SE Colorado Region 19 Opioid Settlement Board
October 09, 2023 via Zoom
Present, County represented
Kim MacDonnell, Bent
Blaine Arbuthnot, Crowley
Dennis Pearson, Kiowa
Wendy Buxton-Andrade, Prowers
Felix Lopez, Las Animas
Rose Pugliese, Facilitator
Rick Butler, Baca
Meagan Hillman, Kiowa
Shawn Mobley, Otero
John Galusha, Huerfano
Guests
Sarah Long, Pueblo County Attorney’s Office
Michelle Wiseman, Pueblo County Attorney’s Office
Jack Patterson, Mindy Baumgardner, Colorado Attorney General’s Office
Matt Fisher, Christine Charron, Robert Guerrero, SCHN
Sarah Mobley, SCHN
Terri Schreiber, The Schreiber Group
Stacey Samaro, CTP
Sheila Richmeier, Remedy
Marissa Stoller, Pueblo City
Sam Bourdon, CDPHE
Kristen Carpenter
Rob Miller, Safeside Recovery
Ginger Whatley, Crossroads Turning Points
Call to Order
Wendy Buxton-Andrade calls the meeting to order at 3:01PM
Approval of Agenda
Felix Lopez motions and Blaine Arbuthnot seconds the approval of the agenda – agenda approved.
Approval of Minutes
Blaine Arbuthnot and Rick Butler move and second the approval of the minutes – minutes approved.
Facilitator Update
The website will be live in a few days and changes can be made as necessary moving forward.
Discussion of the RFP
Recommendations: Harm Prevention 23-05 $254,623.26 for first year funding
Colorado Health Network deemed unresponsive.
Southern Colorado Harm Reduction was responsive and requested funding in the amount of $216.600.00. RFP Committee recommends funding at $41,000.00.
Safeside Recovery is responsive $108.260.00 the committee would like to see a reach to all counties in the region.
Crossroads’ Turning Points is responsive. They requested $74,760.00 and the committee recommended funding at $36,720.00.
Remedy Health Care was deemed unresponsive.
The committee recommends that the remainder be carried over and the five respondents can reapply for the remainder of the funding. The committee will come back to the board with recommendations.
Blaine Arbuthnot points out that Crossroads funded salary but not fringe benefits – are fringe benefits not allowable?
Rose Pugliese said that they can fund the fringe.
Sarah Long concurs.
Blaine Arbuthnot would like to fund the fringe for Crossroads.
Felix Lopez motions to accept the recommendations of the RFP committee with the adjustment to the crossroads award to fund the Crossroads fringe as per the RFP evaluation, Kim MacDonnell seconds.
Roll Call Vote
Bent – Aye
Baca- Aye
Crowley-Aye
Otero-Aye
Las Animas – Aye
Huerfano-Absent
Kiowa-Aye
Pueblo-Absent
Prowers-Aye
Motion is approved.
Discussion to allow the responsive applications to apply for the remaining $62,351.26 of first year funds:
Blaine Arbuthnot asks when funds are rolled over from year to year, do the funds stay within the category or go into a general pot and Wendy Buxton-Andrade clarifies that the funds remain within the category.
Blaine Arbuthnot Motions to roll the balance over to the second-year funding of harm reduction, Felix Lopez seconds the motion.
Roll Call Vote
Baca-Aye
Bent-Aye
Crowley-Aye
Kiowa-Aye
Las Animas – Aye
Huerfano Absent
Otero – Aye
Pueblo – Absent
Prowers – Aye
Motion is approved.
Rose Pugliese asks for clarification on which category will go first in second year funding RFPs
Kim MacDowell – Would like to stick with the order previously established for continuity.
Blaine Arbuthnot – Agrees with Kim MacDowell and wants to stick with what’s been established at this point.
Wendy Buxton-Andrade states that the board will keep the same order and start with prevention and education.
Motion for executive sessions by Felix Lopez, Felix motions and Kim MacDowell seconds for the pursuant to C.R.S. 24-6-402-(4)(b) for the purpose of receiving legal advice on the Fiscal Agent for 2023-2024 at 3:35PM
An email will be sent to guests when the Executive Session Ends so that they may rejoin.
3:39PM Board comes out of executive session moved and seconded by Shawn Mobley and Meagan Hillman to return to regular session.
John Galusha from Huerfano County joins the board.
23-24 Fiscal Agent
Felix Lopez moves to discuss 23-24 Fiscal agent.
Blaine Arbuthnot – Crowley was approached about being the fiscal agent and states that Crowley can do it and puts their name forward. Crowley is only interested in the accounting end, the legal end, involving contracting would need to come from another source.
Sarah Long points out that as a Pueblo County Attorney, Pueblo would not be able to provide legal services.
Rose Pugliese is facilitator and an attorney and Wendy Buxton-Andrade asks Rose if she could be contracted as the legal advisor for the board and Rose states that she can.
Blaine Arbuthnot states that Crowley could cover the accounting for 1% and Wendy clarifies that Rose then could cover the legal for the remaining 3% of the administrative fee.
Rose points out that she would need a new contract with the new fiscal agent as facilitator.
Felix prefers that monetary amount be given as dollars rather than percentages of the budget.
Wendy feels that the benefit of changing is one person doing the work.
John Galusha sees the benefit of getting the funding out to different counties in the region and believes that the fiscal agent should change so that more counties are experienced in the process.
John Galusha moves to contract with Crowley County for accounting and legal and reporting services not to exceed 4%. Shawn Mobley Seconds. Felix discusses that he would like to see the terms and conditions in a contract format because he wants to know specific duties of the contractor. Wendy suggests that the contracts be brought to the entire board. John Galusha and Shawn Mobley approve a friendly amendment to have a presentation of the contract with Crowley County on 10-23-2024 – the motion passes unanimously and will be an agenda item on 10-23-23.
Other business
Felix Lopez mentions that the relationship between Crowly County and Pueblo County for the purposes of continuation and audit needs to be maintained.
John Galusha wants to confirm that bank accounts are appropriate.
Existing contracts from first year funding will be closed out by Pueblo. Sarah will check on what if any second-year funding actions need to be taken.
Adjournment
Blaine motion to adjourn, Shawn Mobley seconds adjournment. 4:06PM
Next meeting
Monday October 23rd
Respectfully submitted,
Michelle Wiseman
Paralegal 1
Pueblo County Attorney’s Office