Edison Township

Summary

Edison Township, Middlesex County, has received 4,768,825.74 in opioid settlement money through 06/30/2026, by its own reports. The money may be spent only on the opioid abatement uses listed in the national settlements. New Jersey law requires it to supplement local spending and not replace it.

Edison spent most of what it has paid out on the Township's own payroll. Journal entries charged 2,146,838.81 of police, health and administration salary to the opioid accounts between 04/16/2025 and 12/24/2025. The employees had been paid from the operating budget. Their cost was moved onto the settlement money afterward. No journal names an employee, a program or an abatement purpose.

The Township also moved 71,357.58 of police software and subscription renewals onto the fund, paid 38,246.67 for a police narcotics analyzer, and charged 48,750.00 to a consultant with no invoice behind it.

Its reports to the State do not describe this truthfully. The FY2025 report certifies programs for counseling and naloxone training that the books do not show, an administrative cost the books do not show, and an unspent balance larger than every dollar the Township ever received. The FY2026 report certifies the one police pay period as a year-long capacity-building program and the police renewals as an expansion of an officer safety program.

Every figure in this report comes from the Township's own records.

How this report was prepared

The Township's Transaction Audit Trail for its three opioid accounts, printed 05/29/2026, was obtained under the Open Public Records Act. So were its 2025 salary administration for the Health and Police departments, purchase orders and invoices, and two resolutions. The Township's four annual reports to the Department of Human Services, FY2023 to FY2026, were obtained from the State. The FY2026 report was published 10/01/2026. The records are posted on the Edison Township page.

The accounts are G-02-23-0330-795-000, G-02-23-0330-795-001 and G-02-24-0330-795-000, each titled Opioid Settlement - Distributor. A fourth account, G-02-25-0330-795-000, was produced for 2026 only. It opened 2026 with 1,144,293.94 (ledger, 2026).

The police payroll

On 12/24/2025 journal reference 7189 charged four lines of Police Department pay to account G-02-24-0330-795-000 (ledger).

The Township's 2025 salary administration lists every Health and Police position with its annual and per pay salary (salary administration). One biweekly base payroll for all 195 sworn positions is 1,019,937.17. For all 21 civilian positions it is 44,544.32.

• The sworn base pay charge is 98.81 percent of one full sworn payroll.
• The civilian charge is 102.84 percent of one full civilian payroll.
• The roster lists no part time position.

The journal did not charge a project or an assignment. It charged a pay period for the whole department. The payroll was an operating budget cost, and no abatement program is documented for it. Existing police payroll is not among the uses Exhibit E lists. See the finding, Moved a full police payroll onto the opioid fund.

The Health Department payroll

From 04/16/2025 to 12/24/2025 seventeen biweekly journals charged 857,617.39 of Health Department base pay to the opioid accounts (ledger).

The salary administration lists 13 Health positions. Their combined biweekly base is 40,823.30. Each of the thirteen entries on account G-02-23-0330-795-000 is larger than that. The smallest is 9,030.65 over it. Together those thirteen exceed the department's full biweekly base by 142,250.82.

The 857,617.39 is 80.8 percent of the whole Health Department's annual base payroll. The positions on the roster include environmental health specialists, license inspectors and an animal shelter clerk. A further unlabeled journal of 53,103.90 on 08/20/2025, reference 7067, falls on the same schedule. It is not counted here because the ledger does not say what it paid. See Charged 857,617.39 of Health Department pay to the fund.

The administration salary

Eight journals between 10/01/2025 and 12/24/2025 moved 109,240.42 of administration salary onto account G-02-23-0330-795-001 (ledger).

• References 7129 to 7133, 8,571.43 each, posted as ADM from the operating salary line. 42,857.15 together.
• Reference 7167 on 12/10/2025, 31,109.12.
• Reference 7189 on 12/24/2025, 28,167.15.
• Reference 7190 on 12/24/2025, BW B.Admin - Base Pay, 7,107.00.

The salary administration lists four Administration positions. No per pay figure on it equals 8,571.43 or 7,107.00, and no combination of them does. See Charged 109,240.42 of administration salary to the fund.

What the council authorized

The Township produced two resolutions that spend opioid money. R.304-062025, adopted 06/25/2025, hires Government Strategy Group to prepare the Township's opioid reports to the State at 1,250.00 a month with a 15,000.00 annual cap (R.304-062025). R.690-122025, adopted 12/22/2025, contracts with HMH Hospitals Corporation and JFK Medical Center for opioid and substance use disorder treatment, not to exceed 333,334.00 (R.690-122025). The treatment payment, 333,334.00 on check 41338, posted 03/04/2026 (purchase order 26-01102).

Both appear on the council agendas for those meetings (agenda, 06/25/2025, agenda, 12/22/2025). Neither covers payroll, the analyzer or the police renewals. The largest charges to the fund were made by journal entry, with no resolution behind them in the record.

The police purchases

Purchase order 24-06101, ordered 11/18/2024 for the Police Department, bought a Thermo Fisher TruNarc handheld narcotics analyzer kit for 725.67 and a four year warranty with training for 37,521.00 (purchase order and invoice). Check 36409 paid 38,246.67 from account G-02-23-0330-795-000 on 12/18/2024. The purchase was made off State contract T0106, whose record in the Township's file reads Law Enforcement Firearms Equipment and Supplies. See Certified a police narcotics analyzer as a program.

Eight more Police Department purchases were charged to account G-02-24-0330-795-000 by journal on 10/31/2025, 11/15/2025 and 12/31/2025 (purchase orders and invoices, Lexipol).

Every one of these purchase orders prints the police operating line 5-01-25-0240-000-059. None names an opioid account. Seven are renewals of subscriptions the department already carried, by their own invoice headers, prior expiration dates and equipment serial numbers. Forensic Mapping was paid by check 38980 on 08/20/2025 and moved to the opioid account on 11/15/2025. See Moved 71,357.58 of police renewals onto the fund.

The consultant who prepares the report

Government Strategy Group holds two Township contracts (resolutions, purchase orders and invoices). R.303-062025 is a financial management contract at 17,450.00 a month, charged on every line to the current fund Finance line 5-01-20-0130-001-028. R.304-062025 is the opioid report contract.

Three journal entries on account G-02-23-0330-795-001 charge the firm 16,250.00 each, on 10/15/2025, 11/19/2025 and 12/04/2025. That is 48,750.00. Two cite the financial management purchase order, 25-03493. One cites the report purchase order, 25-03423. Neither purchase order has a line at 16,250.00. The ten monthly invoices produced for the report contract total 12,500.00 and tie to ten direct payments in the ledger. No invoice supports any of the three 16,250.00 charges. See Charged 48,750.00 to a consultant with no invoice.

What the Township told the State

Each town with a direct share files an annual report with the Department of Human Services. Edison's FY2023 report lists N/A for money expended (FY2023 report). The books agree. The first payment from the accounts is 02/08/2024. The FY2024 report certifies 4,000.00 expended, the Wrestling N WRecovery event, and check 32796 matches it (FY2024 report).

The FY2025 report certifies 478,921.08 expended in the year ending 06/30/2025 (FY2025 report). Its program pages list these figures.

The program pages were last updated 10/23/2025.

Two programs, one leftover

Take the certified 478,921.08. Subtract 15,000.00 of administration and the three other programs, 38,246.67, 5,500.00 and 4,400.00. What is left is 415,774.41. Half of it is 207,887.205. Rounded, that is each of the two certified figures. It is why the program figures sum to 478,921.09, one cent over the certified total.

The counseling page describes SMART Recovery meetings and recovery coaching for 63 participants. The naloxone page describes outreach and Narcan distribution to 1,219 participants. The books show no payment for counseling and none for naloxone training in the year. The only SMART Recovery charge on the ledger is 49.00 for facilitator training on 02/04/2026. The Health Department charges in the window are five biweekly base pay journals, 259,427.86. All spending from the accounts in the window is 307,074.53. The report certifies 171,846.55 more than that. See Two certified programs are one leftover split in half.

The analyzer as a program

The report certifies the TruNarc purchase as a program named Officer Safety / Evidence Retrieval. Its page says "The Township purchased a TruNarcTM Solution Kit for identification of Heroin and other special narcotics." Its indicators include the number of substances tested and officer safety incidents. No overdose, treatment or diversion program using the analyzer is documented. Category I of Exhibit E adds education about fentanyl and other drugs and wellness services to the first-responder items in sections C, D and H. Its own list is closed (no 'not limited to' language). No listed use in C, D, H or I covers police equipment.

The administration figure

The report certifies 15,000.00 of administrative costs for a consultant "responsible for developing, implementing, and managing the municipality's strategic plan." That is the full annual cap of R.304-062025, adopted 06/25/2025, five days before the year closed. The first invoice under that contract is for July 2025. The first payment to the firm from the opioid accounts is check 38990 on 08/20/2025. The books show no administrative payment in the FY2025 window. The same report answers No when asked whether the Township has a strategic plan. See Certified 15,000.00 of administration before paying any.

The unspent balance

The FY2025 report certifies 4,143,325.95 unspent and on hand. It also says the Township received 3,969,017.67 in total since the settlements began. The FY2024 report did the same, 3,831,698.74 unspent against 3,174,469.38 received.

The FY2025 unspent figure is last year's unspent figure plus this year's receipts, less this year's spending, less the FY2024 spending a second time. It is built from the reports' own numbers, not from a book balance. See Reported more unspent than it had ever received.

The FY2025 report does not disclose the Health Department payroll charged in its window. The police payroll journal of 12/24/2025 falls in the State's FY2026 reporting year. The FY2026 report certifies it, as set out below.

FY2026

The FY2026 report covers 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026 and was published 10/01/2026. It certifies 799,808.07 received and 2,427,257.03 expended. The expended figure is its program amounts plus 172,990.42 of administration. It certifies nothing encumbered. The opioid accounts paid 2,412,258.03 in that window through 05/29/2026, where the produced audit trail ends. The 14,999.00 gap is 6,000.00 certified to the Black Poster Project on an order still open on the 06/17/2026 print, 5,000.00 certified to Wrestling N WRecovery above the 4,000.00 paid, 2,500.00 still open to Government Strategy Group, and 1,499.00 the record does not identify.

The report adds a new program, the Police Opioid Response Capacity Building & Coordination Initiative. It files it under Workforce Development and Capacity Building, funded and launched 07/01/2025, 1,179,981.00 spent, 239 served. It says the money supported a limited allocation of police personnel costs for planning, coordination, education and information sharing, disbursed throughout the year as costs were incurred, and not meant to replace ordinary police funding.

The books show one posting. Reference 7189 on 12/24/2025 charged police base pay, part time, overtime and civilian base pay, 1,179,981.00 to the cent. That is the payroll set out above. Its base pay line alone is 98.81 percent of one biweekly base payroll for every sworn position.

The same report certifies 71,357.58 as an expansion of Officer Safety / Evidence Retrieval through additional investment in and acquisition of investigative and forensic resources. The books show the eight police purchases set out above, 71,357.58 to the cent. Seven are subscriptions the department already carried. Six of them are renewals or annual plans, and the Lexipol training term began 01/01/2025, before the year opened.

The treatment payment is what resolution R.690-122025 authorizes, and the report and the books agree on it. The two police programs are an existing payroll and police subscriptions, seven of them already in place, moved onto the settlement money and certified as opioid programs. No abatement program using either is documented. See Certified a police payroll and renewals as opioid programs.

What the law allows

Exhibit E Schedule B of the national settlement lists uses for the money. They cover treatment, recovery support, connection to care and prevention. The list is not exhaustive. A use it does not name must be part of a documented, evidence-based program that mitigates the epidemic. Municipal payroll for existing departments is not among the uses Exhibit E lists. Neither is police equipment or police software. No abatement program is documented for any of them.

Section D(7) of the agreement between the State and its towns requires the money to supplement local spending and not supplant it. N.J.S.A. 26:2G-39(f) says the same. Edison paid its police, health and administration staff from the operating budget and then charged 2,146,838.81 of that cost to the settlement money. It charged police renewals that its own purchase orders put on the police operating line. That is supplantation.

Section D(2) of the same agreement makes the annual report the way compliance is verified. Edison's FY2025 report certifies two programs the books do not show, an administrative cost that had not been paid and an unspent balance larger than all money received. The report is false by its own figures and against the ledger. The FY2026 report certifies one police pay period and police software renewals as opioid programs.

What should happen

The Township can restore the 2,146,838.81 of payroll, the 71,357.58 of police renewals, the 38,246.67 analyzer and the 48,750.00 of unsupported consultant charges to its opioid accounts, and spend the money on a listed use.

The State relies on these reports to verify compliance. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller have the ledger entries, the salary roster and the program pages cited here.