Mother Robin Douglas on Feb. 14 told Washoe’s Board of County Commissioners a story about her daughter’s near-fatal overdose due to opioid addiction and the harrowing months since that included multiple missing persons reports, hours “roaming the streets looking for her as she relapses” and futile attempts to get her into inpatient rehabilitation.
There aren’t enough beds, and Douglas was told to “call back next month.”
“There’s nothing that prepares you as a parent to deal with the near death overdose of a child,” Douglas said. “This is my daughter, but it could have been your child or anybody. This disease does not discriminate. Opioids are highly addictive and do not discriminate.”
Douglas, and Sarah Allen, a licensed drug and alcohol counselor in Reno, both said more needs to be done in the community to support families facing opioid addiction and increase access to inpatient addiction recovery programs.
Commissioners on Tuesday took another step toward doing more for the opioid crisis with the approval of a settlement between Walmart and the State of Nevada reached as part of ongoing opioid litigation between the state and the drug’s manufacturers and distributors.
Washoe County, under the provisions of the One Nevada Agreement on Allocation of Opioid Recoveries, approved by commissioners in July 2021, will receive a share of the more than $32 million Walmart is set to send to Nevada in the settlement.
Without the approval, Washoe County would have to “go it alone” on fighting Walmart in court, bearing the costs of litigation and waiting much longer for a payout, Assistant District Attorney Michael Large told commissioners.
“This is the best way to get money to address the opioid problem in the county immediately,” Large said. “Litigation, as we all know, lasts years and years. This has been ongoing for three or four years at this point … plus you have appeals, so this could potentially drag on for years. This gets the money to the county now to address the problem.”
“I’m in full support,” Commissioner Alexis Hill said. “We want to make sure that as much money and as quickly as can get in our hands to really heal our community because there’s a lot of work to do.”
Based on the One Nevada Agreement, Washoe County receives a percentage of settlement funds, calculated as about 7% of the Local Government Allocation (which is 39% of the total) and 14% of the Medicaid Match Allocation (which is 17% of the total).
Large said the county’s actual dollar amount in the settlement isn’t final because lawyers’ fees and other deductions still need to be deducted from the total.
Commissioner Mike Clark expressed concerns that the board wasn’t presented with legal costs for the county – which has held its litigation with opioid distributors and manufacturers while the state pursued its cases – or other fees deducted from the settlement to help better understand the cost of settling.
“Those are the kind of things we should have on the public record and people should know,” Clark said.
Assistant District Attorney Nate Edwards said the county and other local governments often have to make decisions on large settlements struck by the state, such as the Walmart settlement, before final legal costs are tallied.
“They essentially ask us to put the pedal down and ask us to get this brought before the local boards…it’s just the nature of this high-level class-action type of lawsuit,” Edwards said. “There ends up being a lag in terms of the final net payout to the county.”
He said the gross percentages provided in the meeting materials was the best way to provide a “ballpark” figure for the settlement and get it before the board in time for the board to act, rather than hold the item and wait for the final payout amount.
“Neither one of those is the awesome answer, but that’s kind of the position we get put in so we try to bring you the best ballpark information we could have,” Edwards added. He said in the future he’d work on getting more information before the board for similar decisions.
Commissioners unanimously approved the settlement agreement between the state and Walmart and signed on for a share of the proceeds.
Other commission business
Commissioners also heard an update from county engineers on traffic calming and other traffic requests and projects during 2022 and plans for 2023. In 2022 the county’s community services department received 100 requests for traffic calming or support and spent around $175,000 on traffic calming projects.
This year, the department plans to spend much more – about $700,000 largely funded through federal grants – on new projects and others prioritized to be addressed based on the past year’s calls. Projects will include radar feedback signs, school zone flashers, LED flashing stop signs, crosswalks and speed cushions.
Engineers also demonstrated how the county’s Washoe311 requests work online. The site, at https://washoecountynv.qscend.com/311/request/add, allows residents to submit road and traffic concerns to the county and identify possible solutions.
“It’s essential to use Washoe311,” Commission Chair Vaughn Hartung said. “Many times when I get a request from a constituent, I’ll send it to Washoe311 so we can track it through the system and see just how much time it’s going to take.”
