Why Should Delaware Care?
Spending of the state’s opioid settlement fund has been under scrutiny by the attorney general’s office since June, after Delaware’s chief prosecutor sent a letter urging a freeze on future grants. Concerns have since been raised regarding the oversight and management of the funds meant to prevent and fight the substance use crisis.
A Delaware outreach service provider was paid $20,000 more than it was granted from the state’s opioid settlement fund this year.
While it promptly repaid the funds, the episode continues to raise questions about the oversight of the significant pot of money.
An agreement signed between Love and Hope Rescue Mission and leaders in the lieutenant governor’s office granted the nonprofit $100,000 in funding over a year to buy a truck and supplies, and conduct at least eight outreach and/or educational events across the state.
According to photos from such events, Love and Hope has hosted numerous educational sessions and outreach events in Wilmington, Bear, New Castle, Dover, Laurel and Seaford over the past year related to substance use disorder or other determinants of health, like nutrition and mental health.
Before a final $10,000 quarterly installment could be funded for the nonprofit’s work though, the attorney general’s office raised questions about the sum that had been spent – because the board that oversees grants from the state’s opioid funds, the Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission, only approved it for $70,000.
A ‘clerical error’
Emails obtained by Spotlight Delaware show a complaint had been sent to the Delaware Department of Justice about a funding discrepancy in July, and brought to the attention of Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission Executive Director Susan Holloway.
According to a spokesperson for Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, who heads the organizations that manage the funds, the overpayment was a result of a “clerical error” in the processing of the contract.
“It should not have been processed for $100,000,” the spokesperson said. “This issue was promptly resolved in accordance with established state standards and in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget.”
After learning of the issue, Love and Hope returned the overpaid funds on Aug. 16, the spokesperson said.
“We’re grateful to the AG’s office for pointing it out,” Holloway said during a commission meeting on Aug. 21. “We would have caught it at the end of the cycle, but it allowed us to identify it earlier.”
Love and Hope received its first payment in October 2023. Before the refund, the commission paid it a quarterly installment of $10,000 on June 4.
To correct the issue, and prevent future overpayments, Holloway floated the idea of quarterly, rather than annual, budget reviews.
Follow-up questions to Hall-Long’s office regarding how the grant award was exceeded by $30,000 in the drafting of the final contract, and why neither the grantee or grantor noticed the discrepancy, were not answered.
“Love and Hope Rescue Mission is a well-respected organization that reaches individuals in Black and Brown communities in particular, predominantly in the Haitian-Creole community. The organization is in good standing with the opioid abatement program’s grant monitoring,” the spokesperson added.
The Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission oversees monitoring and applications for the state’s $250 million opioid settlement fund.
It’s also in charge of making recommendations for how the state’s opioid dollars should be allocated, and in March 2023 approved a $70,000 application from Love and Hope Rescue Mission. That recommendation then got sent to the Behavioral Health Consortium, another appointed body that is also headed by the lieutenant governor’s office, which approved the allocation that April.
In Love and Hope’s application, obtained by Spotlight Delaware through a Freedom of Information Act request, the organization only applied for $70,000, but signed a contract with additional funding.
No votes were taken by either government body to increase their initial award.
Love and Hope Rescue Mission was awarded an additional $25,000 by the Behavioral Health Consortium in July, but that funding is not part of the original award contract.
Love and Hope Rescue Mission did not respond to a request for comment.
Delaware’s opioid relief fund is derived from hundreds of millions of dollars that the state secured in past years from legal settlements with prescription opioid producers, distributors and pharmacies.
Although Attorney General Kathy Jennings is a co-chair of the commission, she reportedly does not have access to monitoring information surrounding more than $13 million in grants awarded to Delaware addiction service organizations, according to the letter sent by her office Aug. 23.
All eyes on fund
The lieutenant governor’s office and attorney general’s office have been sparring for months over the future of the opioid settlement funds and how they are managed. The two statewide leaders have had their arguments spill into the open at a time when Hall-Long is engaged in a competitive primary race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
While Jennings is not running for office this year, she formerly served as chief administrative officer under New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer, the foremost opponent in Hall-Long’s campaign, drawing claims that the opioid fund fight has been politicized.
The management of Delaware’s opioid funds has been under scrutiny since late June, when Jennings released a letter calling for a freeze on future grants until further oversight could be provided on the program.
In the letter, Jennings warned the program was “rife with potential for fraud, waste, and abuse.” Another letter from State Auditor Lydia York said the office had “reason to believe” Code Purple Kent County, a Dover-based nonprofit, secured its funding using “fraudulent documentation.”
The state auditor’s office has since opened audits into 12 more recipients, although it has emphasized that those reviews are not predicated by suspicion of wrongdoing but instead are a snapshot review of the program’s oversight.
Meanwhile, an independent Wilmington consulting firm, Social Contract, has been hired by the POSDC to complete a report about the industry of addiction resource companies in Delaware to further guide future grant distribution.
Jennings’ letter was decried by members of the Behavioral Health Consortium and different addiction services nonprofits, with one nonprofit leader calling it a “witch hunt.”
Delaware ranked fourth in the nation when it came to per-capita overdose deaths in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
The First State saw 527 overdose deaths in 2023, according to a report from the Delaware Division of Forensic Science – a small decrease from 2022’s 537 deaths. Overdose deaths dropped in both Sussex and New Castle counties, but Kent recorded a 33% increase.
Get Involved
The Delaware Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission meets on Sept. 11 on Zoom, as well as in person at the Delaware Tech-Stanton Campus.
Find more information here.
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