Why should Delaware care?
In recent years, Delaware has faced one of the most severe opioid crises’ in the country. But elected officials in the state’s most populated areas have been sitting on funds that could help reduce fatal overdoses for their constituents. It comes even as these leaders have a head start on other organizations trying to access the money.
A state committee that for three years has had the power to recommend six-figure grants to Delaware cities and towns from a quarter-billion-dollar opioid fund has yet to earmark a single dollar.
The reason?
For the last year, not enough local elected officials showed up to required meetings.
Delaware’s Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission is responsible for recommending how the state allocates $250 million in legal settlements that the Delaware Department of Justice has secured in recent years from opioid manufacturers and distributors.
The opioid commission has a “Local Governments Committee” made up of mayors and county leaders from across the state. Their committee can sidestep a competitive grant process for opioid dollars that private organizations have to follow.
But Spotlight Delaware found through an examination of meeting minutes that the Local Governments Committee only met three times last year, with nine months passing between the first and second meeting.
Those three meetings did not give the committee enough time to determine where the opioid money should go. Much of the committee members’ time was spent debating with state Department of Justice officials over whether they could use the money for ambulances and other first responders.
Furthermore, additional meetings scheduled last year didn’t happen, because not enough members of the committee showed up — known in government as failing to meet a quorum.
Ultimately, local leaders could not submit any grant recommendations to support people with addiction.
The committee’s first meeting of 2025, which happened in January, also did not meet quorum requirements.
Spotlight Delaware reached out to multiple committee members, asking why they didn’t attend meetings. Most didn’t respond.
Former Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki — the most prominent absence from the committee meetings — said he didn’t have “any recollection” about being asked to participate in the Local Governments Committee.
If he was invited, he said, it must’ve “got lost in translation.”
Wilmington has one of the highest overdose rates in the state.
Mat Marshall, spokesman for the Delaware Department of Justice, said Purzycki had been invited to be a member of the Local Governments Committee.
A statement from Wilmington’s new mayor and former governor, John Carney, said “the City of Wilmington will actively participate and ensure we get access to the resources our communities need.”
Mayor Robert Johnson of Smyrna, who chairs the committee, said he hopes to have grant recommendations within the coming month.
Johnson took over as chair of the Local Governments Committee last fall, replacing Middletown Mayor Kenneth Branner.
Branner did not respond to requests for comment about why he resigned as chair.
Despite the ineffectiveness of the committee, two Delaware cities were able to secure opioid grants through the state’s competitive bid process that is open to private organizations, and is separate from the Local Governments Committee process.
In 2023, the Seaford and Laurel Police Departments applied for and received a $2,600 grant for a therapy dog to support officers who have witnessed overdoses in person.
What power do the local governments have?
Delaware is distinct in how it doles out settlement money to local governments. In other states, money from settlements go directly to municipalities and counties to be spent at their own discretion.
In 2021, when opioid companies started to settle states’ claims, six county and local leaders in Delaware agreed to sign away their individual right to sue opioid companies in the future. Instead, they agreed to take seats on the Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission, which would manage the state’s settlement dollars.
Those that signed on included all three counties and major towns and cities, such as Wilmington, Newark, Dover, Middletown, Milford and Seaford. Those municipalities received a spot on the opioid commission’s Local Governments Committee.
Delaware’s strategy was supposed to help increase oversight and make sure funds went to programs related to the opioid epidemic. In recent years, other states have faced criticism for secret approval processes and expenditures that don’t align with the allowable uses for the funds. In one case, Jackson County, W.Va., last year earmarked $300,000 from their own opioid settlement fund on a shooting range for police.
What do the governments want?
Outside of quorum issues that have plagued the committee for the last year, another obstacle preventing the committee from recommending grants is understanding what types of purchases they’re allowed to make.
At recent committee meetings, local leaders sparred with an attorney from the Delaware Department of Justice who answered legal questions about the settlements for the opioid commission at the time.
Grants awarded through the opioid commission must be compliant with Exhibit E, a set of guidelines with all of the permitted uses for opioid funds, agreed upon after the settlements were made.
The committee stressed at recent meetings it wants more funding for ambulance services, saying their programs are stretched thin. Kenneth Dunn, New Castle County’s deputy chief administrative officer, said the opioid epidemic has had an effect on first responders, including higher call volume for overdoses.
“If we don’t get to them fast enough, we can’t get them into any kind of treatment. We can’t get them any counseling. We can’t get them any services,” Dunn said at an October meeting.
Many of the committee members echoed Dunn’s wish for more first responder funding, but the attorney said at a later meeting he wouldn’t be able to tell them what types of grants were and weren’t acceptable until the committee recommended specific programs to be funded.
Johnson, the Smyrna mayor, told Spotlight Delaware that the committee hopes to do just that in the coming months. He said there’s millions of dollars that “has to be spent,” and that the money “can’t be sitting there forever doing nothing.”
“It’s not serving the community at all,” he said.
Get involved
The Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission’s Local Governments Committee is set to meet at noon on April 2 in person at the Springer Building of the Delaware Health and Social Services Herman Holloway Campus or on Zoom. Read the agenda here.
