Waldwick Borough

Summary

Waldwick Borough, Bergen County, reported receiving 81,804.78 in opioid settlement money through 06/30/2025. 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 Borough produced two settlement accounts. Account 3-01-41-700-775, National Opioid Reserve, opened on 04/11/2023 with an 8,667.00 budget. It paid 3,480.49 on 10/24/2023 and nothing since, through 05/28/2026. Account 5-01-41-700-775, also National Opioid Reserve, was budgeted at 44,471.00 on 04/29/2025. It paid 6,534.28 between 09/30/2025 and 03/10/2026 and held 37,936.72 on 09/01/2026, with nothing encumbered.

Of the 10,014.77 paid from both accounts, this project classifies 9,064.77 as non-conforming, 950.00 as unverified and nothing as conforming. Read the Borough's findings.

What the Borough told the State

FY2023. The report certifies nothing spent as of 06/30/2023. It lists one planned program, Warriors Night out, "an event, with food, music, games and stations with first responders." It expects funding of around 5,000.00 and a launch on 10/20/2023. The books agree that nothing was spent by 06/30/2023.

FY2024. The report certifies nothing spent and answers No when asked whether any program was funded. It says the Borough plans "to utilize funds for our annual Warrior Night Out event again in the fall of 2024." The books show the event was paid for inside this year.

FY2025. The report certifies 3,434.28 spent and one new program, Special Law Enforcement Officers in the Schools, funded at 150,000.00. The account was budgeted at 44,471.00 on the same day the report gives as the program's funding date, 04/29/2025.

FY2026. The State published its FY2026 reports on 10/01/2026. The Borough's page reads No Report Received. The year covers 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026, and every payment from account 5-01-41-700-775 falls in it.

The event the FY2024 report left out

All four payments fall in the FY2024 period, 07/01/2023 to 06/30/2024. The FY2024 report certifies 0.00. Certified 0.00 spent in a year it paid 3,480.49.

The FY2023 report files the event under Prevention and Education and says it would have an opioid booth to educate the public. No record produced shows what the booth presented. The payments are for rentals, pizza and food. No pamphlet, printing or presenter appears on the account. Event food and entertainment rentals are not among the uses Exhibit E lists, and no listed use covers them. Listed pizza and event rentals as opioid prevention.

The same FY2024 report lists 54,324.18 received since 2022, no interest and nothing spent. It then certifies 63,413.66 unspent on hand. That is 9,089.48 more than the Borough says it ever received. Reported 9,089.48 more on hand than it ever received.

Spent before it was ordered

The FY2025 report covers 07/01/2024 to 06/30/2025. It certifies 3,434.28 spent, all of it on the officer program. Neither settlement account records a payment or an order in that period. Account 5-01-41-700-775 shows only budget entries until 09/30/2025.

The three lines equal the certified figure to the cent. The Borough placed all three orders after the period closed. The report gives the program's launch date as 09/03/2025. Certified 3,434.28 spent in a year with no payments.

The report files the program under Primary Prevention, Education, and Training. Its Schedule B strategies are Prevent Misuse of Opioids, Prevent Overdose Deaths and Other Harms, First Responders, and Leadership, Planning and Coordination. What it spent was police body armor and a radio battery. Police equipment is not among the uses Exhibit E lists, and no overdose program using it is documented. Certified police body armor as opioid prevention.

The report describes the officers' role. "We are utilizing the officers in the schools for security, but also to act as outreach." It states the plan for the money. "The plan is to utilize the opioid settlements funds to help offset the cost for the officers." Asked how the program addresses opioid use disorder through evidence-based practices, it answers "Unknown at this time." Asked about procurement, it says the Borough bought "the equipment used to outfit the new officers" and "will use funds to offset salaries as needed." The key performance indicators for people served, opioid incidents and training sessions are blank.

The same report funds the program at 150,000.00 on 04/29/2025. It certifies 81,804.78 received since 2022, nothing appropriated or encumbered, and 78,370.50 unspent and uncommitted. The books show the settlement account budgeted at 44,471.00 that day. Funded a 150,000.00 program with 81,804.78 received.

The 78,370.50 on hand is 81,804.78 less the 3,434.28 the report counts as spent. The books show nothing spent in FY2025 and 3,480.49 spent in 2023. On the Borough's own receipts figure that leaves 78,324.29, not 78,370.50. Balance on hand leaves out the 3,480.49 spent in 2023.

What the account paid for in FY2026

The psychological evaluations and the medical exam, 2,150.00, are hiring screens for police recruits. They were charged to the program the FY2025 report files as opioid prevention. No listed use covers them. Paid officer psych evals and exams as an opioid program. Body armor and a radio battery are police equipment, and no overdose program using them is documented. The resource officer training is unverified, because no record produced shows what the course taught.

Of the 6,534.28, the FY2025 report had already certified 3,434.28 as spent. The other 3,100.00 appears in no report.

Body armor from three sources

The Borough's vendor report for Somes Uniforms runs from 01/01/2018 to 08/31/2026. It shows the Borough buying body armor three times in six months, each time on a different account.

The Borough has a body armor grant account and a police new recruits line. It charged the settlement fund for the same item from the same vendor five weeks after the grant purchase. The supplement-not-supplant question this raises is our analysis. The records do not show why the settlement account was used for the August order, and no earlier purchase at the same cost appears on another account.

Where the officers' pay comes from

Neither settlement account shows a salary charge in any print produced. A handwritten note on the 2025 police salaries and wages report says the line includes the officers from 09/30 to 12/31. In 2026 the Borough created a shared service line for the officers, 6-01-42-110-011, at 63,000.00. It took the 63,000.00 out of the police salaries and wages appropriation on 04/28/2026. The officers' charges used the full 63,000.00 by 05/29/2026, and the rest of the year was charged back to the police line.

The FY2025 report states the intent to use settlement money to offset the officers' cost. Through 09/01/2026 the settlement account shows no such charge.

What should happen

The Borough can restore the 9,064.77 this project classifies as non-conforming to the fund and spend it on a listed use or a documented abatement program. It can produce a record of what the resource officer course taught.

The State relies on these reports to verify compliance. The Department of Human Services should examine the FY2024 and FY2025 reports and what records support them. It should also ask the Borough to account for its FY2026 spending, which is every payment from account 5-01-41-700-775.

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