Ridgefield Park
- 01Certified 4,375.00 of speakers the account never paidCertified against books conflict4,375.00
- 02Certified 2,500.00 spent in a year the account paid nothingCertified against books conflict2,500.00
- 03FY2024 report put 34,375.00 on hand, above all it receivedCertified against books conflict1,023.89
- 04FY2025 report put 17,019.14 less on hand than it heldCertified against books conflict17,019.14
What the reports say,
and what the books show.
Ridgefield Park has received $55,495.20 in opioid settlement funds and spent $15,700.00 of it. Its reports to the State certify $13,750.00 with no payee in the books.
The money, four ways.
Four figures describe the same settlement money. Each one comes from a different document.
Certified against the books,
every report year.
Every year this jurisdiction has filed, and the year it has not. The match on each row is computed from the rows, not judged.
filed
- Program name
- Ridgefield Park Drug Prevention & Education
- Recipient
- John Anlian, Mayor
- Amount expended
- $0.00
- Received to date
- $9,171.31
filed
- Program name
- Ridgefield Park Drug Prevention & Education
- Amount expended
- $2,500.00
- Unspent on hand
- $34,375.00
- Received to date
- $33,351.11
filed
- Program name
- Ridgefield Park Drug Prevention & Education
- Amount expended
- $4,375.00
- Unspent on hand
- $36,031.18
- Received to date
- $53,050.32
filed
- Program name
- Ridgefield Park Drug Prevention & Education
- Amount expended
- $15,700.00
- Unspent on hand
- $39,331.66
- Received to date
- $55,495.20
5 findings.
Every finding is verified to the documents in its own row. An inference is labelled as one.
Red with the marker: a certified figure the books contradict.
The FY2025 report certifies 4,375.00 expended between 7/1/2024 and 6/30/2025 and 0.00 encumbered (p1).
Its one program, Ridgefield Park Drug Prevention & Education, carries 4,375.00 with the note that the village spent 4,375.00 on speaking engagements to educate the Ridgefield Park Village Police on opioid usage. The program page was last updated 09/08/2025 (pp2 to 3). The Village's settlement account, 01-9000-24-1012 National Opioids, shows no payment and no order in that period. Its first order was encumbered 09/24/2025, after the program page was last updated. Its first payment, check 63867, cleared 09/29/2025. No payment of 4,375.00 appears on the account in any year. The Village's vendor history for its speaker, I'm Just a Kid with an IEP LLC, shows two payments ever, both on 09/29/2025 and both from this account. One of them, purchase order 63942 for 5,500.00, is described as invoice 1031 2/2/2025 speaking engagement. Nothing was paid or encumbered for it before the period closed, and its amount is not the certified figure. No other account paying settlement money appears in the produced records.
misreported-expenditure · 4 documents · 10/03/2026The FY2024 report certifies 2,500.00 expended between 7/1/2023 and 6/30/2024 and 0.00 encumbered (p1).
Its one program, Ridgefield Park Drug Prevention & Education, carries the note that the village spent 2,500.00 on a speaking engagement to educate the Ridgefield Park Village Police on opioid usage (p3). The Village's settlement account, 01-9000-24-1012 National Opioids, shows no payment and no order in that period. Its first order was encumbered 09/24/2025 and its first payment, check 63867, cleared 09/29/2025. No payment of 2,500.00 appears on the account in any year. The Village's vendor history for its speaker, I'm Just a Kid with an IEP LLC, shows no payment from any account before 09/29/2025. No other account paying settlement money appears in the produced records.
misreported-expenditure · 3 documents · 10/03/2026The FY2024 report certifies 34,375.00 of unspent and uncommitted settlement funds the Village has on hand (p1).
The same page certifies 33,351.11 received since the distribution began in 2022. That is the 9,171.31 the FY2023 report gives as received through 6/30/23, plus 23,879.80 received from 07/01/2023 to 06/30/2024 and 300.00 of interest. The certified figure on hand is 1,023.89 more than every dollar the report says the Village had received. The report also certifies 2,500.00 spent, so on its own figures no more than 30,851.11 could remain, 3,523.89 less than it certifies. The settlement account, 01-9000-24-1012 National Opioids, shows no payment before 09/29/2025.
self-contradiction · 3 documents · 10/04/2026The FY2025 report certifies 53,050.32 received since the distribution began in 2022, 4,375.00 spent from 07/01/2024 to 06/30/2025, 0.00 appropriated or encumbered and not yet spent, 0.00 of administrative expenses and 36,031.18 of unspent and uncommitted funds on hand (p1).
It reports no transfer to the county. Its program page was last updated 09/08/2025 (p3). The settlement account, 01-9000-24-1012 National Opioids, shows no payment and no order before 09/24/2025. With nothing paid, the 53,050.32 the report says the Village received was all unspent on 06/30/2025 and on 09/08/2025. The certified figure on hand is 17,019.14 less. Even counting the 2,500.00 and 4,375.00 the FY2024 and FY2025 reports certify as spent, the report's own figures leave 46,175.32, which is 10,144.14 more than it certifies.
unspent-misstated · 3 documents · 10/04/2026The FY2026 report certifies 55,495.20 received since the distribution began in 2022 and 15,700.00 spent from 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026 (p1).
It certifies 0.00 appropriated or encumbered and not yet spent and 39,331.66 of unspent and uncommitted funds the Village currently has on hand (p2). The settlement account, 01-9000-24-1012 National Opioids, has paid 15,700.00 in its life, by checks 63867 on 09/29/2025 and 63958 on 10/03/2025, and nothing posted from 10/04/2025 through 08/31/2026. The report's receipts less the account's payments leave 39,795.20, which is 463.54 more than the certified figure. The four reports certify 22,575.00 spent in all, which would leave 32,920.20, 6,411.46 less than the certified figure. The certified figure matches neither.
unspent-misstated · 3 documents · 10/04/2026Patterns this jurisdiction appears in: Phantom programs
The ledger, as printed.
Account 01-9000-24-1012, as printed from the jurisdiction's own accounting system. Classification follows the Exhibit E gates.
| Date | Check | PO | Payee and description | Amount | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09/29/2025 | 63867 | 63900 | I'M JUST A KID WITH AN IEP LLC · SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT 2.2.26 | 5,500.00 | Paid · Unverified |
| 09/29/2025 | 63867 | 63942 | I'M JUST A KID WITH AN IEP LLC · INV 1031 2/2/2025 SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT | 5,500.00 | Paid · Unverified |
| 10/03/2025 | 63958 | 63992 | MJPB CONSULTING LLC · INV 1159979 OPIOID PREVENTION & MENTAL | 4,700.00 | Paid · Conforming |
| Total paid | 15,700.00 | ||||
| Conforming abatement spending | 4,700.00 |
Vendors, and what paid them before.
What fund carried each payee before the opioid account, and how large the opioid slice is against the whole relationship. Bars share one scale.
Full width is $11,000.00, the largest payee total. Solid is the opioid account. Hatched is every other fund.
All documents are public records produced by the jurisdiction. Titles are the documents' own.
No dated event is published for this jurisdiction yet.
No correction received from this jurisdiction. If a figure on this page is wrong, send the record that shows it. The response is published here word for word.
Correct the recordCan opioid settlement money be spent on police cars or license plate readers?
No. Exhibit E of the national settlement lists the approved uses: treatment, recovery, prevention, harm reduction and related supports. Vehicles and surveillance hardware are not among the uses it lists, and state law bars using the funds to replace money a town would otherwise have spent.The approved uses
What did Ridgefield Park tell the State it spent the money on?
It certified 4 programs to the Department of Human Services. Each program, its recipient and its amount are reproduced above, beside the payments in the account.See the reports
How was this grade computed?
By code, from a published rubric: reporting integrity 50 percent, spending conformity 40 percent, transparency 10 percent, with hard caps for a certified program that has no payee in the books, for an uncertified transfer out, and for a records refusal.The rubric
Articles about this town
Ridgefield Park Village
Ridgefield Park certified 6,875.00 of speaker spending in FY2024 and FY2025 that its settlement account never paid, and none of its three balance figures follows from its own receipts and books.