Jan 6, 2026 By Mike Jones 4 min read

Members of the Tri-County Borough Association that represents numerous municipalities in the region said they were blindsided to learn their recommended pick for the Washington County’s Local Share Account committee was passed over for someone who hasn’t attended their meetings in months.

The association, which includes borough officials from Washington, Fayette and Greene counties, has a seat on the 10-member LSA review committee that makes recommendations each year on what projects should receive grants from the county’s casino gambling money.

Finleyville Mayor Michael Kutsek has held that seat on the committee for the last 17 years until the decision was made last year to select a new representative for 2026. Tri-County Borough President Timothy Miller, who is a councilman in Bentleyville, said they voted in March to select Brownsville Borough Councilman Jack Lawver as their next representative on the committee.

But Miller said county officials later told them of a new requirement that only Washington County residents will be seated on the committee since the LSA funds that come from revenue at the Hollywood Casino at the Meadows are dedicated to municipalities, nonprofits and organizations in the county. That prompted the members to vote in October to select West Brownsville Councilman Jim Plugh for the position.

Miller said they thought nothing of the selection until he and other members read a Dec. 23 article in the Observer-Reporter in which county officials said Long Branch Councilman Bill Nutt would be on the committee. Nutt apparently was in the running during the March vote, but lost and has not attended one of the monthly meetings of the Tri-County Borough Association since, Miller said.

“People sent me the article and I read it and I don’t even know this guy,” Miller said. “We corrected the (residency) problem. If the commissioners had a problem with the representative being from Fayette County, then we rectified the problem (with Plugh). It’s something we learned and we rectified it.”

The decision not to select Nutt in March apparently caused a falling out and he has not attended a Tri-County meeting since then, Miller said.

“I don’t know how the commissioners can go out there and just appoint someone who has been to just one association meeting in 2025,” Miller said. “He needs to come to the Tri-County meetings so everybody knows (what’s happening with LSA). Nobody knows. Obviously the commissioners aren’t going to change it.”

Commission Chairman Nick Sherman said Monday that he spoke with Miller over the summer about the residency requirement and was told that Nutt had finished second in voting. He said since there were no other candidates put forward from Tri-County at the time, county officials chose Nutt to hold the position.

“(Tri-County) voted on a rep and I told them the rep has to be from Washington County,” Sherman said. “I talked to Tim and told him it couldn’t be (Lawver). We had multiple conversations with them this summer over the board.”

Sherman added that the association merely makes a “recommendation” for their representative, but the county commissioners have the final say. Sherman added that Nutt already has the information packets for the grant applications as the committee prepares to convene public hearings on Jan. 15 and 16 to listen to the proposed projects before recommending to the commissioners which ones should receive funds.

“He has already received the packets and we’re moving forward,” Sherman said. “I’m happy to have that conversation next year on their recommendation.”

That decision comes after changes were made earlier this year to remove three economic development organizations from the LSA committee and replace them with a representative from the private sector. The Observer-Reporter filed an open records request with the county Dec. 22 asking for emails and other correspondence on how that decision was made, and officials asked for a 30-day extension, giving them until Jan. 28 to respond.

The commissioners are scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. today in the conference room on the ground floor of the Crossroads Center building in Washington for their workshop meeting. Sherman said they will decide then whether to place on Thursday’s meeting agenda a motion to formally vote on the LSA committee changes, although he did not think that step was mandatory since it’s an advisory panel.

Meanwhile, Miller and the other Tri-County Boro Association members are still confused by the lack of communication from county officials about the decision to select Nutt and never inform them of that appointment.

“I reached out and told them we appointed a new person and no one has gotten back to me,” Miller said of attempts to contact Sherman and Commissioner Electra Janis. “And suddenly they’re doing their own appointment?”