Peyton Manning is more organized than Kim Kardashian’s closet. His life operates on routines, consistency. Complete the task. Move on.

So after several weeks of rehabbing a plantar fasciitis foot injury that season, throwing to Jordan “Sunshine” Taylor in the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse, Manning was ready to return.

Feeling like he was being spied on, Manning delivered a message to coach Gary Kubiak.

“When you are hurt, you feel left out. Like the kid that doesn’t get to go on the playground. I felt like I was throwing the ball well,” Manning said. “I wanted to see if someone was really watching.”

Turns out, Kubiak was indeed checking on the former MVP. What he saw surprised him. And more than a decade later, it still does.

“The first video I saw, it only had one barrel (flipping him off),” Kubiak said with a laugh. “I knew he was mad. Really he was saying, ‘Hey, dumb (bleep), are you going to put me in?’^”

Wednesday night provided a reminder of how it turned out when Manning returned to the lineup. Joined by five teammates and Kubiak, the 2015 Broncos celebrated the Night of Champions at the Paramount Theatre.

The bulk of the team came together last fall for a 10-year reunion and the induction of the late Demaryius Thomas into the Ring of Fame.

But this was different, more personal, more laughs, showing why Manning decided to hold live events honoring the 2006 Colts, 1989 San Francisco 49ers and Pat Summitt����ap legacy at the University of Tennessee.

“It was special (in October), but we didn’t have the MVP of the team there, Von Miller, because he is still out there playing. So we felt like it was missing something,” Manning said. “This was a chance for the fans to go behind the ropes. When you have a team honored in a stadium it is not the most intimate. This event was all about the fans.”

Based on the reaction of the orange bleached crowd, it is clear Manning read the room like he did defenses for 18 seasons. Manning received a standing ovation. And the roar that greeted Von Miller pierced ears down the 16th Street Mall.

There is a common refrain about seasons that end in rings. The players, it is said, walk together forever as champions.

But the fans become part of the connective tissue as well.

“Why come here? Why wouldn’t I? This was such a special team. This gives us a chance to hear the stories and relive it,” said Leroy Garcia from Colorado Springs, before posing with a replica of the Super Bowl 50 trophy. “There was no way I was going to miss this.”

Manning brought together a cross-section of players whose stories highlighted the special talent and personalities on the Super Bowl 50 team. DeMarcus Ware and Manning are football immortals, enshrined in the Hall of Fame. If Miller ever retires, he will join them.

Star power was required, but unselfishness defined the locker room. Kubiak spoke of the importance of everybody contributing, of playing for the person next to you in the locker room.

The Broncos knew during minicamp that something different was percolating. The offensive had weapons and the defense boasted two fang-bearing edge rushers and a No Fly Zone secondary that humbled All-Pros, MVPs and journeymen without remorse.

“I remember when I joined the team, I thought I was going to be The Man. Then we went through a walk-through and I was like, ‘(Bleep) I am not going to be The Man,’^” Talib said. “We didn’t have one hole. Not one.”

The Broncos opened the season with seven straight wins. The confidence was tangible. Denver believed they could beat anyone because of a defense that closed better than the Yankees’ Mariano Rivera.

“Legendary. The D-line, they had their own special relationship. Our linebackers (Danny Trevathan and Brandon Marshall) were two of the best in the league, straight ballers. And obviously we knew as a secondary we were always going to do what we needed to,” Pro Bowl safety T.J. Ward said. “When you perform the way we did, that’s how you become legendary.”

The way sports operate, however, titles are required to bring people together years later. Greatness is measured in championships.

Miller and Ware wrote a diary of havoc in the postseason. And the offense did just enough, squeaking past the Steelers and Patriots. The New England game remains the loudest the new stadium has ever been. The victory required noise and faith.

“I played for (defensive coordinator) Wade Phillips for like 10 years. And he dedicated one game every season to his dad (Bum Phillips). We won all of them,” said Ware. “I am tearing up thinking about it. We couldn’t let him down.”

As the confetti fell, the gravity of what was ahead took shape. Owner Pat Bowlen wanted a third Super Bowl crown. The players wanted one for Ware, who was ringless, and Manning, who was expected to retire. And, they did not know it then, they needed it as a touchstone memory to honor Thomas.

“If there was a Hall of Fame for teammates, he would be in it,” Miller said. “When I had my first child, he was the first person I called and Face-timed. He was one of one.”

The Broncos thrashed the Carolina Panthers, turning regular season MVP Cam Newton into a Fig Newton. That game is remembered in photos of the defense pouncing, taunting, finger-wagging. All of the swag came together in one night.

It took a coach with patience, who was honest and stern. It required role players willing to sacrifice. And it demanded stars meet the moment, no matter how bright the glare and long the odds.

As the calendar has flipped, as the years have passed, the narrative of those Broncos has changed, filling in the gaps. They were characters. But they won because of character.

“Everybody that wins a Super Bowl, they all say it was a unique team. But I am telling you that the word team could not be more personified than with that Super Bowl 50 group,” Manning said. “Everybody had a job. Everybody was completely unselfish. We never argued. It was really special.”

However, Robinson was not the average American. A model soldier who won the Ohio Army National Guard Soldier of the Year award not once but twice, Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson deployed to Iraq in 2006 and 2007. It was on deployment that Robinson was exposed to the burn pits — open-air trash burns that were used widely in both Iraq and Afghanistan until 2010 to dispose of trash from military bases — that almost certainly caused his cancer a full decade later.

In the years that he valiantly fought against his lung cancer, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs denied Robinson and his family necessary treatments and critical support services. The VA did not see the link between his extensive exposure to burn pits and his case of adenocarcinoma. Three years after his diagnosis, Robinson passed away, leaving his wife, Danielle, without a husband and his six-year-old daughter Brielle without a father.

To ensure her husband’s legacy lived on even after his death, Danielle Robinson took her grief and frustration to Washington, D.C. Her tireless advocacy, coupled with the work of so many others, broke through division and gridlock in Congress to pass the most significant expansion of benefits and services for toxin exposed veterans. The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act is the most significant expansion of VA health care in more than 30 years.

After coming face to face with those who gave their lives to protect this country, I learned the only way we could make good on that promise is to fight relentlessly for change. I ran for public office because I knew that it was my duty to help Colorado uphold that promise, and I spent my career in the legislature fighting for veterans. As we approach Veterans Day, it is crucial that we think of November 11th not just as a holiday but as a reminder of the responsibility we all have to care for our veterans 365 days a year.

The moment President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act into law this August, access to health care and disability benefits for veterans harmed by exposure to toxic chemicals expanded, and the VA was newly empowered to swiftly determine whether a service member’s illness is connected to their military service.

This law also provides families that lose a loved one from exposure to toxins with life-changing financial support, meaning a surviving spouse with two children receives a monthly stipend of $2,000. Additionally, veterans and their families have better access to life insurance, home loan insurance, tuition benefits, and health care. It also lays the groundwork for new facilities, improved care, and more research into the effects of exposure to burn pits.

Like Robinson, I was deployed to Iraq and assigned to a mortuary affairs unit within the United States Marine Corps. As a mortuary affairs specialist, I spent my deployment searching for the bodies of fellow Marines and preparing their remains and personal effects to return home to their loved ones.

Unlike the fallen soldiers I cared for during my deployment, Robinson’s death is not counted as a casualty of the Iraq War, and the exposure to toxic chemicals that ultimately cost him his life does not qualify him for the same accolades and benefits provided to other members of the military injured from their service.

I, along with countless other service members, can say with confidence that the invisible injuries veterans endure in the years following their service carry equal importance to the physical wounds of warfare and that the grief that follows a casualty on the battlefield is no more devastating than the grief that comes from a death like Robinson’s.

In exchange for supporting and defending the United States Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, this country has a sacred responsibility to ensure that service members and their families earn access to a high level of care for life.

There is no executive order or piece of legislation that can bring back those who lost their lives serving our country. However, the PACT Act is proof that we are moving closer to making good on the promises made to our veterans. As a veteran, I applaud advocates like Danielle Robinson for pushing this country to fulfill the promises made to service members and their families, and I am grateful to all the veterans’ groups and leaders that made sure the PACT Act made it across the finish line to become the law of the land.

If you are a service member, veteran, or military family member, please visit www.VA.gov/PACT to learn more about how this landmark piece of legislation could impact you.

Leroy Garcia is a 6th generation southern Coloradan, currently working as a Special Assistant for the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs in the Department of Defense. Before he was appointed by President Biden to this position, Garcia was the Democratic state senator for Colorado Senate District 3 (Pueblo County) and was elected to serve as the first Latino Senate President in Colorado’s history in 2019. The views presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Defense or its components.

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Colorado voters are set to decide the fate of 11 ballot measures covering affordable housing, school meals, liquor sales and psilocybin therapy. The state’s four statewide constitutional officers are up for re-election, along with a U.S. Senate race and eight Congressional districts. Then there’s the 17 state Senate and 65 House seats up, plus the down-ballot races for the state board of ed and CU regency.

The results could help determine who controls Congress, with a new Congressional seat up for grabs. New state programs could be authorized or nixed, the income tax left alone or trimmed. Republicans hope to pick up seats in the local legislature and reverse some Democrats’ gains over the past four years.

Here are 10 contests to watch Tuesday night:

CD-8: Kirkmeyer vs. Caraveo

Colorado’s new congressional district, which covers Adams and Weld counties and stretches from Greeley to Thornton, officially has a slight Democratic lean. But it’s long been considered a toss up, and recent projections — and Republican confidence — have tilted toward Republican Barbara Kirkmeyer, a state senator from Brighton, over Democrat Yadira Caraveo, a pediatrician and state House representative from Thornton. Against a backdrop of broader Republican hopes of a conservative electoral boom, CD-8 will likely help decide which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives and by how much.

The race has been contentious: Kirkmeyer has hammered  Democrats’ handling of the fentanyl crisis — at times inaccurately — and the two candidates have sparred over abortion (Caraveo is pro-abortion access, whereas Kirkmeyer is anti-abortion, with limited exceptions). Both have emphasized cost-of-living challenges.

Proposition 123: Affordable housing funding

Amid everything else on their ballots, voters are also tasked with voting on an affordable housing measure for the first time in the state’s history. Prop 123 would dedicate roughly $300 million in income tax revenue each year going forward to support a stable of housing programs, from eviction defense to investments and homeownership programs.

If successful, the measure would help address a key issue for the state, but it would also leave it on the hook for the program going forward. That, in turn, could take a dent out of residents’ TABOR refunds. There’s little argument that housing affordability is a major problem in Colorado, and $300 million would launch a number of programs aimed to address it. But will Coloradans back it?

CD-7: Pettersen vs. Aadland

The other closely watched Colorado congressional race has been CD-7, between Democratic State Sen. Brittany Pettersen and Republican challenger Erik Aadland. Held currently by the retiring Ed Perlmutter, Cook Political Report gives Democrats and Pettersen, who has made addressing substance use a cornerstone of her legislative career, the edge.

State Senate District 8: Roberts vs.  Solomon

After Sen. Kevin Priola flipped his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat in August, Republican hopes of retaking the Senate took a blow. The GOP now must pick up every seat they think is available to take control of the chamber.

State Senate District 8, a Democrat-leaning district in northwest Colorado, is one of them. Democrat Dylan Roberts, a House member, has outspent Republican Matt Solomon, a former Eagle City council member, twice over, and he’s raised just over $320,000 — a significant sum for a state legislative seat.

House District 18: Snyder vs. Black

Part of a whole-scale legislative turnover in El Paso County, HD-18 was rated by the redistricting committee as tighter than any other district in the state. It’s got a negligible Democrat tilt based on several recent elections. Democrat Marc Snyder, the incumbent, faces off with Republican Shana Black, an attorney, in a race in which he’s raised more than $150,000 — seven times more than his opponent.

Senate District 3: Varela vs. Hinrichsen

Democrat Nick Hinrichsen was appointed to the Pueblo seat earlier this year after then-Senate President Leroy Garcia took a job in the Pentagon. Its status as a Democrat-leaning district hasn’t dampened Republican confidence that a red wave will whisk Stephen Varela to the Capitol. Unlike some other tight legislative races, fundraising figures are roughly comparable between the two, a sign of either party’s confidence in winning it.

House District 26: Wolfson vs. Lukens

The northwestern Colorado district left open by Roberts was redistricted to be more competitive than before, sliding it into Republican hopes in a midterm cycle. It still leans Democrat, but Republicans are bullish on Savannah Wolfson. Democrat Meghan Lukens holds a serious money edge, having outspent Wolfson two to one.

State Senate District 11: Exum vs. Hisey

The fight for the El Paso County seat pits Republican Dennis Hisey, a sitting senator redrawn into the district, against Democrat Tony Exum, a House member ending his fourth term in the chamber. Nearly $275,000 has been spent on the race for a seat given a slight Democratic edge by the redistricting committee.

House District 61: Woolever vs. Hamrick

After Snyder’s seat in El Paso County, HD-61 in southeast metro Denver is rated by the redistricting committee as the most competitive House seat in the state. It pits two educators — Democrat Eliza Hamrick, the teacher, against Republican Dave Woolever, the college professor, in a suburban fight. As is typical for Democrats, Hamrick holds a fundraising lead, having spent $121,800 to Woolever’s $35,800.

Proposition FF: School meals for all

Proposition FF — if passed — would make Colorado one of the few states in the country to provide school meals to all students, regardless of family income. It’d extend a pandemic-era program and help students and families both, advocates say. It would cost just north of $100 million annually, money the state would raise by capping the amount in tax deductions wealthier Coloradans can claim each year. That’d affected about 5% of filers. Roughly 40% of students in the state qualify for free meals. ]]> /2022/11/08/colorado-election-day-key-races-republican-democrat/feed/ 0 5437394 2022-11-08T06:00:42+00:00 2022-11-08T10:04:07+00:00 /2022/02/09/steve-fenberg-dominick-moreno-colorado-senate-president/ /2022/02/09/steve-fenberg-dominick-moreno-colorado-senate-president/#respond Wed, 09 Feb 2022 16:58:50 +0000 /?p=5066132 Colorado state Senate Democrats voted Wednesday to name Boulder’s Steve Fenberg president of the chamber, and Commerce City’s Dominick Moreno leader of the caucus.

Fenberg, majority leader since 2019, will take over for the outgoing Senate President Leroy Garcia of Pueblo, who on Feb. 23 will step down to take a job in the Department of Defense. Moreno will take over as majority leader. Sen. Rachel Zenzinger of Arvada will take over for Moreno on the Joint Budget Committee.

The shuffle is expected to become official once the full Senate votes to approve a new president later this month.

Moreno is a five-year veteran and former chair of the Joint Budget Committee, a powerful group of six lawmakers with substantial control over a state budget expected to reach about $40 billion this year.

These positions will all run through at least this year, but the November election could swing the chamber back to Republican control for the first time since 2018. Democrats now hold 20 of the Senate’s 35 seats, and they’ll have to work to defend that turf following the recent decadal redistricting process, which yielded at least six likely competitive races among the 35 districts. Republicans expect a stronger-than-usual showing in 2022 — polling suggests as much, too — after years of electoral lashings in this state, and they need to flip only three seats to win back the Senate.

The role of president is to oversee the Senate, presiding over daily work on the chamber floor, deciding whether or not certain bills can be introduced, choosing when the chamber should hear gubernatorial appointments. The president also commands a full-time staff, whereas most senators have only part-time aides.

Garcia is a hands-off leader who has been reluctant to wield many of the powers conferred upon him as president and who prefers to lead members to find their own paths. Fenberg, much more the policy wonk and political tactician, is expected to behave differently in that role.

“My number one priority at the end of the day has been the wellbeing and what’s best for this caucus. By no means does that mean everyone has agreed with every decision I’ve made,” Fenberg said at Wednesday’s caucus meeting. “But if I had an issue with anyone, a disagreement with a bill, … I try to approach every situation with honesty and humility.”

Other senators were interested in the job, but only Fenberg and Vail’s Kerry Donovan officially declared intent to run. Donovan argued the chamber would benefit from a woman leader who lives west of the Front Range. Eleven of the 20 caucus members are women, yet its four most powerful leadership roles — the president, majority leader and the group’s two Joint Budget Committee delegates — have all been men for the past two years.

Donovan was absent Wednesday due to a family death, her colleagues said, and so Fenberg ended up unopposed. He’d have won, anyway, senators believe.

Moving forward, all four of these critical caucus roles will be held by people from the Front Range. It will soon be the case that the three people with the biggest jobs at the Capitol are all Boulderites: Fenberg and Gov. Jared Polis live there, and Speaker Alec Garnett grew up there, but lives in Denver now.

The majority leader is a strategist and legislative director for the caucus. That person sets the calendar for the chamber, and serves as their party’s unofficial chief liaison to the minority.

There were at least a half-dozen senators who were interested in being majority leader, but Moreno, who is respected by colleagues for his calm and for his budget savvy, cleared the field and ended up running unopposed.

After thinking on it over the past weekend, Moreno told The Denver Post, “It began to feel like (not running) was actually, oddly, the very selfish thing to do — to not assume a role that other people have confidence you can do,”

Uniquely among his Senate colleagues, Moreno is a frequent and frank critic of Polis, a Boulder Democrat who leans libertarian or even outright conservative on fiscal issues in particular. This frustrates many Democratic lawmakers, but even the most progressive among them generally choose their words carefully when discussing the governor.

“I certainly will always be willing to speak my mind,” Moreno said. “I think it’s important to have balance. In this situation, I think (Fenberg) is more close to the governor’s office than I am. I think what’s important to note is this has never been personal for me in any way. … For me it has always been a separation-of-powers issue.

“I take that very personally. I’ve always considered myself a guardian of the legislative institution, and that’s not something I want to back down on.

Garcia, of Pueblo, has been Senate president since 2019. When he steps down Feb. 23 to join the Department of Defense, someone new will have to assume his powerful position. Being president means control over when gubernatorial nominations are voted on; the power to shut down — or not — bills lawmakers propose after the initial set of bills each is allowed to bring every year; the responsibility to preside over the Senate floor, including debates and votes; and a substantial bully pulpit that can be wielded in a number of ways.

who chooses his words carefully and registers on most issues as a middle-of-the-road Democrat. At times, he’s been more vocal than most on issues such as labor and policing, and he famously broke from his caucus by voting against a much-debated 2019 gun law. But for the most part, he keeps a low profile and doesn’t interfere with his own members’ ambitions, nor with the governor’s agenda.

The policy positions and leadership style of his successor will materially affect state government, just as Garcia’s did. And, depending on which person the caucus elects to succeed Garcia, it’s possible the chamber will see rearrangement in other key positions.

Democrats control the Senate, holding 20 of its 35 seats. Thus, it is a certainty that the next president will be a Democrat.

Sen. Kerry Donovan of Vail is the president pro tempore of the Senate, meaning she steps up for Garcia when he’s gone. She’s not guaranteed his job when he leaves, but she said Thursday evening she will seek it, as she previously did in 2019, before Garcia won out.

“Hopefully I’ve earned the respect of my colleagues to earn their votes in my final session to continue the expectations and the culture that Sen. Garcia has created,” the term-limited Donovan said.

The Senate majority leader, Boulder Democrat Steve Fenberg, is in many ways already a more powerful figure than Garcia. He controls the Senate calendar and is generally more engaged on policy matters and caucus strategy. Garcia often has said he wants to empower and guide his members, but rarely involves himself directly in their work.

“I plan to throw my hat in the ring,” Fenberg told The Post. “It’d be an honor to do it, but there’s a lot of steps to still happen before anything is formally done. … I’ve not lobbied or talked to my caucus about this. There isn’t any grand plan that Leroy and I have hatched.”

If Fenberg were to become president, that would create an opening for majority leader, and several Senate Democrats covet that job, too.

But he  may not clear the field.

Lawmakers in both chambers told The Post they believe Sen. Dominick Moreno of Commerce City might be interested in Garcia’s job, or in Fenberg’s if it opens up. Moreno, who serves on the powerful Joint Budget Committee, declined in a text message to be interviewed.

So did his fellow budget writer, Denver Sen. Chris Hansen, who texted, “I have a pretty good sense of how things will play out after talking with several of my colleagues, but no additional comment at this point.”

New roles for Moreno or Hansen would open up a spot on the Joint Budget Committee, a six-member body with major influence over the state budget, projected at a record $40 billion this year.

Fenberg’s No. 2, Assistant Majority Leader Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat, said she was still processing Thursday.

“I didn’t realize this was going on,” Fields said. “I was presenting my bill, and then everyone was looking at their phones” to find Garcia’s announcement.

“I thought it was an amber alert or something,” she said.

Her fellow Aurora Democrat, Sen. Janet Buckner, said that when she got Garcia’s message, “I had to process it, because it just was a surprise. Then the first thing you start thinking about is what’s going to happen to our caucus now.”

She said she’s not sure whether she’ll seek a promotion. “We have a lot of capable and dynamic people who could be leaders, who could be president. I just have to think through it and think about the caucus and who best suits the role.”

Westminster Sen. Faith Winter echoed that.

“The Senate has a deep bench of leadership, and there are many of us that could ensure that we continue to work hard for all Coloradans,” she texted.

When asked whether she might go for a job in leadership, Winter added, “Yes.”

The youngest member of the caucus, 34-year-old James Coleman of Denver, said he “absolutely” has interest in being president or, if Fenberg gets the job, in being majority leader.

“I have not reached out to my colleagues to start counting votes or anything like that, but if folks would have me and would want me … I would love to serve in one of those capacities,” he said.

Sen. Jeff Bridges of Greenwood Village texted, “Every Democrat in the Senate is thinking about where they might end up. I’m a Democrat in the Senate.”

Sen. Julie Gonzales’ name was floated by several other lawmakers as a possibility to try to join leadership, though neither confirmed nor denied that. The Denver Democrat texted, “I’m here for the work! We’ll talk about it as a caucus. Lots of work ahead — I’m ready for it.”

One Democrat with a previous big job, Arvada Sen. and former Joint Budget Committee member Rachel Zenzinger, said outright she’s not interested.

“I did not see this coming. I did not know,” she added.

The list of hopefuls could grow, and it very likely will shrink as members talk more with one another. The caucus is expected to attempt to hold most of these talks internally to avoid public showdowns and limit ego bruising.

The Senate president, like the House speaker, is chosen by the full chamber. But it has been the case in both chambers that the majority picks someone and the minority respects the choice. By phone Thursday evening, Minority Leader Chris Holbert, a Douglas County Republican, gave no indication he plans to buck that tradition.

Whichever lawmaker fills in for Garcia may not be there long, and not just because of term limits. Polling data show Republicans, who have hemorrhaged power in recent years in Colorado, could be primed for a successful election year — and they need to flip only three seats in November to take over the Senate for the first time since 2018.

Staff writer Nick Coltrain contributed to this report.

The term-limited Pueblo Democrat, who is three weeks into his final session as a state legislator, has long been rumored as a possible candidate for a federal post, as he is close with the administration of President Joe Biden. Garcia served as a leader of Biden’s Latino leadership council during the president’s 2020 campaign.

Garcia previously served as minority leader in the Senate, and also served in the state House of Representatives. His new title, the Senate Democratic caucus said, will be special assistant to the assistant secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs within the Department of Defense at the Pentagon.

“For nearly a decade, I have had the immense honor to represent the People of Pueblo at the Colorado State Capitol, and the privilege to serve as Senate President since 2019,” Garcia said in a written statement. “I am incredibly grateful that my community and my colleagues entrusted me with this responsibility, and I have been humbled by the opportunity to serve the state I love. While my time in the Senate is coming to a close, I am proud of all that we’ve accomplished together to move Colorado forward, and I am confident that whomever is selected to fill these vacancies will serve with the integrity and tenacity that Coloradans deserve.”

Garcia’s seat in the state Senate will be filled by a vacancy committee.

The Senate Democratic caucus did not immediately name a likely replacement for the role of president. Most were unaware of Garcia’s new job until today. Democrats control the chamber by a 20-15 margin, so it is a certainty that the next president will come from that party, and several members already appear interested.

Minority Leader Chris Holbert of Douglas County, the top Republican in the Senate, said in a statement, “I appreciate the president giving me a heads up on this announcement. That is a clear indication of how we’ve come to trust each other and communicate over the last three years as part of Senate leadership. I wish him the very best in his career and life after the General Assembly.”

House Speaker Alec Garnett, a Denver Democrat, said, “Leroy’s life has been devoted to service, … and he’s going to take Colorado’s voice to Washington, which is a good thing.”

Added Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, “On behalf of a grateful state, I congratulate him on his appointment.”

Garcia, who served in the Marines and is a trained and still-practicing first responder in Pueblo, who generally does not interfere with his members’ policy pursuits. He’s been a reliably liberal vote for the caucus, though notably stood apart from his colleagues by voting in 2019 against a “red flag” gun bill that allows courts to order firearms seized from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others.

But now and then Garcia did champion big or controversial changes, including in 2020 when he helped lead landmark police reform legislation that was inspired by Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota.

In addition to the rumors that Garcia might one day take a federal position, he has for years been rumored as a potential congressional candidate. He passed on running for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District in 2020, when Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert won the seat.

The parties identify many of the same pressing problems, but present largely opposing ideas to address them. For the fourth straight year, however, Democrats control both the state House and Senate, plus the governor’s office, so they can always claim final say if they want it.

It’s evident once again that the COVID-19 pandemic is one subject area with little common ground. The politicization of the pandemic was clear as Democrats in both chambers donned masks and all but a couple of Republicans did not. Health care workers administered rapid virus tests outside the Capitol, and guests — unlike lawmakers — were required to mask up indoors. However, partitions between lawmakers’ desks that were taken down at the end of last year’s session did not go back up.

“Health care and public health will continue to guide many of the decisions we make in this building,” House Speaker Alec Garnett of Denver said. “Despite our exhaustion and fatigue, COVID has not relented yet.”

This is the final year for many term-limited staples of Colorado state politics, including Garnett, Senate President Leroy Garcia of Pueblo, Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert of Douglas County and House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar of Pueblo.

In their opening-day speeches, both Holbert and House Minority Leader Hugh McKean of Loveland argued that Colorado has become less affordable and less safe, with students falling behind in their education.

Holbert promised that his caucus would bring forth bills to allow “struggling Coloradans” to deduct rent from their income taxes, and to exempt food from state sales taxes. He said the caucus would bring a bill to hire more police officers and to fully pay off longstanding state debt to the public K-12 system.

McKean pledged to fight for Coloradans’ costs of living to go down by “eliminating excessive taxes and fees” and a return to “the broken window theory of policing that puts an emphasis on all our laws,” focusing bills on increased training and reporting for police.

Garcia, in his speech, was more sweeping and included fewer policy specifics than Holbert. He did allude to the fact that this legislature’s work will be largely defined by the historic influx of about $4 billion in federal stimulus money, which gives lawmakers about 10 times the discretionary spending power this year than in previous years.

“It has become somewhat of a tradition for the Senate president to declare on opening day that this upcoming session will be the most consequential in history,” Garcia said. “That declaration has never felt more appropriate, … with a once-in-a-lifetime gift that that puts the wind at our backs as we choose how to shape Colorado’s future.”

Garnett applauded policies passed last year to make health care more affordable for Coloradans and said lawmakers would continue that work this year. He added that lawmakers would work on passing bills to make historic investments in education, affordable housing and mental and behavioral health, and that they would introduce bills to address “pandemic-induced crime” through policies to prevent crime and reduce recidivism. Democrats appear more interested in preventing crime before it happens, whereas Republican messaging focuses largely on stiffer penalties for criminals.

“If we do our jobs as well as I know we can, then we will be treating the underlying causes of the afflictions that face our state, not just managing the symptoms,” Garnett said.

He also focused a significant portion of his speech on addressing “the creeping menace of climate change,” calling for holding polluters accountable, improving permitting and monitoring systems and reducing emissions.

Criminal cases against paramedics for negligence and recklessness are extremely rare, according to nearly a dozen medical practitioners, former prosecutors, civil rights lawyers and medical attorneys interviewed by The Denver Post.

None of those interviewed could think of a single criminal case similar to the grand jury indictment announced Wednesday by the Colorado attorney general against Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec.

“It is extremely rare for criminal charges to be brought against medical providers who commit negligent — or even reckless — conduct,” Denver attorney David Woodruff said. “So rare that I have never seen it, and I’ve been doing medical malpractice for 20 years.”

The two paramedics who administered the sedative ketamine to McClain each face charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, as well as three counts of assault and six sentence-enhancing charges. The three officers who detained McClain also face felony charges for their role in the 23-year-old’s death in August 2019. If convicted, each man faces years in prison.

Some attorneys and doctors said the indictment was troubling because the charges against the paramedics seemingly criminalize deviations from emergency medical protocol, which are not usually standards for criminal cases. The indictment states that Cooper and Cichuniec “deviated from the standard protocols governing when to administer ketamine such that the administration of ketamine to Mr. McClain was unlawful.”

According to the indictment, Cooper and Cichuniec failed to physically check McClain, incorrectly diagnosed McClain with excited delirium, injected him with a dose of ketamine too large for his size and failed to monitor him for complications after the injection.

Paramedics are often forced to make split-second decisions that might not be mapped out in policy, said Steve Wirth, a former paramedic and attorney whose practice focuses on emergency medicine.

The indictment “could have a stifling effect,” Wirth said. “You can’t practice check-list medicine because no one patient is the same.”

The grand jury classified ketamine as a “deadly weapon,” a category normally used to describe guns and knives in criminal complaints.

“The risk of death from ketamine is heightened when it is administered in excess of the recommended dose and without proper monitoring for any possible side effects,” the indictment states.

But any number of drugs commonly used by paramedics can be deadly if used improperly, said Dr. Brent Myers, chief medical officer of data company ESO, former president of the National Association of EMS Physicians and longtime emergency medicine practitioner.

“If someone makes an honest mistake, and now that����ap criminal — that����ap paralyzing,” Myers said. “I’m not saying that errors are OK, but if you’re criminalizing honest mistakes?”

It’s hard to know whether the paramedics’ indictment will have a chilling effect on the profession. A minority of medics might be thinking that the risk is not worth a $20-an-hour salary, said Doug Wolfberg, an attorney who specializes in representing emergency medical providers and a former emergency medical technician.

Jacob Oldefest, a paramedic in the Denver area, sees it differently. The job is inherently risky, he said.

“Everyone’s always filming, everything you’re doing is being recorded and is going to be evaluated by your boss, your peers, the community at large,” he said, noting that’s part of the job.

The vast majority of paramedics and EMTs join the profession because they want to help people, said state Senate President Leroy Garcia, who works in Pueblo as a paramedic and a paramedic instructor when he’s not legislating.

“It shouldn’t make anyone more nervous about this profession because liability is extended in every profession,” he said.

The death of McClain prompted lawmakers to severely restrict the use of ketamine outside of hospitals. A bill passed during the 2021 legislative session bans the use of ketamine to treat excited delirium, a controversial diagnosis of a form of extreme agitation. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment that allowed emergency medical providers to use ketamine to treat excited delirium while the department reviewed the new law.

McClain’s death and the way he was treated are an embarrassment to the entire EMS profession, Oldefest said, adding that the new law and the suspension of the state’s ketamine waiver program have frustrated paramedics. Dozens of paramedics testified against the ketamine bill as it progressed through the legislature.

“It was taken from us for a mistake that another agency made,” Oldefest said. “I feel like they should’ve been reprimanded and not all of us.”

Anita Springsteen, a Lakewood councilwoman and lawyer who advocated for the ketamine bill, said she hopes the indictment encourages the attorney general and other prosecutors to examine more cases where paramedics use ketamine while responding to a police call. Springsteen’s boyfriend was injected with ketamine last year during a police encounter, and she represents other Coloradans who have been injected.

“If it����ap a deadly weapon, it����ap not just a deadly weapon for Elijah McClain,” she said.

Civil rights attorney Birk Baumgartner said he hopes the indictment of the two paramedics has a chilling effect on other paramedics using ketamine.

“After this indictment, no rational paramedic should consider getting his ketamine needle out his bag,” Baumgartner said. “You could get indicted and you should be if you kill somebody with it.”

Denver Post reporter Sam Tabachnik contributed to this report. 

For people, policy and Colorado politics

What’s The Spot? You’re reading an installment of our weekly politics newsletter. .

The Republican commissioners of Mesa County all voted for Republican Clerk Tina Peters in 2018, and their chairwoman defended her during a recall attempt in 2020. But they’re fed up now.

“I’ll tell you what����ap kept me up the last couple of weeks: Tina!” Commissioner Scott McInnis said during a commission meeting Tuesday. “Tina’s hiding, by her own admission. Where’s Tina?”

Since flying to South Dakota for an election conspiracy theorist event Aug. 10, Peters has been absent from the state and largely incommunicado. It����ap become one of the strangest sagas in recent Colorado political memory and has left her clerk’s office “rudderless,” according to McInnis.

Commissioners say Peters skipped a meeting with them Aug. 16 to discuss how the county will count ballots in November and didn’t send anyone in her place. On Sunday, she contacted commissioners “through a third person” for the first time since the alleged security breach was discovered Aug. 9, McInnis said, “and most of (Peters’ message) was biblical terms.”

“Tina could help us run the operations that she was elected to run in that clerk’s office … we need help on the day-to-day operations,” he said. Peters is now prohibited from running elections but remains the clerk. Her office also issues license plates and marriage licenses, among other duties.

“The way some of you talk, I’m assuming that you probably have communication with Tina,” McInnis told spectators Tuesday after several spoke in defense of Peters. “So, if you do — or if you know somebody who does — I’m asking you: Call Tina, tell her to come out of hiding.”

Three investigations — federal, state and local — are aiming to determine whether Peters turned off the county election office’s security cameras one night in May and then allowed an unauthorized person to photograph election equipment passwords. Images of the passwords were posted online Aug. 2 by a leading purveyor of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

“I voted for Tina, I supported Tina, even through the recall attempt,” Republican Commissioner Janet Rowland, the chairwoman, said Tuesday. “But if a Democrat clerk had shut off the cameras before bringing in an unauthorized person, not only would you demand that the machines be thrown out, you would demand the clerk’s resignation. That����ap just the God’s truth.”

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Have a question about Colorado politics? Submit it here and it’ll go straight to The Denver Post politics team.

Top Line

Gov. Jared Polis has said he doesn’t want a statewide mask mandate for schools. About two weeks into the school year, at least 14 new COVID-19 outbreaks are affecting some 115 kids. That’s almost certainly an undercount.

Capitol Diary, Part 1 • By Alex Burness

A shake-up in the Senate

Next year is Democratic state Senate President Leroy Garcia’s last in the legislature, and we’re starting to see signs of the end of his era. At least three key staffers won’t be back in January.

These include his chief of staff and right hand, James Lucero; comms director Bella Combest; and senior policy director Darin Raaf. The first two are moving on voluntarily and Senate sources say that Raaf — a moderate in an increasingly progressive Capitol environment — is not.

Garcia wouldn’t comment on the circumstances of Raaf’s departure, but he did say that political ideology wasn’t a factor. (Raaf declined to comment.)

Raaf’s job was a key one: A senior policy director can be something of a shadow legislator, proposing bills behind the scenes in addition to helping actual legislators with their own. Garcia said the change in that position doesn’t signal any shift to the left for the Democrats in the majority.

“The caucus is where is caucus is. And it follows policy objectives based on where we have the votes,” he said. “I follow the will of our membership. I can never discuss the details of internal HR matters in regards to anyone and I will honor that.”

For what it’s worth, two caucus progressives — Sens. Julie Gonzales and Faith Winter — spoke highly of Raaf and said they were surprised to learn he was out.

Turnover at the Capitol is common, so it’s not as though staff overhauls like the one in Garcia’s office necessarily signal dysfunction. , often don’t last more than a year. As in other fields, this year many who work in and with the legislature appear burned out by the pandemic.

“At the end of this session I was so exhausted that I considered — I was like, do I want to do this anymore?” Gonzales said.

Speaking of turnover: Garcia is often discussed by lobbyists and even some of his own colleagues as a candidate to leave his post early. He’s tight with President Joe Biden’s camp and would be a logical fit for a job in the administration.

He takes exception to that talk and is unequivocal about his 2021 plans.

“I’m a Marine. I’m loyal in my commitment and to my task ahead,” he said. “I’m going to stay on my post until I’m relieved of my command.”

Capitol Diary, Part 2 • By Saja Hindi

A proposed marijuana tax hike

Colorado voters will decide whether to increase taxes on recreational marijuana to pay for after-school programs for impoverished students.

The Secretary of State’s Office on Wednesday verified that backers of Initiative 25 to qualify for the ballot. It’s the first of three statewide measures that voters could see in November. The last day for election officials to approve signatures is Sept. 1.

would create the Learning Enrichment and Academic Progress Program to provide families with money for tutoring and other education programs for children. The current 15% state sales tax on recreational marijuana would increase by 5 percentage points by 2024, raising about $137 million a year for the program.

“Kids spend 80% of their waking hours outside of school. When students supplement school with well-rounded learning opportunities outside of school, they thrive,” said Amy Anderson, executive director of RESCHOOL Colorado, in a statement. “Initiative 25 will expand access to enriching learning opportunities in literacy, technology, arts, the outdoors, and many more (areas) that play a crucial role in youth development.”

The proposal has bipartisan support. Before making it to the ballot, the measure lost the backing of the state teachers union, which changed its stance to neutral over concerns about how the program would be implemented.

More Colorado political news

• Complaint accuses Republican consultants of violating state redistricting lobbying laws, .
• Colorado Afghans rally for aid, bringing people back to the U.S. safely.

Federal politics news • By Justin Wingerter

Completing a 3,100-mile trail

Just outside Steamboat Springs, hikers on one of the continent����ap longest trails emerge from stunning mountain wilderness and come across an unwelcome sight: State Highway 14.

“Walking near traffic is never ideal,” said Allie Ghaman, who hiked all 3,100 miles of the Continental Divide Trail in 2018. Fifteen of those miles are along the dangerous highway.

Since 1978, the Continental Divide Trail has spanned the United States from the Canadian border to the border with Mexico. It is the longest and highest of the so-called Triple Crown hikes — 900 miles longer than the more famous Appalachian Trail — and includes Grays Peak, a Colorado 14er.

But the trail is only 96% complete. Forty-three years after its creation, it, such as Muddy Pass Gap near Steamboat and a gap in the Cochetopa Hills west of Salida.

“Many of the gaps are very small,” U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse said in an interview Wednesday. “These are small land parcels that the U.S. Forest Service has attempted to procure over time but, for lack of funding, hasn’t been able to do so.”

Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat, has introduced legislation that would order the USFS and the Department of the Interior to complete the trail by its 50th birthday in 2028. He believes there is now enough money to do it in the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a pool of money that the federal government uses to buy land. The fund got a big spending bump last year.

“Completing the trail is going to allow more people to enjoy these beautiful, natural landscapes,” Neguse said, adding that there are also safety benefits for hikers and economic benefits for towns such as Grand Lake. The Continental Divide Trail runs through that town, a common resupply stop for thru-hikers.

The federal government would be prohibited from using eminent domain to acquire the land, limiting it to donations or sales by landowners. Neguse plans to shepherd the bill through a House subcommittee on public lands that he chairs this fall. It doesn’t currently have a Republican cosponsor but he is confident it will soon and suggested U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, as a possibility.

More federal politics news

• State Rep. Yadira Caraveo is running for Colorado’s new congressional seat, which doesn’t yet have district boundaries set.
• Trump on Space Command leaving Colorado: “I single-handedly” did that.

Mile High Politics • By Conrad Swanson

More for Denver’s November election

The Denver City Council has until the end of August to set ballot measures for the city’s Nov. 2 election and it����ap wasting no time.

The council agreed Monday to put five measures — together making up Mayor Michael Hancock’s $450 million bond proposal — on the ballot. The council also agreed to move one more ballot measure forward (taking the first of two required votes) and shot down another.

The proposal moving forward would move up the city’s general election from the first Tuesday of May in odd-numbered years to the first Tuesday in April. The seemingly innocuous scheduling change is meant to give Clerk and Recorder Paul Lopez’s office more time, in the event of a June runoff election, to send mail ballots to people traveling or living abroad.

Under the current schedule, a runoff election — a fairly common occurrence — forces Lopez’s office into a tight turnaround to send out an entirely new ballot. He expressed concern that eligible voters living outside of Denver don’t have as much time to consider their choices. Runoffs are required when no candidate in a race receives a majority of the vote.

Lopez, who won his own office in a 2019 runoff, recommended the change to avoid disenfranchising those out-of-town voters, of which there are about 5,200. Rejected alternatives to the schedule shakeup included the adoption of approval voting, in which voters select any number of candidates they like, or ranked-choice voting where voters number candidates in order of preference.

Either of those options would eliminate the need for a runoff election.

Without conversation, the council unanimously agreed to send the election scheduling change to the ballot during its Aug. 23 meeting. It will vote once more Monday to cement the decision.

The proposal that didn’t make it past that Aug. 23 meeting would have eliminated the council’s two at-large seats, resulting in the redrawing of district boundary lines across the city to make room for 13 instead of the current 11. Council members Candi CdeBaca and Kevin Flynn had backed the idea, but it ran into pushback from current at-large members Robin Kniech and Debbie Ortega, both of whom are term-limited from running again. They argued that it would have meant less representation for Denverites.

The council voted the measure down 6-7.

More Denver and suburban political news

• Aurora Public Schools employees will be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
• Classes started for Denver Public Schools on Monday and new Superintendent Alex Marrero kicked off the new year by touring several schools.
• Residents of Denver’s Globeville-Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods say there’s nothing in it for them when it comes to Mayor Michael Hancock’s proposed National Western Center campus upgrades.

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The 51-year-old slid the phone to his wife, with whom he’d promised to spend the day.

“She said, ‘Are you gonna go?’” Trevenen said. “I said, ‘If I don’t, it����ap not going to happen.’”

So much for a day off.

In Moffat County, this is how people in rural areas often find their way to a hospital in an emergency, relying on emergency medical service (EMS) workers like Trevenen to pick up extra shifts. The EMS crew’s funding is low because the reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid patients are low, and there’s not enough staff because there’s not enough money.  

The northwest Colorado county’s EMS service may vanish altogether if voters don’t step in, and EMS leaders warn that other rural departments in Colorado — and across the U.S. — could follow. Some have already shut down.

Unlike police and fire, EMS is not considered an essential service by the state, which is the norm in this country. And though the state is relatively flush with cash thanks to a growing economy and billions in federal stimulus, EMS funding has not been a priority for the legislature. This life-saving service is in many cases kept afloat by bake sales, potlucks and endless hours of unpaid labor.

“We’re an essential service. The community expects it. We’re 24/7,” Ute Pass Regional Health Services District CEO Tim Dienst said. “It costs a lot of money to provide and nobody really wants to pay for it.”

Boulder Mayor Sam Weaver, who spent 15 years with a volunteer mountain fire department that provides EMS west of town, said that without better funding there will be more cases where people call for an ambulance and no one shows up. People will die.

“It is that much of an emergency in certain areas. That’s not overdramatizing,” he said.

“God help you if you have a heart attack”

Moffat County is almost as large as Connecticut, but usually has only one ambulance crew working. If backup is needed, the group text chain pops and someone steps up — but it might take twice as long as is ideal, or more.

As the saying goes in the EMS world, time is brain and time is tissue; if you’re suffering a stroke or cardiac arrest, every minute makes a difference. 

Near Dinosaur by the Utah border, there are no ambulances. Paramedic Brooks Bingman recalled a recent patient near there who was having a heart attack. She’d like to get to that kind of call in 10 minutes, or at least within 20. 

After 45, “I’m sweating,” she said. It took 75 minutes. 

Then there’s the pay: An EMT in Craig could make more at Wendy’s, said Bingman, who works a second job. Trevenen works three total.

“This is a field that kind of runs in your blood,” said Shana Silver, director for Baca Grande Emergency Services in Crestone. “The people who do it love it.”

But EMT work in her area pays less than $12 an hour, she said, and hers is one of those rural Colorado departments that covers a wide area with few resources. For that kind of pay, she said, “Why the hell would you come out here? … Where are we attracting them from? And why would they leave their other jobs?”

It����ap not good enough and should not go on this way, Silver and her peers say. But it can get worse. 

There are some 200 different EMS agencies in Colorado and nearly as many different funding structures, said Scott Sholes, EMS chief for the Durango Fire Protection District and President of the Emergency Medical Services Association of Colorado.

Sholes said roughly half are based in fire departments, which can mean paid staff, volunteers or a combination. The other half are split among city- or county-provided services, health systems or private companies that contract in urban and suburban areas.

The economics get trickier the poorer and more remote an area is. It costs a lot to sustain an EMS department, but low call volume and low reimbursement rates essentially guarantee no profit. 

“The fire department will come and put out that fire and spend as much time as it takes and investigate it, and that costs a huge amount of money per call,” Sholes said. “People get that they need to pay for police, for their schools, for fire. There’s confusion about who pays for the ambulance.”

Memorial Regional Health, which houses Moffat County’s EMS agency, lost $600,000 on the service last year. It����ap been that way for years and the losses are projected to grow in 2022. 

The hospital says it can’t sustain that, and in November, voters in the county are expected to decide on a property tax hike — about $35 annually for the average homeowner — to create a new countywide program with more consistent service in Maybell (which is volunteer-only right now) and Dinosaur. 

Chief Financial Officer Sam Radke thinks that����ap a reasonable ask, but he’s worried: “I’ve got people telling me it’ll never pass. People in authority, who know Moffat County.”

Tax hikes aren’t popular in this conservative area.

“But neither is death of a family member,” EMT Vicki Crawford said. “I’d pay $100 a year extra — I’d pay a thousand, a million, a year — if it was my family member.”

Often nobody pays. And Memorial Regional Health says it can’t keep propping up EMS with more profitable lines of service.

Radke said he’s thought about whether it might be best to clear up any confusion about EMS funding by making totally, painfully clear with voters what might happen if they don’t approve the tax hike.

“Could be 12 hours a day. The other 12 hours, god help you if you have a heart attack,” said Radke, who arrived in Craig two years ago and has worked with 17 rural hospitals.

The hospital may have to consider eliminating EMS entirely, he said. He added the only one of those 17 places he’s worked that had no consistent EMS service was in Liberia, one of the world’s poorest counties. 

A day in the life

As it stands, rural EMS is fueled largely by the passion of workers and volunteers, who keep their phones and pagers close and make financial, social and familial sacrifices to ensure every call gets answered.

“It gives you a lot of gratification, helping people. Even if it����ap just holding their hand,” Crawford said Tuesday morning inside the Moffat County EMS headquarters. 

She got into this work after crashing her car into a ravine and being rescued by an ambulance crew. She said she was inspired to repay them somehow. EMS folks often have personal stories like that.

At this crew’s office, in the corner of the hospital upon a hill above Craig, there’s an ambulance garage, a couple desks, two sleeping rooms and a speaker that blares new calls. On this day, around 11:15 a.m., a call fills the room: 44-year-old woman with a panic attack. She’s just down the road in Craig.

Police are already there when Bingman and Trevenen arrive at 11:23. The patient is sitting on a bed in a crowded home within a duplex, shaking and sobbing: “I feel like I can’t breathe,” “I just need somebody to talk to” and “I don’t want to lose my kids.”

A few feet away, a 7-year-old with dyed-pink hair cries.

“Mommy’s gonna be fine,” the patient tells her daughter through heavy breaths.

Seven minutes later, she’s loaded into the ambulance and the crew treats her, cognizant of her constellation of ailments: anxiety, obesity, hypertension. Bingman chats the woman up as she checks a monitor and handles various tubes. She’s friendly, congratulating the patient on efforts to quit smoking, and asking lots of questions — Are you warm enough? Too warm? Had any falls lately?

The woman is doing much better on the ride back, and thanks Bingman for being a “godsend.”

“I thought I was keeping it together,” she said.

Bingman responded, “Sometimes we just don’t, and that����ap OK.”

The crew gets about five calls per day, and, medically speaking, most aren’t critical. But they can be tough in other ways, said Trevenen, who tries not to remember previous calls for his own sanity. 

“Some stick, most don’t,” he said as the crew gets back to the hospital at about noon. “The little girl on the call right there. That����ap going to make me upset.”

It����ap a cliche, he and the crew said later, but a true one: You don’t get into this work for the money.

“Did we miss out?”

There’s plenty of recent evidence that the threats of lost service in Moffat should be taken seriously. Many agencies have cut back and just this month the EMS agency in Penrose in rural Fremont County shut down.

“The community cannot assume that an ambulance will be available for a call,” the department .

Said Kim Schallenberger, an EMS honcho from that part of the state: “The volunteers are not there. They just don’t exist anymore, and the public still expects a 911 response.”

Real as the concern may be, EMS advocates have so far failed to make their case for more money to state policymakers. 

In January, the EMS association asked Gov. Jared Polis for $40 million in emergency funds, which they did not receive. They sought a couple hundred thousand during the 2021-22 springtime budget-writing process, but again lost. 

None of the $3.8 billion flowing into the state through the federal American Rescue Plan Act — a once-in-a-generation infusion, Polis called it — has been set aside for EMS.

This all despite the fact that one of the most powerful people in the legislature, Senate President Leroy Garcia, is a veteran paramedic who still sometimes goes out on ambulance runs in Pueblo.

He said the legislature mostly stays out of EMS funding because it is so complex and looks so different depending on population and geography.

“One of the reasons we have a hodgepodge is because ambulances and those services are not regulated by the state. It����ap county-driven,” he said. “So when I first went to the legislature, my thought process was that we should merge these things. But the dynamic becomes battling county commissioners, and I never even drafted a bill.”

EMS leaders say they need a new message.

“We have to do a better job,” said David Patterson, regional CEO of the private company Falck, which provides EMS services in Aurora. “The biggest fear I have is, man, with us not having our stuff together, did we miss out?”

Patterson said his sector might do well to encourage lawmakers to think radically by funding a reimagination of EMS. Some communities, like Eagle County and a few on the Front Range, are trying to divert people from emergency rooms with methods like having paramedics do more preventive work where people live and transporting them to urgent care or specialist offices.

“In terms of the bread and butter — someone calls for an emergency and we take them to the ER — the basic format has been the same since the ’70s,” he said. “How great is it if we can get someone with a specific need to a more focused resource?”

Garcia said only a handful of legislators are interested in the topic. He did vow, however, that next year — his last at the Capitol, due to term limits — he’ll make it a priority. 

By the time the legislature convenes in January, Moffat County voters will have made up their minds on EMS funding. The ambulance crew there is nervous, but they also have a hard time picturing themselves just exiting the field. The instinct is to always find a way. 

They recently had four simultaneous calls — one patient needing a helicopter transport, an elderly man with a traumatic leg injury, a cardiac patient and a domestic violence victim with injuries — and just one ambulance running.

“It did all work out,” Bingman said. “It was, you know, stressful.”

At some point, Trevenen said, the love of the work and the sense of purpose just won’t keep the ambulances running. If nobody in Moffat County will pay for this, how do he and his colleagues begin to meet the need moving forward?

“You don’t,” he said.