Gloucester County

Summary

Gloucester County reports 9,797,199.21 in opioid settlement money received through 06/30/2026. The national settlements list uses for the money, among them treatment, recovery, connection to care, prevention and harm reduction. The list is not exhaustive. Other documented, evidence-based programs that address the epidemic also qualify. In either case the money must supplement local spending, not replace it.

The settlement money sits in one sub department, G-02-22-331-382. The neighbouring lines in the same series are State grant programs, not settlement money, and this project does not count them. At 08/19/2026 the settlement account printed 1,983,857.39 expended and 4,189,953.62 encumbered. Account audit trail, 05/01/2026 to 08/19/2026.

Most of the money is committed to real programs. A shared services agreement with Rowan University buys mobile peer recovery, mobile harm reduction, campus recovery housing and a needs assessment. Rowan College of South Jersey has an agreement of its own. Inspira Medical Centers is paid for hospital addiction medicine consultations. This project classes the two Rowan agreements as conforming. The problems are smaller in dollars and sit beside them. Read the County's findings.

The bus contract

The County pays Holcomb Transportation monthly. Its vendor payment history, produced 09/04/2026, carries the whole relationship on one report.

The March 2025 invoice, 8,478.75 on purchase order 25-02586, was paid from the county line on check 438864 on 04/17/2025. The April 2025 invoice, 7,671.25 on purchase order 25-03685, was paid from the settlement account on check 439441 on 05/29/2025.

From April 2025 the settlement account carries thirteen monthly invoices, 92,458.75 in total, through the June 2026 service month. Same vendor, same monthly cadence, same invoice format, same dollar band, and no gap between the old account and the new one. The change in funding source is printed in the County's own record. Moved an existing transportation bill onto settlement money.

The FY2026 report lists the service as a program named Holcomb Transportation, under Primary Prevention, Education, and Training. It describes bus transportation "for students from Loudenslager and Billingsport Elementary Schools to the Paulsboro Boys & Girls club so they can participate in after-school programs and activities." It gives the funding date as 09/20/2023. The contract it quotes ran from 09/20/2023, and the County paid it from its own account until the March 2025 service month. The report certifies 71,463.75 spent in the year, the ten invoices paid in the window to the cent.

The County can answer this by showing that the rides bought with settlement money serve a different population than the rides it bought before. No record in the production does.

The payroll

The County budgeted 1,108,700.00 of settlement money to its own Regular Pay line, G-02-22-331-382-10101, by transfer out of the main services line. The account print of 08/19/2026 shows 160,201.08 charged in biweekly payroll runs. No report through FY2025 discloses a payroll or staffing program. The FY2026 report is the first to disclose salaries. It certifies 101,432.93 of administration, described as "personnel salaries associated with the administration and oversight" of the program. The record names no position and no duties. Charged its own payroll to the settlement account.

On 07/29/2026 the County posted a journal moving 41,852.01 of one employee's salary for 03/26/2026 to 07/30/2026 onto the settlement payroll line. The entry covers four months already paid and posted a month after the State reporting year closed. It does not name the account the salary came from, so the record does not show what the settlement account replaced. Moved one salary onto the account by a retroactive journal.

The consultant

The County paid The Civic Operations Group Inc, a Washington consulting firm, 250,000.00 on purchase order 25-07623. The resolution and the purchase order describe the work in one sentence, implementation and set up activities to kick off a multi lingual outreach program. The term was two months, 08/20/2025 to 10/20/2025.

The County had never paid the firm before. Invoice 111225, dated three weeks after the term ended, bills 74,400.00 for in person field outreach. It states that 744 of 2,000 contracted outreach hours had been deployed. The FY2026 report lists the firm as a program under Primary Prevention, Education, and Training and certifies the 250,000.00. Apart from that report and the firm's own invoicing, the record holds no account of the work. No report, deliverable or work product has been produced. Paid a consultant 250,000.00 with no work product shown.

On 07/31/2026 the County also committed 4,500.00 to ZSchool LLC on purchase order 26-05859. Its one line reads Operational Readiness Course. Nothing else describes it. Committed 4,500.00 to a course with no description.

Rowan University

The fund's largest commitment is the Rowan University agreement, 5,106,028.00 for 02/01/2025 to 01/31/2028, on purchase order 25-09319. It is a real abatement program. No report through FY2025 names it or counts it. The FY2026 report names it for the first time, gives 02/01/2025 as the date it was funded and launched, and certifies 619,992.81 spent in FY2026. Left the fund's largest commitment off the FY2025 report.

On 05/28/2026 the County paid Rowan University 452,190.58 on check 445585. On 06/30/2026 it voided the check. The commitment did not go back into the open encumbrance. Of the 5,106,028.00, 619,992.81 is paid, 4,033,844.61 is encumbered and 452,190.58 sits on neither side. The purchase order listing produced in May 2026 still carries the voided payment as paid. Paid Rowan University 452,190.58, then voided the check.

What the County told the State

Each county files an annual report with the Department of Human Services.

The settlement account carries no activity before 02/28/2025. The FY2023 and FY2024 zero certifications are true. Certified zero for FY2023 and FY2024, and the books agree.

The FY2025 report certifies 250,000.00, the first Rowan College payment. It leaves out the 7,671.25 April 2025 bus invoice, paid 05/29/2025. Left one transportation payment out of the FY2025 total. It certifies 393,360.00 encumbered. That is the second Rowan College payment, 250,000.00, and the shower and laundry trailer, 143,360.00, to the cent. Its program schedule lists only the Rowan College program. It leaves out the trailer and the bus service. Listed one program, its certified encumbrance covered two.

FY2026

The FY2026 report covers 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. It certifies 1,659,434.49 spent and 4,179,785.18 encumbered. The spending is six program amounts plus administration, and each program amount equals the County's payments in the year to the cent.

The shower trailer figure is the trailer, 143,360.00, and the Ford F350 bought to tow it, 98,185.00. The report says the unit serves people experiencing homelessness, people in treatment or recovery and people who use drugs, and that it launched on 07/14/2026. The encumbered figure equals the purchase order lines open at 06/30/2026, led by 4,033,844.61 on the Rowan University agreement. The administrative figure is the payroll charged through the 07/02/2026 run. 79,988.08 of it was charged before 05/01/2026 and is not itemized in the record, so that part cannot be tested line by line. Before the report was filed, this project listed the spending it would have to show. Every item is counted in it. Certified 1,659,434.49 for FY2026, and each program matches.

The report's figures are right. Two of its programs are the bus contract the County paid from its own account before April 2025 and the consultant with no work product on record.

What the County kept doing

The County did not move its existing drug and alcohol program onto the settlement account. The modified appropriation on the State Alcohol and Drug Abuse line was 707,946.00 in 2026, and the County put in 113,980.00 of its own matching funds that year. The five substance use treatment providers the County has funded since 2018 have never been paid from the settlement account. Kept funding its drug and alcohol program after settlement.

What should happen

The County can return the bus contract to the line that paid it before April 2025 and restore 92,458.75 to the settlement fund.

The payroll line needs positions and duties on the record, and the 41,852.01 journal needs its source account. The County can produce both, or reverse the charges.

The County can produce the consulting firm's work product for the 250,000.00, and a description of the 4,500.00 course.

The State relies on these reports to verify compliance. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller can examine the FY2025 and FY2026 reports and the records behind them.

The purchase order listing is here and the revenue detail is here. How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy.