City of Passaic

Summary

The City of Passaic, Passaic County, received 34 settlement wires totaling 1,177,722.86 from 09/30/2022 to 07/24/2026. The money must go to the uses Exhibit E of the national settlements lists, or to documented, evidence-based programs that address the opioid epidemic. It has to add to what a town already spends, not replace it.

The City budgeted 258,110.62 once, on 01/01/2023. Through 09/22/2026 its settlement account, G-02-40-023-OPS-020, shows 219,738.97 charged and 22,473.36 open. The charges fall into eight groups.

This project classifies the charges this way.

Of the 22,473.36 open at 09/22/2026, the 1,723.36 blinds order for the building and a 750.00 health record fee are non-conforming. The 20,000.00 prescriber contract is unverified.

Nearly all of the money serves the City's own clinic. Most of it paid costs the clinic's own accounts already carried, or paid for construction. The other question is whether the City told the State what it did. Read the City's findings.

Bills the clinic had already paid

The City's records response of 10/01/2026 says the Passaic Alliance is a City department, established by the City in 1998, and lists the accounts it uses. The main one is T-03-56-330-3SU-MAP, Public Health Substance Abuse Medical Assistance. The audit trail for those accounts shows them paying the clinic's physicians, rent and utilities from 2019 and its health record vendor from 2022.

Dr. Trivedi's vendor history covers every City fund from 01/01/2018. It lists 62 payments totaling 311,400.00, from 02/19/2020 to 02/04/2025, all from the clinic account, under annual contracts that include C2400034 at 62,400.00 for 2024. Zoobook's vendor history shows the clinic's accounts paying for its electronic health record from 09/06/2022, including 32,500.00 of implementation milestones.

Six budget journals, posted under user ID OJG, then moved 28 of those payment lines onto the settlement fund. Each journal charges the settlement account and credits the clinic account the same amount. The posting report shows both sides.

Every purchase order the journals name had been paid from the clinic account on or before the journal date. Both vendor histories list each one. The purchase orders and invoices bill dual diagnosis intensive outpatient sessions at 1,200.00 per four hour session and monthly health record fees. The earliest invoice moved covers sessions in December 2023. The services were real. They were already funded. The journals changed which account paid. Moved 77,103.14 of already paid clinic bills onto the fund.

State law requires settlement money to supplement local spending and not supplant it, N.J.S.A. 26:2G-39(f). The State Subdivision Agreement, Section D(7), adds that "no amount of such moneys shall be used to reimburse the State or any of its counties or municipalities for past expenditures, except as may otherwise be required to refund to the federal government a portion of the moneys."

The fee that stayed on the fund

The health record fee did not go back. From the February 2025 fee the settlement account paid Zoobook directly, 11,742.74 in 16 payments from 04/01/2025 to 09/15/2026, with a 17th open. The clinic account still paid the May 2025 and September 2025 fees and the 2026 annual email integration fee. Every direct payment is the monthly fee.

Zoobook's vendor history names the service. Its lines read "MONTHLY FEE FOR EHR" and "ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD FEES," and three lines bill EHR implementation milestones. Zoobook Systems sells electronic health record software for addiction and behavioral health providers. Exhibit E lists no electronic health record software. Its technology items are narrower. They are automated SBIRT and its technology costs, overdose and naloxone data tracking software, electronic prescribing, and infrastructure for coordination across systems. The State Subdivision Agreement, Section D(7), says settlement money "shall be used to supplement and shall not supplant federal, state, county or municipal funds, as the case may be, that otherwise would have been used for Approved Purposes." The clinic's own accounts carried this fee from 2022. Clinic health record fee moved to the fund.

The prescriber is a closer call. The clinic account paid Dr. Trivedi through his December 2024 services. The settlement account has paid a prescriber under Resolution 25-12-299 since 07/15/2025, 6,975.00 through 07/22/2026. The prescriber's vendor history shows no payment from any other City account. The FY2024 report, whose only charges were journals moving Dr. Trivedi and Zoobook bills, says the funds paid the unreimbursed expense of the City's suboxone prescriber. The records do not show whether the new prescriber replaces that service or adds to it. This project classifies the prescriber payments as unverified.

What the FY2024 report left out

The FY2024 report covers 07/01/2023 to 06/30/2024. The settlement account took two journals in that year, both on 06/18/2024.

No combination of the 28 journal lines adds to 6,498.16.

The report still balances. It certifies 598,320.40 unspent on hand. That is the real balance, the 627,684.48 received by 06/17/2024 less the 29,364.08 charged. To reach it with 6,498.16 spent, the report lists 395,229.50 received in the year. The Revenue Detail Inquiry shows 418,095.42 of wires in the year. The receipts line is short by the same 22,865.92. Reported 6,498.16 spent when the books show 29,364.08.

The report answers No when asked whether the City funded any programs that year.

What the FY2025 report counted

The FY2025 report certifies 149,768.18 expended between 07/01/2024 and 06/30/2025. That figure matches the books to the cent.

The report puts all of it under one program, Passaic Alliance. The FY2023 report listed that program as Treatment with a launch date of 01/01/2006. It said the City had "pre-existing treatment and prevention operations" that may benefit from the funds more than new programs. The City now says it established the Alliance in 1998.

The report names the building work. It says the treatment program will be relocated to a City-owned location and that "Funds were used to modify the structure to comply with NJ State guidelines for treatment centers." This project classifies all 149,768.18 as non-conforming. The 47,739.06 of journals and the 1,977.12 of health record fees paid costs the clinic's own accounts carried. The 100,052.00 paid for construction, which is not among the uses Exhibit E lists, on a building no record shows licensed or treating patients.

The FY2025 report also says funds defrayed the unreimbursed cost of a prescriber of medication for opioid use disorder. The first payment the ledger labels prescriber services is dated 07/15/2025, after the year closed. The year's journals did move Dr. Trivedi physician services onto the fund. The records do not show whether he prescribed medication for opioid use disorder. Certified construction and moved clinic bills as treatment.

The same report certifies 27,083.73 appropriated or encumbered but not yet spent at 06/30/2025. On that date one purchase order was open, 1,095.73 for fingerprinting and prescriber services. The other 25,988.00 equals the unused part of a 126,040.00 construction change order. The books released it back to the account on 01/01/2025. Purchase order 25-01477 shows the same 25,988.00 left available on the contract. The same day the City encumbered 25,988.00 for the builder on its CDBG accounts, and it paid the builder from those accounts on 11/06/2025, as TNS's vendor history shows. Counted a released 25,988.00 as still committed.

The building at 69 Jefferson Street

Resolution 24-06-151, adopted 06/06/2024, awarded TNS Construction 1,269,000.00 for a new one-story building at 69 Jefferson Street. Its funds are certified from a CDBG-COVID account. HUD awarded the City 1,151,196.00 of CDBG-CV Round 3 CARES Act money in February 2021, as the award letter shows.

Resolution 24-11-285, adopted 11/07/2024, added a 126,040.00 change order for HVAC, plumbing, electrical and architectural work and charged it to the settlement account. It says the change was needed "to allow the Passaic Alliance to operate the program from this building."

The CDBG-CV account is titled CDBG-CV3 69 Jefferson Rehab. It paid for roof sampling, demolition and asbestos removal at the site and 593,887.09 of the TNS contract. TNS's vendor history shows the whole contract paid, change order included.

Together the CDBG accounts paid 1,294,988.00 of the contract. The settlement account paid the rest. The CDBG 2022 and 2023 accounts paid the other 214,986.00 of payment application 9. The CDBG accounts also paid the last 25,988.00 of the change order. No payment application was paid twice.

The architect, Coppa Montalbano, wrote on 03/06/2025 of plan changes on 7/16/24 "to an outpatient facility" and proposed services for Department of Health and Department of Community Affairs applications. Its letter and invoices and the ledger show the settlement account paid Coppa 15,350.00. Of that, 3,000.00 fell under the design contract after the CDBG-CV soft cost account had paid the full 101,800.00 certified from it, as the contract file and Coppa's vendor history show. One invoice was split between the two accounts on one check.

On 07/28/2026 the settlement account opened a 1,723.36 order for blinds for the building. The clinic account's last rent payment for 284 Passaic Street covers May 2026. The records do not show whether the clinic has moved. No record shows the building licensed or treating patients. Construction and real estate are not among the uses Exhibit E lists. This project classifies the 115,402.00 and the open blinds order as non-conforming. Paid 115,402.00 toward a new clinic building.

Money not yet budgeted

The City has received 1,177,722.86 and appropriated 258,110.62. The other 919,612.24 has not been appropriated. At 09/22/2026 only 15,898.29 of the appropriation was left. Most of the money has not been appropriated.

On 12/02/2025 the City awarded a 2026 prescriber contract for its Substance Abuse Treatment Program at 150.00 an hour, not to exceed 48,000.00. The account carries 20,000.00 of that contract as open. The 4,500.00 of 2026 prescriber payments through 07/22/2026 were made on separate orders.

FY2026

The State published the FY2026 reports on 10/01/2026. The City's report covers 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. It certifies 31,027.06 spent and 21,200.00 encumbered, all under an update to the Passaic Alliance program. The update says the treatment program will move to a City-owned building, and that the money paid to modify the building, to defray a prescriber of medication for opioid use disorder and to link the clinic's electronic health record to overdose alert and prescription monitoring systems. It calls the Alliance an existing treatment program that has served opioid-involved individuals for over a decade.

The account detail through 09/22/2026 shows nothing charged between 06/17/2026 and 06/30/2026. The year's payments make the spent figure to the cent.

The encumbered figure equals the two prescriber orders open at 06/30/2026, 20,000.00 under the 2026 contract and 1,200.00 for May 2026, which was paid on 07/22/2026.

The receipts and balance lines tie as well. The revenue detail through 09/22/2026 shows a 9,637.44 Janssen payment dated 06/16/2026. With it the year's receipts are 165,988.50, as certified. The certified unspent balance, 807,202.48, is the books' balance at 06/30/2026. The cumulative receipts line, 1,015,695.88, is 22,865.92 below the books. That is the same 22,865.92 the FY2024 report cut from its receipts line.

The report names these purchases and certifies all of them under the treatment program. This project classifies 23,615.60 of the 31,027.06 as non-conforming, the 15,350.00 of architect fees for the building and the 8,265.60 of health record fees. The other 7,411.46, for the prescriber, the background check and the medical testing, is unverified. The health record payments are the monthly fee the clinic's accounts used to pay, covered in Clinic health record fee moved to the fund. The building payments are covered in Paid 115,402.00 toward a new clinic building.

After the FY2026 year

From 07/01/2026 to 09/22/2026 the account charged 9,579.65. That is FY2027 spending, and no report covers it yet. This project classifies 8,199.65 of it as non-conforming, the health record fees, the utility bill and the event. The prescriber payment and the refreshments, 1,380.00, are unverified.

The clinic's own accounts made 85 P.S.E.&G payments from 01/08/2019 to 07/22/2026, the last for its May 2026 bill. The settlement account then paid the past due bill. Clinic's past due utility bill paid from the fund.

The Recovery Month payments bought food, entertainment and an art vendor. No record describes a program the event delivered. Paid 4,775.00 for a Recovery Month event.

Two orders entered after 07/01/2026 were open at 09/22/2026, 1,723.36 for blinds for 69 Jefferson Street and a 750.00 health record fee. Both fall in FY2027.

What should happen

The 77,103.14 paid bills the clinic account had already funded. The 11,742.74 of health record fees and the 1,924.63 utility bill paid costs the clinic's accounts carried. The 115,402.00 paid for construction no listed use covers, and the 4,775.00 paid for an event with no documented program. The City can restore those amounts to the settlement fund and spend them on uses that add to what it already does. The open blinds order can be cancelled against the settlement account.

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, who prepared them, and what records support them.

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