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Montezuma County » Montezuma County has invited Sheriff Nowlin to the BOCC workshop on Monday, July 13, to discuss his decision to end the Montezuma County Narcotics program
Montezuma County has invited Sheriff Nowlin to the BOCC workshop on Monday, July 13, to discuss his decision to end the Montezuma County Narcotics program, which is detailed in an article in The Journal published today, July 9.
The article published in The Journal was the first notification that Sheriff Nowlin decided to discontinue the narcotics investigation program.
The Journal article suggests that budget reductions forced the Sheriff’s decision. That claim is not supported by the County’s financial records. In fact, the Sheriff’s Office budget has increased from $6,232,806 in 2024 to $7,341,485 in 2026. The attached budget report detailing the Sheriff’s Office and Jail budgets, along with actual expenditures from 2015 through 2025 (Sheriff Nowlin’s tenure as Sheriff), clearly demonstrates this trend. Since 2015, Sheriff Nowlin has returned $4,637,197 in unspent dollars from the funds the BOCC allocated to the Sheriff’s Office.
In the Sheriff’s 2026 proposed budget, he requested a total of $30,000 for “buy money” and operating expenses for the drug task force building. The Commissioners asked for additional information, including an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Cortez to include cost sharing for the task force, which was never provided by the Sheriff. Those were the only requested items not included in the 2026 budget. The position held by Detective Galarza is funded as a full-time employee in the 2026 budget.
The citizens of Montezuma County deserve factual information and an open discussion on the public record about these important issues.
Embedded calendar showing upcoming events for the Montezuma County Board of Commissioners.
