Opioid Abatement Authority staff detail application requirements, warn of portal issues ahead of April 1 deadline

Opioid Abatement Authority staff held a technical Q&A for city and county applicants, reiterating that completed direct distribution reports and all required application fields are necessary for applications to be considered complete ahead of the April 1, 2025 deadline.

The session’s moderator told attendees that a ‘‘completed direct distribution report is required of all participants in any OA grants,’’ and directed applicants to the grants info page for the individual-distributions guidance. The moderator emphasized required fields such as long-term sustainability, objectives and performance measures must contain full answers before an application can be judged complete.

Why it matters: Local governments seeking OA funding must reconcile budget entries and supporting reports in the portal or risk their application being marked incomplete and not forwarded to the grants committee for review.

The authority walked through critical budget-entry rules: enter personnel expenditures first, then operating or capital, then the budget overview tab where matching funds and the OA award request are recorded. ‘‘The portal will not allow you to progress past that budget overview section unless everything reconciles,’’ the moderator said, adding that common reconciliation errors occur when requested award amounts do not match listed expenditures.

Staff also clarified classifications and reporting expectations: personnel costs should list only direct employees of the applicant or fiscal agent; contractors employed by subrecipients should be entered under operating expenses and listed in subrecipient line items. Capital expenses should be reserved for significant purchases or renovations (for example, a mobile treatment center), architectural/engineering costs tied to capital projects belong in capital, and leases should be recorded as operating expenses.

On cooperative partnerships, the OA told attendees to verify that partner localities are registered in the portal and that fiscal agents confirm partners have completed direct distribution reports. The authority cautioned that removing a partner from a cooperative renewal is not an allowed amendment: ‘‘If you drop a partner, you have to start over with a new application because reducing the footprint is not allowed,’’ the moderator said.

The session addressed renewals and carry-forward rules: applicants may request carry forward amounts, but those are estimates until a carry-forward true-up report (expected mid-to-late July) reconciles estimates with actual year-end expenditures. The moderator said cooperative partnerships may have up to five years after the first award (four renewals), while individual distributions can continue so long as the locality remains compliant and interested.

Applicants raised concerns about portal access problems. A participant said they were ‘‘working with Jenny on an IT issue with my access.’’ The moderator acknowledged a known bug affecting the application fund-source selection and said the vendor and OA expected a fix early the following week. The moderator added that OA will ‘‘provide some flexibility’’ for timely submissions delayed by system errors, handled on a case-by-case basis.

Matt, a staff member who recorded a prior walkthrough of the portal’s in-app ‘‘chatter’’ communications function, confirmed the training will be posted to the OA website and included in subsequent newsletters. Staff encouraged applicants to use the chatter function for application-specific questions so exchanges remain attached to an application record.

On competitiveness, OA staff said there is no required local match percentage, but higher matches are prioritized. ‘‘We’ve definitely gotten some applications that have matches lower than 10% and in most cases they have not been able to be funded,’’ the moderator said, explaining OA must prioritize projects that bring more non-OA funding when resources are limited.

The authority closed by reminding applicants that initiating an e-signature request does not equal final submission; an authorized signer (city or county executive or their delegate) must complete the signature so the application attains ‘‘submitted’’ status and OA can begin review. Staff invited any applicants with remaining questions to use info@aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.us or their regional abatement resource coordinator and noted a final Q&A session scheduled for next Wednesday at 10 a.m. before the application period closes.

What’s next: applicants should verify partner registrations and direct-distribution reporting, reconcile their budgets in the portal, confirm an authorized signer will complete e-signature steps, and monitor the OA website for the chatter-function walkthrough and updated guidance documents.