We will call this meeting to order this on bunk meeting.

Before we begin, I would like to ask everyone to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the plan of the United States of America.

And to the recalling for which it's one nation under law, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

So welcome to the Cedric County Commissioners.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Appreciate it.

And um want to welcome everybody to this on Bonk.

A couple items on the agenda today, but also want to thank you, Madam Mayor, City Council.

Thank you for the invitation.

Bob and staff, thank you.

A lot of work to be done, a lot of conversations, so why don't we just get right to it?

For those that are watching in the public, we have a little different process that we do on the county side as an open public meeting.

So the city and the county will go through a little bit different uh procedurally.

So we'll work through those things, and then at the end, we'll we'll come back together and uh try to make some decisions on the on a path forward.

So with that being said, I'll officially call the meeting to order for Tuesday, April twenty-ninth, twenty twenty-five.

Madam Clerk.

First item, please.

Roll call, Commissioner Bluebach.

Present.

Commissioner Weiss present.

Commissioner Howe.

Present.

Commissioner Meitzner.

Chairman Beatty.

Present.

Next item, please.

New business item A, opioid settlement fund strategic plan.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Madam Mayor.

Well, good morning again.

And our very first item is regarding the opioid settlement funds.

As uh reset for everyone, just as a reminder, uh, nationally, there's 49.7 billion dollars in this opioid settlement.

The state of Kansas uh will receive approximately 190 million.

And Wichita and Sedgwick County came together, and the estimated amount that uh combined we would get is 15.5 million dollars.

Uh so now to talk about the um strategic plan moving forward, uh, we would like to invite Rusty Leeds with Sedgwick County.

Good morning.

Thank you, Mayor, Chairman, Council, and Commission.

Um, this morning we're going to follow up on the needs assessment and the strategic plan that were provided to us by the Stedman group, uh, whom the city and county jointly hired to work through this process to reach out to the community and understand uh the needs in Sedgwick County and then to put together a strategic plan on how these funds could be utilized best in our community uh to meet the needs to fill the gaps that exist currently uh in the areas of uh prevention and treatment and recovery.

And so uh after Stedman came in and presented their final report to both governing bodies, uh staff from both city and county got together.

Uh Dante Martin and I, along with uh counsel from uh both the city and the county, uh Tim Kaufman from the county side who worked with the human services groups.

Um we've gotten together and we've talked through uh the work from Steadman and what next steps would be.

So that's what we're going to present here this morning.

If I can figure out how to move this forward, okay.

So we're in phase one.

Uh the strategic plan was broken into four phases.

Um we're in the first phase, which is the implementation uh of the process and infrastructure, and that was slated to occur through the first the the first through the third quarter of 2025.

And again, this is the follow-up to the strategic plan for utilization of the opioid settlement funds.

Wrong direction.

Okay.

So in the beginning here, what we need to do first is stand up a governance structure or the foundation for this process.

Um the first phase includes selection of a governing structure, staffing and or development of an advisory board, meeting cadence and logic logistics, and uh to determine the evaluation process for the strategic plan.

So those were the kind of the goals set forth in the first implementation phase.

What we're recommending after reviewing the plan and the needs assessment and and talking through this, uh, what we're recommending is the city and county governance um structure, uh, be an advisory council.

It has tentatively been named for the purpose of conversation as the Wichita Sedgwick County Addiction Intervention Coalition, and it will be structured uh in a fashion to that of the existing liquor tax coalition.

Uh that seems to work well with uh the distribution of liquor tax funds, and we felt that if it was structured in a similar way, we would have the same types of success success.

Uh the purpose of the Wichita Sedo County coalition is to evaluate and recommend effective allocation of the municipality's fights addiction fund revenues or the settlement funds that were allocated to local governments because of the Kansas Fights Addiction Act.

What we're recommending as far as uh the functions and responsibilities of the advisory board, which again we're referring to as a coalition, to keep it clear that it's not the city council that we're talking about, not calling it a council calling a coalition.

Um their responsibility when they are stood up will be to advise and make recommendations to the city council and the county commission on the use of the funds that we receive from the opioid settlement to assist with the preparation of RFPs, request for proposals, uh seeking vendors who can fulfill those services that fill the gaps in our community.

Uh this group will also be responsible for reviewing and evaluating the responses from those entities that submit proposals to make sure that they meet the criteria that's that's set forth in the RFP, and then ultimately they will bring recommendations to the council and the commission collectively on where they believe the dollars should be spent, who should whose proposals should be funded in order to provide those services.