{"id":23885,"date":"2025-01-25T23:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T06:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-sheriffs-office-posts-collective-bargaining-notice\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:44:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:44:01","slug":"montezuma-county-sheriffs-office-posts-collective-bargaining-notice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-sheriffs-office-posts-collective-bargaining-notice\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office posts collective bargaining notice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County Sheriff Office deputies N. Dan, left, and Zack Summers work in the booking area at the Montezuma County Detention Center. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office recently took a step to advance the process of securing a collective bargaining agreement for the office.<\/p>\n

Collective bargaining \u201cwould codify what\u2019s already there,\u201d and allow greater protections and peace of mind when it comes to things like wages, health insurance and retirement benefits, said Sean McCauley, a labor and employment lawyer with 25 years of experience under his belt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a collective bargaining agreement, the employer can change anything they want, when they want,\u201d said McCauley. \u201cIt gives employees a say, instead of it being a one-sided conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office took that step on Jan. 17, when it posted a notice of election<\/a> online.<\/p>\n

The notice explained how there will be an opportunity for Sheriff\u2019s Office employees ranked sergeant or below to vote in an election sometime soon. Results of that election will determine whether they move forward with collective bargaining.<\/p>\n

Only those at sergeant status or below can vote because of language in most every labor law that creates a cut off for people who are in advisory roles, said McCauley, who\u2019s representing the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office employees who are participating in this.<\/p>\n

Specifically, McCauley is representing Mesa Verde FOP Lodge 74<\/a>, which is made up of select employees from the Sheriff\u2019s Office and formed on Sept. 23, 2023.<\/p>\n

Lodge 74 was really the first step towards collective bargaining, and the office\u2019s \u201cvehicle\u201c to pursue it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had to have an organization represent them,\u201d McCauley said.<\/p>\n

The larger organization representing them is the FOP, or the Fraternal Order of Police, which has more than 8,000 members across Colorado and another 370,000 across America.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an organization of cops, run by cops,\u201d said McCauley. \u201cAnd it\u2019s run from the bottom, up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifty or 60 Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office employees make up Lodge 74, and they aren\u2019t all sworn deputies- McCauley said there\u2019s a few cooks and other \u201ccivilian employees\u201d that joined, too.<\/p>\n

When that election happens \u2013 it\u2019s still not clear if it will be in-person or a mail-in ballot \u2013 only members of Lodge 74 will be voting. If a majority votes in favor, they\u2019ll move forward with it.<\/p>\n

The morning of Jan. 24, there was an online, pre-election conference between County Attorney Stephen Tarnowski, County Administrator Travis Anderson and McCauley.<\/p>\n

McCauley said the county \u201cseemed receptive,\u201d and that the purpose of the call was to explain to the county what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not much they can voice in the situation,\u201d McCauley said.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s ability to do this is made possible by a state law that passed in 2022<\/a>, which aimed to bolster county employees\u2019 rights by affording them the right to collective bargaining, so long as the county had a population greater than 7,500 people.<\/p>\n

The move further follows in the footsteps of the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office, which, as of Jan. 1, has a two-year collective bargaining agreement with its county.<\/p>\n

McCauley said more and more Sheriff\u2019s Offices are doing this across Colorado, and named a some, like Denver, Arapahoe, Boulder, Elbert, Las Animas and La Plata.<\/p>\n

He said the process in La Plata County was \u201ccollaborative\u201d and hopes it will be the same in Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll keep in mind the resources available to the county and work within that framework,\u201d said McCauley. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to make as much money in Montezuma County than you would in Denver County, for instance. It\u2019ll be pragmatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, to be clear, \u201cThis isn\u2019t an indictment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The office just wants a voice because it\u2019s \u201chard as hell to be a cop. If anyone should have these rights, it should be them,\u201d McCauley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018This isn\u2019t an indictment,\u2019 the office just wants a voice, lawyer says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78304,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23885\/revisions\/78304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23885"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}