cochise County supervisors vote 2-0 to enter executive session on National Opioid Settlement

Cochise County Board of Supervisors Chairman Antinori and Supervisor Gomez voted 2-0 on May 12 to move into an executive session to discuss the National Opioid Settlement. "Can I get a motion to enter executive session, please?" Chairman Antinori asked; Supervisor Gomez replied, "I move that we go into executive session as authorized under ARS 38 dash 4 3 1 dash o 3 subsection a 3 and 4," and Antinori seconded the motion. The board recorded the vote as 2-0 in favor.

The meeting was convened as a special session in the Supervisors Conference Room on Melody Lane. Antinori opened by noting agenda items and attachments could be updated after publication and that members of the public could attend via Microsoft Teams or the mobile app. He cited Arizona statute governing executive sessions and confidentiality of executive-session minutes as the authority for the closed session.

Before the board entered closed session, Antinori asked if anyone wanted to speak in open session; no one volunteered. A roll call of attendees for the executive session named several staff and participants, including Sherry Gilman, Barb Lang, Joe Casey, Laura Lowenheim, Jonathan Pinkney, Laurie Zuko and Barb Whitehead. The board later reconvened in open session; Antinori announced, "We are now out of executive session. The time is 03:17." The public transcript contains no record of a formal action or final vote on settlement terms during the open session.

The board noted its next work session is scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m., and the chairman adjourned the special meeting. Public records or future minutes may provide any formal actions taken or votes resulting from the executive session if permitted for disclosure under state law.