21-3255 - Authorizing Joinder in MOU re Opioid Litigation

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l 5. "Qualified County" shall mean a charter or non -chartered county within the State that: has a Population of at least 300,000 individuals and (a) has an opioid taskforce of which it is a member or operates in connection with its municipalities or others on a local or regional basis; (b) has an abatement plan that has been either adopted or is being utilized to respond to the opioid epidemic; (c) is currently either providing or is contracting with others to provide substance abuse prevention, recovery, and treatment services to its citizens; and (d) has or enters into an agreement with a majority of Municipalities (Majority is more than 50% of the Municipalities' total population) related to the expenditure of Opioid Funds. The Opioid Funds to be paid to a Qualified County will only include Opioid Funds for Municipalities whose claims are released by the Municipality or Opioid Funds for Municipalities whose claims are otherwise barred. 16. "SAMHSA" shall mean the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 17. "Settlement" shall mean the negotiated resolution of legal or equitable claims against a Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Participant when that resolution has been jointly entered into by the State and Local Governments or a settlement class as described in (13)(1) below. 18. "State" shall mean the State of Florida. B. Terms I . Only Abatement - Other than funds used for the Administrative Costs and Expense Fund as hereinafter described in paragraph 6 and paragraph 9, respectively), all Opioid Funds shall be utilized for Approved Purposes. To accomplish this purpose, the State will either file a new action with Local Governments as Parties or add Local Governments to its existing action, sever settling defendants, and seek entry of a consent order or other order binding both the State, Local Governments, and Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Participant(s) ("Order"). The Order may be part of a class action settlement or similar device. The Order shall provide for continuing jurisdiction of a state court to address non-performance by any party under the Order. Any Local Government that objects to or refuses to be included under the Order or entry of documents necessary to effectuate a Settlement shall not be entitled to any Opioid Funds and its portion of Opioid Funds shall be distributed to, and for the benefit of, the other Local Governments. 2. Avoid Claw Back and Recoupment - Both the State and Local Governments wish to maximize any Settlement and Opioid Funds. In addition to committing to only using funds for the Expense Funds, Administrative Costs and Approved Purposes, both Parties will agree to utilize a percentage of funds for the core strategies highlighted in Exhibit A. Exhibit A contains the programs and strategies prioritized by the U.S. Department of Justice and/or the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services ("Core Strategies"). The State is trying to obtain the United States' agreement to limit or reduce the United States' ability to recover or recoup monies from the State and Local Government in exchange for prioritization of funds to certain projects. If no agreement is reached with the United States, then there will be no requirement that a percentage be utilized for Core Strategies.