Chambana Sun

Champaign County Board Opioid Settlement Task Force met Jan. 31

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

Committee Members: 

Present                                    Absent

Aaron Esry

Jennifer Locke (Chair)

Diane Michaels (Vice-Chair)

Emily Rodriguez

Ed Sexton

Chris Stohr

Jennifer Straub

Others Present: Steve Summers (County Executive), Michelle Jett (Director of Administration),  Kyle Patterson (County Board Chair), Lynn Canfield (Executive Director of the Mental Health Board) and Megan Robison (Recording Secretary)  

Agenda Items 

I. Call to Order 

Chair Locke called the meeting to order at 6:36 p.m. 

II. Roll Call 

A verbal roll call was taken, and a quorum was declared present. 

III. Approval of Agenda/Addendum 

MOTION by Ms. Straub to approve the agenda; seconded by Mr. Esry. Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously. 

IV. Approval of Minutes 

A. December 4, 2023  

MOTION by Mr. Stohr to approve the minutes of December 4, 2023; seconded by Ms. Michaels. Upon vote, the MOTION CARRIED unanimously. 

V. Public Participation 

None

VI. Communications 

None 

VII. New Business 

A. Mental Health Board Opioid Information 

Ms. Canfield has been keeping up with what the state is doing with opioid settlement money, and she disbursed information regarding that. She stated the Mental Health Board spends about 17% of their funding on substance use disorders but does not currently fund any opioid specific programs. Ms. Canfield has met with others in the community regarding this same topic and she is concerned that the  recovery community is not involved in these discussions. If the recovery community is not calling for  these programs, they are not going to work. She stated her biggest wish would be to put the recovery  community in a position to direct services and funding to some extent. 

Ms. Straub asked how they can find representatives from the recovery community for their discussions and unfortunately Ms. Canfield does not have any specific contacts. Ms. Jett mentioned the possibility of funding a community-based survey to reach out to the people most affected in our community. 

Ms. Canfield mentioned the funding they give to Champaign County Drug Court. She also talked about how drug court was unable to apply for a grant because there was no money in it for other County Departments that are currently understaffed and unable to take on a larger workload that would come with grant funding. She thought this might be an option for some of the funding. 

B. Updates from Staff 

Ms. Jett reminded everyone that the link for the dashboard has been sent out and she asked everyone to take a look at the information provided and let her know if they have any edits to the dashboard. After a few weeks she will be reaching out to the governmental entities in the community to discuss how they collect their data to make sure they have all the data going forward.  

Ms. Locke spent hours going through the information contained in the dashboard and shared some highlights explaining that there has been an increase in use of almost all types of opioids, not just fentanyl, and that most users are males aged 21-65. She would like everyone to look through the  dashboard in order to make the best decisions on how to use the funding. 

For the C-CARTS program, Ms. Jett will be sitting down with Probation and Drug Court to get more concrete figures on who would be using this service to determine what the cost will be for this type of service. This will be a matching grant from the federal government and seems like something they  should try even if the ridership is low in the beginning. She hopes to have more information for the next meeting. 

Ms. Michaels mentioned RPC has an upcoming budget deadline to ensure this program can be funded and the Task Force needs to be mindful of that deadline. Also, she threw out the idea of buying a vehicle  to be used for this service along with giving out passes for riding C-CARTS or MTD in the future after they  graduate from Drug Court.

C. Next steps discussion 

Mr. Stohr would like to see the County sponsor an event for the various entities/stakeholders to come  together for discussion and collaboration. Ms. Straub likes this idea but believes there needs to be an  agenda and someone to run the discussion. 

Ms. Jett asked if there is a countywide joint effort around addition or addiction treatment. Ms. Canfield  doesn’t know of any existing groups but believes that would be a really good idea. A joint effort like that would be something that is created with the grant funding that Carle is seeking. She believes this might  be something better run by the County. 

Ms. Michaels really thinks Rosecrance would be the best entity to put these ideas together and she would like to know where they stand in the discussion. Ms. Locke agrees that the Task Force should invite Rosecrance to their next meeting. 

Ms. Rodriguez believes it would be good start to reach out to recovery alliances. 

VIII. Other Business 

A. Date of next meeting 

The Task Force members would like to invite Rosecrance to their next meeting and will wait to see their availability before scheduling the next meeting. 

IX. Chair’s Report 

None 

X. Adjournment 

Chair Locke adjourned the meeting at 7:23 p.m.

https://www.co.champaign.il.us/CountyBoard/Opioid/2024/240131_Meeting/240131Minutes.pdf