Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
Metro Council members grilled the city-parish's Office of Community Development on Wednesday after hearing that agencies have been waiting months to receive money to combat opioid abuse in the parish. In August, the council approved $1 million to the East Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office, and hundreds of thousands of dollars to nonprofits and other agencies to address opioid abuse. But two months later, those funds still haven't gone through. "If this thing was executed in August, and here we're getting almost to Thanksgiving, and … no monies have been issued, something's wrong with this picture," said council member Carolyn Coleman. The Office of Community Development gives grants and other funding to various agencies and groups at the mayor's direction for initiatives like violence prevention, housing development, drug intervention and more. The council questioned OCD Director Kelly LeDuff about the delay Wednesday night, as District Attorney Hillar Moore's office and others still wait for the much needed funds. Council member Jen Racca and others told LeDuff that the office needed to improve its communication with vendors. "Some folks are reaching out to news media saying that they haven't received their funds," Racca said. "They say they haven't been communicated with and they weren't told as to how to get those." LeDuff said he does not want there to be delays, and he and his office staff work hard to secure funds like the opioid funding earmarked from the DA and nonprofits, though he conceded that the round of funding the council approved in August created a lot of work for OCD. "In all transparency, it was a lot to do at one time," LeDuff said to the council. Jon Daily, Moore's CPA, said these funds are used for programs in his office and others focused on intervention and prevention for opioid abuse. A lot of these funds go to data collection, he added, which helps make opioid prevention efforts more efficient. "Overdoses have decreased a lot as a result of our preexisting efforts," Daily said. "But the overdose is just a symptom of the problem. So we will continue to build out intervention points to address root causes." Daily said he did not know the reason for the delay and added the DA's Office is still waiting for a cooperative endeavor agreement from the Office of Community Development and the mayor's office. In a statement Wednesday, LeDuff said "as of today, we have not received a reimbursement request from the DA's Office." But emails sent Monday obtained via a public records request show Daily asking if OCD needed anything else before funds could be drawn. The reply from LeDuff's chief grant administrator did not mention needing reimbursement requests from the DA's Office, and instead replied to say the agreement is awaiting signatures from city-parish officials. "One of the biggest calls I get from vendors is the challenge with moving things forward, getting reimbursements," council member Cleve Dunn Jr. said. Dunn added that the city-parish has invested significant funds in technology to speed up processes like these, and things should not be taking as long as they are right now.
