Lacey Township
Lacey Township moved a police counseling fee it had paid for years onto its opioid settlement fund, then certified the program to the State as new. Half of the counseling spending it reported for FY2024 is a check the police budget had already paid.
Published 09/23/2026 · Updated 10/03/2026
TLDR
- Lacey Township paid Bright Harbor Healthcare 8,750.00 a quarter from the police budget for nine quarters. Then the opioid settlement fund started paying the same fee.
- The FY2024 report calls the program new, launched 01/01/2024. The Township had been paying for it since 02/10/2022.
- Half of the 17,500.00 certified as FY2024 counseling spending is a police check, moved onto the settlement account by journal.
- The same report certifies 17,500.00 owed at year end. No purchase order for it existed until July.
- A sign paid with a Rotary donation went to the State as 30,000.00 of program funding.
- The FY2026 report certifies a 7,427.15 security camera payment as Recovery Supports.
The fee never changed. The account did.
Summary
Lacey Township, Ocean County, reports 262,981.57 in opioid settlement money received through 06/30/2025 (FY2025 report, page 1). The money may be spent only on the opioid abatement uses listed in the national settlements.
The Township keeps the money in settlement accounts G-02-41-857-023 through G-02-41-857-026. The ledger for those accounts prints 78 payments from 03/31/2023 to 08/13/2026, totaling 291,716.46. Eight reversals take back 21,715.14. A retainer credit of 1,000.00 on 07/30/2026 takes back 1,000.00 more. Net spending is 269,001.32 (ledger, update).
Some of the money went to school programs. The settlement ledger shows the Lacey Township Board of Education paid 79,579.35 on checks 49274 to 51978, from 03/13/2025 to 12/23/2025, for the T.R.U.S.T. program and Teen Mental Health First Aid training (ledger, Board of Education history). DBD Group was paid 25,570.53 for a community needs assessment, on checks 50864 to 52856 from 09/11/2025 to 03/12/2026 and check 54191 on 08/13/2026 (ledger, update, DBD Group history). The vendor histories show no earlier Township funding of either.
The largest single use of the fund is a counseling fee the police budget paid for years before the settlement arrived. Other charges went to police payroll, a police drug course, a security camera job and a communications consultant.
The three reports to the Department of Human Services through FY2025 certify 7,993.09, 29,754.97 and 82,082.67 expended. Each equals the ledger's spending for the same year. The FY2026 report certifies 147,025.06, which also equals the ledger. The totals tie. What the reports say about the spending does not.
The counseling fee
Bright Harbor Healthcare runs a program called On Point. It has billed the Township 8,750.00 a quarter for services starting 10/01/2021. The Township's vendor history prints every payment (vendor history).
Nine quarters, CY2021 Q4 through CY2023 Q4, were paid from Police Professional Services, account x-01-25-240-295. They total 78,750.00. They stayed on the police line.
The tenth quarter, CY2024 Q1, was paid by check 45689 on 02/22/2024 from the same police line. The settlement account then carries a journal, reference 2368-2, dated 02/22/2024, described Bright Harbor 2024 Q1, for 8,750.00. It charges the same invoice to account G-02-41-857-024. The audit trail prints that account as added on 04/25/2024, after the date the journal carries. The credit side of the journal was not produced (police check moved by journal).
From CY2024 Q2 the settlement account pays the fee directly. Through the 06/11/2026 payment the fund has carried ten quarters, 87,500.00, counting the journal. The rate, the vendor and the program did not change. Only the account did (fee moved from the police budget).
What the Township told the State
The FY2024 report certifies a program named Counseling Services and Prevention. The recipient is Bright Harbor Healthcare slash Lacey Twp Police and EMS. The report gives the program as funded and launched on 01/01/2024, funded at 35,000.00, with 17,500.00 expended and 17,500.00 encumbered. Its category is Primary Prevention, Education, and Training (FY2024 report, pages 3 to 5).
The 17,500.00 expended is two lines on the settlement account.
| Date | Entry | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 02/22/2024 | Journal 2368-2, CY2024 Q1 fee already paid by police check 45689 | 8,750.00 |
| 05/09/2024 | Check 46294, CY2024 Q2 fee | 8,750.00 |
| Certified expended | 17,500.00 |
Half of it is a check the police budget had already paid.
The 17,500.00 encumbered is the next two fees. Purchase order 24-02672 was first encumbered 07/10/2024 and paid by check 47244 on 08/20/2024. Purchase order 24-03913 was first encumbered 10/15/2024 and paid by check 47943 on 10/24/2024. Each was 8,750.00. Neither existed at 06/30/2024, the end of the reporting year. The same report's Question 7 certifies only 1,995.00 encumbered for the whole fund (encumbrance with no purchase order).
The FY2025 report carries Counseling Services and Prevention forward at 35,000.00. That is four more quarterly fees, CY2024 Q3 through CY2025 Q2 (FY2025 report, page 10).
The sign
The FY2024 report certifies a program named Digital Information Board. The recipient is Lacey Twp in conjunction with the Rotary Club of Forked River. It is funded at 30,000.00, with 0.00 expended and 1,995.00 encumbered (page 6).
The vendor history for KC Sign shows one purchase order, 24-01917, paid on check 47675 on 09/26/2024 (vendor history).
| Line | Description | Account | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Custom fabricated single sided sign | X-12-56-018-024 Rotary Donation | 30,000.00 |
| 2, 3 and 5 | Permits and drawings | Recreation Trust | 1,619.26 |
| 4 | Balance due for sign | Settlement account | 1,995.00 |
The 30,000.00 reported as the program's funding is the Rotary donation. The settlement fund paid 1,995.00. No record shows what the sign displays, and no evidence based prevention program using it is documented. A permanent sign is not among the uses Exhibit E lists (sign finding).
Police payroll and the drug course
Between 03/31/2023 and 03/13/2026 the Township posted thirty four payroll charges to the settlement accounts. They are described as LEAD, STEP GRANT or by payroll number. They net to 45,907.70 after same day reversals. L.E.A.D. is Law Enforcement Against Drugs, a course the Township has bought on its police training line since 2018. All three reports give the LEAD payroll as the L.E.A.D. Program, and the figures tie to the postings.
The Township was asked for the payroll register or labor distribution for each posting. It produced none and gave no reason. Who was paid, in what position and for what hours is not in the record. Reading the postings as police officer pay is our inference from the program name and the vendor history (payroll with no register).
The Township also charged police Special Traffic Enforcement payroll to the settlement account and moved it off the same day, three times. On 03/01/2024 a line of 1,045.48 was reversed with the memo Should be Step Grant. On 03/13/2026 lines of 1,464.54 and 208.12 were reversed with the memo S slash B STEP 734.026. The three total 2,718.14. Each nets to zero (traffic overtime, STEP account).
The L.E.A.D. Inc. vendor history shows officer registrations and Too Good for Drugs kits bought on the police Educational Courses and Training line in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and July 2024. In December 2024 a kit, 701.90 with 70.19 shipping, was paid from the settlement account on check 48633. In April 2025 three officer registrations at 499.00 each were paid from the settlement account on check 49547. In September 2025 the next kit, 494.55, went back on the police line (vendor history). The 2,269.09 is part of the 15,969.88 the FY2025 report gives for the L.E.A.D. Program (drug course).
Security cameras
Gridless Power Corporation billed the Township 142,427.15 for work described only as Cameras. All seven lines were paid on 01/08/2026. Six lines, 135,000.00, went to capital account X-04-44-C25-013, Security Cameras. One line, purchase order 25-03237 for 7,427.15, went to the settlement account. Invoice 119580 is split between the two (vendor history).
The capital budget carries the rest of the same job. The FY2026 report certifies the 7,427.15 as a program named Cameras in High Risk areas, under Recovery Supports. No abatement program using the cameras is documented, and security cameras are not among the uses Exhibit E lists (camera finding).
The communications consultant
Andrea Plaza LLC was paid 18,752.50 from account G-02-41-857-025 between 09/11/2025 and 07/09/2026. The invoices read Strategic Communications and development of. The 1,000.00 retainer credited back on 07/30/2026 leaves 17,752.50. The vendor history shows the March 2026 invoice charged to Administration Professional Services, the April 2026 invoice split between the two accounts and the May 2026 invoice charged to Administration. No scope of work is in the record (vendor history, consultant finding).
The FY2025 balance
The FY2025 report certifies 128,732.13 unspent on hand. The reports' own figures do not produce it.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Received since 2022, FY2025 | 262,981.57 |
| Less expended, FY2023 | 7,993.09 |
| Less expended, FY2024 | 29,754.97 |
| Less expended, FY2025 | 82,082.67 |
| Remaining | 143,150.84 |
| Less encumbered, FY2025 | 30,072.53 |
| Remaining | 113,078.31 |
| Certified unspent | 128,732.13 |
The certified figure is 15,653.82 above the second result and 14,418.71 below the first (FY2023 report, FY2024 report, FY2025 report, balance finding).
FY2026
The State published the Township's FY2026 report on 10/01/2026. It covers 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. It certifies 147,025.06 spent and 2,575.00 encumbered. The spending total equals the accounts' payments for the year to the cent.
The report lists the camera payment as a new program, Cameras in High Risk areas, at 7,427.15. It files it under Recovery Supports and describes wireless cameras at parks, community center common areas and Narcan box sites. Its own text ties the park cameras to community safety rather than direct harm reduction. Certified security cameras as recovery supports.
The report's five program amounts add to 164,212.30, which is 17,187.24 more than the spending total. The Community Needs Assessment is certified at 73,045.53. The produced records show 25,000.00 paid to DBD Group in the year and nothing to Four Square Research, the other named recipient. The T.R.U.S.T. and counseling updates come in below what the accounts paid for them. Program amounts exceed certified spending by 17,187.24.
The L.E.A.D. update, 11,958.85, ties to five LEAD payroll postings. The Township has still produced no register for them.
Records not produced
- The credit side of journal 2368-2 and the date it was entered.
- Police salary, wage and overtime lines and the payroll registers behind the LEAD postings.
- A full activity report for account G-02-41-857-026. The 12,680.79 Bright Harbor payment of 06/11/2026 on that account appears only in the vendor history (revenue ledger and spending ledger cover the other accounts).
- The scope of the Gridless Power camera work.
What the record shows
A police counseling contract it had funded since 2022 became a new settlement program in 2024. Its first reported quarter was a police check moved by journal.
Related findings are grouped under funding source substitution. How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy.