Fairfield signs onto opioid settlement

FAIRFIELD — City council members authorized the mayor to sign documents bringing the city into an opioid-related class-action lawsuit with retail giants like Walmart, CVS and Walgreens at a meeting Monday night. If that signature goes through, the city of Fairfield would qualify for major settlement payouts.

The lawsuit deals with distributors who sold the addictive painkillers and, according to prosecutors, marketed them in ways that misled users about the risks involved. It’s the second major class-action proceeding against producers and retailers of the drugs that caused over 80,000 American overdose deaths in 2021 according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Cities and counties have until April 18 to sign on, according to a deadline that City Attorney John Morrissey said was set by defendants. He encouraged the city to act quickly, saying a failure to sign on would opt the city out of settlement payments, and potentially contribute to one defendant’s withdrawal from proceedings.

“Walmart wants 85% participation for them to go along with their $3.8 (billion) contribution,” Morrissey said. “So it’s important … we’ve known about this settlement before, but we didn’t really understand without the memo of understanding, which is 300 pages long, that Walmart could bail on it.”

The action item was added as a last-minute amendment to the council meeting’s agenda, a move Morrissey said was unusual without a prior public notice, but necessary to meet the deadline.

He added that the item was uncontroversial, as a path to receive roughly $1 million — by his estimate — with few conditions attached.

“When somebody asks you if you’d like to participate in a $360 million settlement that will bring funds to your town for programs, and we’ve already identified some of the programs … the idea is, first, we make sure this is tied down by enough communities in the state of Iowa doing it,” he said.

“What we are signing on for, is to participate as a settlement shareholder, compared to opting out and not being part of the class that is settled with,” he later added. “This is a class of thousands and thousands of plaintiffs that are all going to share in billions of dollars of pharmaceutical settlement money.”

Fairfield Mayor Connie Boyer said she had consulted with the state Attorney General’s Office about logistics of the settlement. Based on those conversations, money will likely be paid out to participating states, then to counties with participating cities, then potentially to those cities, as well as participating organizations with a hand on the ball. Iowa is expected to receive $360 million.

Boyer said more precise details on administration of the funds were unclear, but that local conversations would hopefully involve input from community organizations.

“A lot of community partners are already doing some of these things, so that’s the way I would see it playing out,” she said. “Funds previously came to our county, and apparently none of these groups were involved … I think there would have to be a discussion led with supervisors and this group, and then, you know, we come up with a plan.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com