County introduces joint opioid‑settlement implementation plan as school counselors urge immediate Crossroads expansion

Bernalillo County commissioners on April 8 introduced a joint city‑county implementation plan for opioid settlement funds and approved it on a 5‑0 vote, while school‑based counselors and students urged immediate use of the funds to expand Crossroads and other early intervention programs in Albuquerque Public Schools.

The plan presented to the Board of County Commissioners was the product of the Local Government Coordinating Council (LGCC), which prioritized eight categories from a larger set of recommendations prepared with technical assistance from Vital Strategies. Wayne Lindstrom, deputy county manager for behavioral health, told commissioners the LGCC’s priorities include connecting disconnected youth, expanding peer‑support services, enlarging recovery housing and community‑based intensive treatment, leveraging the Gateway sobering center, widening naloxone access and harm‑reduction efforts, and expanding mobile crisis response.

The LGCC recommendation emphasized that roughly 40% of settlement funds should be allocated to prevention and community revitalization and 60% to intervention and treatment. Lindstrom described a three‑phase implementation: immediate use of multi‑award vendors to move dollars into the community within six months, a public-facing dashboard to track performance and spending, and capacity‑building grants for small and mid‑sized providers.

The joint plan had been presented to Albuquerque City Council the night before; Lindstrom said the council passed its version and that the city still needs the mayor’s signature. Julie Ron of Vital Strategies commended county and city coordination and emphasized continued community and tribal engagement in implementation.

Public comment at the commission meeting focused heavily on expanding school‑based behavioral health. More than a dozen Crossroads counselors, school‑based therapists and students described how Crossroads interventions changed individual lives and urged commissioners to approve funding for expansion without delay. Kylie Schroeder, director of Crossroads for Albuquerque Public Schools, told the board: "We just need you to vote tonight and vote yes to help us remove this last barrier to making this expansion of our programs a reality." Samantha Ashby, a Crossroads counselor, read a letter from a Sandia High School teacher that described repeated instances in which students in crisis benefited from on‑campus Crossroads support.

Deputy county manager Lindstrom and several commissioners framed the plan as a long‑term, collaborative investment that will be rolled out in phases and monitored with public metrics. Commissioners repeatedly thanked the LGCC, Vital Strategies and community groups for their role in producing the plan and noted this is the introduction hearing; the resolution will return for final adoption at a subsequent meeting as required by the county’s two‑hearing rule.

The commission moved to approve the introduction of the implementation plan and related administrative resolution; the motion passed 5‑0. Commissioners said they expected continued joint work with the city, tribal governments and Albuquerque Public Schools during implementation.

Why this matters: County leaders said the funds represent a rare opportunity to expand prevention and treatment services and to strengthen local provider capacity. Several speakers repeatedly urged that a portion of the settlement dollars be used now to hire school‑based counselors and to create consistent Crossroads presence in elementary and middle schools where early use has been reported.

What happens next: The introduced resolution will return for final adoption at a subsequent commission meeting. Commissioners and staff said they will proceed with the short‑term procurement and vendor steps described in the plan, set up the public dashboard, and coordinate with city counterparts on shared procurement and reporting.

Quotes from the meeting are taken verbatim from the hearing transcript.