The Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission (POSDC) narrowly approves new grant guidelines and procedures after an 8-month funding freeze.
The POSDC is in charge of distributing opioid settlement funding awarded to Delaware in an effort to reduce opioid overdoses statewide.
The commission froze all new grant funding in July 2024 following potential fraud concerns surrounding grant-recipient Kent County nonprofit Code Purple.
Following the freeze, State Auditor Lydia York announced 12 additional grant recipients would be receiving performance audits to ensure compliance with reporting requirements. Four audits have been completed thus far, and no evidence of fraud was uncovered.
At the same time, the commission has been working with outside consultant agency Social Contract to develop new grant procedures and guardrails to better prevent future incidents of fraud and ensure money is reaching the community in the most effective way possible to help abate the opioid crisis.
On Monday, Social Contract's Tina Alexander presented a new grant manual and toolkit to the POSDC, focused on brining more transparency, accountability, data-driven decision making, racial equity, sustainability and collaboration to the opioid settlement grant program.
Alexander explains the next round of funding will prioritize areas of high overdose deaths, formerly incarcerated individuals and housing and transportation needs.
In May 2024, the POSDC was approved to distribute $15 million worth of funding — prior to the freeze, only $1.9 million made it out.
Alexander says the goal of this upcoming cycle will be to distribute the remaining $13 million in two rounds. The first will be $9 million in micro, mini and general grants. The second will be $4 million in grants and technical assistance for organizations requesting more than $30,000 and requiring fiscal sponsorship.
Technical assistance could be assisting organizations with grant application preparation, financial management, evaluation and program implementation, as well as facilitating more peer learning between grantees through workshops and best practice exchanges.
Micro grants are designed for short-term, immediate-impact projects with fewer application requirements with funding up to $10,000.
Mini grants will be fore structured medium-term projects with funding between $10,000-$30,000.
General grants will be fore large-scale projects requiring detailed plans with funding over $30,000.
The applicant review process will include scoring and detailed rubrics along with a new component — a community review panel, ideally made up of those with opioid-related lived experiences, that can provide final recommendations before the full commission makes funding decisions.
While Alexander initially proposed re-opening grant applications this month and beginning funding distribution by early May, new POSDC Co-Chair Joanna Champney feels that timeline is too aggressive.
She asked commission members to consider delaying grant solicitation until April to allow for more time for staff training and program implementation.
“I think we can still meet our timetable of staying within the quarter to get the solicitation out, get the applications, put the portfolio together and be ready for this group to review them when we reconvene, which would be in June — exact date TBD," she told the commission.
But several members expressed disappointment with this change, noting another month of delay puts the commission past the one year mark of when the $15 million worth of funding was approved.
“I don't want to put a date on more delays. I just think it's wrong. It's been a year — It's been a year, and the thing is, it's all because of some alleged fraud and some fraud that never occurred, and that slowed down the whole thing," POSDC Governance Committee Chair Dave Humes said.
The commission ultimately voted 6-5 to adopt Champney’s timeline, making June the target date to announce awardees and begin re-distributing the opioid abatement funding.
Delaware has received just over $74 million in opioid settlement funding and distributed around $15 million total in grants to help abate the opioid crisis.
Director of the Delaware Department of Justice's Fraud and Consumer Protection Division Owen Lefkon says out of the 14 settlements or bankruptcy plans Delaware has participated in, the state is expecting a lifetime payout of over $197 million.
That figure does not include the state's anticipated share of the Purdue Pharma and Sackler family settlement, which Lefkon projects to be over $27 million if the new settlement is confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court.
The First State saw record-low opioid deaths this past year following the launch of the grant program.
