The Human Stuff

The biggest item on the March 3rd agenda was also the most human. The Region 16 Opioid Abatement Council — chaired by District Attorney Michael Allen, with your police chief, fire chief, commissioners, and coroner at the table — approved $705,266 for two programs inside the Sheriff's Office. The funding comes from national opioid settlements: up to $75 million for this region over 17 years, roughly $4.4 million per year, legally locked to prevention, treatment, and recovery. None of it can be redirected. Somebody already asked. The answer was no.

The two programs do different things. The Recovery Supports and Transitions Project ($579,266) is the bridge — help navigating insurance, finding a provider, and maintaining a short-term medication supply in the window between jail release and the first community appointment. Without it, the work done inside can unravel in days. Medication-Assisted Treatment ($126,000) is the work done inside: three medications — methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone — that stabilize brain chemistry and make withdrawal survivable enough that recovery becomes possible. An estimated 77% of formerly incarcerated people with opioid use disorder relapse within three months of release, even after traditional programs. MAT changes that number. The research is not subtle. In 2022, 133 people died from opioid overdose in El Paso and Teller Counties. Nearly double the number killed in car accidents that year. That is the number behind the funding.

The same meeting accepted a $20 anonymous donation to the Sheriff's Office — which sounds funny until you understand that every dollar entering the county's books must be formally appropriated by the Board, regardless of amount. A $20 bill and a $700,000 grant walk through the exact same legal door. The same item accepted K9 training gear ($2,332) and $2,500 for the mounted unit to attend the 2026 NAMUCA Conference. The horses are professionals. The paperwork confirms it. The horses did not have to apply for a grant. They just had to exist and be very good at their jobs.

A word on deputy pay, since it connects directly to two of this week's items. Starting salary: $72,000. Maximum after years of service: $92,000. Median home in Colorado Springs: $445,000 — about $24,000 per year in housing, leaving roughly $68,000 before everything else life costs. The Sheriff told commissioners his deputies were dead last in pay among comparable Front Range agencies. The 2026 budget includes a $6.7 million line item specifically for pay — recruitment, retention, performance. Whether it closes the gap is a different conversation. They stay anyway. Either they love the work deeply, or they haven't done the mortgage math. Probably both.

The Board also approved a Class A secure transportation license for Ally Secure Transport LLC — one partitioned vehicle for psychiatric holds and court transports. Worth noting while we're here: human trafficking happens in plain sight. If something feels wrong about a vehicle or who's inside it, trust that instinct and make the call. You don't need to be certain. tips.fbi.gov · 1-888-373-7888 · Text HELP to 233733.

Vice Chair Lauren Nelson read a retirement proclamation for Debra Maloney. The county stopped everything and said so on the public record. That is not nothing. Congratulations, Debra.