Wentworth County commissioners began debating Tuesday how to allocate $14.2 million in opioid settlement funds, with treatment providers pressing for a treatment-first formula and one commissioner arguing for a larger law-enforcement share.
The Wentworth County Board of Commissioners opened debate Tuesday over how to spend $14.2 million in opioid litigation settlement funds the county is set to receive over the next six years, with commissioners divided over how much should go toward treatment and recovery services versus law enforcement and prevention programs. The county has already received the first installment, $2.6 million, which currently sits unallocated pending the board’s decision.
Commissioner Deborah Ashworth, the board’s chair, opened the meeting by urging colleagues to resist treating the settlement as a general-purpose windfall. “This money exists because of a crisis that has cost this county real lives,” Ashworth said. “I don’t think we should be debating whether to spend a meaningful majority of it on treatment and recovery. I think we should be debating the details of how.”
A push for treatment-first spending
Donna Wysocki, executive director of Wayfinder Recovery Services, told commissioners during public comment that the settlement funds represent the county’s best chance in years to build reliable, non-grant-dependent funding for treatment providers. “Every organization in this room that does this work is funded through some patchwork of grants that could disappear next year,” Wysocki said. “This is different. This is money that exists because of what this crisis cost us. It should go toward fixing it, not toward whatever seems politically convenient this budget cycle.”
Dr. Marisol Vance, medical director of Riverside Free Clinic, echoed Wysocki’s request, telling the board her clinic has submitted a formal request for settlement funds to help stabilize services she has separately warned could face cuts within the year. “I’m not here asking for a favor,” Vance said. “I’m here asking the county to use money that came directly from this crisis to fund the people directly treating it.”
This money exists because of a crisis that has cost this county real lives. I don’t think we should be debating whether to spend a meaningful majority of it on treatment and recovery. I think we should be debating the details of how.
Commissioner Deborah Ashworth, Chair, Wentworth County Board of Commissioners
A dissenting voice
Commissioner Hank Reyes argued the board should reserve a larger share for law enforcement and jail-based treatment diversion programs, saying the county’s criminal justice system has absorbed costs related to the crisis that rarely get counted alongside hospital and treatment spending. “Every time somebody overdoses and survives, there’s often an arrest, a court date, a jail stay layered on top of whatever treatment they eventually get,” Reyes said. “If we send all of this money to treatment providers and none of it to the system that’s also absorbing this crisis every single day, I think we’re telling only half the story.”
Reyes proposed that at least 30 percent of the settlement funds be directed toward law-enforcement-based diversion programs, including expanded jail-based medication-assisted treatment and additional funding for officers trained in behavioral-health crisis response. Ashworth and two other commissioners pushed back on that figure during Tuesday’s meeting, though the board took no formal vote.
City council members weigh in
Though the settlement funds fall under county rather than city jurisdiction, several Bellwater City Council members attended Tuesday’s meeting to advocate for their districts. Council Member Gary Petrowski, who represents Cedar Hollow, urged commissioners to earmark a specific share for outreach and prevention programs operating in his district, citing the county’s own annual report showing Lowertown and Cedar Hollow account for the majority of overdose deaths. “The data already tells you where this money should be concentrated,” Petrowski said. “I’d ask the board not to spread it so evenly across the county that it stops making a difference anywhere in particular.”
Council Member Terrence Boudreaux, who represents Lowertown, made a similar request, while cautioning that neighborhood-level earmarks could create friction if other areas of the county feel excluded from a settlement funded by a crisis that has touched every district to some degree. “I want this money concentrated where the need is greatest,” Boudreaux said. “I also don’t want to pretend that’s a politically simple thing to ask a countywide board to do.”
No vote yet
Dr. Kwame Asare, director of the Wentworth County Department of Health, presented commissioners with a proposed allocation framework combining treatment, prevention and limited law-enforcement components, though he stopped short of endorsing specific percentages, saying that decision belonged to the elected board rather than his department. He noted the county’s recently released neighborhood-level overdose data and its findings on the aging patient population should inform whatever formula the board ultimately adopts.
Ashworth said the board plans to hold at least one more public hearing before voting on a final allocation, with a vote expected within the next two months. “I’d rather take an extra month and get the formula right than rush a vote and have to revisit it constantly,” she said. “This money only comes once. I want us to spend the time this decision actually deserves.”
Reyes said he plans to introduce a formal amendment proposing his law-enforcement earmark before the board’s next hearing. “I respect that Commissioner Ashworth wants this to be primarily a treatment conversation,” he said. “I just don’t think the board should assume that’s the only legitimate use of this money without a real debate first.”