Thread by @HesslerHD

I’m back for day 32 of the #opioidtrial in Charleston, W.va. Yesterday a forensic economist testified Tuesday that a 15-year plan to abate the opioid crisis in Cabell County and the city of Huntington would cost $2.54 billion.
herald-dispatch.com/news/opioid-ab…

First up today is @HuntingtonMayor, who just arrived a few minutes ago with @WebbLawCentre.

Williams has taken the stand. Asking questions is Anne McGinness Kearse, of Motley Rice LLC .

Have you seen We Are Marshall? Williams was a member of the Young Thundering Herd era after a plane carrying the Marshall University football team crashed at a Huntington airport in 1970. 75 community members lost their life that day.

I wrote this story earlier this year. reflecting on 50 years after the crash and the perseverance the Huntington had to have to get past the tragedy, like it is doing today with the opioid crisis. herald-dispatch.com/news/putnam_ne…

Huntington recently passed a $63.35 million budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year. Williams says the city has about 30-40 revenue sources. herald-dispatch.com/news/approved-…

He is discussing the importance of budgeting and having a good savings/surplus.

He is talking about the 2017 layoffs of 24 employees - firefighters and police officers - after the departments over spent.

"We have a $55 million budget and we were projected to have a $6 million deficit. Needless to say we were all in a world of hurt.” herald-dispatch.com/news/huntingto…

He said he was asked to lay off 40-50 police officers and 50 firefighters.

"That was a death wish. There was no way we were going to do that."

This was all discussed to show the importance of having a surplus for emergencies. He said earlier this week the city council approved fixing a road slip near the museum of art. That money will come in handy to fix it while insurance works out the issues, he said.

He said beyond 30-40 revenue streams, the city can apply for grants to get money, but they're unstable/unreliable.

Williams says it’s his job to create a vision for the city, communicate that to the residences and get them on board. Outreach is important in his job. He brought up the walk tours he does several times a year in which he goes into neighborhoods to see what the residents need.

Here’s some background on his walking tours: herald-dispatch.com/news/mayor-wil…

When Williams took over in 2013, Skip Holbrook was the chief of police. Williams said they met regularly to discuss ongoing concerns and threats. Holbrook made him aware of concerns about the diversion of prescription pills into the community.

Holbrook’s dad was his football coach in high school.

(You the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" theory? I think we could do the same with Williams and who has a connection to him.)

“In 2013, I understood there was a problem, but I felt our police department and the strategies they were employing were what we needed to take this on," he said.

Williams said he was invited to a raid in the along 9th Avenue to see what the SWAT team did. The home received a delivery of 500 grams of heroin one night. By the time the raid happened the next day, they only found 35 gms.
"Overnight 465 grams had been distributed," he said.

He said the community kept coming to him & asking for help, even as the police were tackling the problem.

“I didn't understand that because we had the strongest law enforcement agency in the area,” he said. “ I knew at that time it was beyond anything I (could have) imagined.”

Obviously the answer was to go even harder on the city arresting their way out of the problem. The River to Jail initiviate netted more than 200 arrests in 2014 for low level drug offenses.

Williams thought he was sending a message to dealers - don’t come here.

(We are getting to how he city turned into the “Recovery Capitol of the country”. They don’t use this method any more)

When police action didn’t work, Williams turned to the faith community. He wanted their input on helping the city recover. On a September 2014 Sunday, he asked they pray at the same time to lift those with opioid use disorder.

herald-dispatch.com/news/recent_ne…

The faith-based community is big in Huntington’s recovery community to this day. Faith leaders go out into the community with the Quick Response Team.

He said this showed the community it needed to come together and embrace recovery and people with OUD.

“You’ve got to name the problem and if you name the problem you own it,” he said.

He created the Mayor's Office of Drug Control Policy in 2014, which looked at the opioid crisis. It included fire chief Jan Rader, former police chief Jim Johnson and data analyst Scott Lemely.

The DCP office reached out to the community to find out what was going on. He said they found there wasn't a lack of effort to deal with opioid use disorder, it was that the "left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing".

They came up with two strategic plans in 2015 and 2017, so that someone was taking the lead. The plans helped make sure all the efforts were swimming in the same direction, he said.

Faith leaders, the university, the hospitals started collaborating and building relationships, he said. The hospitals educated the faith leaders. The university did research and developed programs for addiction sciences, etc.

The emergency room started giving real time data on drug overdoses, etc. They started going after grants "left and right". What the university didn't apply for, the city did.

He said the city provides leadership to these groups.

"The intention was to move the community," he said. "Collaborations leads to partnership, which leads to trust, he said.

"The outcome ends up being hope," he said.

From this, Huntington became the city of Solutions.
herald-dispatch.com/news/williams-…

If you’re reading this thread and enjoying my coverage, please consider donating or subscribing to The @heralddispatch. Tell them Courtney sent you.

#supportlocaljournalism herald-dispatch.com/isupportlocal/

Williams said it is important to him the OUD programs Huntington can help other communities.

“It's very important to me, especially in Appalachia, that there are communities that see what we can do,” he said. “It not only has to be successful, it has to be replicated.”

To be able to afford these programs and Huntington's resiliency plan - a decades-long plan to help abate the crisis - the community needs stable, reliable funding, he said. Grants cannot provide this. herald-dispatch.com/news/cabell-un…

“This has been the most rewarding experience i've ever had, but it's also the most heart wrenching. When I became mayor I never dreamed this would be something I was dealing with.”

He said his parents taught him and his brother they are expected to lead and by leading the community would follow.

He said by doing that he had learned Huntington, Cabell and West Virginia has a loving, caring and compassionate community.

“That’s where that little ray of hope survives for me,” he said.

“I'm not looking for a money grab. All I am looking for the the capacity to make sure my community can heal,” he said.

"I believe we are demonstrating we are in that direction, but the truth is, addiction is highly fragile," he said. " We have experienced an uptick in overdoses through COVID. We were up 14% last year. Our overdoses are on track to be more than what we had last year."

Shoutout to @britthively for letting me use her WIFI to get more tweets out quicker.

Steve Ruby, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia who now represents Cardinal Health, is now asking Williams questions.

He said no one disputes there’s a opioid epidemic in the area, but it was not the distributor’s fault.

Doctors prescribe the pills, the DEA sets annual pill shipment amounts allowed, etc. The defense has also blamed WVians poor health historically as a reason so many pills were shipped.

We are discussing the third-amended complaint Huntington/Cabell filed in this case, Ruby said it focuses on Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, highly blaming them for the opioid crisis. herald-dispatch.com/news/unsealed-…

I can’t find the complaint ATM, but it’s basically a narrative of how the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, marketing companies started the opioid crisis with marketing strategies downplaying the dangers of opioids. It also includes accusations against distributors, however.

I will always share this statement from that complaint, which is:

“Cabell County received 32 times more dollars in opioid marketing than the national average, or about $1,000 per person.”

Ruby is attempting to twist the mayor’s own words and city’s opioid-related lawsuit filings as a way to discredit his testimony. He argued the filings show the city does not believe the distributors had any fault in the crisis.

He pointed to the city’s lawsuit against the Joint Commission , which sets the guidelines on pain management and encourages doctors to identify pain as the fifth vital sign. Williams said in a press release about the lawsuit JCAHO was highly at fault for the crisis.

He was CCed an email when Dr. Joseph Werthammer, a pediatric neonatologist at Cabell Huntington Hospital, shared a 2017 article that referenced how quickly a person can become addicted. Werthammer replied to someone’s response to the new information: “We have created a monster.”

Essentially, Ruby is saying because the city blames other people for having a hand in creating the crisis, distributors are not to blame.

We are at lunch until 1:30

Anddddd we are back.

Ruby is pointing to an application the city made for something which said the city is battling economical distress due to manufacturing and coal decline, which has worsened the opioid crisis. It also said the area battles a myriad of health issues, which adds to it.

A witness earlier this trial said economic distress could only account for about 10% of the opioid crisis, though. I can't remember which witness. Everything is a blur.

It took 7 weeks, but the @heralddispatch was finally mentioned! They're talking about a Bryan Chambers (now city communications) article which looked at an increase of (black tar) heroin in the area. That was around 2006.

Ruby is attempting to place the fault on drug dealers, who have flooded the community with heroin. He said this article shows dealers were talked about as early as 2006 in the area.

Scott Lemley, a city employee, testified a couple weeks ago that illicit drugs have been a part of the Huntington community since at least the 1980s, but it didn’t overtake the community until prescription opiates become a problem about 10 years ago

Ruby said Huntington has a multi-million dollar surplus right now it could use to fight the crisis, but it chooses not to. It doesn’t budget money for opioid recovery.

The city does not budget money for opioid recovery because it can get it through grants.

Williams said the surplus was thanks to CARES act money, which has helped it survive during COVID-19.

Ruby said the city chose to give employees and the mayor a raise. It also raised the budget for the animal shelter.

The 2021-22 budget predicts the city will have a $10 million dollar surplus, Williams said. Circling back to this morning, he said it is important the city has savings and surplus for emergencies.

A good example of that importance could be seen in the 2017 layoffs of 24 city employees - mainly firefighters and police officers - after the departments over spent, he said.

He added earlier this week the city council approved fixing a road slip near the museum of art using some of that money until insurance works out.

Williams said it's not true the city isn't putting money into the opioid epidemic. The police and fire departments are budgeted for all costs associated for their responses to it, for example.

The doesn't city budget for recovery, Ruby said.
“The reason we don’t do that (is because it’s) not what we do,” Williams said. “We assist entities to get grants. I would never expect the city government to actually start running treatment programs or funding treatment programs.

Williams said he did not think they had authority to do that.

The judge just told Ruby he is testing the judge’s patience, if you’re wondering where his mind is at.

“I've never represented the city should be going into the treatment business,” Williams said.

Ruby said the city doesn't fund those programs because they already have proper funding through grants.

A handful of witnesses have taken the stand and said grant funding is not working for the city. It’s unreliable and unstable.

Before the trial, I talked to someone at Prestera, a recovery hub in the community, who said the same. She said Prestera’s phone system is nearly 25 years old and its computers are outdated, something grants don’t typically cover. herald-dispatch.com/news/putnam_ne…

We are taking a short break.

https://twitter.com/taylorstuckhd/status/1410309575656488974

The defense is done with cross-examination. Time for Kearse’s redirect.

McGinness Kearse said the defense ignored sections of the lawsuit complaints, emails and other documents mentioned earlier which blamed the distributors.

Paul T. Farrell Jr. is going to ask some questions now for the Cabell Commission. He said the city and county have waived rights to gain their economic losses. This lawsuit is looking at what it will take to spend in the future.

He said because of this, it doesn't matter in this regard what the governments have done in the past.

He also pointed to a letter Williams penned to @JoeManchinWV regarding the crisis in which he said distributors were to blame.

We are done for the day a bit early! I’ll be back to hear motions tomorrow.

Just caught Williams leaving the courthouse. He said he was glad to speak on behalf of the citizens and is excited to see where the lawsuit goes.

FINAL STORY: After 7 weeks of grueling yet captivating testimony detailing how the opioid crisis caught fire and has continued to burn, the city of Huntington and Cabell County presented Wednesday their last witness — Mayor Steve Williams. herald-dispatch.com/news/huntingto…