Bridgewater Township
Bridgewater Township certified 140 hours of police overtime to the State as an on-staff addiction counselor, and every balance line in its FY2025 and FY2026 reports is built from arithmetic rather than read from its books.
Published 10/03/2026
TLDR
- Bridgewater Township told the State it had hired an on-staff addiction counselor. The account paid 35 police employees four hours of overtime each, coded Opioid Training.
- The counselor program's figure is that overtime plus 15,000.00 the Township had not yet paid. The sum is exact to the cent.
- The same 15,000.00 was certified as spent again the next year, when it was paid.
- The FY2026 report counts a 20,000.00 order that was still open on 06/30/2026.
- It names no program for 45,185.40 of the spending it certifies, 36,450.00 of it a second police course from ZSchool.
- Its encumbered, unspent and received lines are each built from other figures. None matches the account.
- The FY2026 report dates the Community In Crisis program to 1/1/2022. The Township first ordered from Community In Crisis on 03/03/2025.
Summary
Bridgewater Township, Somerset County, reported receiving 493,695.26 in opioid settlement money through 06/30/2025 and 674,757.83 through 06/30/2026. The money must go to the abatement uses the national settlements list, or to documented evidence-based programs that address the epidemic. It must add to local spending, not replace it.
The Township's settlement account, G-02-24-796-000, Opioids Settlement 2024, paid 127,955.50 from 10/28/2024 to 09/09/2026, and 19,235.00 was open on that date. A second account, G-02-25-796-000, holds a 50,968.43 appropriation that no payment has touched.
| Classification | Paid |
|---|---|
| Conforming | 33,750.00 |
| Non-conforming | 0.00 |
| Unverified | 94,205.50 |
| Total paid | 127,955.50 |
The conforming money is a high school assembly from Not An Easy Fix, 8,750.00, and quarterly payments to Community In Crisis, a recovery support provider, 25,000.00. The unverified money is mostly police training. ZSchool, LLC was paid 72,000.00 for two orders described as Operational Readiness. Police overtime coded Opioid Training was 14,027.58. Payroll lines with no register produced were 4,777.92. L.E.A.D. Inc was paid 3,000.00 for a school class. MAGLOCLEN, Inc. was paid 400.00 for a police training no record describes. Read the Township's findings.
What the Township told the State
| Report | Received in year | Spent | Encumbered | Unspent on hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2023 | 76,864.72 to date | 0.00 | not asked | not asked |
| FY2024 | 153,332.38 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 230,197.10 |
| FY2025 | 246,847.63 | 73,327.58 | 173,520.05 | 181,048.30 |
| FY2026 | 176,048.30 | 78,185.40 | 97,862.90 | 112,669.52 |
The FY2023 and FY2024 reports certify no spending. The account made no payment before 10/28/2024, so those reports agree with the books.
The addiction counselor
The FY2025 report lists three programs. Not An Easy Fix, 8,750.00, is a high school assembly on the dangers of opioid addiction. Check 16091 paid it on 10/28/2024, and the four lines of the order make the figure to the cent. A program called Practical Strategies for Addressing Opioid Use Disorder, 35,550.00, is a certificate program in operational readiness for police officers. Check 16100 to ZSchool, LLC paid it on 02/14/2025.
The third is the Bridgewater-Raritan REACH Program at 29,027.58, recipient Community In Crisis, category Treatment. The report describes it in one line. "Bridgewater Township has hired and on-staff, on-premises addiction counselor." Its goals for the year begin with "maintaining the services of an on-facility addiction counselor."
The account paid Community In Crisis 5,000.00 in the year. It also charged five payroll journals from 03/14/2025 to 05/30/2025, 14,027.58 in all. The Township produced the payroll check registers for those five pay dates. They show one opioid earnings code, Opioid Training. It was paid to 35 employees, all in group 420 Police, 4.00 hours each, at one and a half times each employee's salary rate. The registers carry no code for counseling.
| Record | Amount |
|---|---|
| Police Opioid Training overtime, five pay dates | 14,027.58 |
| Open on Community In Crisis order 25-00958 at 06/30/2025 | 15,000.00 |
| Certified for the REACH counselor program | 29,027.58 |
The overtime journals are the only FY2025 payments with cents, so they can sit in no other program. No addiction counselor's pay was charged to the account. Certified police overtime as an addiction counselor.
The report counts the unpaid 15,000.00 and leaves out the 5,000.00 that was paid. Its spent figure is 10,000.00 above the 63,327.58 the account paid in the year. Certified 10,000.00 more FY2025 spending than it paid.
Checks 16115, 16126 and 16145 paid that 15,000.00 between 07/15/2025 and 02/13/2026. The FY2026 report counts them again. Certified the same 15,000.00 as spent in two years.
The FY2025 balance lines
The encumbered figure, 173,520.05, is the year's receipts less the certified spending. On 06/30/2025 the only open order on the account was 15,000.00, and all three program pages certify 0.00 encumbered. FY2025 encumbered figure is receipts less spending.
The unspent figure, 181,048.30, is the account's 254,375.88 appropriation less the certified spending. The account's own balance on that date was 191,048.30. Receipts the report certifies since 2022, less payments, leave 430,367.68. FY2025 unspent figure is a budget line less spending.
FY2026
The State published the Township's FY2026 report on 10/01/2026. It covers 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. It certifies 78,185.40 spent. The account paid 58,378.78.
The difference is Community In Crisis order 26-01253 for 20,000.00, encumbered 04/22/2026. It was open on 06/30/2026 and its first payment cleared 08/14/2026. The spent figure counts it in full and leaves out a 193.38 payroll check. Counted an unpaid 20,000.00 order as FY2026 spending.
The report lists two programs. L.E.A.D. Inc is 3,000.00, one school prevention class, and two checks make the figure to the cent. The report says the class was held in the period, then gives the program a launch date of 9/1/2026 and 0 individuals served. Checks 16128 and 16140 paid it on 10/31/2025 and 12/19/2025. Dated a paid class to after the reporting year closed.
Community In Crisis is 30,000.00. The report says the program was funded and launched on 1/1/2022 and served 0 individuals. The FY2023 and FY2024 reports certify no spending, and the FY2024 report says the Township funded no programs. The FY2025 report gives the Community In Crisis program a funding date of 03/24/2025. The vendor history shows the first order on 03/03/2025 and the first payment on 04/14/2025. Reported a 2025 program as funded and launched in 2022.
Together the two programs come to 33,000.00. No program covers the other 45,185.40.
| Record | Amount |
|---|---|
| ZSchool, LLC, Operational Readiness, check 16161, 06/15/2026 | 36,450.00 |
| Payroll lines, 05/29/2026 and 06/30/2026 | 3,335.40 |
| MAGLOCLEN, Inc., PD training, check 16116, 07/31/2025 | 400.00 |
| Community In Crisis beyond the program figure | 5,000.00 |
| Certified spending in no program | 45,185.40 |
The ZSchool order is the second of the Township's two orders from that vendor. The FY2025 report described the first as a certificate program for police officers. Certified 45,185.40 of FY2026 spending under no program.
The other FY2026 lines are built the same way as FY2025.
- Encumbered, 97,862.90, is the certified receipts less the certified spending. The only open order was already in the spent figure. FY2026 encumbered figure is receipts less spending.
- Unspent, 112,669.52, is the 2024 account's appropriation less payments and the open order. It leaves out the 50,968.43 in the 2025 account. FY2026 unspent figure leaves out a 50,968.43 account.
- Received, 176,048.30, is the 2024 account's uncommitted balance on 06/30/2025, not money received in the year. Reported a budget balance as the year's receipts.
What the records do not show
The Township has not produced the journal vouchers for the five payroll journals, the payroll registers for its FY2026 payroll lines, a vendor history for L.E.A.D. Inc, or the content of the ZSchool course. It did not say whether any other account received or paid settlement money.
MAGLOCLEN orders dated 06/02/2022, 07/01/2024, 01/13/2025 and 01/20/2026 appear in the Township's vendor history and not on the settlement account. The 400.00 training is the one MAGLOCLEN order the settlement money paid. The vendor history does not print which account paid the others.
What should happen
The State relies on these reports to verify compliance. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller should examine the FY2025 and FY2026 reports, who prepared them, and what records support them.
The Township can show what the police overtime and the ZSchool courses taught, or restore that money to the fund and spend it on a listed use or a documented abatement program.
How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy.