Commissioners to appoint seven members to opioid settlement review committee
A newly formed committee will help the Washington County commissioners decide what organizations, nonprofits and programs should receive grants from the county’s share of the nationwide opioid settlement fund.
The commissioners during today’s 10 a.m. voting meeting are expected to approve the seven-person review committee that includes county government officials, drug rehabilitation specialists, nonprofit leaders, school administrators and even a local police chief.
The list of appointees was released during Tuesday’s agenda setting meeting and appears to have the full support from all three commissioners.
The members appointed to the committee are Washington County Human Services Director John Tamiggi, Court Administrator Daniel Buzard, Charleroi Area Superintendent Ed Zelich, Washington Teen Outreach Community Coordinator Amy Podgurski-Gough, Washington County Community Foundation President and CEO Aliesha Walz, Peters Township police Chief Joe Glover and Teresa Cypher, who is a certified advanced alcohol and drug counselor and operator at Washington-based Turning Point II.
“We purposely selected individuals who represent Washington County as a whole – bringing the background, experience and education necessary to ensure these funds support projects that create lasting impact at every stage of the opioid crisis,” commission Chairman Nick Sherman said in a written statement. “I look forward to seeing the work this committee will accomplish with the incoming settlement funds.”
The commissioners voted unanimously during their Dec. 18 meeting to form an opioid advisory committee tasked with evaluating and recommending which project should receive grant approval from the commissioners through the state’s Opioid Trust Fund.
The county has allocated $4.7 million in grants from the settlement trust over four rounds since September 2024, with the money designed to help battle the opioid epidemic.
But some of those projects have come under scrutiny by the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust’s dispute resolution committee, which determined in early December that eight grants in Washington County were “non-compliant.” Another nine were listed as “still under consideration,” while 11 other grants from Washington County were approved, along with an additional 22 from the March reporting period.
Commissioner Larry Maggi at the time called for the formation of an opioid settlement review committee similar to one used for the Local Share Account casino gambling revenue grants in order to vet the applications requesting money. Maggi said in a written statement this week that he was pleased with the decision to form the committee and the appointees selected to review the grant applications.
“I am glad that Washington County is taking the steps to make the process more transparent so that the people of Washington County will know what’s going on with the opioid settlement funds,” Maggi said. “I advocated for the formation of an opioid settlement board, because I thought the recipients should be vetted by a committee instead of leaving those decisions to just a few folks in county government. This is important, because the funds need to go to organizations that will best serve our community.”
Beforehand, there was an informal three-person committee that included Tamiggi and his department’s deputy, Tiffany Milovac, along with county Administrator Daryl Price, who reviewed applications and sent a list of grant recipients to the county commissioners for final approval.
County officials said they have received $1.6 million in opioid settlement funds to disburse in 2026. Ahead of the next round of grant distributions, the county has received 27 applications requesting funding, which the committee will begin reviewing once the members are formally appointed during today’s meeting.
“I am incredibly excited that the county is taking the right steps in creating this committee,” Commissioner Electra Janis said. “As someone with a master’s degree in counseling, I understand the importance of effective recovery programs for those in need. I have seen their impact firsthand, and this is an initiative I will always support. With representation from school districts, nonprofits, police departments, the financial industry and clinically licensed psychologists, this committee will have the skills needed to make impactful decisions.”
The county is expected to distribute the grants annually for 18 years as part of the nationwide opioid settlement, with the money being sent to individual states and then filtered to the counties to determine how it should be used.
The commissioners will meet at 10 a.m. today in the ground floor public meeting room of the Crossroads Center building at 95 W. Beau St. in Washington.