(The Center Square) — The first appeal of a decision made by the Pennsylvania Opioid Trust has been completed — and Somerset County lost.
In a 5-1 vote in the trust’s dispute resolution committee, trust members went against the county, ruling that $30,000 on an outdoor recreation program for young people didn’t qualify as an approved use of funds.
Somerset County officials must figure out if they will repay the fund, supplement it, or pull out the money from future awards. If they wanted to push the issue, though, other options are open.
“The reason we instituted this procedure was to keep expenses down for everybody, not have to go through a formal legal forum, so this is an interim step — but they do have the right to appeal it to commonwealth court,” Trust Chair Tom VanKirk said.
The trust serves as the caretaker of payouts from a series of settlements with pharmaceutical companies, which will send up to $21 billion to Pennsylvania over 18 years.
Somerset officials defended the Movement Outdoors program as similar to previous efforts carried out according to federal guidelines.
“Basically, Movement Outdoors is a community-focused nonprofit, their goal is to help kids access outdoor opportunities in the Laurel Highlands by breaking down the barriers of cost, gear, knowledge, transportation, and community,” said Erin Howsare, executive director of the Somerset Single County Authority for Drug and Alcohol. “They promote physical and mental wellness, they encourage kids to put down their phones and connect with mentors and positive role models.”
The program pulls in high school students who aren’t involved in extracurriculars to reach those considered at-risk. Excursions include biking, kayaking, rock climbing, canoeing, and skiing, Howsare noted, and MO reported reaching almost 400 students in the two years they’ve received funding.
As county officials saw it, the program met the opioid settlement’s guidelines (known as Exhibit E ) that allow support efforts to prevent opioid misuse with “school-based or youth-focused programs or strategies that have demonstrated effectiveness in preventing drug misuse and seem likely to be effective in preventing the uptake and use of opioids.”
“We have six federal strategies that the SCAs have to plan their prevention programs around; one of those is healthy alternative activities,” Howsare said.
Greenlighting $30,000 for Movement Outdoors was in line with those strategies, she argued.
Opioid Trust members weren’t critical of the program, per se — but they were critical of using opioid funds to run it.
“Somerset is to be commended for this program, I think it’s an outstanding program and I wish more counties had it. You’re going over and above in doing a great job with it,” VanKirk said. “But as far as whether or not the opioid money can be used, we have to recognize the overall concept of these settlements.”
The opioid money is meant to address problems related to opioid abuse and their consequences, he continued, with targeted programs rather than general problems that deal with tobacco, gambling, and other social vices.
“That’s why we went back to you and were asking for a percentage of how many of these kids are at risk for — not bad behavior generally, but specifically for opioid abuse — and that’s what we’re struggling with,” VanKirk said.
Other trust members echoed VanKirk.
“It’s available to the general population, which is good. I don’t see a focus, I don’t see a targeting of the at-risk,” Mifflin County Commissioner Robert Postal said. “I don’t know if it is focused enough, that’s all.”
Some confusion on the use of funds comes from the reluctance of the Opioid Trust to be more transparent. The trust has broken into three working groups to review how counties have spent the money — but the public cannot sit in on those review sessions. Instead, open meetings are held where working groups make their recommendations for each program, and then board members vote on the recommendations to approve, label non-compliant, or request more information.
As a result, many county officials are effectively maneuvering in the dark about what is and isn’t seen as compliant. One discussion during a meeting in December 2023 over whether a drug-sniffing dog in Clearfield County would qualify as a legitimate use of the money gave the public a glimpse of how members work through these questions, but those public discussions are rare.
Trust members also sympathized with the position of single county authorities, which coordinate and evaluate drug and alcohol services across the commonwealth.
“I know prevention is a little wonky, but the heavy lift for (SCAs) is to show how are you targeting the at-risk,” Butler County Commissioner Kevin Boozel said. “Without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, there should be thought in the process of evaluation of that program that shows the lift has been made, the effort has been made, and the full complement of funding isn't this funding.”
Before adjourning the meeting, VanKirk added that if the outdoor program could be justified as evidence-based, it would qualify as a legitimate expense.
“We do believe it is a very, very worthwhile program and if, going forward, you find a way of justifying this as evidence-based, you can go ahead and use opioid funds — you’re not precluded from trying to find a justification for this,” he said.
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