Toms River Township

Summary

Toms River Township, Ocean County, reports 983,964.66 in opioid settlement money received through 06/30/2025 (FY2025 report). The money may be spent only on the opioid abatement uses listed in the national settlements.

The Township spent nothing until May 2025. Its FY2023 and FY2024 reports certify 0.00 expended, and its ledger has no posting before 05/14/2025.

The FY2025 report then certifies three programs. All three name the Toms River Police Department as the recipient. Together they certify 18,154.04 expended and 10,499.30 encumbered. The Township's Budget Transaction Audit Trail for its National Opioid Settlement Funds account matches both figures to the cent (ledger). The purchases behind them are giveaway merchandise, a police legal updates subscription, defibrillator supplies and payroll (finding).

None of those purchases is the program the report describes, and no abatement program using the merchandise, the subscription or the defibrillator supplies is documented. This project grades the Township F. The account has paid 25,267.32 since 07/01/2025. The FY2026 report certifies 14,768.02 of it and leaves out the 10,499.30 paid for the defibrillator order.

What the Township told the State

Sources: FY2023 report, FY2024 report, FY2025 report. The State published the FY2026 report on 10/01/2026.

The FY2025 figures tie. 983,964.66 received, less 18,154.04 expended and 10,499.30 encumbered, leaves 955,311.32. That is the unspent figure the report certifies.

In all four reports the Township answered that it had no strategic plan, had not engaged the public and had completed no risk assessment. The FY2025 report says "A plan for the expenditures is in progress."

The educational campaign

The FY2025 report certifies a program named Toms River Police Department's Educational Campaign. Its category is Primary Prevention, Education, and Training. It was funded 02/28/2025 at 11,826.79 and expended at 11,826.79. The report says the department "provided handouts at the schools in our jurisdiction as well as community events spreading the department's anti-drug campaign." It projects 1,000 participants a year.

The ledger holds one purchase that matches. Purchase order 25-01198 to Calico Promotional Products was encumbered 02/28/2025, the certified funding date, and paid 05/28/2025.

The eighteen lines equal the certified program to the cent. The program the Township certified as prevention education is this order of promotional merchandise. The certification is false (finding).

The police training program

The FY2025 report certifies a program named Operational Readiness for Police Officers. Its category is also Primary Prevention, Education, and Training. It was funded 06/24/2025 at 15,499.30, with 5,000.00 expended and 10,499.30 encumbered. The report describes a four module course on opioid use disorder for officers. It says "The officers trained by this program were registered through Zschool at Seton Hall University, Stillman School of Business."

The two certified figures are two other purchases.

The 5,000.00 certified as spent is the legal updates subscription. It was paid 05/28/2025, four weeks before the date the report gives for funding the program. The 10,499.30 certified as encumbered is the defibrillator order. The two sum to the certified 15,499.30 to the cent (finding).

The ZSchool course the report describes is a separate purchase. Purchase order 25-04532 paid ZSchool LLC 4,500.00 on 09/24/2025 for a "CERTIFICATE PROGRAM." It was encumbered 09/05/2025, after the reporting year closed. It is in neither certified figure. The course itself fits Exhibit E, which lists training law enforcement on addressing opioid use disorder (ZSchool vendor page). The report described it and certified other purchases in its place.

The take back day

The FY2025 report certifies a program named 2025 National DEA Takeback Program. Its category is Harm Reduction and Overdose Prevention. It was funded and expended at 1,327.35. The report names two officers as recipients. It says the money was "paid directly to the officers who staffed the Takeback Day on May 25, 2025."

The ledger carries one matching posting. Township payroll of 1,327.25 posted 05/14/2025 for the 05/15/2025 pay date, purchase order 25-02591. The posting is dated eleven days before the take back day the report gives.

The report contradicts itself. The program row says 1,327.35. Its expended total of 18,154.04 holds only if the program is 1,327.25, the ledger figure (finding).

How the certified figures match the account

Those are the only charges on the account through 06/30/2025. Every dollar the Township has certified as abatement spending, 28,653.34 in all, went to its Police Department.

What the account paid after 06/30/2025

The account paid five more items between 07/01/2025 and the 06/16/2026 print (finding).

A further 3,718.75 is open to Black Dog Apparel on purchase order 26-02012. The lines are long sleeve polos at 1,639.25, short sleeve polos at 1,599.50 and TRPD cadet hats at 480.00.

The FY2026 report certifies these five payments to the cent. Its encumbered figure of 3,718.75 equals the open apparel order. See FY2026 below.

FY2026

The FY2026 report certifies 14,768.02 spent. Its program figures match five payments to the cent.

The Police EMS program describes resources and equipment for EMS response. The purchase is defibrillator electrodes, and the report files them as overdose harm reduction. Defibrillator electrodes treat cardiac arrest. No listed use covers them, and no overdose program using this equipment is documented (finding).

The account paid 25,267.32 between 07/01/2025 and the 06/16/2026 print. The difference is the Bound Tree Medical LIFEPAK order, 10,499.30, paid 07/30/2025. The FY2025 report certified it as encumbered. The FY2026 report does not count it as spent, so no report certifies it as spent in any year. The FY2026 report gives 07/30/2025, the Bound Tree payment date, as the funding date of its Police EMS program (finding).

The account

1,140,683.23 less 47,140.11 of charges plus 52,613.05 of interest is 1,146,156.17. The account earned more in interest than it has spent.

The Township redacted the account number and every check number on the audit trail it produced.

What the law allows

The certifications come first. The report calls the merchandise an educational campaign and the subscription and defibrillator supplies a training program. The records show neither program.

Exhibit E Schedule B of the national settlement lists the uses the money may fund. They cover treatment, recovery support, connection to care, prevention and harm reduction. Promotional merchandise, a law enforcement legal subscription and defibrillator supplies are not among the uses Exhibit E lists, and no evidence based program using any of them is documented. N.J.S.A. 26:2G-39(e) requires evidence based or evidence informed uses. N.J.S.A. 26:2G-39(f) requires the money to supplement local spending and not supplant it. The account has paid 4,695.27 of Township payroll.

What should happen

The Township can restore the 38,921.36 it has paid outside the ZSchool course and use the money for a listed purpose. It should cancel the open apparel order before it is paid.

The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller should examine the FY2025 and FY2026 reports and the records behind each certified program. The account paid 25,267.32 in the year ended 06/30/2026. That is the 10,499.30 Bound Tree order and the 14,768.02 above. Apart from the 4,500.00 ZSchool course, none of it went to a documented abatement program.

The account's full ledger and all four reports are on the Toms River Township page. How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy.