Why Should Delaware Care?
The Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission recommends how the state spends a $250 million settlement it won from opioid manufacturers and distributors. Following reports of fraud last summer, the flow of new grants has all but stopped.
Following a leadership shakeup on a commission responsible for how Delaware spends millions of dollars to fight opioid addiction, there are new legal questions as to whether new oversight can take hold.
Joanna Champney, the state’s top substance abuse director, was appointed co-chair of the Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission two weeks ago by Gov. Matt Meyer after months of controversy surrounding the program.
It also means staff that previously managed oversight and day-to-day administration of the fund, which were previously handled by the lieutenant governor’s office, would transfer to her office in the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health.
Her office would be instrumental in selecting which organizations are nominated for grants, which in some cases have totaled up to $500,000.
But a member of the commission challenged the move at a recent meeting, questioning if it’s legal for Champney’s office to take control of the embattled fund. David Humes, a member of the full 15-member commission, chairs the subcommittee that reviews the administrative compliance of the government body.
Is legislation required?
At a Tuesday commission meeting, Humes aired concerns that sparked an hour-long debate over the influence of the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health in the grantmaking process.
Now, the commission wants clarification from the Delaware Department of Justice as to whether it’s within the law for staff to be transferred to Champney’s office.
He argued the commission should remain under the wing of the lieutenant governor based on a 2021 law created to manage the millions of settlement dollars flowing into the state.
That law designated the commission as a subcommittee of the Behavioral Health Consortium, a board in the lieutenant governor’s office that approves the recommendations made by the commission. It also says the consortium “shall provide administrative support to the commission.”
“It is my belief that legislation would be required to move the (commission) to the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health,” Humes said in an email to commission members one week after the appointment.
In attendance at the meeting was Delaware State Solicitor Patty Davis, who leads the Department of Justice’s Civil Division and has contributed to the commission’s work.
She quickly dismissed the idea that the staff transition was in violation of the code.
Davis said the law didn’t include what office the commission staff would land within and since the consortium is not a state office, where the staff goes is “nebulous.”
“Our code is not prescriptive as to where they sit, I’m very comfortable with them sitting with DSAMH,” Davis said during the meeting. “I’m very comfortable with the way that this decision was made.”
She also said the process of approving the grants would remain unchanged and that all final approvals would still go through the consortium.
While Humes said he respected Davis’ opinion on the matter, he still introduced a motion to clarify whether commission staff could be moved to the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, which the committee overwhelmingly approved.
That clarification would be presented to members of the full commission at a March 3 meeting.
Memo shows change still waits
Spotlight Delaware also obtained a Feb. 5 memo sent by Champney and Attorney General Kathy Jennings, the commission’s other co-chair, discussing the administrative transition between the two offices.
The memo said an update on the transition would be discussed at a commission meeting in early March.
It also said Champney’s office was in the process of transitioning employees from the lieutenant governor’s office to the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health once it has the “authority to do so.”
A spokesperson for Champney’s office said that because the jobs haven’t been transferred to the agency yet, they can’t be filled.
“Situating oversight of the (commission) staff within DSAMH will also allow for grantmaking personnel to consider how grant applicants’ funding requests align with existing grant awards made by the state using federal funds and how funding requests fit into the state’s continuum of care,” the memo said.
When asked if the new leadership transition violates the law governing the commission, a spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Justice denied the claim.
They pointed to a piece of Delaware code that said the co-chairs are responsible for “guiding the administration” of the commission.
“What’s unambiguous here is that these decisions are ultimately up to the governor and the attorney general,” the DOJ said. “The governor has chosen commission leadership that emphasizes expertise rather than station; moving the staffing from the lieutenant governor’s office to DSAMH.”
Grants have been on pause
Delaware hasn’t awarded any new grants from the opioid fund since last July, when it approved $2 million in three-month extension grants for previous awardees. It came soon after a letter from Jennings called for a pause on grants, claiming the program was “rife with potential for fraud, waste, and abuse.”
Jennings’ letter followed a separate notice from the state’s top auditor that accused a Kent County nonprofit of securing its grant with “fraudulent documentation.”
Members of the Behavioral Health Consortium, which approves the recommendations from the commission, greenlit the July grants after a meeting that slammed the letter.
During that meeting, one nonprofit leader called the letter a politically motivated “witch hunt,” due to it being released so close to a heated gubernatorial primary race between then-Lt. Gov. and Commission Co-chair Bethany Hall-Long and Meyer, an allegation the DOJ denied.
“This is not Monopoly money. These are real dollars that the DOJ fought incredibly hard to secure, and every penny belongs to the public,” a DOJ spokesperson said in an email at the time.
Since then, the state has yet to put forward any recommendations as the commission contended with mismanagement concerns and the fraud allegations.
Champney’s first major task will be distributing $13 million in grants set aside by the consortium in July. Compared to the previous two grant phases in 2022 and 2023, this new sum would be the largest amount distributed by the commission to date.
Get Involved
The commission is set to have its first full meeting of 2025 on March 3 at 1 p.m. at the Delaware Technical Community College Stanton Campus or on Zoom.
Find the agenda here.
The post A new question surrounds Delaware’s opioid fund. Is new oversight legal? appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.