MORGANTOWN — Now that the process has played out and Jonathan Board has been selected to represent Region 4 on the West Virginia First Foundation, Monongalia County Commissioner Sean Sikora said he wanted to take a few moments Wednesday to share his thoughts.
In short, he’s not happy.
Sikora said he believes the entire selection process was convoluted and, ultimately, manipulated.
“Charleston developed a process where we would pick our representative for this region. In my opinion, they developed a process then put their finger on the scale as far as who they wanted to be our representative,” he said, later adding, “I have nothing against Jonathan Board. I think he’s a very talented individual. I think he knows nothing about the opioid crisis.”
The West Virginia First Foundation is the 11-member body that will steer hundreds of millions in opioid settlement dollars statewide. Six of the members are regional representatives. The other five will be selected by the governor’s office.
Board edged out Jon Dower, who was nominated by the Monongalia County Commission, to represent the 13-county Region 4 during last week’s selection meeting.
Both Board and Dower were among six individuals who provided resumes seeking Monongalia County’s nomination. The commission interviewed two, Dower and Richard Vaglienti, before choosing Dower.
In addition to personal experience with addiction and recovery, Dower is currently director of recovery services for Ascension Recovery Services; executive director of West Virginia Sober Living; vice president of the West Virginia Alliance of Recovery Residences; president-elect of the West Virginia Association of Addiction and Prevention Professionals; and committee chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Substance Abuse.
“I think that our candidate was the best candidate for this whole region, probably the best candidate for the whole state, and he actually received more votes than anybody else,” Sikora said. “You hear it third party, so you can’t prove anything, but there were influences from outside that were pushing the candidate that ultimately won.”
Of the 76 government bodies in Region 4 — counties and municipalities — a total of 28 were represented at the selection meeting.
Looking at the straight-vote count, Dower ended up with 10 votes compared to eight for Board and six for Westover Police Chief Joe Adams. Dr. Robert Snuffer (Lewis County) received three votes and Fairmont Police Lt. Mike Keller received one. Lou Ortenzio (Harrison County) was also a nominee.
Once the votes were calculated using a weighted voting system based on the previously negotiated settlement percentages for each government body, Board was unofficially named the Region 4 director.
A Fairmont resident, Board was nominated by the city of Elkins. He received votes from Barbour, Braxton, Harrison, Marion, Randolph and Upshur counties, as well as Elkins and Bridgeport.
Dower received votes from Monongalia and Preston counties as well as Sutton, Fairmont, Mannington, Worthington, Granville, Morgantown, Star City and Masontown.
Adams received votes from Taylor and Tucker counties as well as Lost Creek, Grant Town, Westover and Grafton.
Snuffer picked up votes from Lewis County as well as Jane Lew and Weston.
Keller’s vote came from White Hall.
Monongalia County Commission President Tom Bloom presided over the selection meeting.
He called Board “exceptional” and said he’s hopeful Dower will be among the five individuals appointed by the governor’s office. Further, he said Board has also expressed support for Dower’s participation.
Bloom said he agrees with Sikora’s belief that there was “interference.” He also agreed that only having 28 of the 76 governmental bodies represented was “very disappointing.”
“This is something that will basically be the future of how we deal with the opioid crisis in West Virginia and only 28 of 76 bothered to be there,” Bloom said. “I don’t understand why.”
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