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Comptroller flags legal limits on using opioid and inmate benefit funds
Summary
Scott Park told commissioners $600,000 in opioid settlement funds and nearly $400,000 in an inmate‑benefit account may not lawfully supplant general‑fund expenditures, and he has asked the attorney's office for clarification.
Scott Park told the committee he discovered line items in the current budget that rely on restricted funds in ways he believes may be impermissible under settlement and state law. "I don't think that it's legal in terms of the the settlement. It would violate the state law," Park said about using $600,000 in opioid settlement funds to supplant county expenditures.
Park also called out approximately $392,000 in the inmate‑benefit fund — funds generated by inmate commissary, tablet and phone fees — and said county practice should be reviewed before redirecting those revenues to general operations. Park said he has asked the sheriff's office for its policy and sent the attorney's office to confirm allowable uses. Commissioners responded that restricted funds could be used for inmate benefits such as reentry programming or library purchases but cautioned against creating a fiscal cliff by relying on one‑time federal dollars.
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