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<\/p>\nSome municipalities haven’t spent money earmarked to combat addiction; other have squandered on unrelated purchases. Nevertheless, New York is taking a hands-off approach to how local governments spend settlement funds.<\/p>\n
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Chinazo Cunningham, commissioner of the Office of Addiction Services and Supports. Photo: NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports.<\/p>\n
Who will hold Buffalo accountable for spending thousands of dollars earmarked to combat opioid addiction on lawnmowers, snowblowers or speakers for a fireboat?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not the state agency that has overseen the rollout of millions of New York\u2019s opioid settlement funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have the authority to tell local governments how to use those dollars,\u201d Chinazo Cunningham, the commissioner of the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports, said at a town hall meeting held in Cheektowaga last week.<\/p>\n
Opioid settlement funds are a once-in-a-lifetime source of funding to fight addiction and overdose deaths, won by the state attorney general \u2014 and attorney generals nationwide \u2014 in litigation against drug manufacturers and distributors for their role in the opioid epidemic.<\/p>\n
The state has secured over $3 billion in settlement funds to be spent through 2040. To date, according to the agency, $454 million has been distributed statewide.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One meeting participant asked Cunningham why local municipalities had been permitted to spend on items with dubious utility for overdoses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never known a lawnmower or a snowblower to get a person into treatment,\u201d Chris Harzynski, co-founder of Creative Restorations Inc., said, referring to lawnmowers bought by the former Acting Mayor Chris Scanlon administration<\/a> for block clubs and a slew of other questionable purchases approved by the city\u2019s finance department as late as January of this year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWere those lawnmowers used to cut the grass to see the dead bodies in empty lots?\u201d Harzynski asked.<\/p>\n Chris Harzynski, co-founder of Creative Restorations Inc. Photo: WKBW, News 7.<\/p>\n Cunningham said more than half of opioid settlement dollars go from the attorney general through a \u201cthird party\u201d to cities and counties. She said her agency has no control over how those funds are used. The Office of Addiction Services and Supports, she said, only has oversight of the service providers the agency contracts with directly.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, the agency has some authority over the roughly $6 million that\u2019s gone to Buffalo, $18 million to Erie County, and $417,990 to smaller Western New York municipalities \u2014 the amounts connected to the agency\u2019s regional abatement funds<\/a> \u2014 that Investigative Post has reported on extensively for the last year.<\/p>\n Recipients of these regional funds must report to the agency every August 1 how much they\u2019ve spent. Purchases must abide by a schedule of approved uses<\/a> relating to addiction treatment and prevention.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat is oversight,\u201d Aliya-Begum Jessa, policy research associate at Legal Action Center<\/a>, told Investigative Post.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are multiple entities who should be doing some kind of oversight, but no one right now has stepped up except the state comptroller,\u201d Jessa said, referring to a state audit of settlement funds currently underway. \u201cAnd that kind of audit could take years to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Subscribe to our free weekly newsletters<\/p>\n<\/p>\n An Investigative Post reporter asked what the agency is doing as a response to Buffalo\u2019s questionable use of funds. Cunningham responded that the agency is auditing local governments\u2019 spending of opioid dollars, but did not confirm if Buffalo is part of that review.<\/p>\n The town hall in Cheektowaga was part of a statewide \u201clistening tour\u201d conducted by Cunningham through the end of September. Cunningham said a team will analyze recurring themes raised by speakers but did not indicate if policy action will take place as a result.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amy Webster, a former employee of the now-shuttered Save the Michaels of the World, wondered why the agency hadn\u2019t clawed back $500,000 in agency funding \u2014 money that went first from the agency in a regional abatement fund, then through the City of Buffalo \u2014 for Save the Michaels\u2019 unopened East Side facility<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe absolutely do have oversight over the contracts that we have with programs,\u201d Cunningham reiterated. \u201cWe don\u2019t tell local governments how to use those dollars.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Open Book Buffalo<\/a>, a public portal of city spending updated daily by the city comptroller\u2019s office, 22 percent of the City of Buffalo\u2019s opioid settlement spending to date has been approved to fund treatment or prevention programs in community-based organizations. However, that 22 percent includes payments made to Save the Michaels for the unopened East Side facility. Without Save the Michaels, that figure drops to less than 1 percent.<\/p>\n The only organizations recently earmarked to receive Buffalo\u2019s settlement funds are the Prevention Council of Erie County for $8,561 and another with Preventionfocus Inc. for $6,268, according to Open Book Buffalo. Both will fund addiction prevention programs for teens through the Mayor\u2019s Summer Youth Internship and Employment program.<\/p>\n Investigative Post previously reported<\/a> in April that Catholic Health and Evergreen Health are set to receive opioid settlement dollars from the city for a counseling program at Sisters Hospital and technological upgrades at a Catholic Health methadone clinic, though no payments are reflected in the Open Book Buffalo system to date.<\/p>\n Amanda Szustak, who works with Harzynski at Creative Restorations, Inc., was also in attendance at the Cheektowaga meeting. She said she\u2019s been emboldened by what she\u2019s learned about local municipalities\u2019 failure to spend dollars, particularly in her hometown of Lancaster.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Chris-Harzynski_WKBW.jpeg\")
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