Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce was declared the unofficial winner Wednesday in a vote of city and county officials representing an eight-county region to serve on the West Virginia First Foundation, a nonprofit foundation tasked with distributing three-quarters of the state’s more than $1 billion in opioid settlement funds. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce is set to serve on the statewide board overseeing disbursement of funds from West Virginia’s opioid settlements.

Joyce was selected during a vote Wednesday at a meeting held at the Judge Black Judicial Annex which was attended by over 50 local representatives, many in person and some virtually, representing towns and counties across the eight-county region that makes up Region 3 for the West Virginia First Foundation, a nonprofit foundation tasked with distributing three-quarters of the state’s more than $1 billion in opioid settlement funds.

“More than $1 billion will be flooded into the state of West Virginia to impact the opioid crisis,” said Wood County Commission President Blair Couch. “We are hopeful it will save people.”

There were three people nominated to be the representative. In addition to Joyce, the other nominees were Sarah Barton, owner of ProFuse Solutions, and Kevin Trippett, President and CEO of Westbrook Health Services Inc.

Each nominee was able to address the assembled officials to make their case on why they should be selected. Joyce appeared in person while Barton and Trippett appeared virtually.

Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce addressed a meeting in Parkersburg Wednesday of around 50 local officials from an eight-county region who were choosing a representative for a foundation that will be distributing millions of dollars in opioid settlement money across the state. Representatives from Calhoun, Jackson, Pleasants, Ritchie, Roane, Tyler, Wirt and Wood counties and around 21 municipalities within them cast votes for the representative. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

The foundation is an opportunity for the whole state of West Virginia to address this problem that has been going on for a long time, Joyce said.

“My focus is going to be on the prevention piece,” he said. “(Quoting former Parkersburg Police Chief Joe Martin) ‘This gets fixed long term by raising a generation of young people who do not turn to, whether it is opioids or methamphetamies or marijuana or whatever.’

“I think that will be the long-term solution for this.”

Joyce said he is not opposed to treatment, even though he gets that label sometimes.

“I think everyone deserves the opportunity to get better and get back into a salubrious lifestyle,” he said. “I will fight like hell for every city and county in this region.”

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey addressed a gathering in Parkersburg Wednesday of local officials from an eight-county region before they selected Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce to be the representative to a statewide foundation board who will be distributing millions of dollars in opioid settlement money to improve drug treatment and prevention efforts. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

Joyce said he owns property in Wood, Ritchie and Wirt counties and knows many officials throughout the region and is in regular contact with many of them and they are with him. He has contacts around the state he can pull from and reads a lot of the available information to educate himself.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey also attended and spoke to those in attendance. His office worked out how West Virginia First would be structured.

“Many of us in this room have been fighting the drug epidemic for a very long time,” he said. “It has been my top priority to put a lot of energy and effort in holding (drug) companies accountable for the role they played in the drug epidemic.

“All of the citizens of West Virginia have an opportunity to begin the healing.”

Morrisey said the money can also be used to attract private sector money and federal money to help with efforts and the money the state is receiving will provide “meaningful resources.”

Representatives of Calhoun, Jackson, Pleasants, Ritchie, Roane, Tyler, Wirt and Wood counties and around 21 municipalities within them cast votes for the representative. Some areas did not have a representative present, although they were invited. An accountant with Smith Cochran Hicks, Certified Public Accountants, of Charleston, tallied the votes which are weighted based on the percentage of settlement funds each entity is in line to receive.

A final count tally was not made available Wednesday. A representative from Morrisey’s office said once the vote is certified, they will release that information.

The accountant present said another accountant will run the numbers again for the governor’s and attorney general’s offices and if they match what he did the vote will become official in about a week.

Couch said the foundation needed to conduct its business in public meetings where people and the press can attend and urged their representative to push for that.

Joyce said that is the only way he can see such an organization working effectively and would support open public meetings.

“I am pleased. I would not have agreed to be nominated if I didn’t want to serve in this capacity,” he said. “Parkersburg has been hit by this opioid epidemic as bad as anyone in the region, if not the state.

“I have committed myself to learning as much as I possibly can. I look at this as another opportunity to do the best for the people of Region 3 and the people of West Virginia.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com