Category Archives: Uncategorized

2024, Uncategorized

BOCC: Affordable Housing Update, Employee Health Deductions Issue

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary

The April 17, 2024 Custer County Board of County Commissioners regular meeting started at 9 a.m. in their lavishly appointed meeting room in the building across from the courthouse. Commissioners Kevin Day and Bill Canda were present. Commissioner Lucas Epp was absent with no explanation given.
The first major item of business was the Upper Arkansas Council of Governments (UACOG) presentation about building “affordable housing” on the seven lots in Silver Cliff that the BOCC wants to give them (for nothing). The deal is that UACOG coughs up money for most of it but the new owners help with the construction. Bottom line is that the new owners get a new house under market cost.
(It wasn’t revealed how UACOG picks the lucky people.)
After the presentation, Canda asked an obvious question that wasn’t addressed: Is there anything preventing the new owners from selling the property (“flipping”) once they owned it (and make a ton of money)? The UACOG guy said no. Canda said he wanted restrictions placed on the deed to prevent this. Day did not want to proceed further with the process of giving UACOG the lots or the deed restriction issue without Epp being there, so he tabled it for a future date.
Next up was buying a vehicle for Planning & Zoning and the Assessor’s Office for field visits. (Both offices have vehicles, but they are basically non-functioning.) The Commissioners allocated up to $50k for a vehicle suggesting something like a Toyota 4 Runner.
Bob Smith from Human Resources then presented the issues with employee health insurance deductions from employee paychecks being incorrect for a couple of months. There was a screwup with the county’s accounting system (CTSI) with a bunch of employees not having enough deducted. The total for all employees was $14k. After a lot of discussion, and some employee input, the Commissioners decided to pay the $14k for the employees. In Public Commenting on this issue, local democrat big wig James “Dr. Doom” Gilbert bizarrely claimed that the screwup happened because of all the complaints from the citizens about the Finance Department not fixing the audit issues! The complaints “distracted” the Finance Department from simply entering the data correctly. (Doomy lives on another planet, folks. God Bless him.)
And those were the major issues.

2024, Uncategorized

Town of Westcliffe Swearing in Trustees

Town of Westcliffe
Swearing in Trustees,
Tiny Home Provisions,
Rework of STR and Lodging Codes in the Works

by Laura Vass,
Town of Westcliffe BOT Report
The regular monthly Town of Westcliffe Board of Trustees meeting on April 16, 2024, was called to order at 5:30 p.m. After the Pledge of Allegiance and roll call with a quorum, the meeting began.
Before the agenda, Mayor Wenke spoke. He said at the last planning commission meeting, he blew up. “I lost my temper, needless to say it was unprofessional. I lost my temper, I swore.”
“I don’t know what came over me. I’ve never done this before in my life. But I was very angry.” He said he wanted the board to have it on record that “I’m very sorry I did that, and I apologized to Christie and Bob. I just want to bring that up.”
Under New Business: Three winners of the April 2 election were sworn in as new Trustees; Bob Fulton, Mark Dembosky and Loree Lund.
Town Officials were appointed as follows; Mayor pro tem; George Mallory, Town Manager; Caleb Patterson, Town Clerk and Admin and Treasurer; Kathy Reis, Deputy Clerk Erin Christy; Town Attorney; Clay Buchner Municipal Judge; James Heavey, and Auditor; David and CO LLC.
Next on the agenda was “Discuss the occurrences during April 3rd Planning Commission meeting.” With Christy Patterson, the Planning Commission Chair. She pointed out that there were a lot of ethical violations at the meeting, one of them being cursing at citizens. During that meeting she asked Mayor Wenke to step down when he was arguing on an issue regarding Ace Hardware. He also made a phone call mid-meeting and was asked to step out again. And he refused. She said he broke with a Town
Ordinance and the Ethical Oath of the Town officials and also the Colorado Constitution Section 29 with his outburst during the Planning Commission meeting.
She played a recording of the section of the planning commission meeting where Mr. Wenke cursed and argued concerning the past deadline for Valley Ace to fix their lighting which does not currently comply and apparently has been on.
The Mayor moved on to the next item on the agenda.
High Altitude Garden Club-Sally Strom thanked the board for their financial donation.
Next, Joanie Liebman of High Country Recycling, requested the board appoint a representative to attend the Recycling meetings held once a month. Someone volunteered.
Tim Hilgert of US Solar, gave a presentation regarding a partnership program. US Solar builds Solar fields that can be used by Black Hills Energy (or other energy companies.) Community Solar, he said, is a state mandate. US Solar asked the board to utilize its website etc. to make the Town citizens aware of the program. He called the Solar panel fields a “Solar Garden”. There is apparently some built-in savings for participation, starting with $100 for promoting, and $100 for sign up.
The current solar field is 20 miles east of Pueblo and contracted for 20 years on that land.The company is asking the board to “create a partnership” to add to their visibility and credibility. (Endorsement and publicity.) Hilgert said the State passed legislation in 2010 and has made requirements since then to go to 80% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% by 2050. Questions were raised about whether this would count as energy credits in the future. It seemed that US Solar doesn’t know what the State will require but said the company is capable of giving out stats, certification of participation, and anything else required.
The board decided to table making any kind of decision to work with them and put it on the agenda for next month. The new Trustee Loree Lund thought the $600 lifetime savings seemed pretty puny. (It is a 20-year cancelable contract for individuals who sign up). (US Solar is a developer and owns/runs the “Solar gardens” and make the land leases and land reclamation when it is over. US Solar makes their money via the customers who sign up as a participant.)
The Board approved Resolution NO.2-2024 approving a mural at 57600 State Highway 69 South. Tim Broll’s Business LP tank. The artist will be Lorna Perkins. (She did the locally familiar gate walls at the Stuart Ranch).
Next was Consideration of a request to add a new chapter to Title 10: Chapter 17 Lodging by recommendation from the Planning Commission and direct the attorney to draft the ordinance.
The attorney has been working on a draft. He said this began with a citizen who wanted to rework the STR ordinances to include other Lodging, ie hotels, motels, noting, “I have to pay and get inspections. How come the lodging establishments don’t have to?”
The attorney has been working on possible changes and what would go into it. “Currently Lodging businesses aren’t regulated in
a way that includes proper inspections and fire code,” Clay explained.
Some of the discussion centered around how often inspections would need to be done—would Lodging need an annual requirement and whether they would need to work with WMFPD on this.
Not written yet, are regulations on extended stay lodging. The
lawyer wanted to know, “How heavily do you (planning commission/TOW board) want to regulate these? or should he “take out all the extended stay reference?”
Citizen Bianca, whose business is in Lodging and extended stays, was asked for input. She explained that most lodging in Westcliffe does have kitchens at this point. And that the Town probably doesn’t have to worry about the community getting “the wrong kind of people… wrong kind of situations, where they are renting long term and turning it into a slum inn situation.” Her reasoning is that most lodging owners can’t afford to rent the properties for a low amount. She said her extended stays are often people moving to Town and waiting on a house to be built and people visiting family, etc.
The lawyer noted that the State did submit rules for health and safety years ago but doesn’t regulate it anymore and there’s no State licensing for that anymore. So he recommends putting something in place for the Town.
Although the topic of not allowing extended stays was broached, it seems that the update will be worked on and would most likely involve inspections for health/safety/fire each year and an additional fee for this licensing. Just in the planning stages, they are working on this for the year 2025. There was no plan yet for a workshop since the document is not complete. The idea of controlling extended stays seemed to peak the mayor’s interest. Other Trustees did not comment further.
The Board approved an update to signatories on all bank accounts.
The Board then went into Executive Session (ES) for the purpose of receiving legal advice under C.R.S. Section 24-6-402(4) (b) regarding the adoption of the Tiny Home Supplement to the current building code. The ES ended at 7:35 p.m.
Resuming board meeting, A Tiny Home Supplement was discussed, specifically, to increase the square footage allowed in the Town (within a yet to be determined zone) from the State’s definition of 400 square ft or less to 500 square ft or less for the Town. The motion that followed approved directing the lawyer to draw up building code language for this increase, and to then go to the planning committee with it.
Under Additions to the Agenda:
A Trustee suggested that Paul Wenke not represent Ace Hardware in any Town meetings. The Town Lawyer addressed the Mayor, saying that the outburst was not related to an agenda item, that Wenke has done the appropriate thing in apologizing, and that he does not see it as an ongoing issue. Paul did not back down on whether or not he should/would represent Ace Hardware in matters of the Town. Instead he twice stated that “the lights are shut off now and will stay off.”
Staff & Committee Reports:
Town Manager Caleb Patterson reported that pave patching will be done by Rocky Mtn. Chipseal and chip sealing the parking lot behind the alley at Jess Park is something he’s getting bids on and he’ll run in the budget. He is waiting to find out if the Town got grant money from Safe Streets and Routes for All for the crossing.
He said for the agenda next month, The Feed Store is going to replace the wooden boardwalk. It’s technically an improvement. (He’d like the Town and owner to split the cost of the Town’s on-call engineer and the new sidewalk.)
Line stripping is being done. Patterson said getting numbers for a new bathroom on Hermit (park) which is going to come in at a lot less that he anticipated. The Trail is being repaired. He’ll have numbers for the next meeting, also. He is also putting some numbers together for the replace-ment of some lights on the Main Street.(Concerning the light color differences.) The Town recently wrote a ticket for an excavation violation. That is now a court item, and he reminded the trustees not to discuss it with the individual at this point.
“Animal clean up” signs are needed. Mayor Wenke said they might need to create a fine for violations, and maybe put some cameras in. Wenke mentioned that the First Baptist Church picked up a 55-gallon drum of feces on The Bluffs prior the Easter egg hunt.

With no public comment, the meeting adjourned.

2024, Uncategorized

Duty, Honor for God and Country: A Journey with Jesus – Pastor Andrew Zeller

Pastor Andrew Zeller

by Fred Hernandez
The iconic Sangre de Cristo Seminary at 6160 County Road 130 (Horn Road) had a stimulating new development at the start of the year. On the first of January, Dr. Andrew Zeller, who had been President of the venerable institution for almost a quarter century (23 years to be exact) stepped down to focus his talents and vast experience on the growing needs of the Sangre de Cristo Seminary Church which is a branch resulting from the success of the Seminary itself. Continue reading Duty, Honor for God and Country: A Journey with Jesus – Pastor Andrew Zeller →

2024, Uncategorized

Liberty Rocks at Lange Hall – April 2024

April 2024 Liberty Rocks
“Our world has lost touch with what’s right”

The quote above was made by Mr. Jeff Lindsey, candidate for District Attorney of District 2.

by Fred Hernandez
It was another one of those typically busy evenings at the Liberty Rocks event of April 18th. Chairperson Ann Barthrop called the meeting to order at fifteen minutes past six and after the requisite Pledge of Allegiance and the group singing “America The Beautiful”, the invocation was read by Ms. Lisa Kidwell from the book “Prayers and Presidents” by W. Federer. The quote was from one of the most popular conservative presidents, Ronald Reagan, in a speech delivered at the National Religious Broadcasters Association. “To preserve our blessed land, we must look to God.” said the late president during his speech that evening of February 9,1982. He went on to say,” and, we must look at the hearthstone, because that’s where all hope for America lies. Families are the bedrock of our nation…teachers of cooperation, tolerance, concern and responsibility. Rebuilding America begins with restoring family strength and preserving family values.” Continue reading Liberty Rocks at Lange Hall – April 2024 →

2024, BOCC, Uncategorized

The Trib Hit Piece on Sheriff Smith: Situation Normal

The Trib Hit Piece on Sheriff Smith:
Situation Normal

by George Gramlich, Commentary
Well, we really want to pass on commenting on this piece of yellow journalism, but it is low hanging fruit, and you know what that means: time for some plucking. The Editor of the Wet Mountain Tribune, Jordy “Red Bug” Hedberg wrote a very long article last week in his paper attacking our Sheriff, Rich Smith, over hiring a highly experienced and qualified Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) to be his part-time “Chief of Staff”. It was indeed low hanging fruit. So, the article needs some light thrown on it.
It is full of speculative allegations, which when reviewed in context, show an extreme prejudice against the Sheriff, and LEO in general.
Smith just hired Mike DeLaurentis as his part- time Chief of Staff (three days a week at $35 per hour and no benefits). An admin job. Smith has known DeLaurentis for a long time as both were stationed in the same building in Florence, with DeLaurentis being the Florence Police Chief and Smith being Captain of our local Colorado State Patrol section.
Hedberg’s hit piece reviews some of the well-known drama about Florence’s Ex-City Manager, Mike Patterson, who was accused of sexual harassment by multiple Florence employees. (Florence hired him even though he was a convicted felon!) Patterson was also involved in a host of other shenanigans as City Manager and was eventually arrested and convicted again.
A lot of the alleged dirt centered around one female employee who claimed that a whole bunch of city employees, including DeLaurentis, had sexually harassed her. This was very early in her employment at the City of Florence. Eventually the city settled and paid her a bunch of money.
(A red flag here folks is the number of people the lady accused. In a very short time.)
Hedberg also mentions some lawsuits filed against the Florence PD which were settled for money and unfairly implies somehow that all of those issues were DeLaurentis’s fault. (Folks, in today’s victim society, you can’t run a police department or a Sheriff’s Office without a constant barrage of lawsuits. Sad stuff, but true.)
Hedberg also knocks DeLaurentis for taking out a loan from the city and paying it back. This was a common practice among city employees with the blessing from the City Manager but this practice was later alleged to be “against city policy”. So somehow this is a black mark against DeLaurentis for having fully paid back a loan?
Hedberg then somehow implies that something fishy is going because no agency, even when asked, wanted to investigate DeLaurentis’s alleged wrong doings. (Wonder why?)
DeLaurents retired in 2019. Hedberg then lists a bunch of issues that occurred in Florence years later (eg, 2022), after DeLaurentis was long gone, and again tries to implicitly link those issues to DeLaurentis.
You got the drift. Somehow DeLaurentis is bad. And Smith is bad for hiring him. Note that DeLaurentis was never charged with a crime and never convicted. But that doesn’t count.
With regards to hiring DeLaurentis, take a look at Smith’s extensive management background with the Colorado State Patrol and his policies on responsibility and transparency. Smith has been totally above board with the public. Smith would never hire anyone who had any ethical issues and Smith would never hire anyone whose actions would reflect badly on the SO or himself.
Smith knew DeLaurentis for a long time. He worked closely with him. DeLaurentis has 42 years of LEO experience at various levels. Smith was stationed in Florence when all this Florence City Manager drama went down. He knows the truth. There is nothing wrong with Smith hiring a guy he knows, who he worked with and trusts, and who has an incredible work background. (Some additional background: DeLaurentis is the president of the Christian Motorcycle Association in Cañon City and is the head of the executive council at his church. In addition, DeLaurentis is a volunteer at the Cañon City Literary Center helping children to read.)
So why did Hedberg write the biased hit piece? Maybe because Hedberg has had multiple run ins with our legal system over the last few years and is not a big fan of LEO?
Or look at this: The three main county employees/officials that Hedberg has repeatedly attacked in the Tribune since he bought the paper, all have three things in common: Dr. Clifford Brown, our Public Health Director, Commissioner Bill Canda, and now Sheriff Rich Smith are all bedrock Christian conservatives. Is that a reason? Who knows?
At the end of the article. Hedberg states he will be attacking another recent SO hire, Undersheriff Susan Barnes, in his next edition. Barnes has an incredible resume and is highly qualified for the job. Hedberg said several SO employees have filed complaints against Barnes and that, apparently, warrants another hit piece.
With regards to Barnes and the complaints against her know this: Rich Smith, in his first two years, has dramatically remade the Custer County Sheriff’s Office. He has a new management structure and has brought in a bunch of highly experienced LEO’s with special training and knowledge that the office didn’t have before. This, of course, will ruffle some feathers of employees who were there when he was hired, but that is normal. A lot of people resist change, and some can’t accept it. So, complaints are to be expected. Note that when reading Hedberg’s attack piece on Undersheriff Barnes.

( Bottom Line: Another biased hit piece on a good man trying to build a better government agency. All of Hedberg’s attacks on Brown and Canda failed miserably. And this will too.
And you have to ask, what is going on in Hedberg’s head that makes him attack good people? Hopefully someday he will wake up and see the goodness and light in humanity.
This type of gutter journalism serves only to divide an otherwise peaceful community.
After reading the Trib’s hit piece, one of the Sentinel’s proofing ladies said, “That was just mean.” That folks, is the bottom line.)

2024, Uncategorized

Pet Photography Workshop

Sangres Art Guild Offers Free
Pet Photography Workshop
April 27 at the 3rd Street Gallery

Press Release
The Sangres Art Guild (SAG) announced today that a free workshop titled Pet Photography Basics, sponsored by the Sangres Art Guild in partnership with Wet Mountain Animal Welfare, will take place from 12 – 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 27th at the 3rd Street Gallery at 59000 N. Highway 69 in Westcliffe, Colorado.
This free pet photography workshop is open to anyone who would like to take amazing photos of pets or rescue animals. Whether you want to pursue fine art portraiture or just capture great memories to share with friends and family, artist and instructor Sandra Dalton will teach you basic techniques to turn your pet photography from “blah” to captivating. Regardless of what type of equipment you have, or experience level, you can take photos that capture your pet’s unique essence and personality. Instructor Sandra Dalton is a fine art photographer focusing on portraiture and pictures that tell a story, best known for her portraits of feral and rescue cats. She is president of Wet Mountain Animal Welfare and also serves as the SAG Marketing Chair.
The workshop takes place April 27th so that participants have time to practice and create artwork for the SAG “For the Love of Animals” art show and competition that will be judged by Andy Mast as a benefit for Wet Mountain Animal Welfare. Art must be submitted July 28-29 and the show runs during the month of August.
FOR THE LOVE OF ANIMALS, benefit for Wet Mountain Animal Welfare, judged by Andy Mast…Show runs: Thursday – Monday, 11 a.m.-.4.p.m .August 1st to August 31st in the 3rd Street Gallery, 59000 N. Highway 69, Westcliffe, CO Opening Reception: August 1, 2024 from 4pm-6pm
Class size is limited. To register, contact sandra@sandradaltonphotography.com or call (719) 695-0092.

In addition to great art, there is plenty to do in Westcliffe. Some of the more popular excursions for tourists include hiking in the surrounding Sangre de Cristos Mountains, visiting the acclaimed local theater for a live production or touring the nearby wolf sanctuary. This area of Colorado is known as a dark sky community and gazing at one of the darkest, starriest night skies on Earth is also top of the list.

2024, Uncategorized

Barbara Nordyke Passes

Obituary
Barbara Nordyke

 

Barbara Maxine Babb-Nordyke was born February 5, 1940, in Parkview, New Mexico, to Richard and Florence Whaley-Babb. During her childhood, the Babb family, with five children, moved to Rockvale, Colorado, and she attended Florence High School, where she met her future husband. She graduated high school in 1958. She married Arthur Lee Nordyke in 1959, and was a devoted wife and mother for 65 years. Barbara and Arthur are the parents of Chris Wayne (Shelly) Nordyke, Kurt Lee (Emma) Nordyke, and Kyle Len (Leslie) Nordyke. They are blessed with nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Barbara was preceded in death by Richard and Florence Babb, Ellen Babb-Dunsmore, Rudy Babb, and Christopher James Nordyke. She is survived by her devoted husband, three sons, daughters-in-law, and her grandchildren: Cole (Tori), Casey (Shelby), Cory (Emily), Kade, Mason, and Lane Nordyke, as well as, Jesse Todd and Sara Elizabeth Aldrich. Her surviving great-grandchildren are Bentley, Cooper, Aliyah, Elowyn, Eliana, Brayden, Adeline Mae, Harper, Brooklynn and Evelyn Nordyke.
Barbara loved to cook and sew. She planted and tended many gardens and raised chickens. She loved photography; especially taking pictures of her grandchildren. She enjoyed riding horses and loved a good strong cup of coffee. Barbara loved to laugh and had a funny sense of humor. Barbara was an active member of the First Baptist Church of Westcliffe for 20 years. However, she came to know Jesus as her personal savior at First Southern Baptist Church in Florence, Colorado, when she was approximately 10 years old. She leaves a beautiful legacy of faith to her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. She passed away after an extended time of illness, peacefully at home on April 10, 2024.
Services were held at First Baptist Church of Westcliffe, Colorado, on Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 10 a.m.
A guest book to send the family a message can be found on Legacy.com.

2024, Uncategorized

April 4 BOCC: Child Advocacy Center Hired to Help SO

BOCC: Child Advocacy Center Hired to Help SO,
Finance Director Hiring Update

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The April 4, 2024 regular meeting of the Custer County Board of County Com-missioners (BOCC) met in their meeting room across for the County Courthouse with all three Commissioners present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp. The meeting started at 9 a.m.
In Commissioner Items, Canda revealed that KKTV is now operational off the county’s hill top transmission building. The installers are having a small problem getting the other station (Channel 13) to work due to an incorrect cable. They hope to fix
that soon.
In  Elected Officials Reports, Sheriff Rich Smith was up first. With the County’s Victim Advocate employee resigning
a while back, Smith opted for a better solution. He hired a company out of Cañon City, the Child Advocacy Center, to perform the job. They have a full-time staff and the cost to the County is only $500 per month. Plus Smith noted we have two local volunteers who can also assist.
With regards to the increasing number of mental health calls, and the Deputy’s roles in responding to such calls, Smith said he has hired a very experienced local couple to assist in these calls. They will be available 24 hours a day.
Sheriff Smith said he also recently hired a part time person to be his Chief of Staff. This administrative position is for three days a week. No benefits. The person Smith hired was the retired Chief of Police for Florence, Mike DeLaurentis, who has 42 years of law enforcement experience. Smith had worked closely with DeLaurentis while Smith was the State Police Captain in Florence.
Smith was pleased to announce that the Sheriff’s Office has finally got their FreCom dispatch CAD software working.
The Coroners Report was given by Coroner Brad Baltzly. He said the county had only three “unattended deaths” this year and all were sent to autopsy.
In Staff Reports, Dominic Edginton, the County’s Veteran Service Officer gave his report. As usual, he reported great results with new veteran cases and continuing cases. (Dominic is doing an outstanding job. Reviews of his work are outstanding.)
Newly hired Bob Chesser gave the Human Resources report. He discovered a fairly big problem with the CTSI increased benefit to some County employees. The cost is split between the county and the employees, but the cost increase was not programmed into the employees’ paychecks. Thus, some employees owe the county money. The total is $15.5k, total, for all employees. They are exploring ways to fix this. (Chesser was a great hire. This guy has tons of experience, knows all the laws and regulations, and is a problem solver. Listening to him, it shows the BOCC should have hired a pro years ago instead of bringing people on board with NO knowledge at all of HR.)
In New Business, the Finance Report was first. Lisa Hemann, from Redland’s Accounting, the firm the County hired to fix the audit issues and other problems left by the last two Finance Directors, gave the report. She said she has spent three weeks working on the issues and concentrated on adjustments to liabilities and fund balances as well as looking at general ledger details. She has fixed a lot of incorrect fund postings and wrongfully entered account items. She also described other fixes and changes she made. She is confident she can get the “pre-audit” done by May 1st so the data can be turned over to the County’s auditor on that date. It was noted that a lack of training on the County’s new CIC accounting system is a major factor in a lot of the issues.
Dorothy Carsten, our Planning & Zoning Director, delivered her report. During her report she mentioned a “homeless camp” located on four lots in Silver Cliff Heights. She said it “goes back many years” and that there are concerns from a “healthy standpoint” as there are no “septics” or the “septics are not connected”. Where this is going remained unclear.
Two new Short Term Rentals were then approved by the Commissioners.
The next Agenda Item was “Revising and Reposting the Finance Director’s Position. (The response to the current posting was dismal. The CPA requirement and fairly low salary are the main culprits.) Canda opened the discussion. This discussion went on and on. In the end, the Commissioners lowered the requirements to a minimum of a Bachelors Degree in Accounting with a Masters and a CPA preferred. They also added mandatory experience in government accounting. HR Guy Chesser added a lot to the discussion. He also found several excellent job posting internet sites that specialize in these kind of jobs.
Epp talked about how it would be good to keep Redlands Accounting on retainer even after the new Finance Director is hired. (That seemed like a good idea.)
And that was that.

2024, Uncategorized

Sheriff Rebuts Questionable Allegations

Sheriff Rebuts
Questionable Allegations

(Editor/GG: Another day in Happy Valley with the Tribune slinging mud against another county official. Sheriff Rich Smith received an email from the editor of the Wet Mountain Tribune last week that contained a draft of a variety of allegations against Sheriff Smith regarding hiring practices and issues with personnel in the department. Sheriff Smith responded that he would like to meet with the editor to discuss the draft but the editor declined the face-to-face, man-to-man encounter and demanded a written response instead.
Sheriff Smith wrote a response and sent a copy to the Sentinel. We are printing the response at the same time the allegations are being
published in the Tribune so our readers can see what the truth is (and just in case the Tribune doesn’t print the Sheriff’s response).
Next week, after we have read the hit piece we will parse it and give a detailed analysis. (This is gonna be fun. If the article was anything like the Trib editor’s kindergarten level criminal complaint last year against Commissioner Canda re the infamous Braden Wilson $45k severance check, we will be having some laughs, again, at the “creative” writing. Stay tuned.)

Sheriff Smith’s Response:
April 8, 2024
Jordan, thank you so much for putting these questions in writing, so that I can address them.
You are asking me a number of employee related questions which are often handled with a “no comment”, or “we don’t comment on personnel issues” response.
I believe it is a crucial part of my job, serving the people of Custer County, to be as open as I can be about how their government works, given certain limitations dictated by laws and regulations.
I am able to share some details about the following employees because there has been outside independent investigations into their actions and those investigatory reports are a part of public record. You are welcome to come to the office and view the report (it’s in a 3 ring binder – not conducive to scanning them in a scanner or copier). Continue reading Sheriff Rebuts Questionable Allegations →

2024, Uncategorized

New Volunteer CCSO Co-Responder Team

New Volunteer CCSO Co-Responder Team

Press Release
by Undersheriff Susan Barnes
The Custer County Sheriff’s Office, at the direction of Sheriff Lloyd Rich Smith, has launched a Co-Responder Program. This program pairs specially trained law enforcement officers with mental health professionals to handle mental health crises. The program’s primary goal is to provide efficient crisis de-escalation and connect individuals in crisis with appropriate
behavioral health services. Research shows that this response model has positive outcomes, including reducing arrests, police detentions, emergency department visits, and psychiatric hospitalizations, and promoting cost-effectiveness.
While pursuing election to his office, Sheriff Smith articulated his passionate commitment to improving law enforcement-based behavioral healthcare. With the addition of two mental health professionals to his department, who recently became residents of the County, Sheriff Smith established the basis for a co-responder program.
The Sheriff’s Office welcomes G Thomas Manzione, Ph.D., and Jaclyn Manzione, M.S. to their team. Dr. Manzione is a licensed professional counselor, certified addiction specialist, nationally certified addiction counselor, and a certified equine specialist in mental health and learning.
Dr. Manzione possesses special training and skills that enable him to assess the mental health of clients and address cognitive, psychological, and behavioral disorders using an extensive range of therapy techniques. As a Licensed Professional Counselor, he performs the tasks of diagnosing and treating mental and emotional disorders, conducts research into the efficacy of advanced therapy techniques, and refers clients to medical mental health professionals as necessary.
In addition to his mental health credentials, Dr. Manzione is a Colorado POST-certified law enforcement officer. Qualitative research indicates that the most effective configuration of a co-responder team includes having a police officer who is credentialed as a mental health professional.
Jaclyn Manzione is a retired medical professional who now practices as a registered psychotherapist. She is also certified as an equine Gestaltist, master Gestaltist, and equine specialist in mental health and learning.
Gestalt Counseling is a form of psychotherapy that provides mental and emotional support to individuals struggling with various mental, emotional, and addictive disorders. Jaclyn specializes in counseling clients with anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, behavioral disorders, and sexual abuse. She also offers crisis management and mental health assessment services. As a research scientist, Jaclyn has conducted studies on diagnostic medical techniques and animal-assisted psychotherapy to determine their effectiveness.
Jaclyn has experience as a first responder, coach, and adjunct instructor at the Law Enforcement Officers’ Academy located at the Flatrock Regional Training Center. Additionally, she has trained SWAT team hostage negotiators.
Jaclyn and Tom lived in the mountains of Boulder County for 18 years before moving to their new permanent home in Westcliffe. They are a family of four, with two sons. Their oldest son is actively serving as a decorated Marine Corps Naval Aviator, and their youngest son works for a federal agency in Denver.
At the request of the Sheriff, Dr. Tom and Jaclyn agreed to help develop a co-responder program to address the increased demand for behavioral healthcare services in the County.
The Sheriff says that the co-responder program aims to enhance the already impressive work done by the deputies in serving the community. The CCSO deputies are highly trained (CIT) in dealing with critical incidents and have a successful track record.
Sheriff Smith’s agency has achieved an exceptional level of competency by implementing the co-responder model. According to the Brennan Center for Justice’s latest data (2020-2022), only fifteen out of the top 50 law enforcement jurisdictions nationwide have created new co-responder programs. This highlights the rarity of such programs and the significance of Sheriff Smith’s achievement.
To work towards the goal of providing better behavioral health-care services proactively, Sheriff Smith plans to establish an “Early Intervention Team” consisting of co-responders and members from the educational, law enforcement, and judicial communities. This team will conduct behavioral health threat assessments for situations of concern.
The Sheriff is dedicated to providing these mental health services with empathy, genuine care and concern to enhance the safety, security, and well-being of the community. The Co-Responder Program will share office space with Victim’s Advocacy. Please watch for an invitation from the Sheriff’s Office to meet Dr. Tom and Jaclyn and welcome them to our community.