Lakewood Township

Summary

Lakewood Township, Ocean County, reports 1,162,418.31 in opioid settlement money received through 06/30/2025 (FY2025 report). The money may be spent only on the opioid abatement uses listed in the national settlements.

The Township holds the money in three accounts. From 07/11/2025 through 08/28/2026 they paid 1,165,970.15. On 08/28/2026 another 309,500.00 was encumbered and 43,382.64 was left.

Most of it went out as grants. Between 07/11/2025 and 11/14/2025 the accounts paid 816,392.00 to Shalva High School, Lakewood Community Services, NJ Rising Stars, Inc. and S.T.E.P.S. (Solutions To End). Each line says only that it is an opioid grant for a year of services. No grant agreement, scope of services, application or report from any of the four has been produced. No Committee resolution names any of them. This project classifies the grants as unverified. No abatement use is documented and none is ruled out.

The vendor histories show what the Township had paid these organizations before. The school had never been paid. The housing contractor had 74 purchase orders for housing work and one for opioids. NJ Rising Stars already held an open 250,000.00 UEZ order. The community services agency had a yearly services grant from the general fund, and in 2024 that grant is missing and an opioid grant for 2024 services appears.

The rest bought a police K-9 vehicle, drones, police software and three vans, and paid 67,340.90 in payroll with no employee named.

The reports to the State for FY2024 and FY2025 show 0.00 spent. The books agree for those years. The first grant check is dated 07/11/2025, eleven days into FY2026. The accounts paid 1,134,281.80 in the FY2026 reporting year. The State's FY2026 report file, published 10/01/2026, prints No Report Received for the Township.

Every figure here comes from the Township's ledger, its purchase order histories, its budget and its reports to the State. The documents are posted on the Lakewood Township page.

What the accounts paid

The Township produced three account audit trails, for G-02-64-771-001-211 National Opioid Settlement Fund, G-02-66-000-000-017 CY25 National Opioid Grant Ch159 and G-02-66-000-000-010 CY25 National Opioid Settlement Fund (audit trail, 01/01/24 to 08/28/26). Together their modified budgets are 1,518,852.79.

The encumbered 309,500.00 is a second 250,000.00 grant to Lakewood Community Services and a Ford Transit upfit split 54,397.55 and 5,102.45 across two accounts.

The four grants

The ledger lines are the whole description. A grant for 2024 services paid in July or August 2025 pays for a year that had already ended. See the finding, grants with no program named.

• Paid: 816,392.00
• Committed and unpaid: 250,000.00
• Grant agreements, scopes, applications or reports produced: none

The Township produced a purchase order history for each organization, run from 01/01/18 to 08/28/26. Those histories are the only record of what the Township had paid them before.

Shalva High School

The history for vendor SHA53 holds two purchase orders and nothing else (vendor history). Purchase order 25004630, dated 07/08/2025, is 120,000.00. Its header reads OPIOID GRANT FOR 2024 SERVICES. The audit trail line for the same order reads 2025. Purchase order 25007592, dated 11/03/2025, is 194,000.00 and reads OPIOD GRANT FOR 2025 SERVICES, as spelled. The first was paid from account G-02-64-771-001-211 and the second from G-02-66-000-000-017.

In more than eight years of Township purchasing the school received no money until the opioid fund paid it 314,000.00. This project found no resolution naming the school. See the finding, a private school's first Township money was opioid money.

S.T.E.P.S. (Solutions To End)

The history for vendor STE29 lists 74 purchase orders with a grand total of 5,206,940.99 and 61,286.02 void (vendor history). They are fair housing payments, rental and affordable housing work, back rent, office rent, Code Blue and COVID recovery money. One names opioids. Purchase order 25005711, dated 08/14/2025, reads OPIOID GRANT FOR 2025 SERVICES at 130,000.00. The opioid account paid it on 08/22/2025.

The quarterly fair housing payments of 30,000.00 run on either side of it, on 08/01/2025 and 10/09/2025.

The Township's 2025 budget carries the same organization as Solutions to End Poverty on Community Services Act line 27-332 (2025 budget excerpt). The line is appropriated 120,000.00 for 2024. It shows nothing in the Paid or Charged column and 120,000.00 in the Reserved column. See the finding, a housing contractor since 2018 got 130,000.00.

NJ Rising Stars, Inc.

The history for vendor NJS24 shows purchase order 25003680, UEZ PROJECT 2022-08014-2049, for 250,000.00 (vendor history). It is dated 05/30/2025 and was still open on 08/28/2026. On 08/04/2025 the Township opened purchase order 25005356 for 200,000.00, described in the history as 2024 SERVICES. The opioid account paid it four days later in two lines of 100,000.00, one for 2024 services and one for 2025.

In November 2025 the Township added 3,500.00 of CDBG public service money for the same organization. No purchase order in the history names a substance use service. See the finding, a group holding a 250,000.00 UEZ order got 200,000.00 more.

Lakewood Community Services

The Township paid this organization a yearly general services grant. The history for vendor LAK46 shows social support services of 50,000.00 in 2018 and 2019, and services grants for 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025 (vendor history). There is no 2024 services purchase order.

On 07/25/2025 the opioid account paid purchase order 25004852, OPIOID GRANT FOR 2024 SERVICES, 172,392.00, under a second vendor code, LCS01. The 2025 budget shows Community Services Act line 27-334, Lakewood Community Services Corp., appropriated 50,000.00 for 2024. It shows nothing in the Paid or Charged column and 50,000.00 in the Reserved column.

This is an inference. On these records the Township's 2024 grant to this organization came from settlement money instead of the general fund line that carried it in earlier years. The history produced covers code LAK46 and does not show the opioid purchase orders under LCS01. Asked for the records of account 27-334, the Township answered that none exist. See the finding, the 2024 community services grant came from the opioid fund.

A second opioid purchase order to the same organization, 25006947 for 250,000.00, was entered on 10/10/2025. It was open on 08/28/2026.

Who approved the grants

The only budget authority for the settlement money is a lump appropriation. The 2025 budget carries line 41-860, National Opioid Settlement Fund, at 1,145,926.24 for 2024 and 38,723.03 for 2025, under Public and Private Programs Offset by Revenues. No grantee, program or use is named.

This project searched the agenda packages for every Township Committee meeting in 2024 and 2025, including the 01/02/2025 reorganization meeting and the 01/31/2025 special meeting. None contains a resolution awarding money to any of the four organizations. None uses the word opioid. The package for 10/23/2025 is posted (agenda package). The Committee approves bills by a motion to approve the bill list. The Township has not produced the bill lists. See the finding, no Committee resolution names any grantee.

Vehicles, drones and software

• Police K-9 vehicle: 60,216.30
• Drones and records software: 90,359.67
• Police equipment with no program documented: 150,575.97
• Vans and van upfit, purpose not documented: 128,944.52

Purchase order 26000663 to Elite Vehicle Solutions, a 2025 Ford Transit upfit, holds another 59,500.00 open across two accounts. The Paladin payment and the Mindbase payment sit in accounts the ledger groups under department CY25 Municipal Court Alcohol Ed. No abatement program using the K-9 vehicle, the drones or the software is documented, and none of them is among the uses Exhibit E lists. The vans are not patrol vehicles. No record shows who uses them or for what, so this project classifies them as unverified until the Township documents a purpose. See the findings on the K-9 vehicle, the vans and the drones and software.

Payroll with no employee named

From 10/24/2025 through 08/28/2026 account G-02-64-771-001-211 carries 23 biweekly journal entries described only as Payroll of the pay date (account update to 08/28/26). Most are 2,861.11 or 2,884.62. They total 67,340.90. No entry names an employee, a title or a program. The Township was asked for the payee and title and has not produced them. The entries were still running on the last date produced. See the finding, payroll charged with no employee named.

Police charges moved back off the fund

Between 03/21/2025 and 04/11/2025 five checks totaling 14,678.30 were paid from account G-02-64-771-001-211. B and H Photo received 9,635.20 for assorted equipment and 4,457.66 for multi camera equipment. A police officer received 150.00 for gift card reimbursements. Two wellness week food reimbursements of 373.95 and 61.49 went to two other people. Journal References 4202 and 4203 credited each one back as MISPOSTED S/B 50125240240211. The same five amounts appear on account 5-01-25-240-240-211, Police Dept. Miscellaneous (police account trail). The opioid account nets to 0.00 for FY2025. See the finding, five police charges paid from the fund, then moved back.

What the Township told the State

Each town with a direct share files an annual report with the Department of Human Services.

Sources: FY2023 report, FY2024 report, FY2025 report.

The 0.00 expended in each year matches the books. No posting on any opioid account falls before 03/17/2025, and the FY2025 postings net to zero.

The unspent figure does not match. The FY2024 and FY2025 reports both certify 1,145,926.24 on hand. That is the Township's 2024 budget appropriation for the fund, carried on revenue line 10-860 and appropriation line 41-860, and the adopted budget of account G-02-64-771-001-211.

See the finding, certified cash on hand that was a budget figure.

The narrative answers are on the record. The FY2024 report answers "no comment" to the questions on goals, the basis for spending decisions and public engagement. The FY2025 report states its goal as "Reduce opioid dependence." Asked how the Township decided the best way to use the money, it answers, "That is a very interesting question worthy of further review." Asked to describe public engagement, it answers, "I don't know. I am just a book keeper that works in an office all day and is not exposed to the public." It answers No to a strategic plan, No to a risk assessment and No to funding any new program. See the finding, told the State its spending process needed further review.

FY2026

The State published its FY2026 report file on 10/01/2026. For Lakewood Township it prints No Report Received. The FY2026 reporting year ran from 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026, and the accounts paid 1,134,281.80 in it.

Another 326,270.00 was committed and unpaid at 06/30/2026. It is the 250,000.00 Lakewood Community Services order, the 59,500.00 van upfit and the 16,770.00 records software paid on 07/17/2026. The State's FY2026 file holds no report of the year's spending (grants finding).

Records the Township has not produced

• Grant agreements, scopes of services, applications or reports for any of the four organizations.
• The payee and title behind the 23 payroll journals.
• Records of Community Services Act lines 27-332 and 27-334. The Township answered that no records exist for lines its own 2025 budget prints.
• The bill lists the Committee approved.

What should happen

The Township should produce the four grant agreements and the payroll detail, and show what abatement service each grant bought. Without them no payment of the 816,392.00 can be tied to a listed use or a documented program.

The Township should stop charging police vehicles, drones and police software to the settlement accounts. It should document what the vans are for before the 59,500.00 upfit still open is paid.

The State's FY2026 report file prints No Report Received for a year in which the accounts paid 1,134,281.80. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller should compare that year's spending with the ledger.

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