New York’s Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Board met in Albany, Buffalo and New York City Friday.

The board is part of the mechanism in charge of directing over $2 billion the state has and is expected received from settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. 

The board’s chair, Debra Pantin, told Spectrum News 1 that the meeting represented a new phase as the panel works toward a Nov. 1 deadline to get their report submitted.

“We started talking more in depth about workforce, around equity, around infrastructure, I think today we took those prior meetings and nicely brought it into a new frame,” she said

Recommendations that are expected to move forward for final consideration include: Addressing a lack of bilingual clinicians, a pipeline for workforce development for immigrant communities to increase that diversity of language, rate reform for services that aren’t qualified for reimbursement like case management, and setting aside money to help fund existing grassroots programs to help them make payroll and remain afloat.

There were also concerns from board members about how local funds are being used.

The Department of Budget was on hand to explain the nuances of how a certain portion of the money goes directly to counties and does not go through the same regulatory hurdles as other portions of the funding.

Some expressed concern about how that could create transparency issues and a lack of consistency across regions where those funds are a factor.

“When the dollars are being given to counties, a lot of the money may be going to something good only to be undone by another department, and we don’t even know what the standards are across the state,” said member Justine Waldman.

Also a continued topic of discussion is a possible declaration of a state of emergency from the governor.