Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting - Regular Meeting

All right, clerk, are we ready to go? All right, commissioners, we ready to go? All right, let us please all come to order. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners Business Meeting. It is July 14th, Tuesday. And to begin us off today, let's start with, for the purposes of an invocation, Reverend Darren Kessler.

Thank you. Please join me. Father, we thank you that we can come in a public meeting like this and ask for your wisdom. I pray for that wisdom among the commissioners and every public official and people who are going to be presenting and speaking that we would be united around wanting to do what is good as you've given us those commands to love and to care for one another. May we do that with wisdom. Thank you that we realize that the public officials serve under your sovereignty, and we pray that they would do so with humility. Thank you that they've asked for this to be prayed over them, and I do so now in your name, Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Once again, Reverend, thank you very much for your words of wisdom and grace to begin our meeting. If everyone will please stand and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Moving to the county attorney for certification of the agenda.

Yes, sir. The county attorney's office reviewed all items on the agenda. You have appropriate jurisdiction over these matters.

Thank you very much, Councillor. Commissioners, any disclosures for any items on this agenda?

I have none, Mr. Chair, thank you.

None for me either. Thank you, gentlemen, nor do I. Let's go into our ceremonies and proclamations for the day. And we're starting off with the recognition of Douglas County Human Services as Care Portal County of the Year for its collaboration with agencies, churches, and community partners on behalf of families in need. Michelle Dorsey, Human Services Program Manager for Staff.

Good afternoon. My name is Michelle Dossi, and I am the Special Programs Manager with Douglas County Department of Human Services. Over the past decade as a country, we have made important strides in understanding and raising awareness that poverty and neglect are intertwined, but not the same. We know that severe and persistent stress can overload families. In times of recession or economic turmoil, we see impact of toxic stress in families and how it leads to child abuse and neglect. We also know that reducing the financial burden on families and adding support can make a huge difference. Economic instability often coexists with challenges like substance abuse, mental health struggles, and domestic violence, resulting in children being victims of abuse and neglect. These hardships can be a predictor of child welfare involvement with the lack of access to basic needs, resources, and disconnection from their community causing family stress. There is ample evidence to support the value of addressing these both as a means of preventing home care but also in preventing child abuse and neglect altogether. Care Portal's role is to help mobilize action to connect vulnerable children and families with caring neighbors in their own community. Preventatively, an investment of resources, time, and energy in family preservation can help address instability before it escalates, preventing family breakdown and keeping children in safe and loving homes. When children are unsafe to remain home, engaging in foster and kinship care through those families, through support and resources can assist in their ability to provide for the children who have experienced extreme trauma, which is equally as important for both prevention and protection. The ultimate goal is for children and families to build meaningful connections that can lead to ongoing supportive relationships that are sustainable long past the end of the Department of Human Services involvement. Since launching Care Portal in Douglas County in 2020 through the nonprofit organization called Beautiful Redemption, this program has evolved an ever-changing dynamic of child welfare clients and their communities by enabling a care-sharing, real-time sharing of needs from vulnerable children and families with people in their direct communities who are ready and willing to help. Connection changes everything. Care Portal provides an accessible platform to identify and meet the needs of vulnerable families and empowers communities to step into the gap and make a difference. And families are strengthened through these acts of care. The vision is to see child welfare agencies transform through proactive community-based solutions When neighbors respond to each other's needs with compassion and practical help without judgment and without pretense, families experience hope and two-way transformational relationships often begin. When communities rally around families offering practical support and meaningful connection, real transformation can happen at scale one life at a time. Douglas County has 38 churches that participate in meeting the needs of our community. The relationships that we have built, the collaboration that occurs, and the needs of families here locally having been met has afforded us the ability to have a well-run, successful program. Since its inception, over 1,339 requests to Care Portal have been made with 82% of them being met for families and over 3,065 children served. This has caused us to have an economic need met of over $1 million for our county. On April 21st, Douglas County Department of Human Services was recognized nationally by Care Portal for their work by awarding us Agency of the Year. We were one of three agencies that received this award out of 1,758 agencies in total. We are excited to share that of the many rewards that our county has received for this honor, the most notable is a $500 gift for our agency's use on a focus need through funding a multifamily request. We chose to use this money filling the resource room of the Juvenile Assessment Center who serves our families with an intended impact of serving over 120 clients with tangible needs. We are certainly paying it forward, the positive outcomes that meet the needs outside of our department's families. It has been my honor to oversee this program for the last two of the six years that we have been on this journey and to achieve this honor alongside the most important people who do this work. our child welfare caseworkers. These staff are on the front lines working with families and our local churches to make us successful. This program could not have received this achievement without their hard work. I would also be remiss if I did not recognize the 38 churches who have stepped up to meet the needs of our families, as well as Beautiful Redemption, who hosts our agency and does all of the behind-the-scenes work. Thank you to our commissioners for taking time to recognize this honor and for allowing us to share in this achievement with you today. I would like to offer Mike Worley, the CEO and founder of Beautiful Redemption, the chance to comment as well.

Beautiful Redemption. We believe every child's beautiful and every story can experience redemption. But in order for that change and that impact to happen, it takes community, all of us working together. We brought Care Portal, which is that, think about it as technology for good, to Douglas County about seven years ago. And now over 3,000 children have been served, saving the county over a million dollars. with the work and support of 38 churches and with our caseworkers putting in the requests, specific requests, not just something that somebody wants, but a real need, and it shows up on people's phones, on their tablets, on their computers, and people respond right away. I'd like our county commissioners just to get familiar with beautifulredemption.com. Simply going to that website will help you understand the impact that hundreds of people are having in Douglas County day after day after day. We don't do events. We do life to life impact and we watch it happen every day. We're active now in 10 counties. Douglas County is one of the star counties along with El Paso County. So thank you for going to beautifulredemption.com, seeing what we do, and recognizing this is active, Care Portal is, this technology platform for good in 41 states. In Colorado, we're about the fifth leading state using this technology for good. And I just hope our county commissioners are fully aware and able to go to the website and see what we're doing. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much. Commissioners, any questions for staff or comments about this proclamation?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you so much for the presentation. In my eight years, I have been so impressed with the work of Human Services. On all of the calls where we're dealing with vulnerable adults to vulnerable children, domestic violence, issues of substance use disorder and all of the externalities associated with those issues. Ruby Richards and her team are always there and knowledgeable and present and tip of the spear when it comes to new technologies and ways to serve our community. I think oftentimes, you know, being the most prosperous county in the state and having a lot of great metrics around safety, people forget that people in Douglas County still have issues and problems that they're facing every day. And our Department of Human Services is doing a wonderful job to meet those needs. So thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner.

Yeah, and I'll just echo those sentiments. The fact that almost 1,800 departments, programs were examined across the nation, and ours here in Douglas County came out to be the best of the best of all of them is certainly a... something we should take time to recognize and just say a deep gratitude and deep thank you to you and your whole team for everything you do. It's certainly the Douglas County way to serve our most vulnerable, serve our youth, and in this case where it is the churches of Douglas County coming together in partnership with others and bridging those gaps really between local churches, the county agencies, and other dedicated community. nonprofits and others. That's truly the Douglas County way. Saves taxpayers a tremendous amount of money, and I think in the end gives the best services possible. And so we recognize you. We want to celebrate you and call it from the top of a mountain that we're the best. So thank you for, because of your work.

You're welcome. Thank you, commissioners.

Well, great job, guys. Ruby, do we have any other members of the department today? Every one of you guys need to stand up right now. Consider that an order. Ruby, you could have stood up too.

You could have stood up too.

Well, tell you what, come on. Everybody who's just standing and sat down, I'm going to make you stand back up again. Come on down up front. We've got a certificate for you that you can put up in the hall. And let's get, I think we got some pictures. Yeah, we got pictures for us.

I'm going to give this to you.

And I'm going to give this to you. Okay, let's have another round of applause. All right, moving on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda are items that will be taken on one vote without comments or debate. Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move to approve the request on items A through I, K through AA, AC through AF of the consent agenda. And to be clear, let's see, item J, which is the John Adams School Safety Grant Program and items AB, the I-25 and Happy Canyon Interchange Project have been pulled from the consent agenda. That's a motion. I'll second that motion.

All right, there's a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Consent agenda is adopted. We do have a request on the board to move commissioner comments in front of the regular agenda items. Commissioners, any commissioner comments?

You know, Mr. Chair, just a few. Again, in my time here, school security has been first and foremost for Douglas County, and we have, since STEM, really engaged in a pretty active partnership with not only our neighborhood schools, but our charter and parochial schools to ensure that all students in Douglas County are safe. And that's really a three-legged stool. It's mental health, but it's also physical school technology and school resource officers. When that incident occurred, we were pretty strategic about ensuring that we had subject matter experts, both folks that were expert in law enforcement, FBI, secret services, informing us on an expert committee around what those recommendations would be for physical school security technology. uh greatly appreciate the work of that committee even though that was gosh now about eight years ago we also had a an expert mental health committee made up of clinicians navigators case managers psychologists psychotherapists that really provided us some great information and subject matter expertise in terms of mental health but it's all of those pieces working together and the first thing that we had to admit and understand is that it's impossible to stop all evil from occurring in the world. But we can create speed bumps as a community, as a team, as partners. We can create those barriers to evil occurring in our community. I'm really proud and thankful that Douglas County has the distinction of having the highest number of school resource officers of any county in the state of Colorado by a lot. We know from the NASRO statistics and many others that that is the evidence-based approach to best serve students, having that individual with a relationship that's post-certified, that works with law enforcement, that is part of our sheriff's office, that knows the names of every student, teacher, and staff coming through those doors every day. It's a tremendous responsibility. We had the opportunity to recognize and acknowledge our SROs at our last business meeting, actually, and it was a great honor to recognize their hard work. As we continue to move forward, it's important to us and I want to really recognize the members of John Adams Academy for their leadership, their acumen, their desire to protect students and really find a way to open in a way that does protect teachers, staff and students in the best way possible. I know discussions are continuing around how to maybe place an SRO in that facility under the same rubric that we've had with neighborhood schools, parochial schools and charter schools from the beginning. So excited to have that conversation. I know you shared with me and some briefings around school security that that would be your highest and best goal is to have an actual physical SRO So we want to make sure that you have that same opportunity that every other school has been provided. That was the original goal and the way that we set up that fund to begin with. So thankful for that. I know more is continuing to be explored. Thankful for your patience with the county as we look to ways to best serve you and serve all students in our community. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Van Winkle, any comments?

Well, I wasn't planning on any, but I will just point out that this board, prior to my arrival on it, deserves a tremendous amount of credit. While I took the last several years of my time at the state capitol focused very much so on school security, also following the STEM school shooting here in our own county and in our own neighborhood, it was an eye-opening moment for all of us. I dedicated myself and the rest of my time at the Capitol to that, while the board here, led by you two in many regards, or for many years, was dedicating support to our schools through the grant program that set aside $10 million, I believe, that's gone into well over 70 schools, charter schools, public schools, and private schools. And joining this board is a tremendous honor for me to help lead that effort here to continue that so that every new school that opens in Douglas County, they receive the same amount of support. Because if it's a kid going to school here in Douglas County, a kid being dropped off, whether it's a traditional neighborhood school, whether it's a charter school, which is fully public, or whether it's a private school, I want that kid to be safe and that's a top priority for me. So when it comes to this new school opening and the future one in the same part of our county, I wanna make sure that these schools are safe and they have everything they need. Because if a kid's not safe and the parents don't feel safe dropping their student off at the school, then reading math through history, arithmetic, that doesn't matter nearly as much. because a kid has to feel safe first and the family needs to feel safe. And so that's where my priority is and want to keep working on this. We won't be taking action today, I know, but do want to keep working on it because those kids should have the same access to resources that all the other schools had and all the other students have. So we'll keep working on it.

All right. Thank you, Commissioner. My comments today are just to remind everybody that the Douglas County Fairgrounds will be hosting the Douglas County Fair beginning on July 24th with the, what's the name of that country western artist that's performing on Friday, Commissioner Finwinkle? Something like Trace Atkins. He's pretty popular. Is he pretty popular? I don't know. I listen to music. However, for those of you who may be of a country western persuasion, please do consider getting your tickets early. And then followed on the 25th. by a concert from AWOL Nation. And then, of course, resuming on July 30th with the fair and rodeo. And a fun county fair is being planned for all. Please do look into it and consider attending. But get your tickets early. Moving along through Commissioner comments to our regular agenda. Our first regular agenda item is an intergovernmental agreement between Douglas County Commissioners. I'm down, dude. I'm getting there. Is an intergovernmental agreement between the Board of County Commissioners, Douglas County, and the City of Castle Pines. This has been pulled from the agenda. So we will be moving forward with agenda item B, 3B, public contract for services between RS and H for design of the Titan Road and US 85 interchange project. Douglas County project number is CI2026-012 and Ben Pierce presenting for staff.

Yes, so I'm here today to talk about the Titan Road and US 85 project. And again, my name is Ben Pierce in our public works group, talking about the interchange project we'll have here. So a little bit about the project location. So we're kind of in the northwest part of Douglas County. And really, the area of focus for this project is on US 85 from Highlands Ranch Parkway down to Titan Road, and then also looking at the Titan Road interchange. So obviously, this is an existing interchange, but there's significant modifications needed as the area continues to grow. Sterling Ranch in particular, this is a very large development that continues to grow and have new new rooftops and also the Zebulon Sports Complex that's coming in. All of that traffic for the most part, most of that traffic is going to come through the Titan Road interchange as the area continues towards full build out. So really looking towards the future to make sure that we're investing in infrastructure to make sure that the safety and operations of the corridor and the interchange are keeping up with the level of development in the area. So it is about two miles of roadway on US 85 that we would be adding a third lane. So that's the green line that we see here. Right now there's only two lanes in each direction from Highlands Ranch Parkway to the south. And with the additional capacity being driven by the development in Sterling Ranch and the surrounding area in the Chatfield Basin, a third lane in each direction is needed. And I would point out, too, that this project has been on the county's radar for quite some time. When I believe in 2002, when this road was constructed, you know, my boss, Art Griffith, he was instrumental in working with CDOT and making sure that the shoulder that was put in was a full width 12 foot lane. So that existing shoulder will be the new lane. And then really we're just adding shoulders outside of that. So just wanted to point out that, you know, we have been working with the state for many years in preparation for this project. to make sure that we're being good stewards of taxpayer dollars and thinking for the future as we're building current improvements. So a little more about some of the project goals. Safety is, as usual, one of our top goals, to improve the safety of Titan Road interchange and the related US 85 infrastructure. For folks who travel this corridor, especially in peak hours, you'll notice that even now, the southbound exit ramp from 85 to tighten backs up into US 85 during times where it's very busy. And so that's one of the main safety issues that needs to be addressed with this project. And the ways we can do that are by adding capacity on the ramps and then also adding that third through lane and providing additional storage on that ramp will help reduce the congestion backing up onto US 85. Flexible traffic modeling is another main project goal. There's been a lot of change in this area with the different developments that are still ongoing and other newer initiatives like the Zebulon Sports Complex. And so in order to make sure that we're finding all of the right solutions, we need to have accurate information for how much traffic is there currently and then really good forecasting for what this is going to look like in the future as we have full build out of these different developments and these different amenities for the community. And so that traffic model will be mostly focused on Titan Road and US 85, but it will also encompass the surrounding area and help illuminate certain issues and ways that we can work through traffic problems on Titan Road and Waterton to the west and also Airport Road to the south. We are going to take a larger look at the area, too, to make sure that the improvements that we're putting in at Titan Road Interchange are also compatible with the larger area of development over the next 20 years. And then right sized operational improvements in project phasing. Interchange projects are very expensive. There's a lot that goes into them. And there's an immediate need. But while full build out of Sterling Ranch and some of the other surrounding areas isn't planned to happen for quite some years yet, one of the things that we're looking to do is to break the project up into a phased approach and looking at addressing the near term traffic demand issues in the next five years with an initial project that's going to be compatible with the ultimate interchange solution that we developed through the course of the design of the project. So the idea is we can build the most critical pieces that are important now while waiting into the future to build the rest of the pieces that aren't going to be needed until we have full build out of the surrounding area. And just to explain a little bit about the picture that's shown here, this is one of the concepts that was prepared by RS&H, who is the firm that was scored highest by Douglas County. And this shows how some additional storage and also operational improvements can be made at that southbound off ramp to really help provide that storage and get people on the southbound to westbound movement to help it prevent from backing up onto US 85 and also move people more efficiently through that intersection, which can be done in the near term without rebuilding the full interchange, but will also be compatible with whatever ultimate solution we come up with. So a little bit more detail on the project scope. This will be a task order contract. And so we've broken it up into two funded task orders and then one future task order. So task order one is the US-85 and Titan interchange design task. So that's going to be the data collection, so doing all the topographic survey, the SU, which is subsurface underground engineering, looking at the utility conflicts that might exist that we need to design around. and other data collection for traffic counts, things like that. As I mentioned, traffic modeling for the Titan Road interchange and also the surrounding Chatfield Basin area. Conceptual design for up to five interchange alternatives. So as part of the next bullet with the NEPA clearances and the 1601 process, which is required for any interchange modifications by CDOT and the Federal Highways Administration, because we are impacting a US highway, Um, they require that you go through a fairly rigorous alternatives analysis to make sure that you're selecting the best possible solution for the interchange. Um, and then, you know, as part of that first task order, we'll also have about 30% design of the preferred interchange alternative. So of the five that we look at the one that scores the highest and we'll meet the needs of Douglas County and the surrounding area, the best, uh, we'll take that to 30% design and then same with the interim improvement. So looking at how, The near-term solutions can be implemented that will be compatible with the future ultimate configuration of the interchange. And then task order two, as I kind of mentioned earlier in the presentation, is primarily focused on widening of US 85 from Highlands Ranch Parkway to Titan Road. As I said, that third lane in each direction has been known for a while that will be needed. And the additional volume going through the Titan Road interchange and the Um, the additional, uh, development in the surrounding area is really driving the need for that third lane, but it has been planned. So it's, um, as far as these kinds of projects go, um, easier to accomplish than if we hadn't planned for it initially with that full width shoulder, that will be the new through lane. Um, but it is still about two miles of roadway widening in each direction. Um, and because it is on the U S highway, it'll also require separate, uh, clearances from CDOT for, to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Protection Agency, which is what NEPA means. And then task order three isn't funded as part of this initial contract, but just wanted to let you know kind of where we plan to go with this project in the future. And that will be for final design of the interim interchange improvement. So we hope to build something, like I said, around the 2030 time frame to really address the safety and operational issues for the southbound 85 to westbound Titan, which is the PM peak where people coming home from work, that's where it's most busy. And then same for the eastbound Titan Road to northbound US 85, which is the AM peak as people leave Sterling Ranch and the surrounding area to go up north towards Denver. And just a reminder that it's not funded as part of this contract because we need to figure out what the preferred alternative from task order one is before we can really properly scope that design effort for final design. And so then a little bit about the consultant selection. There were five firms from Douglas County's public work shortlist that were asked to submit proposals. And that was from our major roadway category. And then all five of the firms that we invited to submit a proposal submitted proposals. And after scoring the top two firms, the scoring committee decided to interview them. So we had AECOM and RS&H come in to the county to give a presentation about the project and how they would approach it. And then the scoring panel was comprised of six members total, four Douglas County staff, and two CDOT staff. And we invited two CDOT staff to participate in the scoring because A lot of Titan Road interchange is currently owned and maintained by CDOT as well as US 85. And this is a partnership project that we'll be working together with them on through all phases of this project. So with the kind of more detailed scoring results, you can see the five firms ranked one through five from the proposal. And then the top two were decided to be interviewed. The six scoring members of the scoring committee unanimously agreed after the interviews that RS&H was the winning team. So that's reflected in that second column there for final rank. So RS&H is who Douglas County is suggesting to award the project to based on the results of the interview. And then a little bit about, well, actually, let me go back. This concept that's shown on this slide, this is one of the concepts proposed by RSNH. And this would be the full build out. So you can see from the previous slide, the southbound off ramp has those additional lanes, a lot of additional storage with actually room for three southbound to westbound turn lanes. And same for the eastbound and northbound, there'd be three. three lanes going northbound. So it really greatly increases the capacity for those high volume movements for the AM and PM peak. But this is a very significant project that requires years of planning and work. It requires a new bridge, which is outlined in red there. So this really kind of highlights where if this were one of the ultimate interchange concepts, we're really looking at ways to address the current needs with the project without having that throwaway work. So really focusing on what we can for the southbound off ramp and the eastbound and northbound on ramp. So a little bit about project funding. Um, the cost for task order one is just under $2 million. And again, that was the US 85 and Titan road interchange focused. And then, um, kind of the initial data collection and then task order two, which goes through final design of the widening of US 85. So that's preliminary design and then final design with all of the clearances and everything worked through CDOT is just over $2.5 million. And so that's for a total project cost of $4,499,961.25. And then for a funding breakdown, there's two different business units in fund 230 that we plan to take from, just under half a million dollars from business unit 800-455 and the remaining $4 million from business unit 801-017. So with that, staff recommends approval of a PCS with RS&H for the Titan Road and US 85 interchange design. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have about the project.

CHRIS JERRAM, All right, questions from the board?

Thank you, Chair. Great presentation, wonderful project. I have a few questions, but I'm gonna reserve those following public comment.

Okay, sounds good. Thanks. Questions?

No questions for me. I know this has been a high priority for the community for some time now. It's been something Douglas County's been looking at for some time now and I know when I joined the board a year and a half ago, it was one of, something that I very much wanted to see done. We just absolutely can't have traffic backing up onto 85 or any interstate for that matter. So well time that there's high time that this gets done and I'll save further comments for after public comment.

i've got no questions ben i know uh yeah this is pretty important uh you know even this summer uh having the opportunity to drive by in the afternoons i'm watching traffic backing up onto 85 so i know we got to get on this uh so uh board any further questions Okay, let's go to public comment. Would anybody like to come forward? I have no signup sheet for this item at this time. So does anybody like to come forward and give comments on this matter? Seeing none, let's bring it back to the board for any summation comments and deliberation or motion.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. When you wanna look at what a community cares about or what its leaders care about, you can listen to the speeches. I know from the state legislature, we get speeches all the time, but the budget books there have some fatal flaws in it. But I think you really can look at the budget. You can look past the speeches. You can look past the people themselves. The budget is where the priorities fall. And for Douglas County, that's pretty clear for what we value. and that's public safety with our sheriff's department, fire and other things, and transportation, roads and bridges. We don't just talk about it, we fund it. Transportation is the largest piece of our budget, and to give you an idea of how big that priority is for us, our transportation funding from Douglas County is greater than Arapahoe County, Adams County, Jefferson County, and Boulder, not individually, but those four combined, that's how much we value transportation, that's how much we value the freedom of movement for our citizens, and we hear it from them every day that more work needs to be done. So we turn those tax dollars into real tangible results at Driver's C every day, and this project before us here today, like many others that we have active and going across Douglas County, really reflects our urgency to address those bottlenecks, address those transportation safety needs. So Mr. Chair, if it pleases the board, I move to approve the public contract for services with RS&H for design of the Titan Road and US 85 interchange project. This is Douglas County project number CI2026-012. And I'll second that motion.

All right, there's a motion and a second. I'm really glad to see this today. I think it's high time we get on this work, and so I will be in favor. Any further discussion? All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

And the contractor service is approved. Thanks, Ben. Our next item on the agenda is a Master Services and Purchasing Agreement and the 2026 purchase request between Douglas County Sheriff's Office and Axon Enterprises Incorporated for Skydio Drones and Axon Outpost Technology in the amount of $1,925,275.42. And it looks like we have our undersheriff.

uh to present or it could be dan mcmillan or it could be you know it could be anybody from the sheriff's department but under sheriff please jason kennedy under sheriff with douglas county sheriff's office and thank you commissioners for the opportunity to present today this is a really big deal for public safety and for our community today's not simply about purchasing drones cameras, or building a real-time information center, also known as an ARDC. It's about changing how public safety is delivered in Douglas County over the next decade. Our community continues to grow, calls for service continue to increase, traffic congestion and response times are increasing, and the expectations from our residents are as well. While our deputies, firefighters, and dispatchers work incredibly hard every day, and we know that, and we thank them for that, we cannot continue to meet tomorrow's challenges with yesterday's tools. This proposal creates a county-wide drone first responder, also known as a DFR program, integrated with a real-time information center or the Arctic. Together these technologies allow us to put eyes on the incident within minutes and often before the first deputy or firefighter arrives. That's super important. That means responding officers know whether a reported burglary is still in progress or if the suspects have already fled.

Fire crews can identify the location and size of a fire before they arrive.

Deputies can determine whether an armed suspect is still on scene, reducing the unnecessary risk to first responders and certainly to the public. Just as importantly, these capabilities will be best coordinated across local jurisdictions. This is not intended to be solely a Sheriff's Office initiative. It's seen as a countywide public safety partnership involving our municipal law enforcement agencies, which we have invited to the table, fire departments, emergency communication, and other public safety partners. The goal is a coordinated response regardless of which agency receives the call. The proposal also expands our public safety camera network. We will replace our existing 50 license plate readers and add approximately 50 additional units. I need to point out that these are gonna be strategically placed around the county at the main thoroughfares in and out. Works kinda like radar so we know if someone comes in, and and they're they're a criminal suspect or something like we can scramble the jets and get there and try to provide that public safety also just as important if they should leave we know that that's occurred These systems are not designed to monitor the daily activities of law-abiding citizens. They are designed to locate stolen vehicles, identify vehicles connected to crimes, locate missing or endangered persons, assist with Amber, Silver, and Medina alerts, and provide investigators with valuable leads when serious crimes occur. Finally, we will establish a real-time information center, also known as the Arctic. That serves as an operational hub for these technologies. Highly trained personnel will provide responding deputies, officers, firefighters, incident commanders with real-time information about these emergencies. Rather than wait around until after an incident to review evidence, we can provide intelligence while the event is unfolding, allowing responders to make better, safer and faster decisions. The proposed investment is approximately $23 million. over the next 10 years. While that's significant commitment, that is, it represents an investment in infrastructure that will serve this county for many years, like dispatch centers, radio communications, and emergency operations centers have in previous generations. This is a new generation of law enforcement. Success will not be measured by the number of drones we fly or the cameras we install. Success will be measured by faster emergency responses, safer encounters for our first responders and for the members of public. More crimes solved, more stolen vehicles recovered, and more missing people located. and ultimately our goal is a safer Douglas County. This proposal positions Douglas County as a national leader in modern public safety while maintaining our commitment to transparency, accountability, privacy, and responsible stewardship of the taxpayer resources. We appreciate your consideration today. Chiefs Dan McMillan and Taylor Davis will give you more information, and they welcome your questions, so thank you for your time. Thank you, Under Sheriff. Dan?

Thank you, Under Sheriff. Good afternoon, Commissioners. For the record, my name is Dan McMillan, Division Chief of Investigations with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today, and thank you to the community members who are here. The proposal before you includes Axon Skydio Drone as first responder and Axon Outpost. Technology tools designed to enhance public safety, officer safety, improve efficiency, and reduce strain on staffing and fleet resources. These are not general surveillance tools. They are call-driven, incident-specific public safety resources operated transparently under strict existing policies. Douglas County continues to see high volumes of priority one, two, and three calls, where early information is often the most critical factor. DFR provides the information within one to two minutes, allowing deputies to respond with clarity or determine that an in-person response is not needed. Agencies nationwide have shown that 25 to 40 percent of drone serve calls are resolved without sending a patrol unit. For Douglas County, this returns the operational capacity equivalent to several full-time deputies each year while reducing unnecessary mileage and vehicle wear. From a financial standpoint, each avoided response reduces labor demand, fuel use, and fleet expense. Outpost adds further efficiency by identifying vehicles tied to criminal investigations quickly and accurately, reducing investigative hours and increasing case resolution rates. These time savings create a meaningful return on investment using existing staff. We also see significant value in how this person, or sorry, program supports our wildfire response efforts by partnering with the Franktown and Lurkesboro Fire Protection Districts, Chief Woodrick's here in the back from Franktown, as well as our own Office of Emergency Management. DFR gives us rapid situational awareness during wildfire incidents. Early aerial assessment helps fire command make faster, safer decisions. improves evacuation coordination, and reduces the risk to firefighters and residents. This capability is particularly important given the rapid growth wildland urban interface in Douglas County. This strengthens our regional readiness and enhances multi-agency coordination during one of the most serious threats facing Douglas County. We also recognize that community trust is essential to everything we do. As a nationally recognized Triple Crown accredited agency, the Sheriff's Office operates under some of the highest professional, operational, and ethical standards in the country. That accreditation reflects a long-standing culture of accountability, transparency, and responsible stewardship of public resources. Both DFR and Outpost operate within that same framework. We already have strong policies governing their use, including strict privacy protections, limited data retention, audit requirements, and clearly defined operational rules. All activity is handled by trained commission members and is fully documented and reviewable. These tools are used only for calls for service, not for broad or general surveillance of the public. Our community expects responsible, measured, and transparent use of technology, and this program meets that expectation with strengthening, correction, while strengthening safety and efficiency. This proposal provides an immediate cost-effective way to expand response capability and manage rising call volume. It improves safety for deputies and residents, increases operational efficiency, and ensures responsible stewardship of public resources. Here are the key costs and efficiency points that illustrate the impact of this proposal. The program generates a clear return on investment through avoided patrol responses, reduced labor hours, and significant fleet savings. Breakeven occurs when drones prevent or shorten roughly 11 to 14% of the calls they reach, well below the 25 to 40% seen in mature programs. Reduced mileage, maintenance, fuel consumption, and collision risk create substantial long-term fleet savings. Given Douglas County's size 844 square miles and geography, each avoided response saves more time and mileage than in smaller jurisdictions. Outpost further reduces investigative hours, speeds case resolution, and prevents repeat victimization. Without these tools, workload, response times, and fleet costs will continue to rise. This project returns several deputies' worth of operational capacity each year, and those operational gains create a sustained and measurable return on investment for Douglas County taxpayers. Thank you. I'm gonna turn it over to Division Chief Davis.

Thanks, Dan. Taylor.

Good afternoon, Commissioners. Taylor Davis, Division Chief of Support Services at the Sheriff's Office. So as you have heard today, our partnership with Axon represents far more than the adoption of new technology. It is the creation of the most advanced public safety ecosystem available to law enforcement today. At the center of that ecosystem is Axon Fuses, hosted in evidence.com, which brings together the technologies we've discussed today with the innovative tools we've already deployed, including DraftOne, our AI-assisted report writing platform, which uses body-worn camera footage to generate an initial draft report. Draft 1 is reducing administrative workload by as much as 60%, allowing our deputies to spend more time where they are needed most in the community, protecting the people of Douglas County. Since its implementation in June of this year, Draft 1 has already been used to generate more than 1,200 reports. demonstrating both its effectiveness and the immediate value it has brought to our deputies. This proposed expansion of our Axon ecosystem also includes Axon Translate, an AI-powered language translation capability integrated directly into our body-worn cameras. This technology will enable deputies to communicate in real time with community members whose primary language is not English, helping to overcome language barriers during routine interactions or critical emergencies. In situations where every second counts, eliminating delays in communication can improve decision making, enhance officer and public safety, and ensure that those in need receive assistance quickly. Innovation, however, must always be matched with accountability. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office is committed to leveraging these advancements while protecting the privacy and constitutional rights of every person we serve. Through quarterly audits conducted by the Sheriff's Office leadership and in partnership with the 23rd Judicial District Attorney's Office, we will continually verify that these technologies are being used only within department policy and the Colorado law. Transparency is equally important. Our technology fact page available on the Sheriff's Office website explains how these systems are used and the safeguards that govern them. The Sheriff's Office maintains ownership of all data within our Axon platform and has established a policy limiting automated license plate reader data retention to just 30 days, unless it is associated with an active criminal investigation. and we did this prior to the state of Colorado requiring us to do so. Department policy clearly defines when these technologies may be used and establishes significant consequences, including up to termination and potential criminal prosecution for any misuse. The reality is that those who seek to victimize our community members have evolved their tactics. Law enforcement must evolve as well, not by compromising our values, but by strengthening our ability to prevent crime, solve cases, and keep our citizens safe. Our partnership with Axon ensures that we have the tools to meet today's public safety challenges while remaining firmly grounded in the principles that define our profession. Above all else, Sheriff Weekly and every member of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office remain committed to using these technologies for one purpose, to better serve the citizens of Douglas County while faithfully protecting the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the State of Colorado and the Constitution of the United States. What we are asking today is for the board to approve agenda item C, the master service purchasing agreement and 2026 purchase request between the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and Axon Enterprises for SkyDO drones and Axon Outpost technology in the amount of $1,925,275 or totaling the amount of $22,772,754 over the course of 120 months. We are open and willing to take any questions that the board may have. Thank you.

All right, thank you, team. Board, any questions for the Sheriff's Office presentation?

I'm going to hold my questions following public comment, if I have any.

I do have a few questions, Mr. Chair, and maybe, I think it was referenced, it was a very good presentation. It was also long, and I know there was a lot of tidbits built into it. So if I could ask two or three questions, Mr. Chair, the first, To the drone program, I think there's a notion out there that these drones are gonna be used for surveillance, kind of ongoing surveillance, or it'll be kind of hovering regularly over certain neighborhoods or something. Could you disfuse that and kind of just repeat what you said about how the drones will be used on a case-by-case basis.

Yes, Commissioner. The drones will be deployed in docks throughout Douglas County. They will not be used for any form of surveillance. They'll only be dispatched when there's a call for service. So whether it's a radio call or initiated by a citizen, call report to our dispatch center.

So there's a call that there is someone in danger, a bad accident, a fire, something like that. Then the drone goes out, tries to meet or beat even the deputies and the patrol or the firefighters going out to that site. And then as soon as it's done, it comes back to its home base and parks for potentially days on end. That's correct, sir.

When there's sufficient units on scene or even one deputy or the fire unit says that they no longer need that or they have situational awareness of it, then it'll respond back and they'll charge and be fully ready for the next dispatch.

Okay, thank you. That's an important point. Secondly, I know the Sheriff's Department for many years has been actively engaged with the flock cameras, that company. I myself had rather serious concerns about the data retention policies, not of our Sheriff's Department, but of the company itself, the Flock Corporation, and our citizens' privacy rights with the Flock. I guess a two-part question is in with that, and you don't have to, we're not in an executive session here, this is fully public, so you don't need to give all your specifics of what your department is dealing with, but maybe just give reassurances that the citizens' privacies will be better protected tomorrow than they are potentially even today.

Yes, Commissioner, thank you. So one of the main reasons that we are switching away from Flock to Axon is specifically for what you've spoken about. Currently, right now, with Flock, we do not own that data. Now, we do set parameters on who has access to that data, and they're very strict. They would follow the same kind of parameters that we would set for any one of our technology uses. But the reality is that that company does own that data, and that does give us concern. With Axon, we own our data. They are not harboring it in their cloud. They simply are just providing us the tools, and then it is our responsibility to safeguard everything that we collect as far as that goes from those different technologies. And that is also why we have set that 30-day retention, particularly on the ALPR license plate reads. Unless it's tied to a criminal investigation, it is deleted permanently. It doesn't go into a secret file. It no longer exists.

And then secondarily to that, so spending money for the new Axon equipment, but there'll be cost savings also on the other side of no longer using the flock equipment, correct?

That is correct. Actually, if you go apples to apples, the Axon cameras are less money than flock cameras.

Okay, thank you. You're very welcome. Those are my questions, Mr. Chair.

I'm going to kind of keep up a little bit of your questioning, Commissioner. So, Taylor, so again, I think the license plate readers is a real concern of ours. Yes, we have heard from many law enforcement agencies here in the county how they are a valuable tool, but then we keep hearing concerns from our residents that they're inherently a privacy violation. So the 30-day retention I like, can you tell me, so we own that data. Is that in on-premises service storage or is that gonna be cloud storage?

It is hosted through cloud storage through evidence.com.

Okay, but then when you talk about deleting every 30 days, is, I mean, are we doing some kind of auto-delete? Is this a clerical function to go in and select for deletion and omit those that need to be held on for, you know, give me an idea what that looks like because in business systems that I'm very familiar with, it's when you can set something to be automated and you have to mark it to be an exception. That's when you get your best business efficiency. Here, if we're looking at this feature as a privacy protection measure, I'm wondering our efficiency is actually in privacy protection. Can you give us an idea on how that workflow goes in order to ensure that these records are indeed deleted?

Absolutely. So within evidence.com right now, which houses all of our body worn camera footage, our fleet camera footage, pretty much anything that we have tied to Axon is housed through evidence.com. We set retention periods for different, all types of whatever the incident might be. Usually it's driven by statute of limitations. So for example, if we have a homicide, there's no statute of limitations and it's going to be tied to that case. We do that through case report numbers or incident report numbers. We also categorize everything. So for example, if a deputy is called somewhere and then by the time they arrive, maybe the individual is no longer in the area, but they do turn on their body camera, it would be no police action. Those types of videos right now are currently set to just automatically delete. at 180 days. So the concept with ALPR will be the exact same. Unless we have a deputy going in and categorizing that video because say there's an ALPR hit for a stolen vehicle or potentially something associated with an Amber Alert, unless it is absolutely tied to a case report number, that retention is set at 30 days and the system is built to automatically delete those. There is no human interaction. There is no double checking by humans. The system is set up to do that.

And that 30-day then retention, is that a rolling 30 days or is that a calendar day within the next 30 days?

It is the, so today, for example, if we had this in place, 30 days from today would be when that video deletes. So I guess you could say it's rolling because it just depends on when those images are captured on an ALPR type system.

And so it takes positive human intervention in order to set those to not delete and be retained beyond the 30 days. Correct. That positive human action, do we have a means of measuring that, of logging that and reviewing that and auditing?

Yes, so that is our audit system. We currently have an audit system in place for our body-worn camera footage. It is done quarterly and it falls to the responsibility of each division chief to then assign that to either themselves or say a commander within their division to go through and randomly audit 10 body-worn camera videos. The way I have written the policy currently, it would be set up the exact same for ALPR. So quarterly, we would conduct this type of audit where let's say it's a commander on patrol, they would have to, do random audits of individuals on their team to see what information are they looking at in ALPR and how are they utilizing it. I guess you could say there is the human element of recognizing misuse. But we are, the way I've written this policy, sir, is that their job is dependent on them using this the right way. And not only their job, but potential of criminal charges. The risk for them to misuse this is severe. There's no other way to word it. So that is how we do that audit system. But what we've added in addition with ALPR is we are partnering with the 23rd Judicial District Attorney's Office. And we're also going to have somebody from their office audit the same kind of information quarterly as well.

Okay, okay. Well, I've lectured my clients in business in the software industry many times before coming into elected office about cool technology features are really cool and absolutely worthless if the human beings in the loop do not do their jobs. So sounds like you've got that plan for in the office. Those are my questions at this time. Board, any other questions come up for you guys?

None for me, thank you. Mr. Chair, just I think to be absolutely clear, so if a license plate were to be, my license plate, your license plate, anyone in this room's license plate gets searched through the database in that 30-day window, there's a track record of who searched it And if that were to be an inappropriate search, it's not part of an ongoing investigation or a court case or something, what are the, maybe just one more time, what are the, one, it's auditable, so it will be known who searched that and how and when and what got searched, but then what would be the consequence if that search is inappropriate?

If we did find that somebody was misusing this technology, it could be up to termination to include criminal prosecution.

Okay, thank you. for the questions, gents. Okay, well, thank you very much, Chiefs, Undersheriff, appreciate it. Let's go ahead and turn to public comment. I do have four folks signed up for public comment. Let's start with Timothy O'Shea, if you'll please come forward to the podium. Timothy O'Shea. I'm not seeing a Timothy O'Shea. Representative Marshall, if you'll please come to the podium, sir.

Thank you, Bob Marshall, Highlands Ranch. Of course, the great quote everyone uses, those who give up essential liberty for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. We are more than doubling the cameras out there, and this is an exponential increase in ability. It's not just... a different system, it's a different one in quality, yet I don't see much citizen input on this, which is very disturbing. We may be approaching a terminator world, but I would think you would want citizen input on it, and I hear, oh, well, we have a policy, we have a policy. Well, who can change that policy? immediately and overnight. There's no citizen oversight. They don't have to come back to you. I mean, if you want to write the contract that somehow says the provider, Axon, will follow these very procedures, and if they don't, they will not get paid by the county, but it is kind of disturbing that someone in a back room can just change the policy. So again, my biggest concern is we may be going towards a terminator world, but I would really suggest that you have input from the average citizens and you have some kind of oversight by average citizens. This Trust Us, that's great. I mean, people may trust Sheriff Weekly, but we may not have Sheriff Weekly. We may not have the people we have now that we may trust. So if you're putting a system in, you wanna assume it's gonna be abused. I would just assume that and put in safeguards rather than assume we got good people working it. Because again, when they say, well, this wasn't designed to do this. Alfred Nobel didn't design dynamite to blow up people. He designed it to replace nitroglycerin for mining and industrial purposes and forever. hated himself for the millions of people he killed with it. So again, let's go forward with an open eyes and look at some kind of decent oversight and citizen input and not just do this behind closed doors and say, trust us. Thanks.

Mr. Chair, just a point of personal privilege and a question. Is this not public comment right now?

It is.

Okay, just want to ensure we were providing public comment and input at this moment.

Yeah, thank you, Commissioner. Excellent point. Okay. Allen Westfall. At least I think that's what it says. Allen Westfall? Okay, no sweat then. Thank you, sir, for that clarification. David Woodard. Please come forward, sir, and come to the podium and begin your comments, please.

David Woodrick, Fire Chief, Franktown Fire. Didn't have my readers on when I was signing in, so has a problem with that. Just coming forth today to build upon what these cameras could mean to not only law enforcement, but from the fire side. With all the threats that we see, and currently within the state, one of the biggest things from the fire department is the ability to have eyes on a fire in a short period of time. We recently saw the National Forest that we had other AI type devices that rapidly picked up smoke and was able to put the county's helicopter over a fire in a matter of moments, not just waiting until the smoke's bad enough for everybody to see it. these type of things, especially within the Franktown Fire District as it sits with all the urban interface to have a real view of what's going on is critical to responders for that initial time where the decisions made upon arrival or even before arrival of additional resources and what we actually have is critical in how we respond to emergencies. I think for what the county has gone forward with the hard, heavy, and fast and how we have to attack wildland fires, I think that this is one component that shows a great deal for what it could do for public safety and the fire agencies. That along with search and rescue for some of our areas like this that will take a tremendous involvement by manpower, things like this to do this, the ability to have some technology like this is already shown to prove itself in the nation and other places. So thank you.

Thank you, Chief, very much appreciate your comments. Those are all I had signed up for public comment. Is there anyone else who would like to make public comment on this matter? Come on forward, ma'am. Please come to the podium. Do tell us your name and where you're from.

Thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Jennifer Iverson. I represent Douglas County Parents, a pro-public education group. It seems like a lot of research went into this presentation. We appreciate the concern for everyone's safety, thus our confusion when funds for unproven drones is rubber stamped. There are too many unanswered questions to responsibly give over $200,000 taxpayer dollars.

Ma'am, I'm sorry, are you sure you're speaking on the right subject? I'm afraid that it sounded like you referred to an item that was actually removed from consideration in this meeting earlier. This is pertaining to the Exxon contract with the Sheriff's Department. If you would like to please confine your comments to the topic at hand.

Okay. I believe all drones need to be governed well and with consideration to accidents that might happen, including children being harmed in schools. I also believe that the operators of the drones should be familiar with the people that are in the buildings that it surrounds and that those buildings and the drone operators should be following laws in both the state that they belong to or are in and the state that the drones are being operated in. I have very strong concerns about any kind of physical damage that could happen to a person or anyone else that would be a victim of these drones being misused or just not being used properly because of the push to have something fancy.

Thank you, ma'am. Very much appreciate your comments. Is there anyone else who would like to speak on this topic? Julie, come on forward. You're no stranger to the board, but please do give us your name and tell us where you're from.

My name is Julie Ord, and I'm from Highlands Ranch. And I, too, would love to talk about the JAA drones, but I understand that that's not on topic here right now. I will say that I do want to preface my comments by thanking Sheriff Weekly, who I sent questions to, and he responded with full transparency and helpfulness about that issue. But with regard to this issue and this new technology, I just have one question or one concern. I'm the division director. I believe spoke about the fact that the Sheriff's Office would be kind of auditing or overseeing their own complaints of misuse or abuse. And I would like to propose that I think that really needs to be an independent Board of Review with citizens sitting on that. And so I think that's something that should be really considered. This is an issue that citizens care about a lot, piggybacking on Representative Marshall's issues. And so I don't think that it's a good idea for transparency to have the Sheriff's Department overseeing their own investigations of themselves. So I would just ask that that's something I think we should consider as this is new technology and the potential for abuse, the potential for complications that are unseen or unexpected are always there. And I would like to ask you to consider that before approving this. Thank you.

All right, thank you, ma'am. Anyone else like to speak on this subject? And seeing none, let's bring it back to the board. Commissioner, you had talked about having further questions following public comment. Do you have questions at this time?

I do, lots of questions and maybe a few comments, but I know our normal practice is to perhaps bring it back to the applicant to respond to public comment, if you're okay with that, Chair?

Yeah, let's hear from the Chiefs and the Under Sheriff again.

Thank you. There was a few things I would like to respond to. In regards to the safety element of the drones, I do think it's important to point out that these drones would be operated by commissioned members of the Sheriff's Office. In addition to that, these drones are set up to where if they are about to run out of battery, for example, they are automatically going to respond back to their home base in order to recharge. The other safety measure that is in place is they do have parachutes inside them. So if something were to happen to where they were going to come out of the sky, there is an element of that parachute that will hopefully keep anybody on the ground safe from any kind of harm. So those are just some safety measures. Just wanted to comment on that. And then in addition, right now we currently do have the audit system set up for the ALPR that we do have in place. It's actually done by our strategic initiatives commander. But the outside oversight that we have set up for this new, more robust system is through the 23rd Judicial District Attorney's Office. They are held to a very high standard, and I believe that they will provide great oversight, and they will provide a new eye and a new perspective on any type of potential misuse.

That's going to be covered here.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So maybe just a couple of additional questions following along public comment. Can you share a little bit more, I mean, for either of you, where these Exxon drones are currently in place in the country?

A few on a slide earlier, we're having some difficulties, but there's approximately 28 in the state of Colorado that are deployed. But large agencies in the metro area, Denver Police Department, Colorado Springs Department, these are four referenced here. Lakewood Police Department is a newer customer in the last year, but they're clearing almost 40% of their calls by use of a DFR without sending an officer out or agent. in their case to respond.

So let me pause on that. I just want to emphasize, I mean, in an era of misinformation, to make sure that we're very clear that, I mean, we heard comment around, why don't we know about this? Why hasn't this been tested? Why isn't this in other places? And it has been tested. It's all over the place. And a 40% reduction, I mean, if there's, a figure that you can provide us around the savings to taxpayers that happens when you don't have deputies going out to calls for service that are unnecessary that can be addressed by this technology. Maybe speak to that.

Yeah, we're going to be able to respond 24-7, depending on the weather as well. But we don't have to water it, feed it, and we'll just recharge the battery and be able to deploy it. So these are... resources that we're not accustomed to that we'll be able to get there so quickly. Now, we will have a transparency portal. If you go to Colorado Springs Police Department, they have a portal. You can actually see the drone deployments within a 24-hour period, as well as how many response, the call types and responses that they're handling as well. We'll have a similar product on our dashboard.

Yeah. Unless the board has additional questions or comments for the applicant, I might have a few comments.

um commissioner any questions no questions for me uh i as i said previously um i did have and i don't need to go into all the details and you don't need to either in this public forum but i did have some privacy concerns with the previous contract and very much appreciate the sheriff and the whole team trying to find a better solution to protect privacy for the citizens of Douglas County. So no questions for me. It's been something I've been tracking and following for some time now. So thank you for finding some security for the people of Douglas County and for their privacy.

Just one question from me probably undershare if this is probably best one for you if you wouldn't mind Rather than put it on Dan and Taylor because this is more your pay grade but we did hear from the representative from a couple other folks the idea of public oversight and Chief Davis did go into the point that oversight is being provided by JD 23. Tell you what, any thoughts, any ideas at this time in terms of some sort of citizen oversight as well?

We currently have, it is not a citizen oversight review committee, if you will, and that's our, so we have a group that meets and we go through several of our different projects and what we're doing. We're always willing to entertain that. I don't know what that would look like and I would be, we certainly are more than willing to have that conversation, sir.

Okay, I mean, It's a valid point, and obviously the sheriff has his responsibilities on the Colorado State Constitution. We have ours, but I thought it was a valid point.

Okay, thank you, sir. Appreciate that.

Those are my questions, comments, and board action.

Yeah, maybe a couple of comments. And for the larger group of citizens out there that are paying attention to this issue, and I'm not talking about those that wish to spread misinformation for political reasons. I'm talking about the average citizen that's concerned about public safety. This board has prioritized your work and we have seen the results of that. It's because we believe in public safety that we have one of the greatest counties not only in the state of Colorado but in the entire United States. This is the place where people want to go and I'm not just saying that. We saw migration out of virtually every county, all 64 counties in the state of Colorado except for two, Broomfield and here. There's a reason for that. The perception and the reality that Douglas County is safe is a big deal to people. And I constantly get asked, how can we pay for things? Why are we so prosperous? We're returning tax dollars back to citizens every single year, but we do get funded through property taxes. When values go up and there's a higher demand for homes in our county because it's safe, There's just generally going to be more property tax revenue. We don't need it. As conservatives, we return that back as often as we can, and we budget conservatively. But I look to counties and cities like Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, downtown Denver. I'm a fifth-generation Coloradan. I was born in Denver, so I can talk about my own city a little bit. And to watch the crime and the ruin and the danger that has occurred down there as a result of an increase in crime is a tragedy. And I really applaud the leaders in Denver now that are working very hard to improve safety because I think they're taking a note out of our playbook. We have made Douglas County safe in partnership with all of our amazing citizens and law enforcement, and it pays off. I am deeply concerned about privacy concerns and making sure that we are thinking about unreasonable search and seizure and honoring the right of our free citizens to remain free without surveillance. But that's always a balancing. We must balance that against the needs to keep our citizens safe. And I think what you shared with us is so important that it's call-driven and it's incident-specific. This is not general surveillance. It is call-specific. It is incident-specific, call-driven. So to me, that gives me a lot of peace of mind in addition to the massive savings that this is going to be when we have deputies that can focus on human trafficking and making sure that they're discovering and detecting and finding perpetrators of crimes that may be this technology does not allow us to do. That frees you up to do so much more in our community to protect families and children, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I really want to thank you for being tip of the spear, and as one commissioner, I hope I'm not just speaking for my colleagues, but I believe we will always be pro-public safety in Douglas County. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Commissioner. Further comments, discussion, and a motion if it's the desire of the board.

Well, if it does please the board and there's no additional discussion, I will make a motion to approve a master services and purchasing agreement in 2026 purchase request between the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and Axon Enterprises Inc. for Skydio drones and Axon Outpost technology in the amount of $1,925,275.42. Second. All right, there's a motion and a second. Further discussion?

I read a book recently and it was about New York City and I found it surprising that it talked about the period when the Metropolitan Police Department was formed in New York City. And how, ironically, one of the biggest concerns was the invasion of privacy. And New York City was, at that time, still a municipality of immigrants. And there was actually a large population of Irish immigrants that had come in off the potato famine years. And in the Irish community, the argument was we are hiring an entire department of spies. are going to spy on the common person here in our fair city something like that and uh i find it interesting we always yes do we want public safety we do in colorado we have a constitutional duty to provide for co for uh public safety you know not every state of the union requires a county to have a sheriff a police department in every town uh and yet that's a decision that was made at our time of state founding And so Sheriff Weakley is not a member of staff like the distinguished three before us, but he is a constitutional officer like us and elected by the people. And so how do you maintain that balance between public safety and privacy? I see, having worked in technology professionally, I think technology is great, but technology is never a panacea. Technology will not do everything to make your life good, safe, perfect, et cetera. And so ergo, Chief, my question is to you about what is the human element, what are the human controls that will be particularly with the license plate readers? But then I think we heard the same thing from the public in terms of the use of the drone technology. So, I feel very good about this process. I'm going to vote in support of it. I think we've got my big concerns dealt with. I know people think about license plate readers and they think, well, that thing's just firing off every time they drive by. Me? Listen, I've worked in technology. During our work session, I shared with you guys from the Sheriff's Office that just the week before, I accessed a customer's site that I hadn't touched in years. And yeah, I told them about it beforehand, nothing sneaky, but I didn't need any future authorizations. I think that's something, okay, that's a business. and they're selling plumbing supplies, probably no great privacy violations in plumbing supplies. This is a little different because we are the state and the Sheriff's Office is the instrument of the state that we do require up to and including the use of deadly force. Therefore, I feel confident that we've got the processes in place, we have the human elements in place, and perhaps more specifically, we have the leadership in place in order to ensure that this is not technology that doesn't take, as the representative said, the very liberty that we seek for the price, for the gain of public safety. So I speak in favor of the motion. Further discussion? There is a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. And the master services and purchasing agreement is approved. Thank you very much, under sheriff and staff. All right, our next item is payment to the Douglas County Search and Rescue for Douglas County Sheriff's Office contributions for a new command post in 2026 annual support in the amount of $223,000 and Chief White.

Good afternoon, gentlemen. Chief White with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office Patrol Division. I sit on the board of the Search and Rescue. In 2025, the Douglas County Search and Rescue Board approached us for the purchase of a new command post vehicle. The command post vehicle they were using was a 2001 box truck that was purposed for CSI work. They repurposed that in 2004 and have had that working ever since. It's an old beat up command post that is broadly used. They respond to 2025, they responded to 157 calls for service. Most of those were missing and endangered folks. Some very technical rescues in the mountains and often some fatality recoveries. The replacement was requested to help manage the team's purpose gear that's driven for the sole purpose of first aid that outweighed the old vehicle. It was logistical support and communication equipment. The estimated cost of this vehicle was $350,000. In 2025, a generous citizen of Douglas County offered to match the Douglas County Sheriff's Office with that budget item. So I requested in 2025, $175,000 purpose for this vehicle. In May of 2026, we acquired that vehicle. It was delivered to us. It's a beautiful vehicle, set specifically as a command post for the search and rescue teams. I believe we have a picture. I don't know. Maybe not. I thought we had a picture of it. It's still being updated, but we're requesting the payment of $175,000. At this time, we're also requesting the annual support of $48,000 which the Douglas County Sheriff's Office provides for their services each year. So with that, I thank the board for their continued support of the Douglas County Search and Rescue Team and the Sheriff's Office. These are critical missions. This is an awesome team. It's a robust team. They do a lot, a lot of work in our community. It's all good work. and it's a volunteer organization. They respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

All right, thank you, Chief. Board, questions for the Chief?

Maybe just a few quick comments. I always want to call you Detective. You've had a lot of different roles for many years, but it's great to see you, Chief, and you always do such great work for the county. You know, people may not know what search and rescue does. And for years, these are volunteers that ask for very little, that are recovering not only people, senior citizens that might have dementia or a bit confused. They're recovering evidence. They recover bullets. I mean, they're really... getting out there and doing all sorts of things, especially if a child goes missing and they're in the woods somewhere. I mean, I think that's the first thing that comes to mind. But Search and Rescue does a tremendous job for our county that I'm not sure most of our citizens are fully aware of. So if you could speak to that. And my recollection is that for years, these volunteers were spending upwards of about $4,000 of their own money just to outfit themselves to go out and do a lot of this work. So I'm always really pleased to see any sort of request for search and rescue because what they do far exceeds the investment.

Yeah, so to add on to that, they have a very slim budget. It's all volunteer. Most of them purchase their own climbing equipment, their own shoes, their own hiking equipment. They're provided with a yellow search and rescue uniform and a coat. They provide their own gloves. their own hats, most of their own safety equipment. This, again, is an all-volunteer organization, 72 or 73 of them. They saved the county an enormous amount of money. The most recent event that comes to mind is where we had nine hikers with special needs that were up in the Pike National Forest. The Douglas County Search and Rescue team responded up there with the South Metro fire and West Douglas fire, along with several patrol folks. Provided drone work. They provided search and rescue teams. is it was extremely hot. One of the folks came out of that, a young man came out with 104 degree temperature after hiking for several miles. And he came out with the assistance from the Douglas County Search and Rescue Team. What I'll tell you is they save lives every year. They go out in the cold. They go up in the pike often and save people from frostbite and death. They respond out to missing endangered elderly folks, often find them after they've disappeared from their families. And they're most often called as just a missing child. They're quick and they get out really quick on those calls. Really quick service, but this is often a free service for us. It's a very low budget and we're very, very proud to have them in our community. They're just great members of this community.

Yeah, thank you so much for that, Chief. And I couldn't echo those sentiments more. I mean, in my time, that has been one, I think, commissioner issue that I've thought about is how can we better support the work of search and rescue? I mean, for any of us that has a child, an older adult in our family, or even ourselves, you get lost in the woods or something happens. You better believe those 72 volunteers are going to be activated immediately for your benefit. And that is a free service to us. I just would love to see our county focus on ways that we can support them. You know, care for the caretakers. And this is a very modest request for what they do.

Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner.

No questions from me. I know it was just last year we saw the pictures. We got to see the 2001, the 25-year-old truck that needed upgrading. The board unanimously supported a big upgrade to that. And to echo Commissioner Layton's statements, anything else we as a county can do to support these brave individuals who step up when... someone is lost or in need or in sometimes very hard, terrible conditions, anything we can do to support, don't hesitate to ask. Thank you, Chief. Absolutely.

yeah i uh i don't think i have any questions because it just seems like such an easy button uh do we get a you know do we put up additional funding for our search and rescue uh team knowing everything they do or not that's like hardly even a no-brainer for me so i don't think i have any questions at all chief thank you very much for presenting this to us and giving us an opportunity to help these uh good volunteers here in the county continue to do really great things for their neighbors Board, if we have no other questions, we can move on to public comment. I did not have anyone sign up for public comment on this matter. If there's anybody who'd like to come forward and give public comment at this time, please do. Mr. Smith, please come forward, and you're no stranger to the board, but please do give us your name and where you're from.

Hi everyone, Matt Smith, Castle Rock. I am one of those 72 volunteers and so I'm not speaking on behalf of search and rescue, but at 5 o'clock tonight I'll be going out to Castlewood Canyon to practice our technical rescues. I'm part of that team and I can assure you that the folks that are involved with this organization, they do it for their heart. They're not here for your money. they wake up at all hours of the night to respond to different situations in Douglas County. Some of those being very technical rescues up at like Devil's Head area or up in the Pike National Forest. And then a lot of these just being missing and endangered elderly or kids. And so this command center is really a big deal for the organization. Right now, we roll up on scene and we're literally using bungee cords to make sure that we're setting things up correctly so that the generator fumes don't actually come into the command center when we're running it. This is going to be a big value add. We're going to be able to carry additional equipment and just be much more effective when we're out there in the field serving the community. On behalf of all those volunteers, I do thank you guys for the kind words that you've said. Again, I'm not here speaking on their behalf. I was here for something else. but just wanted to come up and echo those sentiments. We really appreciate this, and this will be a great investment for the community and will allow us to just perform that much better. So thank you so much.

All right. Thank you, Matt. Appreciate it. Is there anybody else who would like to give public comment on this matter? And seeing none, let's bring it back to the board for any discussion and a motion.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know if one of my kids were to get lost or myself were to get lost or even my parents were to get lost, I'd want our Douglas County brave volunteers assisted by fire and police and rescue and our sheriff's department and even assisted with a drone to perhaps speed up that search. I would want that for them, and so for all the citizens of Douglas County, I move to approve payments to the Douglas County Search and Rescue for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office contributions for the new command post and the 2026 annual support in the amount of $223,000. And I'll second my colleague's motion, and I wish to speak in favor of it.

All right, please speak in favor of it.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm hearing some consensus from the board around not only this particular motion, but how we can perhaps fund search and rescue appropriately, thoughtfully into the future. And to Commissioner Van Winkle's point, if your child goes missing, I don't want volunteers rummaging through their garage for equipment from the 90s trying to strap on broken things and old boots and coats that don't fit anymore. If there is a modest investment that we can contemplate as we go into budget season, that is appropriate, and if it pleases the board, I would certainly invite Chief White to help us perhaps explore that. Now is probably not the perfect time for that.

It is a perfect time. If I could just comment to that, it is budget season. It's among us. We as a board meet tomorrow night, so I'll discuss that with the board and discuss potential investment on that.

Yeah, thank you, and not to belabor the point, but it might help my colleagues to just share from my experience, I have brought this up in the past, and these volunteers are so humble, they usually turn me down. They usually turn me down, and they're like, well, I've got it, I can pay for it, I can handle it. And those are the types of services and volunteers that we should be funding. So anyway, I think staff is here, our county manager, our amazing county manager, Doug DeBoer is here and has heard that. If the board supports that, I'd certainly offer that up as a suggestion, but that's certainly not what's before us now. I just wanted to speak in favor of this particular motion and just a nod to the future.

All right, thank you, Commissioner. Any further discussion? All right, there is a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. And the payment to search and rescue is approved.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Chief. Appreciate it. Moving on. We did move Commissioner comments forward in the agenda. Commissioners, any further comments at this time?

Well, if I could, Mr. Chair, just kind of a reflection of the meeting that we've had here. And I opened, I think my first comments, I mean, we're talking about our priorities as a board, can be found in our budget and could be found in this meeting today, which our transportation is our top priority. We fund more transportation dollars than Adams, Arapahoe, Jeffco, and Boulder combined. And then our second biggest portion of our budget is public safety. That includes fire, our Sheriff's Department, and things like the search and rescue vehicle that we just approved here today. So I think, I feel like we're on the right track as far as reflecting our citizens' values of public safety and transportation being one and two. And I can't wait for the Farron Roadie. It's gonna be the best one ever, and it's gonna be way better than that one up north in that Wyoming Dust Bowl.

Yeah, yeah. Further, Commissioner, comments?

None for me, Mr. Chair, thank you.

And nor I. Other business? Gentlemen, do we have any other business today? Seeing none, County Manager? All right. Thank you, Doug. Well, let's go ahead and that comes to the end of our agenda. Let's go ahead and adjourn. Our next business meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 28th, 2026 at 1.30 p.m. We are adjourned.