Michigan Democrats may dissolve panel critical of Whitmer opioid efforts

• Democrats in the Whitmer administration and the Legislature are discussing disbanding the Opioid Advisory Commission.
• The 12-member group has sparred with the administration over handling of opioid settlement funds
• Whitmer has a separate commission that offers counsel on the opioid epidemic

Michigan Democrats may disband the state’s Opioid Advisory Commission, which has been critical of some drug-fighting efforts of the administration of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The dissolution of the commission, created by the then Republican-controlled Legislature in 2022, would eliminate a high-profile group that has called for greater transparency and accountability surrounding $1.6 billion in opioid settlement funds coming into the state.

A plan to eliminate the commission apparently has been in the works for months, according to an internal email to Michigan Department of Health and Human Services officials that Bridge Michigan received through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In a May email from Whitmer senior adviser Tommy Stallworth to officials including Chief Medical Executive Natasha Bagdasarian and Senior Policy Analyst Jared Weledodsky, Stallworth wrote that he’d broached the subject of eliminating the commission in a meeting with key Democratic senators.

Stallworth wrote:

“Sen. (Kevin) Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) has been green lighted to begin the process of repealing the OAC origination PA (public act). I'm scheduling a meeting with him and the Speakers office (House Speaker of the House Joe Tate, D-Detroit) and EOG (Executive Office of the Governor) to make sure we're running on parallel tracks, including a new executive order.”

No repeal effort has been introduced in the Legislature, but Hertel confirmed to Bridge Monday that “there’s some conversation” about disbanding the commission, which was created before Democrats gained control of the House and Senate.

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Stallworth and the health department released a statement to Bridge saying “Michigan is fortunate to have so many community partners interested in addressing substance use disorder and helping determine the best use of opioids settlement funding to tackle an issue affecting nearly every family in the state in some way. We will continue working with them to make sure that Michiganders get the help they need to combat this crisis.”

The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The movement to dissolve the commission caught its chair, Cara Poland, by surprise.

“The OAC is not aware of any efforts to disband us,” Poland said Monday. “I don’t know what else to say.”

The opioid epidemic kills a Michigander every four hours, more than car crashes and guns combined.

Michigan is set to receive $1.6 billion over 18 years from opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies deemed partly responsible for the crisis. Local communities are set to receive about half of those funds, with the rest being administered by the state.

The Legislature’s commission has an at-times contentious history with the Whitmer administration, which has its own advisory group, the Michigan Opioids Task Force. Poland and the Opioid Advisory Commission have complained that they’ve been frozen out of decision-making about the settlement funds by MDHHS, while some in the administration have privately complained that the OAC is too critical of the administration’s drug-fighting efforts.

“The current structure of two separate councils clearly isn’t working,” Hertel said. “The reason they were both created was because of a political fight (between the then Republican-controlled Legislature and the Democratic governor) over control of the process (of how to spend settlement funds).  I don’t think that ever works.

“When people are fighting over petty things, that doesn’t move us in the right direction.”

Sen. Mark Huizenga, R-Walker, the sponsor of the bill that created the Opioid Advisory Commission in 2022, said he hadn’t heard Democrats were considering disbanding the commission.

“I would be very disappointed if there is any effort” to dissolve the commission, Huizenga said. “This is an issue that is 100% nonpartisan. There should be an all-of-the-above strategy (and) the commission is one tool in that strategy.”

Jonathan Stoltman of the Grand Rapids-based Opioid Policy Institute warned that disbanding the legislative branch’s Opioid Advisory Commission would remove a critical check on powers of the executive branch — a check Democrats may regret removing if Republicans win back the governor’s office in 2026, while tens of millions of opioid settlement dollars are still flowing into the state.

“This action makes clear they don’t want oversight,” Stoltman said.

Poland, the commission’s chair, defended the 12-member group, which includes members who have been appointed by Republicans and Democrats.

“As volunteer members, we feel passionately about this topic and hope to put partisan politics aside to do what is right for the citizens of Michigan,” Poland said.

In a heated July meeting of the commission, the Whitmer administration’s Stallworth said the group was “duplicative” of the governor's task force. 

“We’ve got the (Opioid Advisory Commission.) We’ve got the Opioid Task Force. We’ve got two chambers, and we’ve got a governance office — all of which need to try and negotiate and get into alignment around (spending decisions,)” he said.

Stallworth told the commission at that meeting that it was time to move forward, according to a Bridge report of the meeting. 

What he didn’t tell the members was that he was already coordinating efforts to close down the group.