Collingswood Borough

Summary

Collingswood Borough, Camden County, reports receiving 259,486.45 in opioid settlement money from 2022 through 06/30/2026. The money may be spent only on opioid remediation. Exhibit E of the national settlements lists uses in treatment, recovery, connection to care, prevention and harm reduction. The list is not closed, but a use it does not name needs a documented, evidence-based program. The money must add to local spending, not replace it.

The Borough runs its settlement spending through one budget line, 25-752-180 National Opioids Settlement Funds, opened each budget year. It appropriated 23,198.64 for 2023, 35,259.06 for 2024, 116,933.60 for 2025 and 53,707.75 for 2026. The four accounts show 146,142.83 paid through the latest prints and one order of 16,244.65 open.

This project classifies all 146,142.83 as not conforming, and the open order the same way. None of it is classified as conforming or unverified. Each purchase fails on the record, not on the list alone. The newsletter, the counseling contract, the ambulance repairs and the stretchers were costs the Borough's own budget lines carried before and after. The autoloader, the loader repair, the pulse oximeters, the police dog and the kennels were certified under categories they do not meet, with no program behind them. Read the Borough's findings.

The autoloader

Stryker purchase order 25-02332, Autoloader New Ambulance, was opened on 10/09/2025. Check 53638 paid it, 33,841.37, on 04/07/2026, from the 2025 account.

The FY2026 report lists a new program named Autoloader for new ambulance at 34,044.07. That is the Stryker order plus a 202.70 EMSAR stretcher loader repair paid on 08/04/2025, to the cent. It files the program under Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention, with Connections to Care and First Responders as its strategies. It says the program serves 11,000 people.

The same page states the problem the program addresses: "Protecting patient and employee when loading stretcher into ambulance." Every performance indicator reads "unable to track." Asked how the program addresses opioid use disorder, it answers "will assist with transport of users."

A powered loader lifts a stretcher into an ambulance. Exhibit E's First Responders category adds two uses to the first-responder items in sections C, D and H: education about fentanyl and other drugs, and wellness services for first responders. No listed use in C, D, H or I covers ambulance loading equipment, and no overdose program using the autoloader is documented. Certified an ambulance autoloader as harm reduction.

The report says the new ambulance came through a national cooperative contract that included a stretcher and autoloader. The only ambulance purchase in the vendor histories the Borough produced is VCI order 24-01705, a Type III Class One ambulance for 258,026.00. It was charged to capital account C-04-55-782-000, Ord. 1782 Purchase Ambulance, and paid on 07/13/2026. An autoloader repair for ambulance 1648 was paid from the Borough's EQUIPMENT REPAIRS line on 08/04/2026.

The police dog

On 04/07/2026 the 2026 account paid Police Service Dogs, Inc. 16,000.00 for a European imported police dog, check 53622. The same day it paid The Shed Lot 11,690.00 net for two dog kennels and two stone pads, check 53641. On 05/07/2026 the Borough opened order 26-00873 to Emergency Accessories for 16,244.65 to outfit cars for the K9 unit. It was still open on 08/24/2026.

The FY2026 report lists a new program named K9 program at 27,690.00 funded. That is the dog and the kennels to the cent. It files the program under Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention and says it serves 11,000 people. It describes the purpose as "using K9 encounters as an entry point to diversionary and other treatment programs." It says the police department "should have certain protocols in place to facilitate a pathway to treatment." It also calls the program dual use, for youth prevention and education, with the dogs deployed in schools, senior centers and community events for harm reduction messaging. Every performance indicator reads "unable to track," and the report says the Borough is unable to measure or track the impact. It gives the launch date as 02/02/2026, six weeks before the dog was ordered.

No diversion protocol, referral, treatment or education program tied to the dog appears in the records in hand. A police dog is not a harm reduction service, and police dogs are not among the uses Exhibit E lists. Certified a police dog and kennels as harm reduction.

The staff counseling contract

The Borough's Employee Assistance Program is one contract with The Cooper Health System, made 06/01/2022. It pays a flat 5,600.00 a year and renews each year. It gives Borough employees and their families up to five short-term counseling sessions for personal or emotional problems, including marital and family problems, substance abuse and psychological difficulties, with a referral after the fifth visit. It excepts alcohol and drug detoxification and rehabilitation from the services at the program's offices.

The reports certify the contract as an abatement program. FY2023 files it under Recovery and Support with a launch date of 05/09/2022. FY2024 files it under Treatment, with a launch date of 01/01/2024 and 10 participants served, and says the Borough did not solicit quotes from other providers. FY2025 reports 22 participants. A five-session counseling benefit for any personal problem of staff is not treatment for opioid use disorder. The fund paid for three years a cost the Borough's health benefits line carried before and after. Certified a staff counseling benefit as opioid treatment.

The newsletter

The Town Crier is the Borough's newsletter. Evergreen Printing has printed it since 2019. The Borough paid for it from its NEWSLETTERS line through 07/03/2023.

From 08/07/2023 through 05/04/2026 the settlement accounts paid all or part of eleven issues, 29,724.28. In the same years the Borough paid four other issues, 13,117.63, from COMM DEV/PUBLIC REL MISC. The September 2023 issue, invoice 143807, was paid on one check, 49899, with 500.00 charged to the fund and 2,158.18 to NEWSLETTERS. The July 2026 issue, 2,539.12, went back to NEWSLETTERS on 08/04/2026. The fund also paid 1,000.00 of Town Crier postage on 06/15/2023. The Borough paid Town Crier and Town Forum postage from NEWSLETTERS in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022 and from COMM DEV/PUBLIC REL MISC in 2023 and 2025.

The reports certify the newsletter as a program named Education/Communication under prevention, at 1,000.00 for FY2023, 2,867.97 for FY2024, 11,365.62 for FY2025 and 6,650.01 for FY2026. The FY2025 and FY2026 updates report 14,186 participants served, the figure the FY2023 report gives as its target population. The FY2025 report explains the program as "Mailing of Town Crier with educational information." The fund paid for a publication the Borough's own budget lines carried before, during and after. Paid the borough newsletter from the opioid fund.

The ambulance repairs and stretchers

The FY2024 report lists a program named EMS Ambulance Repairs/Supplies at 12,252.15 under Treatment, with First Responders as its strategy. Its indicator is "repair to ambulance which transports patients." Asked how it addresses opioid use disorder, it answers "N/A." The figure is four payments to the cent: compliance repairs to ambulances 1647 and 1648 by VCI and Matthey Automotive, 10,952.17, and pulse oximeters from Bound Tree Medical, 1,299.98.

The Matthey and VCI vendor histories show repairs to the same two ambulances paid from VEHICLE MAINT-AMBULANCE and HADDON TWP FIRE -MISC from 2018 on, before and after these invoices. Brake repairs to 1648 and exhaust repairs to 1647 were paid from those lines on 06/05/2023, three months before the fund paid the compliance repairs. Certified ambulance repairs as opioid treatment.

The FY2025 report updates the same program at 24,632.33, indicator "Purchased Stretcher for Ambulance." Stryker order 24-02222 bought two EMS stretchers and was paid by one check, 51744, on 12/02/2024.

The settlement share equals what was left of the 2024 settlement appropriation after three earlier payments. The account's running balance prints 24,632.33 before the charge and 0.00 after it. The Borough bought Stryker stretcher straps, mattresses, a stretcher and a stretcher battery pack from its own equipment and medical supply lines in 2023 and 2024. Split one stretcher invoice between two funds.

What the Borough told the State each year

The FY2023, FY2024 and FY2025 totals tie to the books to the cent. So does each program figure. What those reports describe does not match what the money bought. A newsletter is certified as prevention. A staff counseling contract is certified as Treatment. Ambulance repairs and stretchers are certified as Treatment.

FY2026

The State published the Borough's FY2026 report on 10/01/2026. It covers 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. It certifies 52,139.43 spent, 16,244.65 encumbered and 65,233.05 unspent on hand. Its program figures for the year are the autoloader at 34,044.07, the K9 program at 11,445.35 spent and an Education/Communication update at 6,650.01. It also reprints the FY2025 updates for the ambulance program and the counseling contract.

The two accounts paid 77,224.76 in that year. The report leaves out 25,085.33 in two parts. Three Town Crier issues paid from the 2025 account, 8,840.68, are in no program figure. The September and November 2025 issues appear in no report at all. The K9 figure takes the 27,690.00 already paid for the dog and kennels and subtracts the 16,244.65 car order that was still open. Left 25,085.33 of paid spending out of the FY2026 total.

The 65,233.05 the report gives as unspent is two budget balances added together, 62,109.96 on the 2025 account as of 05/27/2026 and 3,123.09 on the 2026 account as of 08/24/2026. The reports' own figures leave 122,184.30. The produced ledgers leave 97,098.97. The two balances leave out 30,387.40 of receipts not appropriated to any of the four accounts and 1,478.52 left in the 2023 account. Reported two budget balances as money on hand.

What should happen

The Borough has charged 146,142.83 to the fund for purchases certified under labels they do not meet, or for costs its own budget lines carried before and after. The Borough can restore that money to the fund and spend it on a listed use or a documented abatement program. The 16,244.65 order to outfit police cars for the K9 unit was still open on 08/24/2026. The Borough can cancel it against this account.

The State relies on these reports to verify compliance. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller should examine the FY2023 to FY2026 reports, who prepared them, and what records support them.

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