Farmington Hills’ use of opioid funds to backfill budget prompts AG complaint
Of the 118 Michigan counties, cities and townships that Bridge was able to track opioid settlement spending, only Farmington Hills used its funds for its budget. Now a complaint has been filed with the Michigan Attorney General. Bridge photo by Joel Kurth.
by Ron French (Bridge Michigan)
The Michigan Attorney General office is looking into a complaint that an Oakland County suburb is misusing money intended for drug prevention and treatment.
Farmington Hills used $120,000 from its share of the national opioid settlement to backfill its budget for past costs associated with addiction.
That’s something not being done in 118 other Michigan counties, cities and townships for which Bridge Michigan was able recently to chronicle how opioid settlement dollars are being spent.
Michigan is expected to receive some $1.6 billion over 18 years from drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies deemed partially responsible for the opioid epidemic that kills about 3,000 people per year statewide.
The settlement agreement states that at least 70% of funds must be used “solely for future opioid remediation.” That same minimum breakdown of spending is echoed in the state’s 2021 agreement with local governments.
Most other communities are using the money for treatment or other services to help recovering users, such as transportation.
Farmington Hills’ spending “is contrary to the intent of the funds and is in direct violation of the settlement agreements,” according to the complaint, which was filed by Jonathan Stoltman, executive director of the Grand Rapids-based Opioid Policy Institute advocacy group.
The complaint is the first filed with the attorney general over the lawsuit settlement. The office has the authority to investigate misuse of funds by local communities, which will eventually receive at least $745 million.
But how those dollars are spent is a mystery because the state does not track opioid settlement spending by local governments, and there is no formal mechanism for the office to learn a community is spending funds inappropriately.
If communities are out of compliance with the settlement, the Attorney General’s office could sue or seek “an accounting remedy,” said Danny Wimmer, a spokesperson for Attorney General Dana Nessel.
This week, Farmington Hills City Manager Gary Mekjian declined comment to Bridge, citing the complaint.
Last month, he told Bridge that the city’s “funds received to-date helped to offset a portion of the prior costs incurred by the city related to the opioid crisis.”
Mekjian said Farmington Hills has $1.3 million in past expenses connected to opioids.
He declined to tell Bridge how the city came up with that figure, saying only that the costs “included personnel time, equipment, Narcan and other supplies.”
This article is being republished through a syndication agreement with Bridge Michigan. Bridge Michigan is Michigan’s largest nonprofit news service and one of the nation’s leading and largest nonprofit civic news providers. Their coverage is nonpartisan, fact-based, and data-driven. Find them online at https://www.bridgemi.com/.
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