FRANKLIN COUNTY – The future distribution of opioid settlement funds received by Franklin County remains unclear, as the county administration reevaluates the process for allocating and spending those funds. In April, the Franklin County Opioid Settlement Fund Committee was temporarily suspended by the County Commissioners.
The National Opioid Settlement is awarding funds to counties across the country to compensate for damages caused by the opioid epidemic. Settlements have been reached with various pharmaceutical companies including Teva, Allergan, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, and Janssen. The state of Maine will receive approximately $230 million over the course of 18 years. Franklin County has received $73,344.59 of that total, from a settlement related to the “over-prescribing of opioid medications,” according to the county’s website.
The county can use this money however it sees fit, as long as it conforms to a list of potential “abatement strategies” which can be found here in the state’s memorandum of understanding and agreement regarding the use of the funds. The memorandum does not enforce oversight on how subdivisions such as Franklin County choose to distribute the funds.
Last spring, Franklin County formed a committee to process applications for settlement funds and make recommendations to the county commissioners for how the funds should be distributed.
In the initial plans, a commissioner was to be present at the meetings and work as the go-between for the committee and the commissioners. Due to the current three-person board, in comparison to the typical five commissioners, no one was able to make the commitment. County administrator Amy Bernard was placed on the board to oversee the operations of the committee in their stead.
The committee included nine members, several of which had affiliations with local organizations related to the opioid crisis or personal connections to the epidemic.
The committee made a recommendation of $10,000 to Western Maine Community Action for harm reduction programs in support of substance abuse recovery. The county commissioners voted unanimously to approve the use of the funds on March 5.
Before successfully distributing any of the remaining funds, the committee was suspended by the county commissioners on April 16, after reported tensions within the group, including accusations of conflicts of interests and the removal of one committee member.
In an executive session on April 9, committee member Keith Amato was removed from the board. He was not present while this decision was made and was informed of his termination by a member of the press. Commissioner Lance Harvell issued a personal apology to Amato for this misconduct at the next meeting on April 16.
At that same meeting, the commissioners made a motion to temporarily suspend the committee.
Several committee members were given the opportunity to speak. Some expressed their belief that the committee was in need of restructuring, while others blamed the dysfunction on county leadership.
In a Letter to the Editor published in the Daily Bulldog, committee member and former law enforcement officer Richard Lumb offered his perspective, writing that “There was inadequate written pre-planning, unclear mission, vision, values, goals, and objects for the Committee to adhere to.” He also provided recommendations for the committee moving forward, if it were to be reestablished, centering around a need for clear leadership and direction.
Bonita Tompkins, another committee member, disagreed with Lumb’s assessment of the committee’s faults. “I don’t really put a lot of stock in the fact that we didn’t have bylaws,” she said. “It was just the toxic culture.”
Tompkins is the director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (CES), a non-profit organization that aims to develop business enterprises for local disadvantaged youth. CES has a storefront in downtown Farmington that houses both a makerspace and gift shop for youth make and sell their wares, and have built their first tiny home for homeless youth on a parcel of land on Whittier Road.
In the April 16 commissioners meeting, Tompkins’ “vested interest” in the funds came into question by the board. In an interview on May 6, Tompkins reported that when she originally applied to the committee, she broached the subject of a potential conflict of interest. As she recalled, she was assured by county representatives that it was not an issue, given the reason that many other people on the committee would be in a similar position. Tompkins stated that she recused herself each time CES’s applications were being reviewed to remain professional.
No specific requirements or qualifications for committee members were listed in the county’s classified ad released on the Daily Bulldog in April 2023.
Tompkins has reported that CES faced difficulties receiving funding from the committee after going through the application process several times, attributing it to a lack of “professionalism, respect, and cooperation” and a “pattern of mistreatment, discrimination, and uncooperative behavior” from county representatives, as she wrote in a letter read at the April 16 commissioners meeting.
“They’re preventing good things from coming forward, essentially,” Tompkins said in an interview.
In an email, County Administrator Amy Bernard reported that the commissioners will not be awarding any funds while the committee is being restructured. Bernard added that Commissioner Bob Carlton would be looking into options for restructuring.
When asked about this work on April 26, Commissioner Carlton declined to comment on the future of the opioid settlement funds, stating “I have some work to do before we move forward.” On May 31, he reported that a new opportunity has arisen and is currently being explored by the commissioners.
Franklin County still has settlement funds, but how those funds will be used in the future is not yet known.
