EC County Board will vote to create opioid task force, decide capital project funding
Sep. 19—EAU CLAIRE — The Eau Claire County Board will vote tonight on the creation of a task force that will recommend the use of national settlement funds for abatement purposes.
The National Prescription Opiate Litigation settlement agreement was created in response to the numerous civil lawsuits filed by the federal, state and local governments against opioid distributors and manufacturers.
The state of Wisconsin adopted legislation in the summer of 2021 to receive global settlements from major opioid distributors and manufacturers. AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, McKesson and Johnson & Johnson settled on $26 billion to local governments nationwide.
The county is set to receive a settlement of $2.5 million, or $137,000 each year for 18 years.
A resolution presented on the board today could authorize the creation and establishment of an Eau Claire County Opioid Task Force.
According to the resolution, the funds are to be used for abatement purposes such as expanding the addiction treatment workforce, increasing adoption of clinical best practices, and improving enforcement of mental health parity and consumer protection laws at the state level.
"What we're trying to do is preserve (the funding) for its purpose to deal with the opioid epidemic, and so the task force will be our way of ensuring reasonable use of the funds," County Board Chairman Nick Smiar said at the Committee on Administration meeting last week.
The task force will consist of 10 members appointed by the County Board Chair and approved by the board. The fact sheet states three members of the County Board one member representing public health, one member from the Sheriff's department, one member of the Eau Claire Police Department, one member from the Department of Human Services, the Criminal Justice Services Director and two members of the public will serve on the task force.
There must be at least one citizen member with experience in opioid abatement and one citizen member with lived experience.
"There is a group of individuals who already do this work in a number of organizations so what this will do is serve as a collector of all of those different organizations, whether it be in county government or our community and bring them together for a dialogue," County Administrator Kathryn Schauf told the Committee on Administration.
The task force will follow five principles; spend the money to save lives, use evidence to guide spending, invest in youth prevention, focus on racial equity and develop a fair and transparent for deciding where to spend the funding.
Other business
The board will also decide how to finance over $9 million in capital projects remaining in their 2022 budget.
These projects include highway and bridge improvements, facility infrastructure improvements, information systems equipment and sheriff fleet replacements.
The Committee on Finance and Budget considered a resolution to approve borrowing an amount that did not exceed $9.5 million to fund the projects at their Monday meeting last week. After some discussion, the committee did not vote in favor to recommend the resolution to the board.
Finance Committee Chair and Count Board Supervisor Dane Zook advocated finding a different source of funding the county already has at its disposal, including general fund surplus and American Rescue Plan Act funds.
This prompted the creation of a new resolution that would amend the 2022 budget by $1.9 million from the Eau Claire County General Fund Balance and $7.3 million in ARPA funds to finance the remaining projects.
"With the availability of a portion of unassigned general fund balance and ARPA funds, it is possible to not need to issue additional debt in 2022 to fund the projects approved as funded by debt in the 2022 adopted budget," the fact sheet stated.
Both resolutions are on the Eau Claire County Board agenda for consideration of possible funding sources for the 2022 capital projects.
