Valparaiso City Council President Robert Cotton is working with council members Peter Anderson and Barbara Domer to create a resolution to allow the council to govern the spending of funds distributed during the next 15 years from the opioid grant program.
“This is a big responsibility that we must do right, so we must plan,” Cotton said at the July 8 city council meeting.
“I’ve been working with our steering committee on this issue, consisting of members Peter Anderson and Barbara Domer, and the state provides us guidance with five guiding principles, which will be how they will provide the money.”
According to Valparaiso City Attorney Patrick Lyp, Valparaiso’s provided portion is $2.1 million distributed over 18 years from Indiana’s share of the $507 million divided among all communities through 2038.
Cotton, D-2nd, said it is up to the council and Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas to develop “a fair and consistent process for where to spend this funding to save lives.”
In May 2023, the Valparaiso City Council approved the creation and funding means for a new staff position intended to help fight growing cases of opioid addiction in Porter County. Ordinance No. 16, 2023 was passed after a public hearing as part of the second reading and final vote to appropriate $60,000, in addition to $6,500 in funds from the Opioid Settlement Restricted Fund.
Valparaiso Clerk-Treasurer Holly Taylor said she is ready to work with the council, mayor and Lyp for delivering the first $300,000 of available funds as directed for the governing body.
“Creating a resolution gives me a directive of who the recipients are and how much should be made, similar to how the ARPA Fund had my office deliver those funds,” Taylor said.
“I’ll need receipts from the selected groups and recipients showing that they are spending these funds on what they’ve said they will be spending them on so I can then provide this information to the state.”
Council member Anderson, R-5th, urged the council to act quickly on an agreed-upon process for the distribution of the funds.
“For so many of the halfway houses, they need this month right now,” Anderson said.
“It is vitally important. We don’t want to add bureaucracy. For some of the groups that are more county-based than just Valparaiso, it’s been rough to make that determination.”
Cotton asked the council if there should be a “standard” amount of funding given to organizations that request grants.
Domer, D-3rd, said she has been pouring through the dozens of applications from groups requesting funds.
“We already had the application process and call-out and we’ve learned from that,” Domer said.
“I think our next call-out should be more substantial. Many of these organizations, like Peter has said, are operating on shoe-string budgets and need this funding.”
Cotton said he will work with Domer and Anderson to formulate a suggested resolution for the council to review and discuss before editing or adopting it at the July 22 meeting.
“I’m game for whatever this body decides, and that’s what we will then do,” Cotton said.
Philip Potempa is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
