Transparencies issues focus of West Virginia House Health Committee
Trending
CHARLESTON -- The House Committee on Health and Human Resources recommended two bills for passage Thursday, one that would require the private foundation developing plans for opioid settlement distributions to follow open meetings law, while another bill would allow a legislative oversight committee to meet behind closed doors to discuss child abuse cases.
The committee recommended House Bill 4595 for passage, referring the bill to the House Judiciary Committee Thursday. The bill would allow the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability to meet in executive session to hear details of specific Child Protective Services cases.
The bill allows the commission to enter into executive session on a limited basis to provide oversight for CPS investigations, review internal documents, and hear testimony for confidential cases involving the abuse of children. The bill requires the commission be informed of cases involving the death or serious injury of a minor or adult in state custody or direct care within 30 days, or a referral to the commission that has occurred within six months, though personally identifying information would be omitted.
A number of high-profile incidents involving CPS or lack of involvement by CPS have occurred over the years resulting in the death of children, including a fire in Greenbrier County that killed a number of children. In 2023, two incidents came to light in Kanawha County where the alleged abuse of children was reported to CPS where it also was alleged CPS did not follow up on complaints.
In one of those cases, a parent allegedly killed his child and his mother. CPS has declined to talk about cases even broadly, citing confidentiality.
"As court cases usually do, they take a long time to go through the court system," said House Health Committee Vice Chair Heather Tully, R-Nicholas. "Our fatality and mortality review teams have been a number of years behind looking at these things. What you always get a lot of time from DHHR staff and some of the legal staff is you get stonewalled quite honestly."
The original bill allowed for greater authority for the commission to enter into executive session, but a strike-and-insert amendment Thursday limited that authority. House Health Committee Minority Chair Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said he would reluctantly support the amended bill.
"I was fairly concerned about this bill as introduced," Pushkin said. "Some of those concerns have been addressed with the strike-and-insert. I'm still a little leery of putting into statute that a committee...can have closed-door meetings."
"That is why we did the strike-and-insert, because we thought of that," said House Health Committee Chair Amy Summers, R-Taylor. "We don't want it abused at all, so we wanted to narrow that down. The goal is not to become less transparent by being in executive session."
HB 4595 also makes technical changes to allow the commission to provide oversight for the three departments that were previously the Department of Health and Human Resources: the Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Health Facilities. The bill creates a performance review process for the three new departments. Another bill, House Bill 4274, made further changes to State Code to remove references to DHHR.
Also recommended for passage Thursday was House Bill 4593, which makes changes within the bylaws of the West Virginia First Foundation to require it to abide by the state Open Meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act.
The private foundation, created by a memorandum of understanding between the Attorney General's Office and city/county governments involved in litigation between major opioid manufacturers and distributors, was codified last year in State Code. The 11-member foundation will receive 72.5% of nearly $1 billion to distribute for various projects, substance abuse avoidance, research and education; funding for law enforcement to combat the sale and distribution of drugs; and substance abuse treatment and recovery.
To date, the foundation's meetings have been open to the public and press, though members have entered into executive sessions during meetings. The foundation has been developing a public meeting and transparency policy, but Pushkin said it was important for the Legislature to make it clear these foundation meetings should be open to all.
"We're talking about a whole lot of money," Pushkin said. "It's often referred to as a windfall. It's not. The state got that money because a lot of people lost their lives. It's very important how it is spent, what it is spent on, and that's why this bill is so important."
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.