City and County plan joint public dashboard, warn data gaps will limit early reporting

Bernalillo County and the City of Albuquerque told the Local Government Coordinating Council on Thursday that they will jointly design and host a public dashboard showing opioid-settlement allocations, payments and spending — and that meaningful performance metrics will follow only after additional data work.

Deputy County Manager for Behavioral Health Wayne Lindstrom and Ellen Braden, deputy director for Health, Housing and Homelessness for the City of Albuquerque, outlined a phased plan that starts with simple financial reporting and moves toward a program-level accountability matrix. Lindstrom said the dashboard will appear on both entities’ public portals and that the city, county and Albuquerque Public Schools must designate staff to participate in planning.

The presentations emphasized why high-quality measurement is hard. Lindstrom cited the absence of a statewide management information system and said a core payer, Medicaid, currently cannot provide utilization data specific to Bernalillo County. He warned that “garbage in, garbage out” applies: if reliable data are not available, analysis will be limited. Braden added the design team intends to align metrics only to activities funded by the opioid settlement money and to avoid metrics that increase stigma.

Both presenters showed examples from other jurisdictions. Lindstrom pointed to Maricopa County’s public dashboard as a layout example and to a Research Triangle Institute matrix as a model for program-level process and outcome variables. He and Braden proposed starting with financial items the agencies control — amount received, subrecipient, date and dollar amounts — that can be posted more quickly while work continues on outcomes and cross-program measures.

Staff identified practical barriers: providers use multiple funders and reporting systems, many organizations resist duplicate data entry, referral systems (for example, Unite Us) do not yet integrate with state health information exchanges, and some electronic health records do not export the needed fields. Lindstrom described staff work to identify low‑hanging fruit for aggregate web-based reporting while longer-term interoperability work continues.

Vital Strategies, the contractor that produced the county’s strategic plan for opioid-settlement funds, has offered to pay for a technical-assistance position that would be hired to work for the city and county through September 2026, Lindstrom said. He called that an extra resource to accelerate dashboard design and reporting.

Council members asked for a near-term public view showing funds received and paid out, and for contract language that aligns measurement requirements across city, county and other funders so providers are not asked for inconsistent data. Lindstrom and Braden agreed and said they will seek alignment with contracting units in both jurisdictions. Council members also asked that dashboard updates be placed regularly on the LGCC agenda so the council can track progress.

The presenters did not provide a firm go‑live date for a comprehensive dashboard. They said initial financial reporting items could be posted sooner, but that meaningful outcome reporting will require time and coordination with state systems and providers.