Officials seek help in DC

WASHINGTON — When White House adviser Kellyanne Conway walked onto the stage of an auditorium steps from the White House to address about 80 Ohio county commissioners Tuesday, the camera phones went up. But when she started answering questions, the hands did.

Licking County Commissioner Duane Flowers asked about federal dollars for the orphans and babies born addicted to opioids. “It wasn’t their fault,” he said of the kids affected, adding that his county’s child-services agency is dealing with a record number of kids. “But they’re there.”

Wayne County Commissioner Ann Obrecht talked about the financial crunch of paying for the children of addicts, but she also worries about addicts in jail. “They come off Medicaid when they’re in jail,” she said, resulting in the county having to foot their medical bills. “We’d like them to stay on.”

And Ashtabula County Commissioner Kathryn Whittington spoke heartbreakingly of a woman who had called her and admitted she needed help. “She died two days later because we were waiting for a bed,” Whittington told Conway.

The daylong event was the third the White House has organized with local-government officials; the first two intergovernmental-affairs sessions were with local officials from Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Designed to allow local governments to interact with the White House, the forum also included a session with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and White House aide Omarosa Manigault. The forum covered topics such as trade, infrastructure and workforce development.

Miami County Commissioner John O’Brien said he welcomed the chance to hear from the White House as well as its interest in what local governments are doing. The county paid for his trip.

“I’ve been an elected county official for 23 years, the last 11 as commissioner, and this is the first time I’ve ever been asked to come to the White House, no matter who the administration is, to voice our needs and what’s happened to our counties,” he said.

“They listened,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Debbie Lieberman, one of the few Democrats who made the trip. “They came prepared with our issues. It was nice to be heard.”

She acknowledged that she had been “a little skeptical” about going to the White House, but “it was a great exchange.”

Conway, meanwhile, described a comprehensive effort that includes prevention, intervention and reducing the supply of such drugs.

“I tell my Democratic friends daily this is a nonpartisan issue starving for bipartisan attention and solutions,” she said.