Mantua Township
Mantua Township has moved all 154,189.95 it has spent of its opioid settlement money onto police salary and wages, certified the moves to the State as harm reduction, and certified 0.00 spent for FY2026, the year its books date a 37,158.15 move.
Published 10/03/2026
TLDR
- Mantua Township has moved 154,189.95 of opioid settlement money onto police salary and wages, in five journal entries. That is every dollar it has spent.
- The account has never bought a treatment, prevention, harm reduction or recovery service.
- The FY2024 and FY2025 reports certify the payroll moves as Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention. The FY2024 program is named Offset Police Salary and Wages.
- The FY2026 report certifies 0.00 spent and says no opioid funds were applied. The books date a 37,158.15 move to police salary on 03/01/2026.
- The same report counts that 37,158.15 as encumbered and again as unspent. Settlement cash on hand at 06/30/2026 was 4,391.09.
Asked how the program was procured, the FY2024 report answered "Funds are transferred from Opioid grant to the operating budget annually."
Summary
Mantua Township, Gloucester County, has taken in 182,422.68 of opioid settlement money through 08/19/2026. 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 money is appropriated in account G-01-41-877-023-001, National Opioid Settlement Fund, opened 06/16/2023. Every dollar spent from it went to police salary and wages by journal entry.
| Date | Journal | Description as printed | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10/19/2023 | 4095 | Reclass Opiod Settlement Grant to PD SW | 28,250.81 |
| 05/17/2024 | 4218 | Reclass Opioid Grant to PD S/W | 50,651.98 |
| 08/21/2024 | 4275 and 4262 | Reclass to PD Salary and wages, less a reversing credit of 8,262.64 | 9,286.06 |
| 06/30/2025 | 4444 | Reclass Opioid Funds to PD S/W | 28,842.95 |
| 03/01/2026 | 4590 | Reclass Police S/W 2026 | 37,158.15 |
| Total | 154,189.95 |
A further 17,548.70 posted on 06/30/2024 by journal 4261 was reversed the same day by journal 4274 and nets to zero. Three of the five net entries take the account to a zero balance. No treatment, prevention, harm reduction or recovery purchase appears in the account in any year. Journaled every settlement dollar spent to police salary.
The revenue account shows 182,422.68 received through 08/19/2026. The 28,232.73 left is the six receipts posted after 03/01/2026. Every dollar received before that date has gone to police salary. All money received through 03/01/2026 went to police salary.
This project classes all 154,189.95 as non-conforming. Read the Township's findings.
The journals
The first move rode inside a larger one. Journal 4095, posted 10/19/2023, moved 191,850.81 from seven grant accounts into police salary and wages in one batch. Safe and Secure, Distracted Driving, Drive Sober, Straight to Treatment and the settlement fund were swept together, less a Child Passenger Safety credit. Only the 28,250.81 at sequence 8 is settlement money. It was moved in the same entry, on the same day and to the same account as the other grants. The first settlement reclass sat inside a seven grant sweep.
Police salary and wages is an appropriation the Township adopted and paid in every year without this money. The adopted figure for the police account range was 2,914,000.00 in 2019 and 3,550,000.00 in 2026. It rose in every year except 2025, when it held flat. Across the eight years it rose 636,000.00. Each year the range closed inside its modified appropriation. Police salary budget grew while settlement money paid some.
| Year | Adopted police salary and wages range |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 2,914,000.00 |
| 2020 | 3,004,391.00 |
| 2021 | 3,050,000.00 |
| 2022 | 3,100,000.00 |
| 2023 | 3,300,000.00 |
| 2024 | 3,450,000.00 |
| 2025 | 3,450,000.00 |
| 2026 | 3,550,000.00 |
Moving settlement money onto that line replaces existing funding. No abatement program is documented behind any entry, and no listed use covers existing police payroll.
Asked for every resolution or ordinance that authorized the money for police salaries, the Township produced three. R-146-2024 and R-134-2025 insert 21,841.62 and 37,158.15 into the budget under the title National Opioid Settlement Fund. R-155-2024 cancels a 1,261.31 receivable. None names police salary, payroll or any abatement program. Every journal that moved the money carries the same user code, KP. The transmittal memos filed with R-134-2025 and R-155-2024 name the Chief Financial Officer as recipient. No resolution authorizes settlement money for police pay.
What Mantua told the State
Each town with a direct share files an annual report with the Department of Human Services.
| Report | Program as certified | Certified spent | Moved to police salary in the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2023 | Increase Police Department Staff | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| FY2024 | Offset Police Salary and Wages, Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention | 78,902.79 | 78,902.79 |
| FY2025 | Mantua Police Department, Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention | 38,129.01 | 38,129.01 |
| FY2026 | None | 0.00 | 37,158.15 |
The FY2023 report names a program called Increase Police Department Staff. It answers Unsure to the amount of funding and N/A to the date funded. The books show no hire specific posting in any year. Every posting charges the aggregate police salary account. Reading the certified program as one that does not exist is an inference from that absence. Certified a program to add officers the books never show.
The FY2024 figure is journals 4095 and 4218, 28,250.81 and 50,651.98, to the cent. The figure is accurate. What it certifies as harm reduction is the police salary line. Told the State the police salary line was harm reduction.
The FY2025 figure is journals 4275 and 4444 less the 4262 credit, to the cent. The report names the program Mantua Police Department and files it again under Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention. Told the State again police salary was harm reduction.
FY2026
The FY2026 report covers 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. It reports 28,437.81 received in the year and 158,581.04 since 2022.
It certifies 0.00 spent. Its goals answer reads "No Opioid funds were applied to this current reporting period." It answers No to funding any program.
The books show journal 4590, dated 03/01/2026. It moves the whole 37,158.15 balance of the settlement appropriation to account 6-01-25-240-011-001, Police Salary and Wages. The opioid side describes it as Reclass Police S/W 2026. The police side describes it as Opioid Funds allocated. The account audit trail run 08/19/2026 prints the account at zero, nothing encumbered and 100 percent used.
Two earlier prints do not show the entry. A Budget Detail Inquiry run 06/04/2026 and a budget year 2026 audit trail run 07/13/2026 both print the 37,158.15 unspent with no 2026 posting. Journal 4590 first appears on the 08/19/2026 print. The record does not show the day the entry was keyed. The Township's books date the charge inside the year the report covers.
The report then certifies the same 37,158.15 twice more, as appropriated or encumbered but not yet spent and as unspent and uncommitted on hand. The books show it moved to police salary. Settlement cash at 06/30/2026 was 4,391.09, the 158,581.04 received less the 154,189.95 moved. Certified zero spent while 37,158.15 went to police salary.
The report answers Yes to having a strategic plan and No to posting it online. It names "Administration, CFO and Police Department" as the officials who decided how to spend the money.
What should happen
The Township has charged 154,189.95 of settlement money to police salaries its own budget already carried. No listed use covers an existing payroll. The Township can restore the money to the settlement fund from its own budget and spend it on a listed use or a documented abatement program. The 28,232.73 on hand can stay in the fund.
The State relies on these reports to verify compliance. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller can examine the FY2024 through FY2026 reports, the five journals and who approved them.
The grant account audit trail is here and the revenue print is here. How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy.