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Commissioners consider $200,000 "challenge grant" to spur new opioid programs
Summary
Chairman Kennedy proposed reserving about $200,000 from opioid settlement funds as a challenge-grant pool to encourage new ideas; COPE staff said any carve-out would need strategy-specific reporting tied to the MOA.
At the March 17 meeting, Chairman Hardin C. Kennedy suggested setting aside a discrete pot—roughly $200,000—as a challenge grant to encourage new program proposals that are not part of the recurring awards. Kennedy framed the idea as a way to incentivize innovation without taking away funding from currently recommended programs.
COPE Steering Committee member Kirstin Roberts cautioned that any separate pot would have to be tied to clear strategies for reporting and alignment with the County's obligations under the 2021 MOA. Roberts said staff working with Interim Finance Director Zachary Lovette would need to define priorities (for example, prevention) so reporting to the State remains consistent with the settlement agreement.
