The Montezuma County commissioners on Tuesday took the unprecedented step of censuring Sheriff Steve Nowlin for what they called “financial mismanagement.”
The vote was 3 to 0 for the lengthy resolution, which states that the censure is “a collective judgment of stern condemnation for the actions of Sheriff Nowlin that violate laws or policies.”
Commissioner Kent Lindsay, who was just elected to his fourth term in office, told KSJD he can’t remember a vote of censure ever being done to any elected official in Montezuma County before. Lindsay was elected in 1996 and 2000, then again in 2020 and 2024.
The censure has no practical impact, but Lindsay said the board, which oversees the sheriff’s and other departmental budgets, wanted to make a statement that they don’t want other officials overspending.
“We don’t want anybody else doing this,” he said. “It’s a shame it has to come to this.”
Lindsay said the resolution does not imply there is anything illegal going on with the sheriff’s budget. “I see no malfeasance going on, no embezzling or fraud,” he told KSJD.
The commissioners and sheriff have been at odds for months over the budget, as declining revenues force the county to radically tighten its belt. The state legislature has reduced property-tax valuations to help out homeowners on the Front Range, and that has meant lower revenues for all counties, which rely heavily on property taxes.
Lindsay told KSJD that many other counties are also having “budget problems and sheriff problems.”
“The state legislature has put a lot of rural counties in a real bind,” he said.
Montezuma County is in particular trouble, he said, because it is one of five counties in Colorado that have no county sales tax. However, even neighboring La Plata County, which has had a sales tax for many years, is being forced to cut back spending, he said.
The commissioners and sheriff had put a measure before voters in November to implement a 1 percent sales tax earmarked for the sheriff’s office, detention center, and drug task force. But voters rejected it.
“People don’t want new taxes,” Lindsay said.
He said if the sheriff’s office had been able to secure contracts with the Town of Dolores and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in 2024 – something it has done in previous years – the budget would have worked out.
The Town of Dolores and the sheriff’s office have reached agreement on a contract for 2025, but that won’t help with this year’s budget, Lindsay said.
On Nov. 21, the commissioners approved hiring a Colorado firm to conduct a detailed organizational, financial and budget analysis of operations of the sheriff’s office. The analysis will start in January.
In October, Nowlin asked the county for a supplemental budget request of approximately $240,000 for wages and benefits. He has repeatedly said he’s losing personnel because salaries at the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office are lower than in nearby law-enforcement agencies.The commissioners postponed a decision on the request several times.
On Tuesday they said that county and sheriff’s staff may have found ways to fill that budget gap by limiting overtime and other spending in the sheriff’s office and using unexpended grant funds.
Commission Chairman James Candelaria said the board will if necessary approve the supplemental request at the last meeting of the year.
“We’re putting it off till the 31st of December,” Lindsay said. “We may make it.”
He said budget woes will continue into 2025.
“This year is not going to be fun, trying to keep everything balanced.”