The votes are in, and all 44 eligible employees at the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office that voted on a collective bargaining proposal for the office voted in favor of it.
It was a rare unanimous vote.
“Usually there’s one or two no’s,” said Sean McCauley, a labor and employment lawyer who’s representing the Sheriff’s Office in this case.
The election was conducted via mail-in ballots, and they did their “due diligence” to ensure the addresses of all 59 eligible voters were correct, he said.
Of those eligible, 45 returned a ballot. One person failed to sign the outside of the envelope, so only 44 votes were counted.
Sheriff’s Office employees at sergeant status or below were considered eligible to vote because of language in most every labor law that creates a cutoff for people who are in advisory roles, as McCauley explained in January when the office first provided a collective bargaining notice.
Now that the proposal passed, Mesa Verde FOP Lodge 74 – the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office bargaining unit – will move forward with creating a collective bargaining plan for the office.
Earlier this week, McCauley said he met with deputies from the office “to go over what they’d like to see.”
The “over-arching challenge” in the department concerns staffing and personnel, said McCauley.
“They have a tough time attracting and retaining employees,” he said.
The office “isn’t looking to become millionaires,” said McCauley. “Anything that can help them staff the place is what they want to propose.”
Because without a properly staffed department, he said, it’s hard to get time off and the job inherently becomes “more dangerous” when officers are forced to go on calls alone.
Come June or July, they’re anticipating having a meeting with the Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners to review and establish the proposed agreement.
