Curry County commissioners considered two proposed uses for opioid settlement dollars on Thursday. The first proposal was an agreement with Gold Beach for a school resource officer position, while the second involved opioid use disorder treatment at the jail.
Competing proposals on potential uses for opioid settlement dollars put jail commander Lt. Jeremy Krohn at odds with the Curry County Board of Commissioners on Thursday.
Krohn’s request for $36,000 in opioid settlement dollars to provide telehealth services to inmates struggling with addiction came after commissioners supported a proposed five-year intergovernmental agreement with Gold Beach to create a school resource officer position.
Under that proposal, Curry County would pay Gold Beach $149,100 in opioid settlement dollars for the first year. This cost would cover the officer’s salary and benefits, vehicle accessories and insurance, outfitting for the officer as well as software. The county would continue paying for those expenditures throughout the five-year term of the agreement, which includes a 5 percent cost of living adjustment and step increases for the officer.
During the summer, the school resource officer would transition into a community resource officer, according to Commissioner Brad Alcorn.
Though Curry County Finance Director Keina Wolf said there were enough opioid settlement dollars to fund both programs, Krohn took issue with the SRO proposal. He said he was perturbed that he had to make a presentation to obtain approval to use those funds, but Gold Beach and the school districts benefiting from the SRO position didn’t have to make a presentation.
Without naming who they were, Krohn said he sent the proposed intergovernmental agreement between the county and Gold Beach to “colleagues who handle opioid settlement funds” for review.
“They said you could not fund a full position based on that IGA through opiate money,” Krohn told commissioners. “They conservatively said 20 percent to fund it. So, with that, be prepared for that to come up — that we’re over funding out of the opioid settlement funds. There will be an audit for that.”
Krohn said he would argue that because he runs a medically assisted treatment program at the jail his salary as well as the pay for the nurses who administer the medication and the corrections deputies that screen inmates at the jail should come out of those opioid settlement dollars.
“We’ve handed out 26 doses of Narcan in the last 30 days, so all of our salaries should come out of that,” Krohn said, referring to the drug that reverses an opioid overdose. “We just saved the general fund $1.2 million.”
The sheriff’s office also holds quarterly meetings with local organizations and others involved in substance abuse and opioid abuse disorders to discuss problems in the community, Krohn said. He urged commissioners to attend those meetings.
“Listen to what the community is asking for and not the parents at the school where there is money for an SRO,” he said. “There are grants out there for this, you just have to go out and ask.”
According to Krohn’s staff report, using opioid settlement dollars for MAT programs at the jail is permissible under the agreement, which refers to both MAT programs and the treatment of incarcerated individuals.
Alcorn argued that an SRO position teaching children about the dangers of opioid use is also referred to in the settlement agreement. The agreement states that settlement dollars can be used for prevention programs including “funding for evidence-based prevention programs in schools.”
According to Wolf, Curry County was awarded opioid settlement dollars from two settlements — a group settlement and a settlement with the State of Oregon. The county also receives kickbacks from opioid manufacturers, who are required to set aside a portion of the money they make out of the sale and manufacturing of those drugs for treatment programs.
“I do believe we would be able to fund the SRO [position] and, for a limited time, I think we could also do the jail’s portion as well if that’s what you’re considering,” she said.
According to Director of Operations Ted Fitzgerald, the school resource officer would be based out of Gold Beach, but would also work in the northern part of Curry County. He or she would also coordinate with the school resource officer that works for Brookings, Fitzgerald said.
In the summer, the school resource officer would become a community resource officer “to work with the homeless and other issues that are currently plaguing the county at many levels,” Fitzgerald said.
Gold Beach Police will assign one of their existing officers to the SRO position, Alcorn said, and Curry County will hire another officer to work with the Gold Beach Police Department to increase their staffing level.
“It’s another officer in our school system working with the current officer we have in south county and providing service to north county as well,” he said, adding that he talked with Gold Beach Police Sgt. David Vershall, who will be supervising the program. “Not just as an SRO, but in the CRO capacity.”
The Board of Commissioners will send a draft IGA to the Gold Beach City Council for adoption. The agreement will then come back before commissioners later in the year for their adoption. According to Alcorn, Vershall “was ready to go sooner [rather] than later,” but had not given him a firm date for when the program would start.
After Krohn made his presentation, Fitzgerald drew a comparison between the inmates at the jail needing opioid abuse disorder treatment and the parents of the children who will interact with the SRO.
“A lot of the people that are in our jails aren’t even necessarily residents of this area, but those parents that you ask us not to listen to actually live here,” Fitzgerald told Krohn.
Krohn differed.
“Most of the people that are in the jail today are residents of Curry County or Del Norte County,” he said. “They are people that are released in Gold Beach and stay in Curry County.”
Fitzgerald said he thinks the parents of the students in Curry County schools should be a top priority.
Alcorn said the Board of Commissioners would wait to hear back from Gold Beach.
“Then we’ll reassess the exact amount we have and get a full reporting from Keina and make a decision after that,” he said, referring to the finance director.
