Council approves opioid-settlement transfer; some members urge clearer FAST team accounting

The mayor requested an appropriation on Feb. 10 to transfer $750,000 from the opioid stabilization fund into the opioid settlement revolving fund, and the City Council debated the item’s specificity and urgency.

Finance Director Emily Arpke said the transfer would cover multiple programs funded by opioid-settlement money, naming $211,000 for the 211 program and $50,000 for the CARES program; she said the balance would support the FAST (opioid response) team and other programs but that some allocations were not finalized in the packet.

Council Vice President Dionne and Councilor Raposo said they were unwilling to approve a large transfer without a clearer breakdown of program lengths and specific dollar allocations. Arpke said the fund is a special revenue account with strict legal rules on allowable uses and that unspent money rolls forward; she also said the current special-revenue account had been driven into a short-term negative by a journal correction and that a transfer was time-sensitive to restore the account’s operability.

Raposo and others requested that the detailed program-by-program breakdown be provided and, where necessary, the item be referred for further committee review. The council ultimately referred the transfer to the Committee on Finance for additional detail; later, full council votes reflected the appropriation’s inclusion on the Feb. 10 agenda and related transfers were adopted or referred as recorded in meeting minutes.

Councilors stressed the need for a regular reporting mechanism when special-revenue funds approach negative balances so department heads are automatically invited to explain shortages; the council president asked clerks to issue a memo to department heads when their funds run negative to ensure timely attendance at future meetings.