By Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
Albuquerque City Councilor Renée Grout said this week that the city’s termination of a Gateway Center contract — designed to provide medical sobering services for those experiencing homelessness — is a consequence of the Mayor Tim Keller administration “rushing to press conferences and ignoring details.”
At issue is a $2.5 million annual contract awarded late last year to Listo Health, formerly known as Zalfi, to operate a medical sobering center at the facility on Gibson Boulevard. The contract began Nov. 1, but was terminated Jan. 24 because the city said Listo Health wasn’t living up to their end of the deal.
“There was an issue of them being able to get, for instance, proof of insurance,” the city’s Associate Chief Administrative Officer Carla Martinez, said at Wednesday night’s City Council meeting. “And they expressed to us that they had cash-flow issues.”
Though Listo Health never saw a client, it is set to be paid more than $60,000 — $40,871 has been paid so far for personnel expenses and some supply costs, and an invoice for an additional $20,519 is under review, city officials said.
Grout asked Martinez why a requirement that Health, Housing & Homelessness Department officials submit the Listo Health contract to City Council for approval never took place. The requirement allows city councilors a chance to analyze proposed contracts, ask questions and take a vote on whether to approve it or not.
Martinez said the oversight was inadvertent.
“The department just didn’t realize that [the contract] needed to come to you all,” she said. “They’re used to working on these social service contracts that require a quarterly update … they’re working with the procurement team to do some training and ensure that doesn’t happen in the future.”
‘Disappointed, saddened’
Grout was also skeptical of how Listo Health was vetted prior to the contract award. The city’s request for proposals (RFP) process is designed so officials can ensure in advance that potential operators are upstanding and able to meet contract requirements.
“Did anyone follow up to make sure their responses were accurate when they applied through the RFP?” Grout asked.
Martinez said a committee, composed of Health, Housing & Homelessness Deputy Director Ellen Braden, Gateway Operations Administrator Jennifer McDonald and Anna Marie Lujan, a division manager in finance, reviewed and scored Listo Health’s application. Out of 1,000 possible points in the RFP scoring system, the score was 553.
“It seems very low to me,” Grout said. “This procurement shows an administration that is rushing to press conferences and ignoring inconvenient details, such as failing to vet contractors to make sure they are qualified to do the work, and not sending a $2.5 million contract to City Council for approval.”
A new RFP to run the center — the third — was released Jan. 17 at $7.7 million for three years. Martinez said it includes a section on financial stability that was added after the city’s experience with Listo Health. An initial RFP that was only open to nonprofits got no responses; the second, which was open to for-profit companies, had one respondent — Listo Health.
Construction of the 11,000-square-foot center designed to accommodate 50 people began in 2024. In late November, city officials welcomed a lineup of dignitaries for an advance tour. The center was set to fully open in December, but its launch is now delayed until at least summer as the city searches for another operator.
“I just think that this administration rushes projects sometimes and they’re not prepared all the way … and some of these steps were missed,” Grout said. “I’m disappointed, because now we’re six months behind. We should already have this up and running, it’s much needed in our community and I’m saddened by it.”
Meanwhile, at least one other Gateway Center contract is in flux. The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center said earlier this month that it would not renew its contract to operate the first responder receiving area at the facility. UNM and the city — through an intergovernmental agreement — agreed that the Office for Community Health would stay past its March contract expiration until July, in order to give the city more time to find a replacement.