Lakewood Committee of the Whole Meeting - September 11, 2025: Opioid Litigation Settlement Resolution
Lakewood Committee of the Whole Meeting - September 11, 2025
The Committee of the Whole met on September 11, 2025, to discuss Resolution 2025-44, which authorizes the Mayor or her designee to enter into agreements to participate with other communities and the State of Ohio in the settlement of opioid claims against various settling defendants. Law Director Vargo provided an overview of the settlement and the city's use of funds received to date. The meeting focused on the resolution's scope, the status of opioid settlement funds, and potential future uses of those funds.
Discussion Items
- Resolution 2025-44 – Opioid Litigation Settlement – Law Director Vargo explained that the resolution authorizes the city to accept funds from additional defendants in national class-action opioid settlements. The settlements are negotiated at the national level with state attorneys general, and the city simply needs to sign up. The city has already signed up for previous settlements. This resolution would cover the current batch of new defendants (including secondary manufacturers such as Alvigin, Amnial, Apitex, HICMA, Indivore, and Sun Zidus) as well as future settlements, unless otherwise recommended by outside counsel and approved by the Law Director. The deadline to sign up for the current round is October 5, 2025. Council clarified that the authorization is limited to opioid class actions and does not extend to other class actions.
- Status of Opioid Settlement Funds – Law Director Vargo reported that since 2022, the city has received approximately $158,000 in opioid settlement funds. Of that, about $40,000 has been spent on a consultant for the Mi We program, a family education and support program for those affected by a loved one's substance use disorder. The remaining funds are banked and can be used for future opioid-related expenses. The funds are restricted to remedying or preventing opioid abuse or assisting law enforcement in addressing the opioid crisis.
- Mi We Program – Director Barry provided details on the Mi We program, which has been running since early 2023. It is a 10-week rotating curriculum offered free to participants, with the city paying about $300 per session. Attendance has grown, with approximately 60 different people attending monthly (about 14 per session, half virtual, half in person). About 99% of participants are families affected by opioid use. A 2022 impact study of over 4,000 participant surveys showed 99% positive feedback. The program is considered highly successful.
- Potential Future Uses of Funds – Council members discussed several potential uses for the remaining and future settlement funds. These include: purchasing Narcan (though currently covered by other grants), funding a quarter of a neighborhood paramedic's salary if services relate to opioid issues, supporting Project SOAR (a peer-to-peer outreach program that connects overdose survivors to treatment), providing scholarships for sober living or treatment, and offering small gift cards for food, clothing, and transportation to bridge the gap post-treatment. Fire department representatives noted that the city has responded to about 80 overdoses in less than a year (as of May 2), and that the crisis appears to be declining from a peak around 2017. The administration is still studying the best uses of the funds and has broad discretion as long as they touch the opioid problem.
- Project SOAR Partnership – Fire department personnel explained the current partnership with Project SOAR, where they identify overdose events and then, with Project SOAR volunteers, go door-to-door to offer treatment. Project SOAR has agreements with the ADAMHS Board for detox and treatment beds and has expanded to multiple Cleveland Clinic facilities. The partnership is seen as innovative, and additional funds could help bolster the program's capacity.
Key Outcomes
- Motion to Refer Resolution Favorably – A motion was made and seconded to refer Resolution 2025-44 favorably back to full council for adoption. The motion passed unanimously by voice vote (all in favor). The resolution will be considered at the next full council meeting.
- No other business was brought before the committee, and the meeting adjourned without objection.
Meeting Transcript
All right, I'll call committee of the whole to order. And do we have the minutes from okay? All right. So I guess I'll need to move to defer that or we can just skip it. Yes, Chair. Okay. All right. Um used to the full council. All right. So our main thing we're here to talk about tonight is uh resolution 2025-44 regarding opioid uh litigation settlement. Um Director Vargo, uh do you want to tee us up a little bit here about uh what we're talking about? Sure. Thank you, Madam President. Um the um resolution before you is uh to authorize the administration to um basically accept funds from additional defendants in the national class action um national class actions uh regarding the opioid crisis. Um the settlements were negotiated at the national level with the respective state attorneys general, and it's just a matter for the city to sign up. Uh and we've already signed up for pre-existing settlements. At um at the full council meeting last time when this was uh sent to committee, there were questions about how much funds we've taken in and the use of those funds. And uh Director Mahoney is here with respect to the funds, but I can say in general um since inception of all of this litigation, the city has received about 158,000 dollars, and the city has spent approximately 40,000 of that. Um all with respect to a particular um consultant that uh director Barry is here to uh discuss with you. And uh we can um uh answer any other questions about the use of the funds to this date. There is no urgency on the use of the funds. We're allowed to bank them and let them grow and decide at a later time how to use them, but they are very restricted. They have to be used for um to either remedy opioid uh abuse or prevent it or assist law enforcement in addressing it. Thank you. Thank you. Uh could you repeat that number again about how much we've taken in? Approximately uh 158,000 since 2022. Thank you. All right. And then um Director Barry, did you want to talk a little bit about uh the program that we've been using those funds for? Sure. Uh thank you. So since um the beginning of 2023, I believe, we have been engaged with Jim Joyner, who's come to council before and had um a presentation about the Mi We program. So it's a family education and support program that is uh a 10-week uh rotating curriculum that's been created, and it's to support families and friends affected by a loved one's substance use order disorder. Um the the cost to the city is about $300 per session, but the cost to any participants is completely free. And we do offer uh this simultaneously in person and virtually. The attendance has done nothing really but grow since 2023. On average, there's about uh 60 different folks that attend on a monthly basis, probably about 14 or so per session, uh about half virtual, and then the the rest in person. Um again, this is to address uh what families and and the friends of the addicted are um you know experiencing and how they can help um themselves and also support the individual. I would say uh the majority, maybe 99% of the folks that are in these meetings are um families affected by opioid use, so we're definitely using the funds as they are intended. Um Jim had a uh impact study done uh by uh respected consultant back in 2022 about the program and he received over 4,000 different participant surveys that were reviewed, and it came back to 99% um positive feedback on the program and its success. And we have some uh staff members that I'm sure wouldn't mind um you know commenting that they have participated in the program for one of their loved ones and and they have um they found it very very helpful. So um I I think it's a great program. Jim is a very uh well-known and respected chemical dependency counselor in Cuyoga County, um, and it sits on many different task forces. Um but um that's that's pretty much the program. Thank you. I remember him coming and talking through it, it sounds like a great program. Um Director Virgo, we can you go back the you said the funds would restrict are restricted to treatment, prevention, law enforcement. Was there another category I didn't um mean to put a limit on it as it relates to the opioid crisis? Uh very restricted to opioid issues and the crisis, but within that fairly broad, and I can say that because we've done recent research on how we can best use the funds efficiently to bring the most um value to to the city, and we're still analyzing that and working with the administration departments to see how to do that going forward.
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