Elizabeth

Summary

Elizabeth, Union County, told the State it had received 1,360,994.10 in opioid settlement money through 06/30/2026, interest included. 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 listed uses cover treatment, recovery, connection to care, prevention and harm reduction.

The City runs its settlement spending through one budget account, G-02-41-826-23, Opioid Litigation Settlement. It shows 98,283.06 paid by check from 01/18/2024 through 06/04/2026 and a 4,750.00 reimbursement, a net 93,533.06. One Owl Labs order for 1,078.00 is open. The account paid nothing more through 08/28/2026, the end of the last print. This project classifies the payments this way.

The FY2026 report certifies plush dolls as a prevention education program, certifies more money on hand than the City reports receiving, and counts an unpaid order twice. The FY2025 report certifies far less spending than the account paid. Read the City's findings.

What the City told the State

The four reports certify 76,795.71 spent. The account paid 93,533.06 net in the same years. Only the FY2023 report matches the books. It certifies nothing spent by 06/30/2023, and the account's first payment was on 01/18/2024. FY2024 certifies 917.70 more than the account paid. FY2025 certifies 13,730.44 less. FY2026 certifies 3,924.61 less than the net paid.

Every report from FY2024 on certifies more money on hand than the City says it has ever received.

The LEAD dolls

The FY2026 report lists a new program named LEAD, funded and launched 1/30/2026, at 2,568.00. It names the Elizabeth Police Department as the recipient. It describes the program as giving youth "substance misuse prevention education, decision-making skills to avoid opioid dependancy." The target population is children through 8th grade. It files the program under Primary Prevention, Education, and Training with the Schedule B strategy Prevent Misuse of Opioids, and reports 120 people served.

The account shows one purchase for that amount.

The order was encumbered on 01/30/2026, the date the report gives as the program's funding and launch date. The doll order is the program's whole certified funding. Plush dolls are not among the uses Exhibit E lists, and no prevention instruction paid for by this program is documented. Certified plush dolls as a youth prevention program.

More money on hand than the City reports receiving

The FY2026 report certifies that the City has received 1,360,994.10 since 2022. It certifies 1,459,177.97 unspent and uncommitted on hand. That is 98,183.87 more than every dollar the City says it ever received.

The report's own figures leave 1,283,120.39. That is the 1,360,994.10 received, less the 76,795.71 the four reports certify as spent and the 1,078.00 certified as encumbered.

The on-hand figure is a ledger balance. The City's general ledger reserve for the settlement, account 7-02-213-41-826-23, opened 02/01/2026 at 1,460,255.97 and had no entry until 07/28/2026. Less the 1,078.00 open Owl Labs order, that balance is 1,459,177.97, the certified figure to the cent. On 07/28/2026 a manual entry labeled "OPIOID INCREASE FY 2027" added 39,316.44.

What else the reserve holds is not in the produced records. Reported 98,183.87 more on hand than it reported receiving.

FY2025, less spending than the account paid

The FY2025 report covers 07/01/2024 to 06/30/2025. It certifies 27,317.32 spent, and its one program entry, an update for Project Recover, carries the same figure. The account paid 41,047.76 in that year, on 16 lines and 11 checks.

No combination of the account's payments from 01/18/2024 to 08/08/2025 adds to 27,317.32. The report certifies 0.00 in administrative expenses and names no legal fee. Reported 27,317.32 spent in a year it paid 41,047.76.

The same report certifies 0.00 encumbered. Three orders entered in the year were open on 06/30/2025. They were a NaloxBox order for 2,705.11, a restaurant luncheon for 1,440.00 and a consultant's order for 4,500.00, 8,645.11 together, all paid in July and September 2025. The FY2024 report also certifies 0.00 encumbered, while its own Project Recover entry lists 76,000.00 encumbered or appropriated. Certified 0.00 encumbered with 8,645.11 on order.

The legal fee

Check 214793, dated 03/06/2025, paid Tate Law Group, LLC of Savannah, Georgia 14,297.04 from the settlement account. The City's voucher for order 25-06531 carries the account code by hand. It covers two invoices.

The fee is a contingency fee on the City's own recoveries, not an abatement program. The agreement between the State and its towns lets counsel fees be paid from settlement money to the extent that agreement and the national settlements permit (Section D(2)). Its rule sending counsel payments to a separate fee fund covers only the Distributor and J&J settlements (Section E(6)). It also tells a town to seek contingency fees first from the national settlements' own fee funds (Section E(2)). Whether the McKinsey and Endo settlements permit this payment is not in the record, so this project counts the fee as unverified.

The City Council resolution adopted 11/18/2019 authorizes a contingency contract with Callagy Law, P.C. at 20 percent of gross recoveries. It says Callagy will file suit with its national affiliate attorneys and that any fees will be paid from monies received if the City is successful. It also records a meeting with an attorney of Tate Grossman Kelly and Iaccarino, LLP. The records in hand hold no contract, engagement letter or assignment naming Tate Law Group, LLC. The firm's New Jersey business registration certificate is effective 01/27/2025, after both invoices. Whether the McKinsey and Endo payments were deposited to this account is not in the produced records.

The FY2026 report

The State published the City's FY2026 report on 10/01/2026. It covers 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. It certifies 44,490.69 spent and 1,078.00 encumbered. It lists four new programs and one update.

The Overdose Fatality Review Team entry says settlement funds bought "meeting owl software and hardware to enable remote attendance at meetings." It certifies 2,156.00 spent and 0.00 encumbered. Owl Labs order 26-06548 for 1,078.00 was paid on 02/19/2026. A second Owl Labs order for 1,078.00, 26-06081, has been open since 12/31/2025 and was still open on 08/28/2026. It is the only open order on the account, and the report certifies it as the year's encumbrance. The program counts it as spent as well. Counted one unpaid 1,078.00 order as spent and encumbered.

The Project Recover update prints 27,317.32 for 7/1/2025 to 6/30/2026. That is the FY2025 figure to the cent. The update repeats the FY2025 text and counts word for word, 85 participants, 20 Narcan lockboxes, 600 Narcan doses, 3 training sessions and 12 pop-up sessions. The five programs add to 44,928.36, which is 437.67 more than the report certifies. Reprinted FY2025 Project Recover figures as FY2026.

The youth education program ties to the books. Mission Driven Education was paid 3,250.00 for opioid training for staff and 7,500.00 for an opioid awareness series in December 2025, and ShopRite 142.04 for a Building Future Leaders opioid training in January 2026. The three payments make 10,892.04 to the cent. Youth opioid education program ties to three payments.

The Aging Summit figure is one coach bus for seniors, paid 10/23/2025. The report describes the summit as guidance on safe use, storage and disposal and on alternatives for pain. No agenda or program record was produced, so this project counts the bus as unverified.

The account's FY2026 payments that no new program claims net 31,882.26. They include an 8,000.00 Mission Driven Education invoice with no description, paid 06/04/2026, the restaurant luncheon and the phone chargers.

The Prevention Links fee

Check 217892, dated 09/11/2025, paid Prevention Links, Inc. 17,529.65 for consultation and 600.00 for presentations from the settlement account. The City's vendor report for Prevention Links shows the same 17,529.65 paid from the Municipal Alliance grant in each of the three years before.

A 600.00 Prevention Links charge follows the same path. On 09/11/2025 the settlement account posted and reversed a 4,750.00 partial refund on order 26-01116 marked "Repete Pay." A 4,750.00 reimbursement posted on 10/24/2025. The Alliance grant had paid Prevention Links 4,750.00 on 02/20/2025. No FY2026 program names Prevention Links.

Prevention work may be a listed use. That the settlement money carried, for one year, a cost the Alliance grant carried in the years around it is this project's inference from these records. Section D(7) of the agreement between the State and its towns requires the money to supplement local spending and not supplant it. Paid a consulting fee the Alliance grant paid other years.

An overdose fatality review consultant shows the same kind of history. The settlement account paid 5,500.00 on 12/05/2024 and 4,500.00 on 07/10/2025. The same consultant was paid from the City's overdose grant accounts and its NACCHO Project Recover grant account in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2026, at the same two prices. This project counts both payments as unverified.

Meals, trophies and chargers

The cafe and the trophy maker have no other payment from any City fund since 2018. The City paid the same restaurant's other luncheon from a current fund line. The charger vendor supplies the City's giveaways on other grants and operating lines. No report describes an abatement service delivered through any of these. No listed use covers recognition events, trophies or phone chargers. Paid 5,585.20 for meals, trophies and phone chargers.

Where the fund has gone

Elizabethport Presbyterian Center is the City's landlord and did Project Recovery work on the NACCHO grant in 2023 and 2024. Its one settlement charge reads only "PROFESSIONAL SVCS PERFORMED." No invoice was produced.

What should happen

The City can restore the 8,153.20 this project counts as not conforming to the fund, and spend it on a listed use or a documented abatement program. It can cancel Owl Labs order 26-06081 against the account.

The State relies on these reports to verify how the money is used. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller should examine the FY2024, FY2025 and FY2026 reports, the reserve balance behind their on-hand figures, and the records behind the 14,297.04 legal fee.

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