Manchester Township

Summary

Manchester Township, Ocean County, reports 279,309.28 in opioid settlement money received through 06/30/2025. The money may be spent only on the opioid abatement uses listed in the national settlements.

The Township's opioid account, G-01-50-000-000-514, Opioid Settlement Grant, was charged 335,280.72 from 06/12/2023 through 08/28/2026. Of that, 135,648.82 bought two Tahoes. Another 41,056.10 paid for ambulance maintenance and repairs, 19,088.45 for police radios and in-car video, and 16,240.20 for defibrillators. The account also paid 105,000.00 to Bright Harbor Healthcare for its On Point counseling service. That is a treatment and recovery use.

The Township's four reports to the Department of Human Services do not match the account. The FY2024 report certifies the command vehicle as a treatment program in a year before it was bought. The FY2025 report certifies the School Resource Officer Tahoe twice, and the FY2026 report leaves it out of the year it was paid. The FY2023 and FY2024 reports certify the same 17,500.00 of counseling.

Every figure in this report comes from the Township's reports to the State and its own records. Sources are linked in each section.

The command vehicle

On 06/24/2024 the council adopted Resolution 24-313. It awards one GM Tahoe command vehicle with a console, a rear command cabinet and an LED lighting package to 10-75 Emergency Vehicles for 79,500.00, through cooperative contract AM10-23. It does not mention opioid funds.

Purchase order 24-01342 followed on 07/16/2024. It ships to Emergency Services and charges the account G-01-50-000-000-514. Check 74000 paid it on 08/12/2024. The Township's vendor history shows this as its only payment to the vendor from 01/01/2018 to 08/28/2026.

The FY2024 reporting period ran from 07/01/2023 to 06/30/2024. The order and the payment both came after it closed.

The FY2024 report certifies 79,500.00 expended and 0.00 encumbered in that period. It names the program Transportation and Response to Mental Health and Opioid Victims. It lists Manchester Township Emergency Services as the recipient and Treatment as the primary category. It says the program was funded 06/01/2024 and launched 10/01/2024. It says "a vehicle was purchased to deploy Bright Harbor Healthcare Members with our EMS Department."

The 79,500.00 is part of the 130,837.99 the FY2024 report certifies as spent. No record shows an outreach program using the vehicle, and a command vehicle is not among the uses Exhibit E lists. See the finding, Tahoe certified as FY2024 treatment was bought in FY2025.

The ninth Tahoe

Check 76605, dated 09/08/2025 and drawn on the Township's Current Fund Account, paid Gentilini Ford 505,339.38. It bought nine Chevrolet Tahoes at 56,148.82 each. The Township's vendor history charges eight of them, purchase order 24-01618, to G-01-50-000-000-534, Byrne Discretionary Grant. It charges the ninth, purchase order 24-01979, to the opioid account.

Purchase order 24-01979 ships to the Police Department. Its line item reads "Purchase of Police Vehicle" and "Opioid Money for SRO Vehicle." Resolution 24-434, adopted 10/28/2024, authorizes one 2024 Tahoe 9C1 Patrol PPV for the Police Department. It states that funding is available through the New Jersey Opioid Settlement Funds. It says the Chief of Police designated the vehicle for the School Resource Officer to patrol the school districts. The clerk's certification on the copy produced is unsigned.

A grant that paid for the other eight was in use on that check. See Bought nine identical Tahoes, charged one to the fund.

The FY2025 report certifies 56,148.82 encumbered and not yet spent. That is purchase order 24-01979 to the cent. The same report certifies 57,000.00 expended from 07/01/2024 to 06/30/2025 on the Transportation program and gives the reason as "Purchase of vehicle for School Resource Officer." No payment for that vehicle falls in the period. The check cleared 09/08/2025. No figure in the books equals 57,000.00. See Certified one SRO Tahoe as both spent and still owed.

Ambulance repairs

Between 08/11/2025 and 09/09/2025 nine budget journal entries charged 15,661.11 of Blaze Emergency Equipment ambulance repairs to the opioid account. Each journal names a purchase order. None carries a vendor or a check.

The Township's Blaze vendor history charges all nine purchase orders to 5-01-25-252-000-240, the current fund emergency services operating line. Every purchase order produced prints that account. The cancelled checks are drawn on the Current Fund Account.

On purchase order 25001582 the printed account is struck through and G-01-50-000-000-514 is written beneath it by hand. On purchase order 25001613 the opioid account is handwritten across the face. The Finance Department copy of the same order carries no such note.

The journals are dated before the orders. The journal for 25001582 posts 3,778.48 on 08/11/2025. The order is dated 08/13/2025 and prints 3,738.19. The figure 3,778.48 first appears on Blaze invoice 11550, dated 09/03/2025. The journal for 941.53 posts on 08/12/2025. The order it belongs to is dated 08/19/2025 and prints 960.00. The figure 941.53 first appears on invoice 11546, dated 08/25/2025. See Journaled 15,661.11 of ambulance repairs onto the fund.

From 10/27/2025 to 05/11/2026 the account paid twenty two more Blaze orders directly, 25,394.99 in all. The ledger describes preventive maintenance, brakes, a coolant leak, tail lights, an HVAC motor and a fuel filter. The Township pays Blaze for the same kind of work from its emergency services line every year from 2020 through 2026. See Paid 25,394.99 of ambulance upkeep from the fund.

The Township already paid for this work from its own budget. Ambulance maintenance is not among the uses Exhibit E lists.

Police radios and in-car video

Purchase order 24-01949 bought Motorola APX 8500 radios for one Tahoe, 6,685.50 and 3,619.75, paid 05/27/2025. Purchase order 25000585 bought an M500 in-car video camera system for 8,783.20, paid 05/12/2025. The opioid account paid 19,088.45 for the three lines.

All three fall in the FY2025 period. No program in the FY2025 report names them. The Township's Motorola vendor history charges Motorola to the police operating line in every year from 2019 through 2026, and 69,763.20 to the Byrne Discretionary Grant. See Paid 19,088.45 for police radios and in-car video.

Counseling certified twice

The FY2023 report certifies 35,000.00 spent by 06/30/2023 on Counseling Services. It names the recipient as OMNIPOINT. No payment to OMNIPOINT appears on the account.

The ledger shows one Bright Harbor Healthcare order for On Point participation, 23-00961, for 35,000.00. Only 17,500.00 of it was paid by 06/30/2023, on check 71326. The rest was paid on 08/28/2023 and 11/27/2023, in the FY2024 period.

The FY2024 report certifies 35,000.00 more to Bright Harbor Healthcare. That equals those two later checks plus check 73552 for 17,500.00 on 05/28/2024. The two reports certify 70,000.00 against 52,500.00 paid through 06/30/2024. The FY2025 report then adds 17,000.00 to the 2023 program for the period 07/01/2023 to 06/30/2024. See Certified the same 17,500.00 of counseling in two years.

The FY2024 report also certifies 16,337.99 to an employee Narcan education program. The payments in that period other than Bright Harbor come to 3,388.77. No set of payments on the account makes 16,337.99.

What the reports certify against the ledger

The ledger figures come from the Township's transaction audit trail and its account activity report. The FY2025 ledger total includes the command vehicle that the FY2024 report already certified. The FY2025 report certifies the School Resource Officer Tahoe that was paid after the period closed.

The account paid 114,704.92 from 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. The FY2026 report certifies 51,672.90 of it. See FY2026 below.

FY2026

The State published the FY2026 report on 10/01/2026. It certifies 85,393.00 received, 51,672.90 spent, 0.00 encumbered and 58,348.73 unspent on hand. It answers No to funding any program in the year, then reports updates to two programs with money spent.

The transportation update still explains itself as the purchase of a vehicle for the School Resource Officer. Its measure is fleet service for the ambulance fleet, and the report says the year's money kept ambulances in service. The Tahoe payment, 56,148.82, is larger than the whole 34,172.90 transportation figure, so no FY2026 figure includes it. The FY2025 report certified the vehicle before it was paid. The FY2026 report, for the year it was paid, leaves it out. See FY2026 report leaves out the 56,148.82 SRO Tahoe payment.

What should happen

The account has paid 212,033.57 for vehicles, ambulance work, police radios, in-car video and defibrillators. The Township paid for most of it from its own budget or grants before. No overdose or other abatement program using any of it is documented, and none of it is among the uses Exhibit E lists. The Township can restore that money to the account and spend it on a listed purpose.

The State relies on these reports to verify compliance. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller should examine the FY2024, FY2025 and FY2026 reports and the records behind them.

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