Monmouth County
Monmouth County told the State it spent 297,272.19 more in FY2024 than its books show, left 279,216.75 of FY2026 spending off its program pages, counted one campaign check in two years, moved 35,987.52 of salary it had already paid onto the fund and certified bagels as outreach supplies.
Published 10/03/2026
TLDR
- Monmouth County's FY2024 report certifies 839,215.80 spent. The books show 541,943.61. The County counted payments it made the next year, then counted them again the next year.
- Its FY2026 program pages describe 279,216.75 less than the spending total. Five paid accounts appear on none of them.
- A public affairs firm was paid 100,000.00. Two reports say 120,000.00.
- The FY2026 report's amount on hand matches nothing. Not its own figures and not the books.
- The County paid two employees from its own budget, then moved 35,987.52 of that pay onto the settlement fund in June.
- 665.00 went to a bagel shop. The report calls it outreach supplies.
Summary
Monmouth County reports receiving 9,301,998.43 in opioid settlement money and interest through 06/30/2026. The money must go to the abatement uses the national settlements list, or to documented evidence-based programs that address the epidemic. It must add to local spending, not replace it.
The County keeps the money in one account family, G-02-41-881-220, with a sub-account for each program. Through 08/31/2026 those sub-accounts paid out 4,199,448.26. Most of it went to treatment, recovery and prevention providers. The County produced its ledgers and vendor payment histories. It produced no contracts, invoices or resolutions. Where the County's own ledger names an opioid service on the account, this project classes the spending as conforming. Where only the County's report to the State describes it, the spending is unverified.
This project classes 991,430.99 as conforming, 3,171,364.75 as unverified and 36,652.52 as non-conforming. Read the County's findings.
What the County received
| Report | Received in the year |
|---|---|
| FY2023 | 1,476,014.20 |
| FY2024 | 3,742,427.90 |
| FY2025 | 2,192,032.49 |
| FY2026 | 1,485,785.20 |
| Interest reported, FY2022 to FY2026 | 405,738.64 |
| Received since 2022, FY2026 report | 9,301,998.43 |
What it spent and on what
The County's Budget Transaction Audit Trails cover every settlement sub-account from 01/01/2022 to 08/31/2026. The first payment is dated 01/02/2024. The County released the records on 09/29/2026. Nothing after 08/31/2026 was produced.
| Payee | Paid through 08/31/2026 |
|---|---|
| Hope Sheds Light, peer recovery and recovery coaches | 813,441.83 |
| Preferred Behavioral Health Group | 507,691.92 |
| Visiting Nurse Association | 460,389.87 |
| Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore | 381,008.30 |
| CPC Integrated Health | 350,000.00 |
| New Hope Integrated Behavioral Health Care | 300,000.00 |
| Tigger House | 249,500.00 |
| Trinity Episcopal Church | 235,100.00 |
| Discovery Institute | 175,996.50 |
| Matawan Aberdeen Regional School District, recovery high school | 167,292.22 |
| County staff payroll | 139,393.31 |
| Mercury Public Affairs | 100,000.00 |
| Verde Environmental | 69,952.15 |
| The Center in Asbury Park | 55,000.00 |
| EZ Ride | 50,000.00 |
| HMH Hospitals Corporation | 45,651.88 |
| Youth Postvention contract | 30,000.00 |
| New Jersey State Elks | 20,740.00 |
| Outreach supplies | 20,036.52 |
| Well Connected Inc. | 19,818.00 |
| Consulting and surveys | 8,435.76 |
| Total | 4,199,448.26 |
By State fiscal year the accounts paid 541,943.61 in FY2024, 1,260,932.21 in FY2025 and 1,758,068.56 in FY2026. Another 638,503.88 was paid from 07/01/2026 to 08/31/2026.
The conforming spending sits on accounts the County's ledger titles for a named service: peer recovery, detox and short-term residential treatment, MOUD treatment, a community MOUD nurse, overdose awareness and a recovery high school. The rest of the provider spending sits on accounts titled only Enhancements or Innovation and a vendor name. No contract in the record says what those payments bought.
The FY2026 report certifies 3,450,417.37 appropriated or encumbered and not yet spent. That is the total of orders open on the books at 06/30/2026. It includes a 1,500,000.00 order to New Hope for a halfway house expansion. A further 1,300,000.00 sits in account 220-350, SUD Housing Support, as appropriation with no order and no vendor.
What it told the State
| Report | Certified spent | Paid in the period |
|---|---|---|
| FY2023 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| FY2024 | 839,215.80 | 541,943.61 |
| FY2025 | 1,260,932.21 | 1,260,932.21 |
| FY2026 | 1,758,068.56 | 1,758,068.56 |
The FY2023 report says no program was funded yet because the County's call for proposals was still out. The books agree.
The FY2025 and FY2026 reports certify spending that equals the books to the cent. Their administrative figures, 45,675.64 and 77,058.67, equal staff payroll plus survey subscriptions to the cent. Both reports still say the administrative expense included a consultant. No consultant appears in either year's administrative figure.
FY2024 counted next year's payments
The FY2024 report certifies 839,215.80 spent between 07/01/2023 and 06/30/2024. The accounts paid 541,943.61 in that period. The report is 297,272.19 above the books.
Its program blocks count twelve payments made after the year closed, 268,975.06 on nine checks from 07/23/2024 to 10/10/2024. The largest is a 92,400.00 check to the Girl Scouts on 07/23/2024. The last is a 30,483.03 check to Discovery Institute on 10/10/2024. The FY2025 report's spending total equals the books for its own year to the cent. So the same twelve payments are counted twice, once in each report.
The FY2024 report also lists one Preferred Behavioral Health block twice, at 58,432.00 and 58,431.26, for the same three payments. Certified 297,272.19 more FY2024 spending than it paid.
The campaign check counted twice
The County hired Mercury Public Affairs LLC for a County-Wide Substance Use Awareness Campaign. The FY2024 report lists the recipient category as Marketing Firm. It certifies 60,000.00 expended in FY2024. The FY2025 report certifies another 60,000.00 in FY2025.
| Check | Date | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 571666 | 03/14/2024 | 20,000.00 |
| 573673 | 05/23/2024 | 20,000.00 |
| 575093 | 07/23/2024 | 20,000.00 |
| 577974 | 12/12/2024 | 20,000.00 |
| 579229 | 02/13/2025 | 20,000.00 |
| Paid in all | 100,000.00 | |
| Certified in FY2024 and FY2025 | 120,000.00 |
Only the first two checks fall in FY2024. The FY2024 figure reaches 60,000.00 only by counting check 575093, which the FY2025 report counts again. Two reports count the same 20,000.00 campaign check.
Awareness campaigns are a listed use when they are evidence-based or evidence-informed. Asked how the campaign meets that standard, the FY2024 report answers N/A. The only result it reports is that the campaign was developed. This project classes the 100,000.00 as unverified.
The FY2026 program pages
The FY2026 report covers 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. It certifies 1,758,068.56 spent and 77,058.67 of administrative expense. Its nineteen program blocks total 1,401,793.14. Eighteen of them tie to their own sub-accounts to the cent.
Blocks and administration describe 1,478,851.81. The other 279,216.75 is in no block. The books show five sub-accounts the report never mentions.
| Sub-account | Payee | Paid in FY2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 220-277, Service Coordination VNA | Visiting Nurse Association | 147,784.48 |
| 220-340, Direct to Resident Prevention Initiative | Verde Environmental | 69,952.15 |
| 220-335, Youth Postvention | Youth Postvention contract | 24,729.00 |
| 220-280, NJ Elks Youth Leadership Conference | New Jersey State Elks | 20,740.00 |
| 220-278, Well Connected | Well Connected Inc. | 19,818.00 |
| Total | 283,023.63 |
The Recovery Diversion Program block runs 7,613.76 above its own account. One 3,806.88 Hope Sheds Light invoice posted to the consulting account explains half of that. Net of it, the undescribed spending is 279,216.75. The report does not tell the State what that money bought. Certified 279,216.75 of spending no program describes.
The amount on hand
The FY2026 report certifies 3,522,079.87 unspent or uncommitted on hand. Its own figures say 5,443,781.86 was unspent at 06/30/2026 and 1,993,364.49 was uncommitted. The books say 5,741,054.05 and 2,290,636.68. The certified figure is none of these. On-hand figure fits none of the report's own numbers.
Salary moved onto the fund
On 06/02/2025 a budget journal charged 22,237.52 to the settlement payroll account for eight 2025 pay periods of one employee. The County's own payroll file shows the current fund had already paid 21,980.03 of those pay periods. The settlement account had already paid the other 257.50.
On 06/18/2026 a second journal charged 13,750.00 to the same account for twelve 2026 pay periods of another employee. The current fund salary account shows the matching credit under the same reference.
Both moves came in the last month of the State fiscal year. Both landed in the administrative figure the County certified for that year, which the reports describe as payroll. Neither report says the pay had already been paid from the County budget. Moved 35,987.52 of County-paid salary onto the fund.
The rest of the payroll on the fund, 103,405.79, is charged pay period by pay period. Part of it is a share of pay for employees the County already funded from its budget and State grants. No time record in the production ties that pay to opioid work. This project classes it as unverified.
Bagels as outreach supplies
The FY2026 report certifies 6,173.84 of Community Outreach Supplies. It lists naloxone kits, test strips, drug disposal packets, hygiene items, first aid and wound care kits. The outreach supplies account paid exactly 6,173.84 in the year. 665.00 of it went to Terrace Bagels on check 589940 of 04/23/2026. Food is not among the uses Exhibit E lists. Paid 665.00 to a bagel shop as outreach supplies.
The same account bought promotional printing, novelty goods, industrial supplies and supermarket goods. The ledger does not say what those were. This project classes them as unverified.
One service, three funding sources
The Visiting Nurse Association has billed the County monthly for Monmouth ACTS service coordination on one purchase order since 11/2023. A grant account paid the invoices through September 2025, 438,934.38. The settlement fund paid October 2025 through part of April 2026, exactly 150,000.00, until its account ran out. The County's current fund paid the rest of April and all of May and June 2026, 72,441.48.
The FY2026 report does not mention the service.
What the record does not show
- Any contract, invoice or resolution for the provider programs. The County produced payment records only.
- What Verde Environmental sold the County for 69,952.15. The invoice was not produced.
- What the EZ Ride payment of 50,000.00, described as a seventh deposit, paid for. The contract was not produced.
- The journal voucher behind the 06/02/2025 salary move. The County pointed to payroll rows instead.
- Whether any other County account holds settlement money. The County did not say.
What should happen
The County can restore the 35,987.52 of moved salary and the 665.00 of food to the settlement fund.
The State relies on these reports to see what the money bought. The Department of Human Services should ask the County why its FY2024 report counted payments made after the year closed, what the 279,216.75 left out of its FY2026 program pages paid for, and how it arrived at its amount on hand.
How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy.