Kalispell joins opioid settlement agreement

The Kalispell City Council on Monday opted to join a statewide settlement agreement against major opioid distributors.

The decision came during the final meeting of the year and the last meeting for outgoing council members Tim Kluesner and Kyle Waterman.

Only Sid Daoud voted against the settlement agreement that includes McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health Inc., Amerisource Bergen and Janssen. In total, Montana will receive a total of $80 million if all 56 counties and Montana’s six largest cities join the agreement.

If some governments do not sign onto the agreement, the payments will be disbursed on a sliding scale, but the total $80 million will be off the table. Any city or county that doesn’t sign on won’t receive any payment from the settlement.

In Kalispell’s case, the settlement payment would not go to the Kalispell government, but instead to the City-County Health Department.

Daoud voted against the measure, which must be ratified by all of the local governments by Jan. 2, because of the rushed nature of the agreement.

“It seems extremely last minute,” he said.

Others on the council, particularly Sam Nunnally and Tim Kluesner, also expressed reservations about the specifics of the agreement.

Nunnally was worried the city might end up paying more money by joining the settlement than by litigating the opioid companies on its own. Kluesner, like Daoud, was put off by the last-minute proceedings of the settlement.

Kluesner said the agreement was being carried out in “a ding-dong way.”

“This is nuts,” he said. “This is just silliness.”

In the end, Kluesner and Nunnally both joined the majority in voting for the settlement agreement.

THE CITY also approved two development proposals from WGM Group.

One was a request for final plat approval and a subdivision improvement agreement for Stillwater Crossing. The subject property is a two-lot subdivision at 430 Stillwater Road that takes up 13.55 acres of the overall subdivision. The two lots will be divided into a multi-family lot and a commercial lot.

The council approved the preliminary plat with 49 conditions on August 4, 2020.

The developer also requested a subdivision improvement agreement in the amount of $1,200,531.

Another final plat request and subdivision improvement agreement came before the council regarding Northland Phase 5D. The subject property is a 40-lot residential subdivision on 7.71 acres at the western end of Northridge Drive.

The council approved that preliminary plat with 20 conditions on June 5, 2017.

The subdivision improvement agreement amounts to $79,300.

The city council won’t meet again until the new year, on Jan. 3.