by Charles Young, WV News
Reprinted with permission
The public soon will be able to see how cities and counties have used their share of opioid settlement funds, according to officials with the West Virginia First Foundation. 
The foundation is in the process of collecting reports from city and county officials about how the funds they have received so far have been spent, which will be compiled and released online.
“We’ve received around 84% of the required reports from counties and municipalities as required as part of the qualified settlement obligations,” said First Foundation Executive Director Jonathan Board on Monday. “That full analysis is due by July 15.”
The foundation does not oversee how cities and counties use their share of the funds, Board said.
“However, we are responsible for collecting (data) and reporting to the public those local expenditures,” he said.
“The data is really paramount for us moving forward on another funding cycle,” Board said.
The foundation has so far received the required reports from 202 out of 243 local entities, according to Anthony Woods, First Foundation chief financial officer.
“We are working on compiling those July 15 and will make those available to everyone on our website,” he said. “We’re working with some of those folks who have not submitted yet and making sure they know it is paramount that they get us this information, and we’re going to have a comprehensive report here in the next couple of weeks.”
The reports are fairly straightforward and should take most local officials about 20 minutes to complete, Woods said.
“We sent out a reporting manual, and we built a custom portal internally for those to report,” he said. “All and all, if there is no expenditures or very few expenditures, I estimate 20 minutes. Of course, if you have an entity that has multiple expenditures and lots of data, that might take longer depending on what they need to report.”
The West Virginia First Foundation is the private, Section 501©(3) nonprofit organization that will determine the use of the majority of funds the state has received from settlements related to the opioid epidemic.
West Virginia has brought legal action against pharmacies, pharmaceutical distributors and pharmaceutical manufacturers for their roles in the opioid epidemic. To date, the legal actions have netted a gross amount of over $1 billion, according to officials.
More than 70% of the funds received from the settlements will be managed and administered by the foundation.
The remainder of the funds will go to counties and municipalities. The first distributions to local governments began in December 2023 and are expected to continue through at least 2036.
The foundation currently has more than $302 million in its accounts, Woods reported Monday, which includes more than $7 million earned on investments.
The foundation’s website can be viewed at https://wvfirst.org/
