Maine Recovery Council
January 11, 2024
Chair Pat Kimball opened the meeting and offered congratulations several Council members. She congratulated Courtney Gary-Allen for her re-election as a Councilor-at-Large for the City of Augusta; Courtney and Haley Taranko for their acceptances to law school and Myles Ouellette for his recognition and award from UMaine for Educational Advocacy and Service to his community. She went on to summarize the accomplishments of the Council's at this first annual meeting. The work included by-laws, a conflict-of-interest policy; attending conferences in Boston; creating a job description and hiring the first MRC coordinator; working with Dr. Kim Johnson; creating a community survey in record time that received 568 responses and making decisions resulting in $9 million in funding ready to disseminate. The members were impressed with the list.
The minutes of the December meeting were accepted as amended following the clarification of an agency name. (Vinsel/Noddin, 11-0). The election of officers was tabled until all the Council members could be present.
Brendan informed the Council that the briefing scheduled before the Health and Human Services Committee for January 10 would be held January 17 at 3 pm. The plan is to hear from the Attorney General, Pat Kimball, Council Chair and Mary Coyne, Coordinator. Brendan then raised a concern regarding multi-year funding and whether the current Council could commit the next Council (terms end in November). There were two options in his view: distribute all the funding in the first year and/or make it clear to recipients that the second year of funding was not a guarantee and subject to the subsequent Council's agreement. He added that while the Council has great discretion there would be the risk of a dispute if the funding was not issued. Paul expressed concerns that without being sure of Year 2 funding it might impact how funds were used in the first year. Gordon addressed the concern in three ways. The contract language was standard and most agencies were familiar with it; an agency might be at risk of losing their second year funding if they didn't do their reporting, for example; and while our appointments expire in November, Gordon was fairly confident that those who made the initial appointments would repeat them and the Council membership would look similar to its current members. Brendan offered to revisit the language and clarify the ideas. Ben spoke in opposition to pushing all the funding into Year 1. Pat suggested that the Finance Committee take this up at their next meeting.
Liz Blackwell-Moore noted the New England Prevention Technical Transfer Center needed a formal request to come with a plan and a timeline for using their allotted funds. Pat said she would make the request at the consensus of the group.
Pat, recognizing Myles and Rep. Crafts had joined the meeting, returned to the subject of the election of officers for the upcoming year. Gordon asked that if neither candidate for the contested office received three/fifths of the votes, could other candidates be nominated. The bylaws are silent on the matter. Pat asked for action on the Chairman's Pat Kimball's nomination. The motion was approved on a roll call vote (Ouellette/Fitzgerald, 13-0). For Treasurer, Ben Mann was nominated and the motion carried also by a roll call vote (Noddin/Gary-Allen, 13-0). For Secretary, Betsy Fitzgerald's nomination was moved and approved by a roll call vote (Vinsel/Tuell, 13-0). Each candidate for Vice Chair was allotted 3-5 minutes. Deputy Chief Eric Small said he was humbled to be elected again and stressed collaboration. Courtney Gary-Allen said she appreciated the opportunity to serve and said she was a hard worker and would be happy to serve. A roll call including the preferred candidate's name produced 8 votes for Courtney Gary-Allen, 6 votes for Deputy Chief Eric Small and one abstention. The motion failed. Gordon nominated Bruce Noddin (Smith/Fitzgerald) as someone with lived experience and said Bruce was willing to serve. It was moved that the election of a Vice-Chair be tabled until later in the meeting (Smith/Everett, roll call vote 12-1). Courtney nominated Chasity Tuell. It was decided that the Governance Committee should address this issue.
Brendan began his FOAA explanation. He focused on Section 406. Three or more members of the Council gathered together constituted a public meeting because the statute required Council deliberations to be conducted openly (Section 401). He went on to elaborate on the kinds of conversations that could be held and said that there was a delicate balance between transparency and FOAA. While no individual member can speak for the Council, it was agreed that this is a gray area and guidance might be found by looking at other entities. Pat suggested this matter be referred to the Governance Committee.
The Finance Committee had not met since the last meeting, Ben offered to answer any questions. He did say interested on the funds currently held by the state had garnered $419,000 in interest by mid-December and continued to accrue. He would be working that interest amount into the spreadsheets.
Joe announced that the Programs and Grants Committee would be meeting every two weeks going forward. The CDC would be coming with a proposal for detox beds and a recovery center in Piscataquis County. The question was raised regarding the viability of a recovery center there, was this even a shovel-ready project. There was a short discussion about sole sourcing projects. Joe said they did not have a mechanism by which to get large checks out and had to piggyback on the state's process/model. Pat asked if we wanted to devise another process and suggested coordination with the Finance Committee. Bruce suggested adding another half hour to the Programs and Grants Committee meeting. Liz advocated for making some decisions regarding how the Maine Youth Action Network and the Peter Alfond Foundation would use their funds.
The discussion focused on how much to award to each of the organizations. The Peter Alfond Foundation filtered funds to 28 entities, the Maine Youth Action Network worked with 8 others. There were questions as to how the organizations would distribute the funds to their collaborators and would anything other than lump sum awards require a change in the motion of last month. A clarification from the minutes of last month found wording for support of 36 organizations at $20,000 each over two years and that did not take into consideration administrative costs. Bruce raised the equal v equitable question. Liz said there might be over-lapping partners. The motion was: award $575,000 to the Peter Alfond Foundation and $175,000 to the Maine Youth Action Network to support programming (Blackwell-Moore/Gary-Allen, all in favor with three abstentions).
Further discussions focused on how other entities receiving funds were using theirs and whether there were opportunities to coordinate and increase pools of funding through partnering and/or using matching dollars. Todd mentioned the use of funding in county jails. Pat asked Mary to track the requests. Liz said there were other organizations that needed funding, Courtney noted the public had not asked for funds and questioned if people were aware. Pat said from the public hearing that people did know and we had already awarded $9 million without any applications. Joe asked that requests get to the Programs and Grants Committee first. Mary said the website would be helpful in that regard. Brendan said it was up to the Council to figure out what the need is and establish priorities for directing funding. Whether the Council is driving the agenda of priorities/needs or whether the Council is being driven is the question.  
Turning to the election of a vice-chair, Eric said he could settle the issue immediately. He did not have lived experience as that seemed to be important, he would withdraw his name. While there were several names still in play, Gordon said he would amend his motion and refer this issue to the Governance Committee and perhaps suggest a by-law change to hold elections other than at the annual meeting (Smith/Vinsel, 12-2).
Pat reported Dr. Johnson had submitted her final invoice and had made some recommendations. Pat also apologized to Mary for foregoing her report, reminded the Council of the appearance before DHHS of January 17th at 3pm, and announced the next meeting on February 8 from 1:30 - 4:30. 
The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 pm.