Maine Recovery Council
March 14, 2024

Chair Pat Kimball opened the meeting. Introductions were made around the table and online. She announced that the Appropriations Committee had asked for a check-in from the Council which she and Brendan would be providing next Monday at 3 pm. The minutes were approved (Noddin/Crafts, 11-0-1).
Mary Coyne provided her Coordinator report. She summarized her activities. She has been reviewing contracts already awarded and garnering information from them as well as grant applications. She is preparing the budget portion for the Finance Committee next week. She met with the Aroostook County Commissioners to discuss their progress and had been invited to meet with the Franklin County Military and Veterans network meeting. She then addressed her request for $3,275.00 to attend the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit in Atlanta, Georgia on April 1-4. Gordon addressed the request and spoke in strong support, ending his comments with a motion to approve the request (Smith/Crafts, 13-0). Ben added that such a request could be expedited through the Executive Committee.
Greg Payne, Senior Advisor on Housing Policy, presented an update on low barrier shelter work in the state. He stated about 40 shelters in Maine participate in the Emergency Shelter and Housing Assistance Program (ESHAP) at MaineHousing including five private shelters accounting for 234 beds. These five shelters are serving a clientele that face the great challenges of substance abuse disorder, acute mental illness and serious physical health problems. The low barrier shelters struggle to meet their annual budgets for a variety of reasons and that has created a structural funding gap of $3.9m. The Governor has included $2.5m in her supplemental budget which now sits with the Appropriations Committee. The AG has been involved in similar conversations. MaineHousing is working to create a collaboration of the Governor, the Legislature, and the AG, local and county governments, private donors and hopes to include the Maine Recovery Council as a partner. The gentle ask was for $550k-750k a year for three years. Clarifying questions and discussion followed the presentation. Greg thanked the Council for their attention to this situation.
Pat then introduced Scott Gagnon. He presented the New England Prevention Technology Transfer Center’s Technical Assistance Proposal for the Council. He summarized the PTTC’s work as responding to what the prevention field needs. They could design a structure and provide research staffing, theirs is not to make recommendations. Scott suggested the formation of a workgroup to include a few Council members. Liz supported the suggestions and added her view that more information was needed on those ‘upstream’; i.e. families, juvenile justice and other early intervention advocates. This would not require a new process where procedures would need to be created. Pat said the Council could create a sub-group for the shorter term and partner with prevention experts. She asked Liz to chair the group and suggested anyone interested in participating contact her directly. There was a consensus agreement that PTTC could do assessment work at the same time.
Reports from the committees was next. The Governance Committee will be meeting in two weeks to discuss term limits, bylaw changes and committees. Todd asked about the request from Appropriations to attend their meeting as he had not received anything. Pat said it had just been received and they were gathering information. Gordon clarified the invitation as informational and said it was important that the Council establish the boundaries of their funding. Apparently there is the notion that the MRC will provide funding so other agencies can remove the requests from their budgets. If MRC just supplements funding, he noted, there is no gain.
Ben reported for the Finance Committee. The current balance was $17.8m including $59,000 interest (revenue) and the expense of $24,000 for Dr. Johnson’s contract. Brendan announced five new settlement agreements and said some payments could arrive as soon as the next day. He also explained that some settlements were front-loading, other payments were expected by July 15. Bruce asked for a printout of the anticipated additional payments. Ben said the next finance committee meeting would feature a discussion of the allocations of funds to the four pillars.
Joe began his Programs and Grants Committee report with a summary of the establishment of the Recovery Center in Piscataquis County. Gordon spoke in favor of the establishment of the Center and funding it for the next two years describing a lengthy conversation he had with them and their responses to his questions. He asked that they provide more part-time assistance and stay open additional hours. Their responses produced the budget presented today. Discussion followed and touched on the expectations of the group receiving funding; a template for contracts; input from the Finance Committee; and disbursements of funds (monthly, quarterly). The motion was passed to authorize a contract with the Recovery Wellness Initiative of Piscataquis County for $501,000 over two years (Smith/Noddin, 13-0).
It has been important that an application process be developed. How to determine eligibility to even apply for funding focused on whether the organization was based and/or was incorporated in the state; whether it was a for-profit or non-profit; whether it was an open-ended request v a specific dollar amount; and whether the request was one of an identified priority. Pat reminded the Council that a list of priorities came from the public hearing. It was agreed that crafting an application would take some time and edits would be needed. The April meeting would focus on the list of priorities and creating an application that was an open process. Gordon asked about scoring the applications.
The April meeting agenda was set for the discussion of priorities and would include a presentation on the 1000 Lives Campaign from Paul. The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 pm.