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Summit County officials urge emergency management officials to improve alert system, communication

A letter commissioners sent to the office of emergency management stated its responsibilities could be transferred from the Sheriff's Office to the county manager's office if expectations are not met

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From left to right, Summit County commissioners Nina Waters, Tamara Pogue and Eric Mamula discuss the county's 2024 budget during a special meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 20.
Robert Tann/Summit Daily News archive

Editor’s note: This story was updated to remove a date for a review of an emergency operations plan since it has changed.

At a special meeting May 15, the Summit Board of County Commissioners discussed issues regarding alerts during recent emergency situations and decided to send a letter to Emergency Manager Brian Bovaird laying out expectations for improvements.

After a fire in Frisco led to no emergency notifications May 10 and a gas leak in Silverthorne brought a barrage of notifications May 13, the commissioners decided to hold a special meeting May 15, scheduled 24 hours in advance, to discuss emergency communication.



The agenda for the meeting had one item under new business, which stated the board would consider a resolution transferring the duties of emergency management from under the Summit County Sheriff’s Office to the county manager’s office.

County Communications Director Adrienne Isaac wrote in an email that the board did not discuss any such resolution, instead transitioning the meeting to a work session so the discussion could include county staff.



The board talked about the two incidents from earlier that week, Commissioner Nina Waters said, and decided to draft a letter “reiterating our disappointment and dissatisfaction with the way communication has been going.”

“We’re setting some benchmarks that we expect the office to reach,” Waters said. “If they cannot reach that, then we’ll really consider the Board of County Commissioners taking that back and managing it ourselves.”

The letter reflects what Waters said, stating toward the end that failure to adhere to the expectations and actions described previously would result in further action by the county, up to and including the revocation of BOCC Resolution 2023-26, which transferred emergency operations responsibilities from the county manager’s office to the Sheriff’s Office.

That April 2023 resolution came from discussions that started in October 2022, according to the letter. Commissioner Tamara Pogue said the board reevaluated its emergency operations after the COVID-19 pandemic waned.

“We all sat down, and we looked at what was the most likely emergency that we would encounter as a community moving forward,” Pogue said. “There’s no question that it’s wildfire.”

Pogue said the board looked at how emergency management worked in other counties in Colorado and found that some leave day-to-day responsibilities to the county manager’s office while others designate those duties to the sheriff’s office.

Because the Summit County sheriff also serves as the county fire warden, the board saw transferring emergency management duties to the Sheriff’s Office as an opportunity to increase efficiency, Pogue said.

“The sheriff, I think correctly, outlined that it would be less expensive, there would be less overhead, that he already had a lot of the capacity that was necessary to prepare appropriately for a wildfire,” Pogue said.

The switch has been effective, especially in how the sheriff has made connections with the federal and state governments to fight wildfires and how quickly crews respond to fires in Summit County, Pogue said, but she sees other issues with emergency communications.

“Traffic management — which I know folks don’t call an emergency officially, but feels very much like an emergency to the public — is one of those areas,” Pogue said.

Waters and Pogue both pointed to the emergency operations plan as a key part of the commissioners’ expectations. Waters said it has not been updated since 2021, and Pogue said the current version is too long to be an effective public-facing document.

Other counties’ plans, Pogue said, are easier to understand and digest than the Summit plan. She said she wants the office of emergency management to produce a plan more similar to those of other counties.

“I get a lot of questions from folks about, well, ‘What is my emergency evacuation route? What should I be planning in the event of an emergency?'” Pogue said. “All of those types of things.”

Waters and Pogue also want to see improved public communication from the office. Waters said the office has told the commissioners that it is “a courtesy that we receive notification when an emergency happens.”

Pogue said that, despite the Sheriff’s Office overseeing day-to-day operations, the commissioners still have a statutory responsibility for emergency management.

“Ultimately, (it is) my responsibility to make sure that we are following the state statute,” Pogue said, “my responsibility to make sure that we are doing appropriate planning, my responsibility ultimately, to make sure that we have public alert systems and good communications with the public in disasters.”

The commissioners’ letter includes actions they want the office of emergency management to take, most of which have a deadline listed as “Ongoing.” The request to complete an updated emergency operations plan, though, has a listed deadline of 120 days.

Pogue said the commissioners have already seen positive responses from the office, and Sheriff’s Office Lt. Mike Schilling wrote in an email that the emergency operations plan update has been submitted and is scheduled to be reviewed at a future Board of County Commissioners work session.

“This new plan represents a major step forward in our preparedness efforts, with key improvements designed to strengthen the safety and resilience of our entire community,” Schilling wrote.

Shilling added that the emergency operations center is prepared to assist any agency having jurisdiction over an emergency when it requests support. He included a quote from Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons that said the Colorado Emergency Management Association recognized Bovaird as the Regional Emergency Manager of the Year.

“He has served in this role for more than seven years,” FitzSimons’ quote said of Bovaird. “I fully support his leadership as we continue striving to meet the expectations of our community.”

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