Perth Amboy

Summary

The City of Perth Amboy, Middlesex County, reported 587,961.61 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 City holds it in a trust fund with two accounts, G-02-40-698-011 and G-02-40-698-296.

The City's FY2023 report to the Department of Human Services certifies 43,890.00 expended as of 06/30/2023, all on a program named Anti-Drug Prevention. The ledger shows no payment from the fund in that year. The 43,890.00 is the price of a sign with an electronic message center. The City paid it on 05/22/2025. The FY2023 figure was false.

When the payment did happen, the City's FY2025 report left it off. That report's spending figure equals the year's payments less the sign check, to the cent. See the finding.

The rest of the spending is overtime reimbursement, recreation payroll, training, events and giveaways. This project grades Perth Amboy F.

What the City reported and what it paid

The table uses the four reports to the State and the fund's ledger.

The FY2023 report describes Anti-Drug Prevention as a Media Campaign, funded 1/1/2023 at 43,890.00. The FY2024 report certifies 0.00 expended. Its narrative says the City "has allocated funds in 2024" for a campaign that uses "outdoor signage prominently displayed in front of the City's Public Safety Complex." That is the same sign the FY2023 report had already called spent.

The sign

Resolution R-254-5/23, dated 05/24/2023, awards KC Sign and Awnings a contract not to exceed 43,890.00. Its title describes a sign with an electronic message center "TO BE PLACED AT THE POLICE STATION/COURT HOUSE" and purchased "UTILIZING THE OPIOID SETTLEMENT FUNDS." Its funds certification names account G-02-40-698-296.

The payment records show when the money moved.

• Contract C2300091 was encumbered 06/05/2023. The quotation required a 50 percent deposit.
• KC Sign invoice 92560, dated 02/28/2025, prints payments and credits of 0.00 and a balance due of 43,890.00.
• Requisition R2502317, dated 05/15/2025, prints paid purchase orders of 0.00 and 43,890.00 available on the contract.
• Check 111324 paid 43,890.00 on 05/22/2025 under purchase order 25-02539. See the purchase order packet.

The City's vendor history for KC Sign, all funds from 01/01/2018 to 09/02/2026, shows that check as the only payment the City ever made to the vendor.

The sign also needed power. M.P. Electrical Contractors was paid 32,985.00 by check 110981 on 05/05/2025. Contract C2400098 and its bonds describe the work as installation of an electrical sign in the front of the Public Safety Complex. The certified payrolls name the project Police Dept. Sign Maint. at 365 New Brunswick Avenue. The work included a new steel pole, a concrete footer and a 100 amp service. See the electrical purchase order packet.

Neither contract sets what the sign displays. No media campaign or prevention program using it is documented. A permanent sign at a municipal building is not among the uses Exhibit E lists. See the finding.

The council's award in the record covers the 43,890.00 sign alone. The 32,985.00 electrical job ran under an on call electrical arrangement from quotes taken 11/17/2022. The quotation form recites a bid threshold of 44,000.00. The job came in 1,015.00 under it. The ledger prints the award as Res No DPW-003. Asked for a resolution by that name, the City produced the contract file and no resolution. Reading the electrical award as one the council never voted on is an inference from the record.

The M.P. Electrical vendor history totals 99,780.00 from 2018 to 2026. The City paid this vendor from its electrical line, building maintenance, capital accounts and a storm recovery trust. The sign job is the only charge to the settlement fund. That reads as substitution, an inference from the history.

The FY2025 report

Four payments left the fund between 07/01/2024 and 06/30/2025, per the ledger.

The FY2025 report certifies 35,008.41 expended. The electrical check, the D.A.R.E. check and the payroll line together come to 35,008.41. The report is the year's spending less the KC Sign check, to the cent.

Its update to Anti-Drug Prevention reports 32,985.00 "for the electrical contact required to install signage." It says nothing of the 43,890.00 paid for the sign itself. The 43,890.00 was reported spent in FY2023, when it had not been paid. It was left off FY2025, when it was paid.

The rest of the FY2025 report describes its programs this way.

• The 983.16 is reported as the Opioid and Drug Prevention Education Program of the Perth Amboy Municipal Alliance. The only payment that equals it is D.A.R.E. graduation supplies. The thirteen lines are a D.A.R.E. banner and flag, red and white balloons, drawstring bags and shipping. See the finding.
• The 1,040.25 is reported as administrative work of an "Opioid Outreach Worker." It equals the 06/30/2025 payroll line to the cent. The payroll report sheets behind that charge list two employees. Every day's work reads Recreation Aide. From 06/30/2025 to 08/31/2026 the fund carried 57,281.77 of this payroll. The sheets describe no opioid duty. See the finding.
• The report certifies Operational Readiness for Police Officers, recipient the Perth Amboy Police Department, at 22,500.00 encumbered. The ledger shows ZSchool, LLC purchase order 25-02699 in two lines, Certificate Program FD 11,250.00 and Certificate Program PD 11,250.00. Half the police program is a Fire Department program. The report does not name the Fire Department. A second ZSchool order, 25-05289, was open at 26,550.00 on the 07/09/2026 status report. The course fits Exhibit E, which lists training law enforcement on addressing opioid use disorder. The finding is the label. See the finding, the ZSchool vendor history and the ZSchool vendor page.

Overtime already paid

The police and fire training overtime was paid first from each department's own overtime account. The City then moved settlement money to refill those accounts.

The fire entry came from the department. On 12/02/2025 the Fire Chief asked for approval of "the transfer of funds to reimburse our overtime account." On 12/21/2025 the Superintendent of Recreation wrote to the Chief Financial Officer that the Fire Department overtime "should be reimbursed to their OT account" from the settlement account, a total of 10,937.46. The journal packet and the fire payroll registers tie each pay date to the cent. See the finding.

The police entry followed. The Senior Payroll Clerk's email of 04/13/2026 lists the amounts, 14,885.80 for 2025 and 5,334.13 for 2026. She sent them "before requesting the credit to the PD OT accounts." The police grant overtime sheets code the hours to Seton Hall first responder training. The email adds that the grant account will be used "for any Opioid OT" going forward. From 01/15/2026 to 08/31/2026 a further 11,827.74 of police and fire overtime was charged to the fund directly. See the journal packet, the police payroll registers and the finding.

The officers and firefighters were paid overtime for the training. The settlement agreement, at MOA Section D(7), requires the money to supplement local spending and not supplant it, and it bars using the money to reimburse past expenditures. N.J.S.A. 26:2G-39(f) says the same about supplanting. These entries paid back overtime the City had already paid from its own budget. Other substitution findings are listed under funding source substitution.

Events, retreats and giveaways

From 06/05/2025 to 08/27/2026 the fund paid 45,412.04 for these.

The ShopRite receipts cover a Cub Scouts program, a haunted house, a culinary class, a D.A.R.E. field day, workshops, a retreat and tabling. The Patriots' Path vendor history shows the City never paid that vendor from any other fund. No record describes a substance use curriculum or prevention program behind any of these payments. None is among the uses Exhibit E lists. See the finding.

The 4imprint vendor history totals 32,127.37 since 2018. The City buys this vendor's merchandise from its Public Events line and still did in 2026. Three orders went to the settlement fund instead. That reads as substitution, an inference from the history.

FY2026

The State published the City's FY2026 report on 10/01/2026. It certifies 114,444.36 received, 122,873.94 spent, 26,550.00 encumbered and 47,981.77 of administrative expenses between 07/01/2025 and 06/30/2026. The spending figure is its three program updates plus the administrative expenses.

The 26,550.00 encumbered equals ZSchool purchase order 25-05289, still open.

The report describes Operational Readiness for Police Officers as the Seton Hall four hour online certificate course for law enforcement, with 100 participants. The books hold 38,281.14 of training charges for the year. They equal the certified figure to the cent.

The Fire Department's share is 26,482.08, or 69.2 percent. Overtime wages are 15,781.14, or 41.2 percent. The report names neither. See the finding.

The police overtime for the same course sits outside the report. Account G-02-40-698-011, a salaries line of the settlement grant added 01/01/2026 with no budget, was charged 20,568.53 in the year, the 20,219.93 police overtime credit of 04/24/2026 and 348.60 charged on 05/29/2026. No figure in the report includes it. The certified unspent figure of 470,833.63 is built from the other account alone and deducts none of it. The two accounts were charged 142,674.02 in the year, 19,800.08 more than the report certifies. See the finding.

From 07/01/2026 to 09/02/2026 the ledger shows a further 40,795.33 paid. See the ledger update printed 09/02/2026 and the grant status report of 07/09/2026.

What should happen

The City paid 76,875.00 for a sign at its police station and 45,412.04 for events and giveaways. It moved 31,157.39 to refill overtime accounts. The City can restore those amounts to the fund and spend them on a listed use.

The State relies on these reports to verify compliance. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller should examine the FY2023, FY2025 and FY2026 reports and the records behind them.

The FY2026 report counts fire overtime inside a police course and leaves the police overtime for the same course out of every figure.

All of Perth Amboy's records are on the Perth Amboy page. How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy.