by George Gramlich
On Tuesday, February 26, 2024, an Arrest Warrant was issued by the Custer County Court for Custer County’s Sheriff Deputy, Jason Ryan Salbato. He was charged with violating two Colorado Revised Statutes:
19-3-304 Persons required to report child abuse or neglect (M2) and
18-3-208 Reckless Endangerment (M2).
Both are second degree misdemeanors.

According to the Affidavit for Arrest Warrant issued by 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Investigator, Andrew Corey.  Corey was
requested by District Attorney Linda Stanley to investigate “possible criminal charges on Sgt. Jason Ryan Salbato of the Custer County Sheriff’s Office.”
The Affidavit states that Sgt. Salbato was contacted by an individual on January 23, 2024 by a Custer County resident and that the individual wanted to talk to a Deputy. Salbato contacted the individual and the individual informed Salbato that he had been told that a certain father of a minor female “had been beaten on the back with a belt.” Salbato told the resident that “he would look into this matter and contact the Department of Human Services.”
Sgt. Salbato actions after the contact are described in the Affidavit:

Per Sgt Salbato’s report 24-0065 at approximately 1l:57a.m on January 24, 2024, he contacted Alexis Enslow a DHS Supervisor via telephone and while discussing another matter he was called away and unable to report this incident.
Per Sgt Salbato’s report 24-0065 on January 29, 2024, He went to Ms. Enslow’s office, she was engaged in another matter. He was again dispatched to another matter.
Per Sgt Salbato’s report 24-0065 on January 30, 2024, at approximately 9:26 a.m. He contacted Ms. Enslow via telephone. Ms. Enslow informed him she was contacted regarding child abuse involving. XXXXXX. Sgt Salbato informed Ms. Enslow Mr. Vandeusen had reported the information to Sgt Salbato on January 23, 2024.
It was later found that XXXXXX had taken. XXXXXX with him to California.
Sgt Salbato had many opportunities to send a text. message, email, phone call or voicemail to the Department of Human Services over the entire seven-day period from the day it was originally reported to him. Sgt Salbato also could have opened a case and investigated the information he had received.
Based upon the foregoing information, your Affiant is requesting that a warrant be issued for the arrest of Jason Ryan Salbato (DOB XXXXXX), for the offense(s):

CRS 19-3-304 Persons required to report child abuse or neglect

(M2) CRS 18-3-208 Reckless endangerment (M2)

Sgt. Salbato was arrested in Custer County on February 26th. Bail was set at $500 on a Personal Recognize Bond.
Custer County Sheriff Rich Smith declined to comment as it is an “HR issue”.  However, he did state that Sgt. Salbato was no longer employed by the Sheriff’s Office. Smith noted that the Sheriff’s Office is an “at will” employer. This status allows the Sheriff to remove a person from employment immediately and that is an important tool for law enforcement agencies.
(Our thanks to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office for their transparency, accountability and concern for the public)

BOCC: A Small Property Tax Mill Levy
Reduction, Bank Shuts Down the County’s Credit Cards, Day Continues as Chair

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
The January 10, 2024 Custer County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting started at 9 a.m. in the Commissioners’ Office. All three Commissioners were present: Chair Kevin Day and members Bill Canda and Lucas Epp.
In Unfinished Business, Epp gave the status on hiring a consultant to help with the 2022 audit issues and keep the Finance Department running until the BOCC hires a new Finance Director. Epp said the consultants he contacted were in the $200k range (yearly salary) and that was too much. He is continuing to look. Canda mentioned that local, Len Arrigo, a CPA was available.
In a disturbing development, Epp said that Kirkpatrick Bank “has shut down” the county’s credit cards due to late payments. Epp said that the county has been paying late payment and interest fees every month for 2023. (Later on, Epp mentioned that those penalties cost the county around $6,000 last year!) Epp said,
“It was our fault” as the county was not paying the bill on time as the county’s departments were not paying their portion of the bill or paying it late. Plus, the Accounts Payable cycle happens at the end of the month and that was causing delays. (It looks like the Finance Department, under ex Finance Director Braden Wilson,
completely dropped the ball on this. Your local bank freezing the county’s credit cards is like, really bad. Total Clown Show.) Epp said he is going to fix this.
First item in New Business was Adopting the 2024 County Budget. Vernon Roth, the county’s IT Director, had taken over the task of assembling the budget since we have no Finance Director. (Vernon has done an outstanding job on this. He has worked day and night, six or seven days a week to get this done. And it ain’t his job. Thanks, Vernon.)
The big gorilla in the room was what are the Commissioners going to do to the General Fund mill levy rate to reduce the big property tax increases. With the huge 2023 statewide property evaluations sky high, land owners are facing huge property tax increases across the state. The two biggest taxing districts in the county are the school and the county. (The school had already lowered their mill rate to save us money.) The big question is will the BOCC lower the General Fund mill levy?
It appears that during the recent BOCC Budget Workshops, the Commissioners had proposed lowering the rate from 10.425 mills to 9.75 mills. Vernon stated that this caused a bit of discussion from the Commissioners because it seemed to not be a lot. Canda stated that there were various county departments that could not be touched (like Road & Bridge and Human Resources) so the only arena where the Commissioners could really reduce anything was the General Fund. Canda said the mill reduction would only reduce the tax for each parcel in the county by $8 (Eight Dollars). He said there are about 9,000 parcels in the county and most of them were taxable. The discussion went on for a while with Day stating that he wasn’t sure this small reduction was worth the hassle, but he was not opposed to it. (the reduction is temporary, for one year.) All three Commissioners voted to approve the budget.
There was an issue with the timing of deciding the county’s budget before the BOCC actually voted on the Resolution for Setting the County Mill Levies as that Agenda Item was AFTER the Budget Agenda Item. Somehow, the Board thought that doing mill levy change after the Budget was okay.
Finally the Resolution to Set the County Mill Levies came up. The Commissioners basically repeated a lot of what they had previously said during the Budget discussion. The General Fund one-year General Fund rate reduction to 9.75 mills (from 10.425) was approved unanimously.
Later, the County Government Appointments Item came up. The only item of interest was who was going to be the BOCC Chair for 2024. Newcomer Epp made a surprise move saying to Day that if Day didn’t want to do it, he would like to be Chair. This got Day dancing around with Epp with Day stating he would like to continue as Chair but if Epp really wanted it, Day would step aside. Then Epp said if Day really wanted it, he would back off. Day then noted that Epp was real busy with the Finance Department meltdown and being Chair is a fair amount of work.
Canda finally said he was fine with Day continuing as Chair. All three finally voted for Day to continue as Chair.