Cochise County outlines plan for roughly $3 million in opioid settlement funds; cities to vote on pooled IGA

Cochise County health officials told the Board of Supervisors on March 10 that the county has accumulated about $3 million in opioid-settlement funds while cities decide whether to pool their shares under an intergovernmental agreement (IGA).

Miss Lang, the county health presenter, said the settlement payments are arriving over many years and that cities’ individual shares vary — she listed examples including Douglas (~$261,000), Bisby (~$107,000), Benson (~$109,000), Tombstone (~$35–36,000), Wilcox (~$74,000) and Sierra Vista (~$515,000). She said most cities (all except Wilcox, as reported to the board) have signaled they prefer to pool funds with the county so the county can perform the required state reporting.

The county’s portion if no pooling occurs was described as about $1.9 million; pooling the cities’ shares would bring the total available to roughly $3 million. Miss Lang emphasized that the statewide settlement and the county’s implementing agreement define allowed uses, which must be health-related and include treatment and prevention programs. "It tells you this is the areas that you can and if it's not in this area, then you can't," she said.

Supervisors raised concerns about the state-mandated expenditure limit: distributing funds to cities reduces the county’s available general-expenditure capacity, while pulling funds into county appropriations also counts toward that limit. Board members said they want to preserve capacity to make pension payments and meet other high-dollar budget needs.

County staff and legal counsel described the proposed governance structure: each participating jurisdiction would nominate a representative to an advisory board that would review project proposals and recommend expenditures; the Board of Supervisors would retain final financial approval and submit required reports to the state. Danny (county staff) summarized the IGA workflow and said the document sets a default distribution method while allowing local adjustments with acknowledgements from jurisdictions such as Wilcox.

Miss Lang and supervisors discussed preliminary program ideas including a diversion team that pairs treatment with non-criminal diversion, outreach teams that follow up after overdoses to offer transport and treatment referrals, and modest annual spending ("a few hundred thousand a year," she said) so funds can sustain programs over multiple years. She also confirmed the county distributes nasal naloxone and makes it available to libraries and community centers.

No formal vote or IGA approval occurred at the work session. Miss Lang said each city council must first decide to join a pooled IGA; once the cities sign or acknowledge the method, the county will bring IGAs to the Board of Supervisors for formal approval and will report annually to the state per the settlement requirements.

Next steps: city council approvals on pooled IGA participation, county staff to finalize IGA language and a future Board agenda item for formal IGA approval and appropriation decisions.