Las Cruces City Council Work Session: Mountain View Hospital and Opioid Settlement Funds (June 22, 2026)
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Las Cruces City Council Work Session: Mountain View Hospital and Opioid Settlement Funds (June 22, 2026)
The Las Cruces City Council held a work session on Monday, June 22, 2026, beginning in the afternoon. No agenda or minutes were provided; this summary is based on the raw transcript. The Council heard two presentations: Mountain View Regional Medical Center CEO Patrick Shannon reviewed hospital performance and expansion, and Las Cruces Fire Department case manager Wes Smith updated the Council on opioid settlement fund spending. The session ended with a motion to adjourn.
Mountain View Regional Medical Center Presentation
- Patrick Shannon, CEO for about four months and a new Las Cruces resident, presented the hospital's community benefit report and growth plans. Mountain View opened in 2002; emergency room visits grew from about 3,200 to more than 47,000 annually, surgeries from 1,300 to more than 12,000 in 2025, employees to almost 1,500, and local taxes from $200,000 to more than $35 million annually.
- The hospital recently earned a Leapfrog safety score of A, achieved by only about 7% of U.S. hospitals; it is one of two in New Mexico and the only one in the county.
- Mountain View is the only Level III trauma center in southern New Mexico, receiving more than 250 transferred patients per month from outside the county. It is licensed for 168 beds, with 32 ER beds, 23 ICU beds, 14 operating rooms, 7 primary care clinics, 3 urgent care centers, a freestanding emergency room, 2 CATH labs, 11 specialty clinics, and an outpatient surgery center.
- 2025 figures reported: $239 million in total community benefit, $137 million in annual payroll, $35.5 million in taxes, $10 million in capital investments, 610,000 patient encounters, and about $61 million in uncompensated/charity care.
- Community programs include the Jars of Love peanut butter drive with Casa de Peregrinos: more than 4,700 jars in 2025 and 6,713 in 2026.
- Clinical highlights: CATH lab renovations are being planned; five OBGYNs plus midwives deliver care, and Dr. Mulamala has completed more than 1,000 robotic cases. The graduate medical education program has more than 45 internal medicine residents; the latest graduating class had 20 residents, including five entering radiology.
- Recruitment plans: two new cardiothoracic surgeons (Dr. Richardson already in place; Dr. Anine arriving in August), plus primary care, vascular, interventional cardiology, foot and ankle, and other specialties.
- Expansion plans include adding more than 60 beds, additional ICU and cardiovascular ICU beds, doubling the sleep lab, renovating the NICU, and replacing CATH labs. A possible groundbreaking in early spring 2027 with a two-year build is pending corporate approval.
- Council members asked questions about coordinating with the city on East Loman area redevelopment; Shannon responded that Mountain View is open to partnership and is waiting for corporate-level approval.
- Councilor Harris asked about the financial assistance policy for indigent care; Shannon said he would provide it, working with new CFO Doug Sassinger.
- Councilor Khan asked about anticipated rural New Mexico hospital closures; Shannon said transfers are already climbing and the expansion is needed, especially for critical care and the often-full 18-bed step-down unit.
- Councilor Matisse asked about malpractice reform; Shannon said it helps recruitment, along with employing more physicians.
- Councilor Bencomo asked about federal funding cuts and uninsured residents; Shannon called New Mexico's HDAA program strong, said rural transformation funding is uncertain for Las Cruces but may benefit sister facilities in Carlsbad and Roswell. Bencomo also asked about a patient debt collection lawsuit settlement; Shannon was unfamiliar, and marketing director Stephanie Guadian said the collection practice came from the parent company and has since changed.
- Mayor Pro Tem offered partnership help; Shannon said the hospital will coordinate during the expansion process.
Opioid Settlement Funds Update
- Wes Smith, case manager with the Las Cruces Fire Department, reported that the city is estimated to receive just over $9.8 million through 2038, with about $3.8 million received as of June 2026. Spending must align with Exhibit E of the National Settlement Agreement.
- The Council previously approved a two-year funding cycle of about $2.9 million, representing 30% of the anticipated total distribution. The presentation broke this down as $327,000 for data/reporting/evaluation, about $1.6 million for treatment, and a remaining city balance of $864,000 plus future annual distributions.
- Combined city and county investments total $7.3 million: $2.9 million from the city and $4.3 million from Dona Ana County. The council-approved split is 60% treatment/recovery ($1.4 million) and 40% prevention (about $930,000); the grand total including evaluation and administration was stated as about $2.7 million.
- Prevention spending includes: LCPD officer training (four officers trained, four more in July 2026, with a pre/post-test added in fall 2026); 300 naloxone lure jet syringes; 600 boxes of Narcan; 42 cases of 12 Narcan given to LCPD (about two cases used per month); 8 cases to the LCFD Light program; and $356,000 to Las Cruces Public Schools for social-emotional learning (Second Step for more than 6,000 learners and more than 2,000 completed lessons; Navigate 360 with more than 10,000 behavior intervention lessons, nearly 24,000 intervention lessons, and 219 mental health lessons).
- A notice of funding opportunity in fall 2025 drew 15 proposals, scored with a 100-point rubric by two city staff, two county staff, and one OSAC member. Awards effective July 1, 2026: Dona Ana County Resilience Leaders, $399,904 for a trauma-informed family support center; Ideal Option, $1.1 million for deflection and intensive case management; and Porch Light Health, $245,915 for on-demand medication-assisted treatment. Pivot Evaluation was contracted for joint evaluation; year one will focus on process and year two on outcomes. The EERP model for detail transactions was approved June 15, 2026.
- Councilor Harris asked whether the grant development specialist will seek complementary grants; the response was yes, with the specialist embedded in the finance grants program.
- Mayor Pro Tem asked about interim reporting; Smith said Pivot Evaluation will produce formal reports every six months, with monthly provider data, quarterly LCPS updates, and daily conversations with LCPD and fire, plus a planned city accountability website with live updates.
- Councilor Corey recalled a possible company paying settlement obligations in Narcan; no one confirmed it, and Corey suggested the existing distribution model be used if it happens.
- Councilor Bencomo asked about unused funds; Smith said the $2.9 million approved includes $864,000 remaining plus future annual distributions. Bencomo also raised a May letter from the Opioid Settlement Advisory Council expressing concerns. Athena Huckabee, Dona Ana County special project manager, said the letter centered on city-county communication and reminding the city of OSAC's advisory role after a city staff changeover; one OSAC member specifically questioned the Keeping It Real program, which was not an OSAC recommendation, though the city may choose how to spend its funds.
- Councilor Harris asked why prevention programs target elementary schools; Chief Daniels responded that Keeping It Real is designed for the whole school spectrum and that first-year capacity limited implementation.
Key Outcomes
- No formal action items were voted on during the work session. The only vote was the motion to adjourn, which carried unanimously among those present; Councilor McClure was absent.
- Mountain View committed to coordinate with the city on expansion and infrastructure and will provide its financial assistance policy to the Council.
- Opioid settlement provider awards take effect July 1, 2026; city and county will continue working with OSAC and stakeholders on the next funding round.
- Note: The transcript contains minor internal inconsistencies in opioid funding totals, including use of $2.9 million vs. $2.7 million as the overall figure and $1.6 million vs. $1.4 million for the treatment share.
Meeting Transcript
Your life. Well, good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our city council work session. Today is Monday, June twenty second. If you'll all join me, we'll stand and offer a moment of silence for men and women of the military and our also our brave women and men from the police and fire department that protect our city twenty-four seven three sixty-five. If you join me in the pledge, I pledge allegiance to the flight of the United States of America. And I believe we have the CEO practic Patrick Sullivan. Come on. I'm sorry. Shannon. Shannon. Thank you, Mayor. Council members. Thank you for uh allowing me to be here today. It's an honor. Uh as Mayor said, my name is Patrick Shannon, CEO for Mountain View Regional. I've been there for about over four months now, so I'm new to Las Cruces and uh it's been very nice to be here, moved here. I've got a I bought a house here, so I'm here permanently. So I'll go ahead and uh start with the presentation. Wanted to show you guys a few things. Oh I clicked off. Is that the report? Okay. There we go. All right. I'm remembering my days. Okay. So this is the agenda. Just to tell you a little bit more about Mountain View and the overview and what we've been doing at the hospital. I also want to give the community benefit report, which I think the council will find interesting and what uh Mountain View contributes to the economy. We'll go through our quality and patient safety information, access to care, the economic impact, and then something that is very important to people in the community is what physicians are we trying to recruit to the area, and then our growth plans. This is our vision to make the health care experience exceptional for our patients, for the community and each other. Simple vision statement. But something that is easy, easy for our staff and physicians to remember. And then we have our new values and actions, values and action. And so you'll see put the patient first, work as a team, own it, always do the right thing, never settle, and then lead the way. And so when we're giving, like in you know, nominations for employee of the month, uh in all of our meetings, our board meetings and things that when we open up, we tie a story into one of these values in action. And so that really kind of makes it resonate and uh with our employees. These are our top five priorities. Uh you'll see these are in uh uh in order. So we've put quality first. So we've got then patient experience, uh, the physician experience, the employee satisfaction or their engagement, and then if you're doing those first four things right, the cash flow will come after that. The financials will follow. So uh we have made it uh uh uh a very important decision to put quality first at Mountain View. This is some of the things that we're recognized for, excellence and trauma, and I'll talk a little bit more in on the next slide about uh Mountain View being a level three trauma facility. Uh we're also certified in stroke cardiac bariatric surgery, maternal and neonatal services for our babies. So to put things into perspective, you know. So Mountain View opened in 2002. Um in 2025, I think we're at 24 years now this this year, but you'll see that we were doing about 3200 uh emergency room visits, and so we're up over 47,000 uh ER visits now. See the surgeries 1,300 in a year.
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