Washington County’s lone Democratic commissioner is calling for the creation of an Opioid Settlement Distribution committee. Maggi says he wants stronger oversight of the distribution of millions of dollars in Opioid Settlement funds. He says that there are currently only three employees deciding where that money goes, and he’s concerned that none of it, to date, has gone to the county’s drug and alcohol program. Maggi says the county has distributed more than four-point-seven-million-dollars over the past year and a half, from a national class-action lawsuit filed against major drug companies. Washington County’s money, according to Maggi, was intended solely to combat the opioid epidemic. Maggi says there are several gaps in the process and he wants accountability. He says there is no publicly available applications for entities seeking funding; no written guidelines detailing eligibility or evaluation criteria; no published timelines or instructions for how and when to apply and no formal follow-up or auditing process to ensure that awarded funds are being used effectively and appropriately. Maggi is also requesting a full audit and review of past awards to confirm that the funds were distributed and used in a legal, accountable and effective manner. Commissioners Chairman Nick Sherman questioned Maggi’s proposal. Sherman says the County has a board that oversees awarding such funds and recently held a meeting to discuss expanding it. Sherman also says Opioid funds were also the subject of a meeting just last week at the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania meeting in which they laid out procedures for handling those funds. Sherman says Maggi was absent from that meeting.