SE Colorado Region 19 Opioid Settlement Board
March 11, 2024 via Zoom
Present, County Represented
Blaine Arbuthnot, Terry McMillian, Crowley
Wendy Buxton-Andrade, Prowers
Rick Butler, Baca
Rob Oquist, Otero
Dennis Pearson, Meagan Hillman, Kiowa
John Galusha, Huerfano
Felix Lopez, Las Animas
Eppie Griego, Steve Bryant, Pueblo
Guests
Rob Miller, Safeside Recovery
Michelle Francis, Catholic Charities SE CO
Theodora Barychewsky, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless
Elizabeth Riffle, Crossroads Turning Points
Shannon Miller, Crossroads Turning Points
Jack Patterson, AG’s Opioid Unit
Aubrie Radford
Andrea LaRew
Jude Solano, SCHRA
Sarah Money, Southern CO Health Network/APP
Call to Order
Wendy Buxton-Andrade calls the meeting to order at 3:02 p.m.
Approval of Agenda
Rob Oquist and Meagan Hillman moved and seconded the approval of the Agenda – Agenda approved.
Approval of Minutes
Felix Lopex and Steve Bryant moved and seconded the approval of the minutes – Minutes approved.
Facilitator Update
Rose gave a Facilitator update:
- Rose drafted and sent a general letter of support for applications for the organizations applying for grants related to the epidemic within Region 19 counties and region. The applicants had a very short window of time to get these submitted. Therefore, the Board had limited time to review them so the general letter of support was issued to support entities in the region.
- Had many inquiries regarding the status of the RFP’s and grant awards. The region has not yet received the full award from the National Settlement, and therefore do not have a firm number of what can be awarded for the RFP’s. This also will be discussed during the financial review. Jack Patterson from the AG’s office said that Region 19 has applied and will be getting the full funding for Year Two and it should be coming soon to our fiscal agent.
- Felix Lopez asked for the list of organizations that received the letters of support, they are as follows: CU Anschutz, Jim Edgar with Health Solutions, Rob Miller at Safe Side, Don Stader with The Naloxone Project, Terry Schreiber, The Schreiber Research Group and Jude Solano with Southern Colorado Harm Reduction.
- Storage of the Zoom meetings. The storage is getting full and the Board needs to make a decision on whether they want to keep the audio of the meetings or just keep the written minutes of the meeting. The minutes are currently being posted to SECOR website and the Board needs to decide if they want that audio portion kept. The Board also needs to have a written policy on what they would like to do with the audio part of the meetings. Felix Lopez asked about the cost of the cloud storage. John Galusha volunteers a half a terabit hard drive to store the zoom meeting audios on, when and if the Board decides this is the direction. The Board would like the meetings audio portions kept.
Rose will write up a policy for this next meeting for the Board to vote on with the audio portions of the meeting minutes. Felix wanted to make sure that it is clear on where and whom will be custodian of the audio portions of the meeting minutes and to get guidance from the Attorney General’s office on what is the requirement according to the MOU. Rose will be working on that and get back to the Board on what she finds out at the next meeting.
Wendy gave a quick report on financials. We have received $25,338.40 on 11/30/2023 from Southeast, $137,480.00 on 12/21/2023 from National Trust II Opioid Abatement, $710,323.22 on 2/21/2024 from Distributor Payment, $449,308.65 on 2/21/2024 from Janssen and we also received the year one left over payment from Pueblo at $421,114.27. The distribution settlement payments received so far is $1,322,450.27 and then you can add in the Pueblo Year One forwarded funds. These are not all of the funds that are allotted to the region so the RFP cannot be awarded until all funds are received.
VOTING ITEM: Business Cards
Approximately $27.00 per 100. The cards will be given to Law Enforcement, Providers or anyone that is in crisis. They will have the QR code to go to the website to find services being offered in the area, use it to drive traffic to it and determine how it can help a family in crisis. Steve Bryant from Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office talked about how this could be helpful for JBBS and others to get our name out and a powerful way to get information out to the public. There was a discussion on how many to order at first and then reorder when needed after that. There was also a discussion on ordering posters for each County. Discussion was discussed on the top amount of how much to spend and moving forward. The not-to-exceed amount was decided on at $1,500 and that one-sided posters and business cards will be ordered.
Felix Lopez and John Galusha moved and seconded to table the item – motion approved.
VOTING ITEM: Grant from Change for Good
Grant opportunities from Change for Good for $1,500. There are four tasks and requirements for the grant. One of the tasks is sharing it on social media and SECOR does not have social media. Rose had a concern about our ability to meet the grant requirements if applied. Jack Patterson spoke about what the AG’s office had in expectations and the social media was definitely an ask on it. All tasks except the social media tasks can be done. Jack will carry the message back to the AG’s office on the limitations of what SECOR can do. Rose will work with the AG’s office when more information is available. John Galusha suggested getting the materials out to the providers and let them do the social media. It really is not the job of this Board. Felix Lopez suggested that we do not want to be the experts of the Opioid information. Wendy Andrade also talked about social media as well.
Meagan Hillman and Steve Bryant seconded the motion to table the item. Motion Approved.
Other business
None
Adjournment
Felix Lopez and Rob Oquist motioned to adjournment – Motion approved.
Next Meeting:
Monday, April 8th at 3:00 p.m.