The Opioid Settlement Advisory Board, which was created in 2021 to provide recommendations to the state regarding how to spend millions of dollars in settlement funding, met for five hours on Monday in Albany. 

According to two sources who spoke with Capital Tonight, very little was achieved. 

“What happened yesterday was a lot of inaction, once again,” said Alexis Pleus, executive director of TruthPharm, a grassroots organization she founded after losing her son to an overdose in August 2014. “The meeting lasted five hours, so we lost three New Yorkers during the time that the meeting took place.”

Pleus was referring to a statistic that one New Yorker dies from an overdose every 90 minutes.

A member of the board, Avi Israel, founder of Save the Michaels of the World, echoed Pleus.

“The board got nothing done, and I can’t even blame the Hochul administration for that,” he said. “There’s a lack of leadership on the board. Some people are on the board just for the clout.”

The board’s work is urgent. Just Monday, New York state and local health officials raised concern over a spike in opioid-related overdoses in parts of Central New York believed to be linked to the powerful opioid fentanyl.

Both Pleus and Israel told Capital Tonight that the chairman of the Opioid Settlement Advisory Board, Dr. Stephen Giordano, the Albany County Mental Health commissioner, stated during the meeting that he had circulated a poll and solicited proposals from board members, but very few people responded. 

“You know who responded? Avi Israel responded,” said Israel, who lost his son, Michael, to suicide amid Michael’s battle with opioid addiction.

“I feel if the committee members are not engaged in the process, they should give up their seats to people who care enough to do the work in between the meetings,” said Pleus.

But in a telephone interview with Capital Tonight, Giordano disagreed with those characterizations, saying that, while it’s factually correct that only one commission member responded to his request for proposals prior to the meeting, that other board members were prepared with proposals at the time of the meeting. 

“There was never any requirement that they send (proposals) to me ahead of time. And in fact, multiple members of the board were prepared with their recommendations and priorities to discuss,” said Giordano. “I was actually happy with that response.”

The meeting ended before Giordano could ask all the members to speak.

“On a personal level, the work is so important, but it’s very difficult when the constant drumbeat of ‘you’re not doing enough and you’re not moving fast enough’ is in the background. It’s very, very difficult,” Giordano said.   

When asked how he thinks the work of the Settlement Board is going, Giordano was more optimistic than either Israel or Pleus.

“If I can’t retain hope, I shouldn’t and wouldn’t be doing it,” Giordano said. 

At the same time, he acknowledged that the board got off to a rocky start.

“There was a lot questions about whether we should have been charged earlier. I think we were handicapped, to get together, to get to know one another, to acknowledge the shared mission. And we’re right up against the deadline now,” he said. “But every moment spent talking about how we’re not doing enough is energy wasted and energy misspent. In time-urgent situations, the last thing you want to be doing is talking about how time is running out. We are doing the work. And I remain hopeful. Listen, there is a lot of passion in the room and there’s a lot of anger in the room.”

Giordano said the board will have recommendations by its deadline, which is Nov. 1.

Pleus is hoping that the board can act as sooner than that to fund not only harm reduction and workforce development proposals, but also community-based organizations like TruthPharm.

She also told Capital Tonight that she was concerned that during a presentation made by the Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), it appeared that the number of people seeking treatment from OASAS service providers had stagnated. 

“They have money, but enrollment levels have flatlined,” Pleus said, arguing that the OASAS treatment system is broken.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced $2.3 million would go to support addiction prevention efforts and enhance access to transportation services for opioid treatment.

In upstate New York, $500,000 will fund a pair of pilot programs aimed at enhancing transportation services for individuals in active treatment or recovery, but who lack the resources to travel. Recipients of the grant money are the Genesee Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, Inc. in the Finger Lakes Region ($249,900) and the program founded by Avi Israel, Save the Michaels of the World ($250,000).  

Wednesday is International Overdose Awareness Day. To commemorate those whose lives were lost, activists will gather at Albany’s West Capitol Park at 11 a.m. to call on Gov. Hochul to use her executive power to end overdoses. They are especially interested in having Hochul authorize more Overdose Prevention Centers.

The next meeting of the Opioid Settlement Advisory Board is Friday, Sept. 30.