{"id":24776,"date":"2024-11-19T11:42:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T18:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-montezuma-county-sheriffs-supplemental-budget-request-put-off-until-december\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:01:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:01:25","slug":"update-montezuma-county-sheriffs-supplemental-budget-request-put-off-until-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-montezuma-county-sheriffs-supplemental-budget-request-put-off-until-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Montezuma County sheriff\u2019s supplemental budget request put off until December"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners meets about the Sheriff\u2019s Office budget on Tuesday. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners decided to postpone making a decision on the Sheriff Office\u2019s supplemental budget request and will resume the hearing at their meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 17.<\/p>\n

The idea is to hold off until the county has a better idea of its expenditures in the general fund, something that won\u2019t be clear until the end of the year, said Montezuma County Administrator Travis Anderson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure this out with you,\u201d said County Commissioner Jim Candelaria.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Candelaria said the Sheriff\u2019s Office employees need not live in fear of losing their jobs; \u201clife will go on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office will continue working with the county finance department to figure out what to do about the overage and adjust the budget in 2025, since the department is on track to overspend by $306,000 next year.<\/p>\n

Last week, the county commissioners underwent an all day training to get a better idea about the statutory requirements for that department and others. Statutory requirements are things they must fund.<\/p>\n

Prior to that training, Candelaria emphasized how the county \u201cshould only be funding needs, not wants.\u201d And to do that, they need to know the \u201cneeds,\u201d which is why they did the training.<\/p>\n

Candelaria said it was a great refresher in defining those needs for all departments, not just the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

To get a better idea of the Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s assets the commissioners opted to send a letter requesting the titles of all its property at their meeting on Nov. 19.<\/p>\n

They also agreed to hire a third party to conduct an expert financial and budget analysis to determine exactly how much money the Sheriff\u2019s Office needs to function, something Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer suggested when Sheriff Steve Nowlin first said they were over budget.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Steve Nowlin was not at the previous two meetings, so Undersheriff Tyson Cox spoke from the podium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve cut back all spending,\u201d Cox said at the Nov. 12 meeting.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County Undersheriff Tyson Cox address the County Board of County Commissioners about the budget on Tuesday. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners meets about the Sheriff\u2019s Office budget on Tuesday. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The conversation began at a special meeting on Oct. 31, where Nowlin asked for $239,000. Of that, $172,000 would be for wages and $67,000 for benefits because the department is on track to overspend this year.<\/p>\n

The overage is from wage raises, so \u201cit keeps giving into 2025,\u201d said Cox. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure out how to offset that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cox reiterated that Nowlin is negotiating contracts with the town of Dolores and the tribe for security at the casino, money they won\u2019t see until 2025.<\/p>\n

Candelaria said to accept the request would be rewarding \u201cbad behavior,\u201d especially \u201cafter several checks and balances to not do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Oct. 31 meeting, Candelaria said Nowlin was notified he would overspend back in March and April this year.<\/p>\n

At that meeting, a county finance officer, Faedra Grubbs, added that it was \u201cirresponsible to continue, knowing you\u2019ll overspend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Nowlin) knew he would go over, this irritates me to no end,\u201d Commissioner Gerald Koppenhafer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand your frustration,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n

In the event the budget request is denied, the Sheriff\u2019s Office will be forced to furlough employees, and it\u2019s likely those employees would find other jobs, Cox said.<\/p>\n

Cox said, if that happens, the department would \u201close top talent\u201d and be forced to retrain replacements, which is expensive to do.<\/p>\n

Candelaria said they don\u2019t want anyone to lose their job, so they\u2019re working on fixing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

commissioners will resume the conversation on Dec. 17 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24777,"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-24776","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\/24776","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=24776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78670,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24776\/revisions\/78670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24776"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}