Advisory Bodies

Has the state established an advisory body for settlement funds?

Yes. The Colorado Opioids Settlement MOU and state law collectively establish two state-level advisory bodies, each attached to different shares and different sets of responsibilities:

• Regional and infrastructure shares: The Colorado Opioid Abatement Council (COAC) is responsible for:

  • Ensuring that the distribution of opioid settlements complies with the state’s MOU and any applicable settlement agreements’ terms.[1]

  • Facilitating collaboration between the state, participating local governments, regional councils, and other stakeholders.[2]

  • Providing administrative oversight of the 60% regional share, including receiving Regions’ 2-year plans and expenditure reports, and providing planning assistance to regional councils upon request.[3]

  • Creates processes for the distribution and oversight of funds from the 10% infrastructure share.[4]

    • You can read more about the COAC’s management of this share in its Opioid Funds Infrastructure Share Policy and see details from prior rounds of funding on its website.

  The COAC, which has drafted its own bylaws and policies,[5] has committed to meeting at least two times annually (though it has met more frequently in practice).[6] Colorado’s MOU establish one- to four-year terms.[7] See the COAC’s generally applicable policies (Oversight & Monitoring Policy; Membership and Term Limits Policy; Conflict of Interest and Self-Dealing Policy; Expenditure Reporting Policy) and regional share policies (Regional Plan Submission, Amendment, and Certification Policy; Regional Roster Certification Policy; Remedial Action Procedures).

• State share: The Opioid Crisis Recovery Funds Advisory Committee was created by state law to advise and collaborate on the Colorado Attorney General’s and Colorado Department of Law’s uses of its 10% state share.[8] All members of the Opioid Crisis Recovery Funds Advisory Committee “serve[] at the pleasure of the[ir] appointing authority.”[9]

Is the state advisory body required to include member(s) with lived and/or living experience?

It varies.

• Regional and infrastructure shares: Not necessarily (individual or family member). The Colorado Opioid Abatement Council must include one “member or family member affected directly by the opioid crisis.”[10] This means that the COAC’s membership requirements could be satisfied without the inclusion of an individual who themselves has lived and/or living experience.

• State share: Yes. The Opioid Crisis Recovery Funds Advisory Committee must include a member “who has been affected by the opioid crisis” and a member who is a “family member of a person who has been affected by the opioid crisis.”[11]

What is the overall membership of the state advisory body?

• The Colorado Opioid Abatement Council's (COAC) current members are listed here. The COAC is required by the state’s MOU to contain the following thirteen (13) members:[12]

  • Seven (7) “State Members” appointed by the state:[13]

    • A chair, who is a non-voting member except in the event of a tie.

    • Two (2) “licensed professionals with significant experience in substance use disorders.”

    • Three (3) “professionals with significant experience in prevention, education, recovery, treatment, criminal justice, rural public health issues, or government administration related to substance use disorders.”

    • A person “affected directly by the opioid crisis” or the family member of such person.

  • Six (6) “Local Government Members” appointed by local governments officials from the regions, each of whom must be a county commissioner, mayor, city or town council member, or professionals “with significant experience in prevention, education, recovery, treatment, criminal justice, rural public health issues, or governmental administration related to substance use disorders.”[14]

• The Opioid Crisis Recovery Funds Advisory Committee's current members are listed here. The composition and appointing authorities of its twenty-six (26) or more members are established by state law:

  • Thirteen (13) governor appointees:[15]

    • One (1) member licensed to practice medicine

    • One (1) member licensed to practice pharmacy

    • One (1) member licensed to practice as a nurse or as a certified nurse midwife

    • One (1) member licensed as a dentist

    • One (1) member licensed as a veterinarian

    • One (1) member licensed as a physical therapist

    • One (1) member representing a local public health agency

    • One (1) member “who has been affected by the opioid crisis”

    • One (1) member who is a family member of “as person who has been affected by the opioid crisis”

    • One (1) member representing an advocacy organization for people with substance use disorders

    • Two (2) members appointed from nominations by “statewide organizations representing counties” to represent the eastern and western parts of the state

    • One (1) member from an association that represents behavioral health providers

  • Thirteen (13) or more additional members appointed by various stakeholders:[16]

    • Two (2) members appointed by the Commissioner of the Behavioral Health Administration, one of whom must “represent an association of substance use providers”

    • Two (2) members appointed by the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, one of whom must be a “pain management patient”

    • One (1) member appointed by the Executive Director of the Department of Regulatory Agencies

    • One (1) member appointed by the Executive Director off the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing

    • One (1) member appointed by the Attorney General from Colorado’s Substance Abuse Trends and Response Task Force

    • One (1) member from “the center for research into substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery support strategies” at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, appointed by the director of the center

    • One (1) member “from each safety net hospital” that provides addiction services, appointed by the hospital

    • One (1) member from the Colorado District Attorney’s Council, appointed by its executive director

    • Two (2) members representing law enforcement agencies, one appointed by the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police and the other by the County Sheriffs of Colorado

    • One (1) member representing the Colorado Municipal League, appointed by the president of its executive board or the president’s designee

Are local governments required to establish a settlement advisory body? If so, are local advisory bodies required to include member(s) with lived and/or living experience?

Yes, but for regional share only. Local governments are not required to establish opioid settlement advisory bodies to oversee uses of their 20% local government share, but Colorado’s MOU does require the creation of regional councils for each of the nineteen (19) regions receiving funds from the regional share.[17]

Regional council points of contact are available here. Each regional council is made up of local government representatives and responsible for requesting funding from the Colorado Opioid Abatement Council (COAC) using two-year plans.[18]

Regional councils are free to create their own intra-regional agreements, bylaws, or other governing mechanisms, but each voting member must be an employee or elected official of a participating local government within that region.[19] Regional councils are not required to include members with lived and/or living experience.

What else should I know?

Not applicable.

Citations

1. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Sec. (C)(3). ↑

2. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Sec. (C)(4)(d). ↑

3. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Secs. (F)(7)-(10). The COAC’s administrative oversight of the 60% regional share means that it will release funds to a Regional Council so long as the Regional Council’s 2-year plan is in accordance with approved uses. The COAC does not have the discretion to deny or delay a funding request from a Regional Council “on the basis that [the COAC] does not approve or agree with” the proposed spending by that Region. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Sec. (F)(9). ↑

4. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Sec. C(3). ↑

5. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Sec. (C)(4) (“The Abatement Council shall draft its own bylaws or other governing documents, which must include appropriate conflict of interest and dispute resolution provisions”). See Colorado Opioid Abatement Council (“COAC Policies & Procedures”). Colorado Attorney General website. Accessed September 1, 2024. ↑

6. Organizational Policies and Procedures, Art. II, Sec. 6. Colorado Opioid Abatement Fund Council. May 13, 2022. In 2023, the COAC met eight (8) times. See Colorado Opioid Abatement Council (“Past meetings”).Colorado Attorney General website. Accessed September 1, 2024. ↑

7. Generally speaking, members may serve no more than two (2) consecutive two-year terms (for a total of four consecutive years). Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Sec. (C)(2)(c) (“the State shall appoint the State Members in accordance with Section (C)(2)(a), and after conferral with the Local Governments, CCI and CML shall jointly appoint six (6) Local Government Members for an initial term not to exceed one year. Thereafter, Members shall be appointed in accordance with this Section and Sections (C)(2)(a) and (b) and may serve no more than two (2) consecutive two-year terms, for a total of four (4) consecutive years. Except that, beginning in the second year only, two (2) State Members and two (2) Local Government members shall be appointed for a three-year term and may serve one consecutive two-year term thereafter. The Chair shall have no term but may be replaced at the State’s discretion”). ↑

8. Colo. Rev. Stat. Sec. 27-81-118(1). ↑

9. Colo. Rev. Stat. Sec. 27-81-118(3) (“The appointing authority shall fill a vacancy in the same manner as the initial appointment”). ↑

10. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Sec. C(2)(a)(iv) (emphasis added). ↑

11. Colo. Rev. Stat. Sec. 27-81-118(2)(a)(I)(H)-(I). ↑

12. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Sec. C(2). ↑

13. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Secs. C(2)(a)(i)-(iv). ↑

14. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Secs. C(2)(b). The local government members of the COAC’s current roster include four commissioners, one councilmember, and one city and county attorney. The county commissioners, city or town council members, and/or mayors from each of the 19 regions collaborate to appoint these members. Id. There are two members from each of these three groups of regions: Regions 1, 5, 13, 14, 15, 17, and 18; Regions 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 16; and Regions 3, 4, and 19. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Secs. C(2)(b)(i)-(iii). ↑

15. Colo. Rev. Stat. Sec. 27-81-118(2)(a)(I)(A)-(L). ↑

16. Colo. Rev. Stat. Sec. 27-81-118(2)(a)(II)-(XI). ↑

17. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Sec. F(5). ↑

18. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Secs. F(7), (9). ↑

19. Colorado Opioid Settlements MOU, Sec. F(5)(a) (“In the case of Denver, the voting members of its Regional Council shall be appointed by the Mayor. In the case of Broomfield, the voting members of its Regional Council shall be appointed by the Broomfield City and County Manager”). ↑