Opioid Funds Unspent - Hernando
Hernando opioid settlement funds sat unspent for a year, mayor tells board
Hernando's mayor told the Board of Aldermen that opioid settlement money the board voted more than a year ago to send to DeSoto County was never disbursed because no agreement was ever signed.
At the Sept. 16 regular meeting, under an item concerning an interlocal cooperation agreement with DeSoto County, an alderman asked whether the city had given the county the money from the prior year. The mayor replied, "We have not because we never sign. So it was just absorbed into the general fund and I would like to think that it was spent a good bit of it towards helping our ambulances be better because they serve those opioid overdose people a lot." The board went on to approve a new one-year interlocal agreement, effective Oct. 1, directing a portion of the city's annual opioid settlement funds to the county's drug intervention court. A separate planned payment to an intake center was tabled because that facility has not yet been built.
An alderman said during the discussion that a newspaper had contacted the city asking how it spends its opioid settlement funds, and noted that restrictions on how such money may be used are tightening.