Cherry Hill Township

Summary

Cherry Hill Township, Camden County, State ID NJ30, reports receiving 777,234.14 in opioid settlement money and interest from 2022 through 06/30/2026. The money must go to the abatement uses the national settlements list, or to documented programs that address the epidemic. It must add to local spending, not replace it.

The Township's settlement accounts, G-01-41-778-000-300 to -311, show 47,804.58 paid through 08/24/2026 and one open order of 2,957.76. All of it is overtime for sworn officers, charged to a payroll department named Opioid Abatement Funds, with every hour recorded as Law Enforcement Against Drugs. No vendor, provider or clinician has been paid from any opioid account.

The Township's reports to the Department of Human Services certify the spending to the cent. They do not say it is overtime. They certify as encumbered money that no order in the books commits. Read the Township's findings.

What the Township received

No revenue record was produced, so the receipts cannot be tied to the books.

What it spent

The first charge to any opioid account posts on 02/28/2025. From then to 08/24/2026 the accounts paid sworn police overtime and nothing else.

The payroll register charges every line to department A08155, Opioid Abatement Funds. The officers' own departments are A08113 and A08112. The overtime register records every hour as Law Enforcement Against Drugs, at rate 1.5, pay type Cash 1.5, status Approved. The FY2025 report says the program is paid biweekly from September to May, the school year. The register records 40 hours worked on 08/06/2026.

The accounts reached the overtime two ways. Payroll orders, each encumbered and paid on the same day. Journals headed Move PR, five in the fall of 2025. On 01/24/2026 one journal was posted a second time and reversed the same day, so the pair nets to zero.

What it told the State

The FY2023 and FY2024 reports certify no spending and no program. The books agree. No charge posts before 02/28/2025.

The FY2025 report lists one new program, L.E.A.D., with Cherry Hill Township through the Cherry Hill Police Department as the recipient. It files the program under Primary Prevention, Education, and Training, for middle school students. It gives 275,000.00 in funding, 12,770.28 expended and 900 people reached each year. It says L.E.A.D. certified officers deliver the curriculum and that no outside vendor was used.

The FY2026 report updates the program at 35,034.30 spent, 900 participants and 30 sessions. It says the program has been extended for the 2026-2027 school year.

What the records show

The spending is overtime

Both certified expended figures equal the overtime to the cent. Seven payroll lines from 02/28/2025 to 05/09/2025 make the FY2025 figure. Overtime journals and payroll lines from 09/12/2025 to 05/22/2026 make the FY2026 figure. Neither report says the money paid officers' overtime.

School-based prevention programs are among the uses Exhibit E lists, and the list is non-exhaustive. A police-taught course can fit there. No curriculum, class schedule, attendance record or evaluation is in the record. The use is unverified. The FY2025 report also files the program under Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention. The books show no naloxone, test strip or other harm reduction purchase. L.E.A.D. spending is police overtime at time and a half.

The encumbrances are a budget less spending

The FY2025 report certifies 262,229.72 appropriated or encumbered but not yet spent. That is 275,000.00 less 12,770.28. The FY2026 report certifies 227,195.42. That is 275,000.00 less 12,770.28 less 35,034.30.

The books hold no commitment behind either figure. On 05/28/2026 the audit trail shows Encumber YTD of 0.00 on all eleven opioid accounts. The only encumbrance in the life of accounts -300 to -305 is a 2,957.76 payroll order dated 08/14/2026. The accounts carry appropriations by settlement tranche. None is named for L.E.A.D., and no combination of them comes to 275,000.00. Certified a 227,195.42 encumbrance the books never carried. Certified a 262,229.72 encumbrance the books never carried.

The FY2026 on hand figure follows the same budget. 777,234.14 received less 275,000.00 is 502,234.14.

The FY2025 report does not add up

The FY2025 report certifies 638,208.69 received since 2022, interest included. It certifies 12,770.28 spent, 262,229.72 encumbered and 589,421.08 unspent or uncommitted on hand. Those three add to 864,421.08, which is 226,212.39 more than the Township received.

The on hand figure is 638,208.69 less the 36,017.33 of interest the same report lists, less the 12,770.28 spent. It leaves out the interest and does not deduct the encumbrance. The books show 12,770.28 paid and no open order at 06/30/2025. By the report's own receipts that leaves 625,438.41. FY2025 report accounts for 226,212.39 more than it received.

The program ran before the settlement paid for it

The FY2025 report says the police ran a pilot of Law Enforcement Against Drugs in the 2023-2024 school year. The FY2024 report covers that school year. It certifies nothing spent and no program funded. The settlement accounts show no charge until 02/28/2025. The records produced do not include the police overtime appropriation and do not show how the pilot was paid.

What the records do not show

• The journal vouchers behind the Move PR entries.
• The police salary, wage and overtime appropriations, which would show whether the overtime adds to what the police budget already paid.
• Any activity on accounts -306 to -311 after 05/28/2026. Those six accounts held 512,396.62 of the 699,057.25 appropriated to the opioid accounts on that date.
• Any L.E.A.D. curriculum, schedule or evaluation.

How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy.