The Human Stuff

"Some of what county government does is infrastructure. Some of it is policy. And some of it is just people trying to stay alive — and the county figuring out whether it has enough money, and enough staff, and enough horses, to help."

So I read the meeting notes again. All of them. So you don't have to. Three meetings last week. Four days. One county. Episode 004a is the human end of the same government that approves road contracts and stormwater appendices. The March 3rd agenda covered opioid recovery, deputy pay, and mounted law enforcement. All handled. All with varying levels of urgency and resolution. Roads and budget math are in Episode 004b. That's a whole other conversation.

Let's start with the biggest dollar figure on the agenda. The Region 16 Opioid Abatement Council sent $705,266 to the Sheriff's Office — for recovery. Not arrests. Recovery. Here's the context. The national opioid settlements — the legal agreements where pharmaceutical manufacturers and major distributors paid billions for their role in creating the addiction crisis — sent real money to Colorado. El Paso and Teller Counties together are set to receive up to $75 million distributed over eighteen years, roughly $4.2 million per year. By law, every single dollar must go toward opioid abatement — prevention, treatment, recovery. None of it can be redirected to roads, salaries, or anything else. Somebody already asked. The answer was no.

El Paso and Teller Counties made a specific structural choice — rather than each entity managing its own slice, they pooled the regional share into a single council, Region 16, for joint decisions. The people on that council include your District Attorney, Michael Allen, who chairs it. Your police chief. Your fire chief. County commissioners. City council members. The El Paso County Coroner. Elected officials and professionals with direct, daily experience in the problem they are trying to solve. They meet monthly. The meetings are public. Every vote is in the minutes.

So here is what the $705,266 actually funds. Turns out the most dangerous moment in addiction isn't the using — it's the walk home after. The moment someone steps out of jail with no medication, no housing, and no plan is statistically one of the highest-risk windows for overdose in the entire arc of the disease. $579,266 went to the Recovery Supports and Transitions Project — the bridge between release and the first community appointment. Help navigating insurance. Finding a provider. Maintaining a short-term medication supply. Without it, work done inside can unravel in days. Not weeks. Days. $126,000 went to Medication-Assisted Treatment — MAT — inside the jail itself.

MAT is not trading one addiction for another. That's what people say who have never been in withdrawal. Three medications. They work differently. Methadone fully stabilizes the worst cases — daily clinic visits, which can feel like a system specifically designed to remind you that you need a system. The tension is real. The medication still works. Buprenorphine partially activates the same receptors — lower risk, and a regular doctor can prescribe it over telehealth, from your couch. If you're not ready to walk into a building with your name on a sign-in sheet, that matters enormously. Naltrexone blocks the receptors entirely — no activation, no reward — but you have to be fully clean for seven to ten days before starting it. That window is its own particular kind of brutal. Worth knowing before you try.

Here is the number that should sit with you: an estimated 77 percent of formerly incarcerated people with opioid use disorder relapse within three months of release — even after traditional programs. That figure comes from SAMHSA (the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). It is not a worst-case estimate. MAT changes that number meaningfully. People on MAT have significantly lower odds of a nonfatal overdose. People who received counseling only — no medication — were substantially more likely to test positive within a month of release. In 2022, 133 people died from opioid overdose in El Paso and Teller Counties. Nearly double the number killed in car accidents that same year. Those aren't statistics. Those are people whose families still set one fewer plate at dinner. The county just funded the work of reducing that number. The Resources & Guides tab has eight direct connections — findtreatment.gov, 988, 2-1-1, PEAK, VA walk-in mental health, and more. No referrals required.

While we're in the Sheriff's Office section — the county also accepted a $20 anonymous cash donation this week. It appeared on the official agenda of the Board of County Commissioners, which is on the surface one of the funniest sentences in local government. But here's what it actually means: when money is given to a county agency — any amount, from anyone — it cannot be spent until the governing board formally votes it into the budget. A $20 bill and a $700,000 grant walk through the exact same legal door. The board is not deciding whether to say thank you. They are fulfilling a legal requirement that keeps public money accountable. That is actually a good thing. It just also happens to be deeply, specifically funny. The same agenda item accepted K9 training gear valued at $2,332 and $2,500 to send the mounted unit to the NAMUCA Conference — the North American Mounted Units Conference, where people who patrol on horseback compare notes and share professional development. The horses are professionals. The paperwork confirms it.

Now — what it actually pays to do this work. Starting salary for an El Paso County deputy: just over $72,000. Maximum, after years of service and presumably several experiences that required both paperwork and a good therapist: just under $93,000. In a city where the median home costs $445,000. Sheriff Roybal told the commissioners directly that his deputies were dead last in pay among comparable Front Range agencies. The county is training people for other agencies' recruiting pipelines. The board acknowledged it. No vote was taken. No number was proposed. It will come back. Watch the budget cycle to see whether it comes back with a resolution or another acknowledgment. If any of that sounds like someone worth backing — the El Paso County Sheriff's Office Foundation funds what the budget doesn't. Real nonprofit. Tax deductible. epsofoundation.org.

The board also approved a Class A secure transportation license for Ally Secure Transport LLC — one partitioned vehicle, restraints, for psychiatric holds and court transports. Legitimate. Necessary. Licensed. One thread worth carrying: if you ever see a vehicle and something feels wrong about who's inside or how they got there, trust that. Human trafficking happens in plain sight. You don't need to be certain. You just need to make the call. tips.fbi.gov. 1-888-373-7888. Text HELP to 233733.

One more person deserves a moment. 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. Enjoy every single day of what comes next.

One thread worth carrying into Episode 005 — the same board that voted on recovery funding and deputy pay this week also maintains the records management system that logs every call, every case, every interaction those deputies have with the public. That system just got its annual maintenance renewed for $150,623. Episode 005 covers what you're legally allowed to request from it and exactly how to ask. The two episodes are the same story from different angles — what the county funds, and what the county documents. Both matter. Both are yours to look at.

That's the week. If nothing else, now you've got something to mention at dinner. You don't have to solve anything. Staying aware is enough. If you'd like a small way to help someone directly, there's a community resource link at Pivot True North. Download it, print a few copies, keep them in your car. If you see someone who might need it, just leave one. No speech required. And if you want something even simpler — pick up one piece of trash on your way inside. Colorado Springs, half a million people, one piece each, half a million pieces gone by sunset. Small things scale quickly.

Thanks for listening. I'll read the paperwork again next week. You just get home safe.