MORGANTOWN — West Virginia’s 13-county Region 4 is starting over in its search for a regional director to serve on the West Virginia First Foundation — the 11-member body that will steer hundreds of millions in opioid settlement dollars statewide.
The region selected Jonathan Board as its representative last July. Last month, Board was named the foundation’s executive director, reopening Region 4’s seat at the table.
As the most-populous county in the region, organizing the process falls to Monongalia County.
Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom said a letter went out earlier this week to all 76 governmental bodies (63 municipalities and 13 counties) in the region to request their participation in a meeting to be held May 9.
The first time the region selected a representative, all 76 had the chance to nominate a candidate — there were six nominations and representatives from 28 of the 76 governmental bodies were at the meeting.
During that meeting, Board beat out Monongalia County nominee Jon Dower for the position.
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.
However, the voting is calculated using a weighted system based on the previously negotiated settlement percentages for each government body, meaning who votes for a particular nominee can be more important than how many.
In this case, six of the 13 counties backed Board, who ended up with 41.01% of the weighted total compared to 30.30% for Dower. Adams ended up with 5.77% followed by Snuffer (3.67%) and Keller (.02%). The remaining 19.23% represents the municipalities that did not vote.
On April 12, following Board’s selection as executive director, the Monongalia County Commission sent a letter to all 76 bodies proposing Dower, having received the second-highest vote percentage, be named the new regional director.
While that initially seemed to pass muster with Board and the WV First Foundation, the commission was later contacted by Foundation Chair Matthew Harvey indicating a new election would need to be held.
The April 12 letter was rescinded and new invitations went out.
Attendance at the May 9 meeting can be in person or via remote-meeting software. Each local government can submit a nomination prior to or during the meeting.
As with the previous election process, Monongalia County intends to nominate Dower.
Morgantown City Council has indicated the city will support that nomination.
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