Opioid settlement tracking system still to come, but only for funds distributed by First Foundation

The webpage for the opioid settlement dollar tracking system that will be launched under the Office of the State Auditor says the tool is still “coming soon.” (Screenshot of West Virginia Checkbook's website)

A tracking system for opioid settlement dollars allocated by the West Virginia First Foundation is on its way, though it’s still unclear when it will launch, according to State Auditor J.B. McCuskey.

To date, no money has been distributed by the First Foundation, which was created last year as a private nonprofit to oversee the state’s share of dollars from opioid settlements. McCuskey said leaders at the First Foundation are “completely” in support of having the dollars tracked through the West Virginia Checkbook , a tool under the auditor’s office to help increase transparency and allow the public to follow spending by both the state and local governments.

“We’re all super excited … and committed to making sure that it’s done properly,” McCuskey said. “It is a different sort of scenario than government money, because it is a private foundation, but the idea that the public needs to know and needs to have an understanding of how this money is being invested is incredibly important to all of us, and so what we’re going to do is we’re going to make sure that we have a system that is as open as it legally can be.”

According to financial statements , as of April 30 — the most recent report posted — the First Foundation had about $222.3 million in the bank available to be distributed to organizations and individuals for programming meant to confront the ongoing drug and overdose epidemic.

While cities and counties across the state have already started distributing their share of funds received, money allocated to and by the First Foundation is separate. Leaders there have said in recent meetings that they are waiting to get more structures in place at the foundation before they start doling out money.

McCuskey, who is running a campaign as a Republican for attorney general, said he is not concerned with the First Foundation’s decision to not yet distribute funds.

“I don’t have a problem with the pace at which the foundation is going now. They just got an executive director not that long and these are problems that are very long term, that have long-term solutions,” McCuskey said. “So do we want to spend this money as quickly as we can to start working? Absolutely, but being deliberate about the partners that we choose to work with, the projects that we choose to fund, and the issues that we choose to start with, I think is important because this money is really a generational problem solving tool.”

There is no set date for when funds will be available from the First Foundation. In regards to the tracker, McCuskey said he doesn’t have “any control” about when it will be up and running.

“I’m certain that they’re working on it,” McCuskey said. “I assume that all of the information that is being collected by the foundation will be more than sufficient to be as transparent as we need it to be.”

What won’t be tracked in any singular place, however, is the distribution of funds by counties and municipalities. While several localities — at least 40 counties and 24 municipalities — are participating in the auditor’s local government spending transparency initiative, their participation isn’t mandatory. The ones that are taking part have opted to do so and voluntarily send in their budgets — usually once a year — to be posted to the site.

McCuskey said, technologically, it would be possible to track the allotments made by localities but it would take a lot of buy-in from places that potentially don’t have the manpower available to partake. Unless this changes, the only real way to see how localities are spending their shares of the funds will be to follow individual meetings where local governments approve distribution of the money.

For now, McCuskey said what’s important to him — both as the auditor and as a hopeful for attorney general — is ensuring that places that got the largest pots of money are spending them responsibly.

“I think the strategy really needs to be that we do the best we can, as often as we can, and focus on the big licks. Look, you know, 80% of this is either in the foundation or in Charleston or Huntington or Morgantown or [Monongalia] County, Harrison County, Cabell County, you name it,” McCuskey said. “We need to really work to make sure that the big counties, the big cities, the places where the largest amounts of these funds went are remaining as transparent as possible.”

The First Foundation meets regularly the first Thursday of each month. Due to Independence Day, however, July’s meeting was canceled. The organization will meet again next via zoom on Aug. 1.

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