This is Part 6 of an ongoing series investigating Wayne County’s publicly funded addiction treatment system.

• Part 1: “Wayne County Has Four Licensed Addiction Providers. It Pays Two”
• Part 2: “PATH Operated at a Loss for Three Straight Years While a Board Member Collected $122,000 as Its Highest-Paid Contractor”
• Part 3: “Zerechak’s Office Cut PATH’s Payments”
• Part 4: “The Treatment Center the County Built Its Pipeline Around Was Sold to a South Florida Investment Firm”
• Part 5: “Little Creek Foundation Spent $96,000 on a Building Its Founders Personally Owned”

The Wayne County Heroin Prevention Task Force Inc. filed one federal tax return in its entire existence. Here is the breakdown:

The Filing

The sole 990-EZ covers calendar year 2018. It was filed electronically on July 11, 2019 by Alfred D. Beck, CPA, from his office at Beck Gogolski Poska & Co., 914 Church Street, Honesdale. The organization’s mailing address is 252 Grandview Avenue, Honesdale. The books and gaming records are both listed in the care of “Suzie Frisch” at the same address. The organization’s official address, its financial books, and its gaming records were all at one location, all under Frisch‘s name.

The return lists no website. The field reads “N/A.” The task force operated at least two: waynecountyheroinpreventiontaskforce.com and windykilt5k.com.

IRS Part IV asks for the names of officers, directors, trustees, and key employees. Beck gave the IRS nicknames for all three.

President: “Suzie Frisch.” Legal name: Suzanne Calkin Frisch.

Vice president: “Drew Rusick.” Legal name: Andrew Stephen Rusich. Two errors in one name. His title is also truncated — the filing reads “VICE PRESIDE.”

Treasurer: “Fran Martin.” Legal name: Frances Martin.

Those are the only three officers listed. In a July 2018 interview with WITF, Frisch said the task force had seven board members. IRS Part IV requires all officers, directors, trustees, and key employees. If there were seven, Beck listed three. Four are unaccounted for in the only federal filing this organization ever produced.

A CPA preparing a federal tax return knows the difference between a legal name and a nickname. A donor running a background check, a grant reviewer screening officers, a reporter pulling court records — none of them find anything under “Drew Rusick.” A search for “Suzie Frisch” misses her legal name. A search for “Fran Martin” in Wayne County yields nothing outside this filing.

The President

Suzanne Calkin Frisch served as the task force’s president and public face.

Frisch owns Visible Changes, a hair salon at 557 Main Street in Honesdale. The phone number listed for the task force’s business officer on the 990-EZ — (570) 253-7757 — is the salon’s listed number. She told Wayne Pike News in March 2019 that the D&A Commission partnership was in its “4th year in a row” and that the commission’s $3,000 went toward “the purchase of 40 more kits” of Narcan and workshops teaching participants how to administer it. She also told the paper the task force received separate funding “through the Commissioners.”

The Vice President

“Drew Rusick” is Andrew Stephen Rusich, date of birth December 1, 1989. While serving as vice president, Rusich worked as a substance abuse counselor at Little Creek Lodge in Salem Township.

A search for his legal name returns three criminal cases in the Wayne County Court of Common Pleas.

In 2009, Rusich pleaded guilty to Use/Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (CP-64-CR-0000281-2009) before Magisterial District Judge Joan L. Snyder.

In 2011, he was arrested by PSP Honesdale and charged with Manufacture, Delivery, or Possession with Intent to Manufacture or Deliver under 35 Pa.C.S. § 780-113(a)(30). A felony. He pleaded guilty before Senior Judge Raymond L. Hamill on February 9, 2012 and was sentenced to 96 days to 23 months 15 days (CP-64-CR-0000153-2011).

In 2012, he was charged with Receiving Stolen Property, a first-degree misdemeanor. The Commonwealth’s attorney on the case was Janine Edwards, then Wayne County District Attorney, now President Judge. Rusich pleaded guilty before Judge Hamill and received 4 months to 23 months 15 days (CP-64-CR-0000064-2012).

All three cases are open. Total outstanding balance: $3,483.94. On January 18, 2024, delinquency notices were filed on all three dockets. They were 3,304 days overdue. On September 3, 2024, the court determined Rusich is financially able to pay. He still hasn’t.

Rusich served as vice president of a drug prevention task force while carrying a felony drug conviction. The name Beck put on the federal tax return doesn’t match the name on any of those dockets.

Rusich now holds Pennsylvania counselor license APC001769. State regulations bar felony drug convictions from licensure unless ten years have passed. His felony was entered February 9, 2012. His delinquent court costs on that case remain unpaid.

As of publication, Rusich is still listed on Little Creek’s website as a member of its team. His bio page describes him as “currently the Vice President of the Wayne County Heroin Prevention Taskforce” — an organization whose tax exemption has been revoked, whose charitable registration has lapsed, and whose last identified activity was in 2019.

The Treasurer

The 990-EZ lists the treasurer as “Fran Martin.”

The Martin name runs through Wayne County’s legal establishment. John J. Martin, Esq. runs a family law practice at 1022 Court Street. President Judge Janine Edwards began her legal career in late 1997 practicing with Martin at that same office. Whether the task force’s treasurer, Frances Martin, belongs to this family has not been confirmed. Pocono Review has found no biographical or professional records for a Frances Martin in Wayne County apart from this single 990-EZ filing, where she appears by nickname only.

The Preparer

Beck prepared the task force’s 990-EZ from 914 Church Street. He also prepares the Little Creek Foundation’s 990-PFs from the same address. He joined the foundation’s board as treasurer in 2021 and the foundation’s registered address is now his office.

The Little Creek Foundation was created by Andrew and Barbara Warren Pace, the founders of Little Creek Lodge — the same facility where vice president Rusich worked as a substance abuse counselor. The foundation named the task force as a grant recipient three times in its own 990-PF filings: $200 in 2015, $1,000 in 2017, and $1,000 in 2019. The foundation’s filings also list grants to unnamed recipients in multiple years. Whether any of those went to the task force is unknown. The 2017 and 2019 grants were made while Rusich was on Little Creek’s payroll and listed as the task force’s vice president.

Rusich collected a paycheck from Little Creek. His employer’s founders’ foundation was sending money to the nonprofit he helped run. He sat on one side of the transaction and drew income from the other. Beck prepared the filings on both sides — the task force’s 990-EZ and the Little Creek Foundation’s 990-PFs. The 990-EZ asks whether the organization is related to or transacted with any controlled entity. The task force answered “false.”

The Money In

At least four funding streams reached the task force.

The D&A Commission provided annual grants for Narcan. Zerechak‘s D&A Commission also contracts directly with Little Creek for outpatient addiction treatment services — the same facility employing the task force’s vice president. Zerechak was funding both the task force and the treatment provider whose employee sat on the task force’s board.

The Wayne County Commissioners provided separate funding. The amount has not been identified in commissioner minutes reviewed to date.

The Wayne County Community Foundation made at least one documented grant for Narcan workshop materials.

The Little Creek Foundation made three grants totaling $2,200 between 2015 and 2019.

The D&A Commission is funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, a commonwealth agency. Commissioner funding comes from county general revenue. Both are public dollars. None of these funding sources are individually identified on the return — Schedule B was not required.

The Money Out

The task force reported $44,567 in gross receipts in 2018: $23,975 in contributions and grants, $15,941 in gaming revenue, and $4,651 from fundraising events. After $10,425 in direct special events expenses, total revenue was $34,142.

The state charitable registration breaks down spending as a percentage of gross receipts: program services, $6,448, fourteen percent. Management and general overhead, $22,752, fifty-one percent. Fundraising, $10,426, twenty-three percent.

The federal filing tells a different story. The 990-EZ reports $27,891 in program service expenses out of $29,201 total — classifying nearly everything as mission-related. The organization apparently told the IRS ninety-five percent of its spending went to programs while telling the state of Pennsylvania fourteen percent did.

Nobody was paid. All three officers reported zero compensation. So where did $22,752 in management expenses go for a volunteer organization?

The 990-EZ’s Schedule O itemizes the expenses. Not one significant payee is named.

The biggest line is $17,046 in occupancy costs. The task force didn’t own property. Nothing on the balance sheet shows real estate. Someone collected $17,046 in rent. The filing doesn’t say who.

The 990-EZ labels $3,000 as “overdose treatment.” Frisch told Wayne Pike News this was for Narcan kits. The filing doesn’t name who supplied them. Little Creek Lodge, where vice president Rusich worked, lists naloxone and overdose education among its services.

Another $500 went to an independent contractor. No name. The officers reported zero compensation on Part IV, but a contractor payment isn’t officer compensation. Whether Rusich or anyone else affiliated with Little Creek received the $500 is not disclosed.

Another $790 went to unnamed “other orgs” as donations. Another $1,272 to “property maintenance.”

The Schedule O lists $13,873 in equipment at original cost, depreciated to $10,647 on the balance sheet. The original cost is identical at the beginning and end of the year — all of it was acquired before the sole tax year on record, and no filing documents when it was bought, from whom, or at what price. The return doesn’t say what the equipment is, where it’s stored, or who controls it now. That’s a lot of unidentified assets for an organization that distributed Narcan kits and held a 5K race.

The 990-EZ’s Schedule G shows the task force held a gaming license and took in $15,941 in gaming revenue — raffles conducted with non-members — paying out $5,062 in cash and non-cash prizes. Under Pennsylvania’s Small Games of Chance Act, the gaming license application filed with the Wayne County Treasurer names the “licensed premises” — the specific location where the games were held. That application is a public record. If the gaming events were held at a Little Creek property, the license would show it.

Every significant expense on the sole tax return this organization ever filed has one thing in common: no payee, no vendor, no address. The filing tells you how much left the account. It never tells you whose account it landed in.

At year end, the balance sheet showed $27,851 in cash and the equipment. Total net assets: $38,498.

One Return, Then Nothing

The IRS granted tax-exempt status in February 2016. A 501(c)(3) must file an annual return every year. Three consecutive missed filings trigger automatic revocation.

The task force skipped 2016. Skipped 2017. Filed once for 2018. Then skipped 2019, 2020, and 2021.

But the sole return contains evidence that Beck had the books for the missing years. Schedule A — the public support test — requires three years of financial data. Beck filled it in. His own filing shows:

2016: $35,150 in contributions, $20,642 in gaming revenue. Total: $55,792.

2017: $21,654 in contributions, $32,897 in gaming revenue. Total: $54,551.

2018: $23,975 in contributions, $20,592 in gaming and fundraising revenue. Total: $44,567.

Across the three years documented in Schedule A, the task force took in $154,910. Beck had the financial records to prepare returns for 2016 and 2017. He prepared one for 2018. The other two years were never filed.

The 2017 numbers are worth a second look. Gaming revenue that year — $32,897 — was larger than contributions. Whatever gaming operation the task force was running wasn’t a side raffle. It was the organization’s primary revenue source, bringing in more than the grants and donations combined.

One return out of at least six required filings. The IRS revoked the exemption. The organization no longer appears on the IRS list of tax-exempt entities.

The state charitable registration expired November 15, 2020. Under the Solicitation of Funds for Charitable Purposes Act (10 P.S. § 162.1 et seq.), soliciting contributions in Pennsylvania without a current registration is unlawful. The registration was never renewed. Its fiscal year end date is frozen at December 31, 2018.

No dissolution has been filed with the Pennsylvania Secretary of State. The $38,498 in net assets — including $10,647 in equipment — from the last filing have never been publicly accounted for. The Small Games of Chance Act requires gaming proceeds to be kept in a bank account separate from all other organization funds. The task force should have maintained at least two accounts. Neither has been publicly closed.

The D&A Commission’s website still describes the partnership in present tense. No task force activity has been identified after June 2019. The task force’s fundraising website, windykilt5k.com, is still live. Its copyright reads 2019. The original domain listed on the state registration, waynecountyheroinpreventiontaskforce.com, is dead.

The organization collected public money for at least four years. It produced one financial filing. That filing listed no legal names, disclosed no conflicts, and left $38,498 on the books. Then the filing stopped, the registrations lapsed, and nobody closed the books.

Documents referenced:

IRS Form 990-EZ, Wayne County Heroin Prevention Task Force Inc. (EIN 47-2966305), tax year 2018. Filed July 11, 2019. Preparer: Alfred D. Beck CPA, PTIN P01381114. Pennsylvania Bureau of Charitable Organizations, Registration No. 105913. Wayne County Court of Common Pleas dockets CP-64-CR-0000281-2009, CP-64-CR-0000153-2011, CP-64-CR-0000064-2012. IRS Form 990-PF, Little Creek Foundation Ltd. (EIN 27-1834388), tax years 2015, 2017, 2019. Wayne County Commissioner Minutes, March 22, 2018. Wayne County D&A Commission 2018-19 Annual Report. ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.

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