Penobscot advisory group proposes application process, tightens conflict disclosure language

Members of the Penobscot County Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Committee discussed May 19 whether the committee should adopt an application process for appointments and clarified conflict‑of‑interest procedures to prevent voting on awards connected to a member’s organization.

The chair said the committee is considering moving from ad hoc appointments to a system that would publish an application, accept candidates, review applications, and forward appointment recommendations to the county commissioners “in the same way we would do an application process for an RFP.” Committee members supported keeping standard conflict-of-interest language in the policy: upon receipt of grant applications, members should review the list, declare conflicts, and recuse themselves from scoring or further proceedings related to those applications.

One member asked whether committee members who work for organizations that apply would be barred from applying; the chair said the committee would require conflict disclosure and that any member with a declared conflict would not participate in scoring or review of that application. The group agreed to harmonize the conflict language with an existing policy and to have a small subcommittee finish revisions ahead of the next meeting.

The committee also discussed keeping dollar amounts in policy text flexible to reflect changing settlement totals, and agreed to add language noting that settlement figures are fluid and that dashboards and public materials may report different totals depending on included settlements. Members scheduled interim work to finalize the policy language before the next grant round.