CITY of ALBUQUERQUE
TWENTY-FIRST COUNCIL
COUNCIL BILL NO. R-15-253 ENACTMENT NO. ________________________
SPONSORED BY: Ken Sanchez & Klarissa J. Peña
RESOLUTION
title
Creating A Collaborative Process For Behavioral Health Reform Beginning With The City Of Albuquerque And Bernalillo County Through The Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Government Commission (Sanchez, Peña)
body
CREATING A COLLABORATIVE PROCESS FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH REFORM BEGINNING WITH THE CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE AND BERNALILLO COUNTY THROUGH THE ALBUQUERQUE/BERNALILLO COUNTY GOVERNMENT COMMISSION.
WHEREAS, Bernalillo County and the City of Albuquerque are responsible for, and committed to, promoting the health and safety of all City and County residents; and
WHEREAS, presently there are acute problems with the system of providing all levels of behavioral health services to City and County residents and the residents of surrounding communities; and
WHEREAS, the County Commission has already begun the process of identifying community needs, passing a gross receipts tax to assist in providing new funding and reaching out to partners in the community who also are currently providing behavioral health services and/or have numerous behavioral health needs; and
WHEREAS, the City of Albuquerque has already begun the process of identifying community needs and has invested approximately $14 million of funding into behavioral health and counseling services; and
WHEREAS, implementing collaborative solutions to identified behavioral health problems will best utilize the limited resources to impact the most clients; and
WHEREAS, the County has already passed two Resolutions, AR 2015-16 and 31 to attempt to begin the creation of a regional system to address behavioral health needs, but the organizational structure to accomplish the task has not yet been established; and
WHEREAS, counties surrounding Bernalillo County have expressed their willingness to collaborate in the development of a regional behavioral health system; and
WHEREAS, in order to formally begin to create a regional answer to our behavioral health needs the two largest governmental entities in the region must first determine how to partner in this process; and
WHEREAS, the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Government Commission has been created to solve mutual problems facing the City and the County and it is the appropriate forum to begin the process of mutual decision making to create a regional solution to the behavioral health needs we now face.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL, THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE:
Section 1. That the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Government Commission (ABCGC) shall be the lead entity to work collaboratively to create a governance structure to begin the regional system of providing behavioral health care.
Section 2. That the City of Albuquerque requests that Bernalillo County also designate the ABCGC as the lead entity to recommend a form of a regional behavioral health authority.
Section 3. That the City of Albuquerque authorizes the ABCGC to begin to Identify which agencies and governments should be involved in a regional authority and what form of governance the authority should establish for the purposes of providing oversight, coordination, systems and program development and implementation of initiatives which best utilize all available behavioral health funds.
Section 4. That the City of Albuquerque directs the ABCGC to seek input from the public, hold public meetings, discuss potential cooperative governing structures and present options to surrounding counties interested in partnering in the development of the City and County behavioral health system.
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