HERMANN — The members of the panel that will advise the Gasconade County Commission on the use of opioid settlement funds could be in place and operating by early May.

That was the goal announced Thursday morning during a meeting between the County Commission and staffers of the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC), which will be administering the county’s opioid settlement funds for the foreseeable future. Gasconade and other counties across the country involved in the class-action lawsuit against makers and distributors of opioid medicine are scheduled to receive settlement funds for the next 15 to 18 years.

According to County Treasurer Mike Feagan, Gasconade County has received $61,905 in settlement funds thus far. It’s unclear how much money will be coming to the county each year and what the total amount might be that the county can expect to receive over the life of the settlement payout.

MRPC will be involved in the Gasconade County program in two parts: First, in helping set up the Opioid Settlement Committee,which will advise the County Commission on how to use the money; and, second, in the vetting of funding applications the tracking and reporting of the expenditures of the settlement dollars.

The first part of MRPC’s involvement will be paid for with funds already available to the regional planning agency; the second part of MRPC’s involvement will be paid with a share of the opioid settlement money approved for administrative costs.

MRPC Executive Director Bonnie Prigge noted that her agency’s role will be “to look at the priorities are” in dealing with the opioid pandemic on the county level. In doing the research, the agency will advise the County Commission on setting deadlines and selecting priorities for the use of the money.

Final decisions regarding the settlement funds lies in the hands of the County Commission. It will be advised by the Opioid Settlement Committee, which could have from five to seven to 13 members. The exact size of the panel will be determined by the County Commission, but Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, cautioned against having too large a committee, saying the more members there are the greater the difficulty in the members reaching a consensus.

County administrators Thursday morning appeared to be leaning to have perhaps seven members on the committee.

Prigge said her agency would be working with the Commission to identify possible members of the advisory group; the panel could be in place and operating by early May, she said. As the program goes along, that group could hold quarterly meetings. Or, as Lairmore noted, it could meet monthly at the outset as the program’s details get worked out.

Anne Freund of MRPC is the agency’s coordinator for the counties’ opioid settlement programs.

“The idea is that you bring that group together” in a timely manner for a group analysis of the situation in the situation, she told the Commission. “What (services) do we have in the community? What do we need? There are a lot of things you can do with this money,” she said, adding that “it is ultimately up to the county and the stakeholder group” to decide how to use the money.

The Missouri Department of Mental Health, the state agency given oversight of the opioid settlement money, has developed a list of approved uses for the funding.

“That approved list of expenditures is critical for this (advisory) committee to have,” said County Clerk Lesa Lietzow.

Prigge advised the County Commission to be diligent in selecting members for the advisory committee.

“It is very important you get input from the folks in this community who are working this epidemic,” she said.

MRPC is suggesting committee members such as law enforcement personnel, doctors or other healthcare professionals, a judge or lawyer who works in Family Court or Drug Court, public health representatives, a person who has dealt with opioid addiction, prevention service representatives, an ambulance district representative, a representative of local schools and someone from the business community.

County administrators are hoping to conduct the opioid settlement program much like the CARES Act and ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) programs were handled. MRPC administered the CARES Act funding and is administering the ARPA program, vetting the requests for funding but leaving the final decisions to the County Commission.

The County Commission will have to decide how the application process will work — from who can apply to how often applications will be received, the MRPC executive director said, noting that the first round of meetings of the Commission and the Opioid Settlement Committee likely will be devoted to “just working out the details” for dispersing the funds.