Hillside Township
Hillside Township certified 1,100.00 of Juneteenth festival entertainment to the State as an opioid prevention program named Juneteenth, then opened a 4,000.00 order for a second Juneteenth act on its settlement account.
Published 09/25/2026 · Updated 10/03/2026
TLDR
- Hillside Township told the State it spent 1,100.00 of opioid settlement money in the year ending 06/30/2025. It named the program Juneteenth.
- The report describes the program as "Annual celebration of Juneteenth." It files it under Primary Prevention, Education, and Training.
- The only purchase on the settlement account in that year is 1,100.00 of entertainment for the Mayor's Office Juneteenth event.
- Two months later the Township opened a second Juneteenth entertainment order on the account, 4,000.00. The listing does not show it paid.
- Of 5,350.00 ordered from the account, 5,100.00 is Juneteenth entertainment.
Summary
Hillside Township, Union County, reported receiving 50,223.92 in opioid settlement money through 06/30/2025. 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 Township's settlement account is 02-2131-41-5700-022, Opioid Settlement. The Township produced it as a listing of three purchase orders, 5,350.00 in all. Two are entertainment for the Mayor's Office Juneteenth event, 5,100.00. The third is a 250.00 service described as provided for overdose awareness. The listing shows no paid status, no check numbers and no payment dates. The dates in this report are purchase order dates. This project counts the 1,100.00 order as spent because the FY2025 report certifies it as expended. It carries the other two orders, 4,250.00, as open commitments, not spending.
The Township's FY2025 report to the Department of Human Services certifies the first entertainment order as an opioid prevention program. Read the Township's findings.
The Juneteenth program
The FY2025 report covers 07/01/2024 to 06/30/2025. It certifies 1,100.00 expended. It answers Yes to funding a new program and lists one.
| Report field | What the Township wrote |
|---|---|
| Program name | Juneteenth |
| Recipient | Township of Hillside |
| Primary problem | Celebrate Juneteenth |
| Description | Annual celebration of Juneteenth |
| Funded | 06/19/2025, 1,100.00 |
| Launch date | 06/16/2023 |
| Primary category | Primary Prevention, Education, and Training |
| Schedule B strategy | Connections to Care |
| Measure | Literature distribution |
The program's statement of impact reads "Taking the opportunity to inform the public about opioid abuse during an annual event."
The settlement account carries one purchase order in the period. Purchase order 25HLSDPORD118795, dated 06/18/2025, goes to Taj Entertainment LLC for 1,100.00. It is described as "ENTERTAIMENT FOR JUNETEENTH - MAYOR'S OFFICE." The certified figure equals the order to the cent. No literature or other purchase appears on the account. No evidence-based or evidence-informed program is documented, and festival entertainment is not among the uses Exhibit E lists. Certified Juneteenth entertainment as opioid prevention.
In July 2025 the State Comptroller faulted Irvington for concerts paid from its settlement money. The report found they were not "grounded in evidence or public health standards." The same test applies here.
Two figures in one report
The first page of the FY2025 report certifies 1,100.00 expended and 0.00 encumbered. It certifies 49,123.92 unspent, which is 50,223.92 received less that 1,100.00. The program block for Juneteenth gives 1,100.00 as the amount of funding and 0.00 as the amount expended. The two pages of one report state two spent figures for the same program. FY2025 report puts Juneteenth at 1,100.00 and at 0.00.
The FY2023 report and the FY2024 report certify 0.00 expended. The account listing holds nothing before 06/18/2025. Those reports and the books agree.
The second act
Purchase order 25HLSDPORD119250, dated 08/13/2025, is a 4,000.00 order on the settlement account. The payee is Knights for a Cause, Inc. The description reads "#117 - MAYOR'S OFFICE - RE: JUNETEENTH ENTERTAINMENT - UNDERGROUNG EXPERIENCE."
The listing shows no paid status, check number or payment date for it. This project carries it as an open order, not as money spent. The order is dated in the FY2026 period, 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. The State's FY2026 report file, published 10/01/2026, prints No Report Received for the Township. Opened a 4,000.00 order for a second Juneteenth act.
The same day the Township opened a 250.00 order to an individual for a service "PROVIDED FOR OVERDOSE AWARENESS" on 08/02/2025. No invoice or program record has been produced. This project carries it as an open order and classifies it as unverified.
An event that came before the money
The report gives the Juneteenth program a launch date of 06/16/2023. The Township's purchase order listing for all accounts shows Juneteenth purchases in 2022, 2023 and 2024. None of them is on the settlement account.
| PO date | Purchase | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 06/20/2022 | Juneteenth banners, PO 110135 | 420.00 |
| 06/12/2023 | T-shirts for the Juneteenth celebration, PO 112912 | 792.23 |
| 09/28/2023 | Mayor's Office Juneteenth order, PO 113821 | 56.00 |
| 06/17/2024 | Mayor's Office Juneteenth event balloons, PO 116076 | 410.00 |
| 06/18/2024 | Reimbursement for the Juneteenth event, PO 116078 | 79.94 |
| 06/28/2024 | Juneteenth plaque, PO 116143 | 120.00 |
In 2025 the same listing shows three Taj Entertainment orders of 1,100.00 each, all dated 06/18/2025, POs 118793, 118794 and 118795. It also shows a balloon arch for 600.00, decorations for 116.13 and a 44.95 reimbursement for water and ice. Only 118795 is on the settlement account.
The listing has no account column and no paid status. It does not show which fund paid the other orders, or whether all three Taj orders were paid. That the settlement money took over part of a cost the Township already carried is this project's inference from these records. Paragraph D(7) of the agreement between the State and its towns says settlement money shall supplement and not supplant local funds that otherwise would have been used for approved purposes. Juneteenth was a Township event before settlement money.
What the records do not show
The listing of the settlement account prints no payment. The payment dates, check numbers and amounts paid on all three orders are not in the record. Payment records have been requested and are not yet produced.
The current fund prints show two grant entries moved to the grant fund. One is 20,704.90 for calendar year 2023, dated 12/31/2024. The other is 14,310.86 for calendar year 2024, dated 06/25/2024. No produced record shows deposits into the settlement account itself.
What should happen
The Township certified 1,100.00 of festival entertainment from the settlement account as a prevention program. The account also carries a 4,000.00 order for more Juneteenth entertainment. No evidence-based program is documented for either order, and no listed use covers festival entertainment. The Township can restore the 1,100.00 to the fund, keep the 4,000.00 order off it, and spend the money on a listed use or another documented program that addresses the epidemic.
The State relies on these reports to verify compliance. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller should examine the FY2025 report, who prepared it, and what records support it.
How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy.