The Greenville City Council held a workshop on October 7, 2024, to discuss three key items: the National Opioid Fund Settlement Update, the Title VI Nondiscrimination Program, and the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) Project. Staff presentations provided updates, and council members engaged in discussion. No formal votes were taken, but next steps were outlined.
All right, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the October 7th workshop for the Greenville City Council. I'll be I'm here PJ Conley for presiding over today's workshop. First I'll call on our city clerk for the roll call. Yes, sir. Mayor Connolly. Here. Mayor Ken Daniels. Councilmember Foreman. Councilmember Blackburn. Present. Councilmember Spelly let us know that you will not be attending the season. Councilmember Robinson. President, you always get more with those. Councilmember Willis. Here. All right, Mayor Highland. Thank you very much. We'll move on to the approval of the agenda. Mr. Manager. So motion to approve. Second. All right, motion made by Councilmember Blackburn, second by Councilmember Willis. All those in favor say aye. Opposed say nay. Let's move on to it number one. All right. This is the National Opioid Fund Settlement Update. I'll call forward our neighborhood business services program manager, Renee Skeen for the presentation. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. Okay, so we'll start out a partnership with Pitt County to maximize the impact of the opioid settlement funds by collaborating. We can better address the opioid crisis through coordinated efforts across both the city and the county. All right, so we'll give you a little background. In 2021, the city of Greenville initially signed onto the National Opioid Settlement Fund Memorandum of Agreement with the North Carolina Department of Justice. The settlement fund provides funding to the city for up to 18 years, totaling about 1.89 million. Pitt County's funding will total about 15.9 million. Active collaboration with Pitt County regarding the use of funds to help with the opioid epidemic. Current efforts to address the opioid crisis. The county is actively working with partners to provide allowable initiatives, including Narcan distribution to first responders in the community, the needle exchange program to prevent disease transmission, fentanyl awareness programs, and the medication assistant treatment, peer recovery support, and diversion programs to redirect individuals to treatment rather than incarceration. We propose allocating these funds as well as future installments to Pitt County. This approach ensures maximum efficiency and regional impact by leveraging Pitt County's existing programs and services. By doing so, we benefit from expanded recovery services across the county, ensuring the Greenville residents have access to comprehensive care. They have increased opportunity for regional impact by addressing opioid challenges across Greenville and Pitt County. They have access to expanded recovery services, ensuring all residents benefit from comprehensive care, and they have the ability to leverage existing programs to ensure immediate and future growth and implement new programs based on increased capacity. Settlement funds and compliance through a dedicated position, the opioid settlement coordinator. This will avoid duplication of efforts, including use of city staff capacity to develop and implement programs in existence. We believe Greenville will be greatly benefit from the partnership as well. So our proposed next steps.