MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The first Monongalia County nominees are now under consideration to represent Region 4 on the opioid settlement fund at the WV First Foundation.
The Monongalia County Commission announced that five nominees have submitted applications to represent the county and will be considered among nominees from thirteen counties to represent the region. The person selected will be a member of an eleven-person board that will help determine where over $1 billion in opioid settlement funds will be directed. More applications are expected to be added prior to the formal Region 4 vote that’s scheduled for July 13, where a single board member will be selected.
“We have five applicants: Jonathan A. Board, Michelle A. Christy, (Westover Police) Chief Joseph Adams, Jonathan Dower, and Robert Musick,” said Bloom on the names of the applicants.
Each nominee for the Region 4 board seat will be a representative from Monongalia County, as well as Preston, Marion, Braxton, Lewis, Harrison, Taylor, Tucker, Barbour, Randolph, Gilmer, Doddridge, and Upshur counties. So far, the representatives from Monongalia County have included legal professionals (Board), experts in social services (Christy), the Chief of Police in Westover (Adams), the Executive Director of West Virginia Sober Living (Dower), and the CEO of the West Virginia Council for the Prevention of Suicides (Musick). Once more applications are accepted, Bloom stated that the commission will reach out to the nominees to discuss how the vote will proceed.
“Those are the five that we received resumes for, and then we will sit and discuss to see how we want to follow through on the process,” said Bloom.
Applications for potential nominees were accepted up to the start of the commission’s regular meeting Wednesday, though recommendations were received ahead of the formal announcement of the five selected to be considered to represent Region 4. Both Commissioner Bloom and Sean Sikora stated that there were a couple of nominees who beat the deadline but were not formally introduced due to the applications being submitted by fax over the 4th of July Weekend. Those applications are expected to receive some consideration before the full Region 4 board member nominee list is finalized for Monongalia County.
“I had someone contact me, and I said make sure they emailed it; they said they faxed it, and they got a confirmation that they faxed it,” said Sikora on the potential for more nominees. “I told them to send it to you (Bloom), and I said because of the holidays, you’d better email it, but they said they faxed it,” he said.
The eleven-person board that will shape the WV First Foundation will determine where 72.5 percent of over $1 billion in opioid settlement funds will be directed, with the rest already distributed to counties and municipalities across the Mountain State. Of the eleven people, five, including the Region 4 representative, will be chosen by other regions in West Virginia, with the remaining six selected by Governor Jim Justice. The list of Monongalia County nominees to join the board as Region 4 representatives is expected to be finalized ahead of the July 13 vote.
“We had asked for applications to be the Mon County representative to be nominated on the West Virginia First Foundation board; so far, we have five applicants,” said Bloom.