Ouray city councilors vowed Tuesday night to pursue measures to boost police officer pay and hire more sworn help as quickly as possible, even while asking for continued patience as the city administrator starts over on the search for a permanent police chief.
But the city’s force of full-time officers, which will soon shrink to three with the resignation of Officer Brady Suppeland, made it clear their tolerance has run out.
During a tense work session that ran nearly two and a half hours, officers criticized what they perceived as a lack of city leaders’ urgency in implementing improvements to officers’ work space and compensation, many of which were identifi ed in a consultant’s audit last summer. Officers insisted they’re not paid enough to live in Ouray, and that the city isn’t presenting a competitive salary and benefits package to attract applicants. Councilors pointed out the city is shortstaff ed in other departments and questioned whether interim Police Chief Gary Ray has fully taken advantage of Ouray County Sheriff Justin Perry’s offer to have deputies cover some city patrol shifts.
The work session, punctuated by frequent finger-pointing and councilors, officers and members of the public occasionally talking over one another, comes three months before Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start to summer, when tourism and calls for service surge in Ouray. Based on the last search, it’s doubtful a new police chief will come on board before the summer. And the city has been trying — without success — to hire another full-time officer for more than a year.
Without additional help, Ray warned the council two more officers will join Suppeland in quitting before summer. He didn’t provide names, but only Ray, Sgt. Justin Crandall and Officer Casey Canfield remain with the department. Suppeland has given two weeks’ notice and will move across the street to join the Ouray County Sheriff ’s Office, which has agreed to provide supplemental coverage for the police department through an intergovernmental agreement.
“We can no longer fill our shifts. We can no longer provide a safe place for the Fourth of July. We just don’t have the people,” Ray said, noting he has asked both the sheriff ’s office and the Ridgway Marshal’s Office for help.
With rumors swirling in the community, Ray also sought clarity from the council about the long-term future of the police department. Councilors emphasized they have no intention to contract with the county to provide full-time law enforcement services in the city, though it’s common for other communities across the state to do so.
“There is no change in the general course, which is to rebuild the police department, get it restaffed and get a new police chief,” Mayor Ethan Funk said.
Potential immediate solutions
Councilors didn’t make any formal decisions Tuesday. But based on input from officers, they indicated they’ll work with City Administrator Michelle Metteer to look into several options and possible changes. Among them:
• Creating sign-on bonuses for new officers and retention bonuses for current officers.
• Bumping up officers’ monthly housing stipend.
• Allowing officers to more easily earn overtime pay. Ouray currently follows federal labor law, which doesn’t require them to pay overtime until an officer has worked at least 172 hours in a 28-day period. City leaders discussed paying overtime after officers work 40 hours in a week.
• Increasing on-call pay for officers, who are currently paid half their hourly rate for the time they’re on call.
• Temporarily relaxing the requirement that officers live somewhere in Ouray County and be able respond to a call within 20 minutes.
• Leasing or buying some type of housing unit where on-call officers can sleep overnight. Since all of the department’s current officers live in Ouray or Ridgway, that arrangement would benefit new officers who couldn’t afford to live in Ouray or don’t want to relocate immediately.
City officials and officers have repeatedly said the current police station inside the entrance to the Ouray Community Center is unsafe and no longer functional, but either relocating the station to a different building in the city or constructing a new facility may take some time. In the meantime, Ray told councilors he plans to install a bulletproof window at the entrance to the station and cover the exterior windows with ballistic film.
Officers plead for help, rail against council
Officers took turns Tuesday denouncing city leaders for not doing enough to help the police department and imploring them to act now.
Three weeks ago, Suppeland stood before the council, complained that city officials were taking too long to enact improvements and threatened to resign. He had more to say but was cut off by Funk, who cited the council’s policy on limiting public comment to three minutes.
On Tuesday, Suppeland said one of the main reasons he quit is because nobody on the council followed up with him to learn what else he intended to say during the Feb. 3 meeting.
“The sentiment I got from it … if nobody even felt the need to see what else I had to say, then how much support do I really have from the city going forward?” he said. “I felt I would get better support going to a different agency.”
Suppeland pointed out while Ouray has had a vacant officer position for more than a year, Ridgway has hired a deputy marshal and Ouray County has filled several sheriff ’s deputy positions. He said those agencies are hiring officers who started their careers in Delta and Montrose and can work in Ouray County without “having to uproot their lives” and live here. Ouray can’t find help, he said, because potential applicants can work for the marshal’s office or sheriff ’s office and live in less-expensive Montrose.
He said the city needs to invest in housing where on-call officers can stay overnight “rather than being expected to figure out how to live in a town that’s unaffordable.”
Councilors agreed during a work session with police last summer to increase the monthly housing stipend for officers from $500 to $1,000. But officers currently are receiving only $700 a month because the council decided to wait until a new police chief was hired to implement the full $1,000 stipend.
From left, Ouray Police Department senior Officer Justin Crandall, Officer Casey Canfield and Acting Police Chief Gary Ray express their concerns during a workshop with the Ouray City Council on July 31, 2024 to review an audit of the department. Crandall has since been promoted to sergeant. Erin McIntyre — Ouray County Plaindealer
Tuesday’s meeting reached its most strained point when the conversation turned to officer pay.
The city conducted an officer compensation study last year to see how Ouray compared with surrounding communities. Pointing to that study, Councilor Josh Smith said Ouray officers are “paid decently” and claimed the city can’t compete with Montrose, which has more resources and handles more serious crime.
“We don’t get paid the kind of money needed to live here,” Crandall said.
“Most people don’t,” Smith replied. At that point, Funk noted the police department’s expenses are slated to account for $1.26 million — roughly 27% — of the city’s $4.68 million 2025 general fund budget, which pays for most of the city’s day-to-day operations. City Finance and Administrative Services Director Melissa Drake pointed out the number is actually higher — about $1.35 million.
By comparison, Funk said, the city’s public works department is scheduled to count for just $700,000 in general fund spending.
Canfield bristled at that comparison, claiming he puts his life on the line for the public each time he goes to work.
“I carry a badge and a gun. Don’t compare me to a public works person,” he said.
“Wow. That’s really going to be a buzzkill for all the people who work to keep the utilities running,” Funk replied.
The mayor then said he didn’t want to turn what was intended to be a discussion on finding solutions for the police department into an argument.
“It’s time for an argument. We’ve been kicking the can down the road for seven months,” Canfield said, referring to when the city initially began looldng for a new police chief.
“As soon as you get into an argument, there will simply be people getting angry about this and getting angry about that and building up walls against each other,” Funk said.
Councilors pushed back on some of the officers’ criticism. They said they didn’t hear about many of the issues raised Tuesday while former Police Chief Jeff Wood led the department. They noted it takes time to find a new chief they and citizens believe is the right fit for the department and will rebuild trust with the community. And they acknowledged the timeline for hiring a chief was unexpectedly extended by the need to hire a new city administrator. Former City Administrator Silas Clarke announced his resignation just two weeks after he fired Wood.
Councilors also pointed out Ray didn’t appear to be seeking as much help from the sheriff’s office as he could. The city and county signed an agreement in July for the city to pay the sheriff’s office for shift coverage, but Perry told the Plaindealer earlier this month that deputies had provided coverage for only about 20 shifts in seven months.
“We’re not receiving requests from them,” Perry said. “Honestly, I fully expected to get more requests, just based on their staffing issues and the staffing levels they currently have.”
Councilor Tamara Guide said Ray could have utilized the sheriff’s office more than he has.
“We contracted with the sheriff’s department to assist and they were happy, they are happy, to give you officers to take shifts,” she said.
Canfield said Ray shouldn’t have to ask the sheriff’s office for help. Funk disagreed.
“No, he should, because we have a situation here where we fired a police chief and we need help to carry us through,” Funk said. “If that help wasn’t getting used, then what else can you do? It’s like the old saying, you can bring someone to water but you can’t force them to drink.”
Ray said he has asked the sheriff’s office for assistance in the past and will continue to do so, “but there’s times they don’t have enough manpower.”
It’s also unclear why Ray has not moved forward with hiring an administrative office position, which was approved by the council last summer and budgeted for this year.
Public reaction
Citizens encouraged councilors and city leaders to revisit some of the recommendations in the audit and implement them as soon as possible, such as bonuses, housing stipends and overtime pay.
Ouray School District Superintendent Tod Lokey recommended city officials give more authority to Ray to enact changes and make decisions as the interim chief rather than waiting until a permanent chief is on board. He said the city needs to immediately include a hiring bonus in its effort to find another officer and also award bonuses to the current officers to ensure they stay with the department. He also suggested the city temporarily relax the requirement that officers live within 20 minutes of Ouray in order to attract new officers and present an incentive for them to eventually move to Ouray.
Lokey said while local governments have made significant progress in creating and incentivizing workforce housing, particularly for those maldng the lowest wages, they need to consider next steps: helping middle-income households who currently don’t qualify for deed-restricted housing.
“The hardest group isn’t those maldng the least amount of money. It’s the people maldng just a few pennies too much,” he said.
Ouray business owner Mark Rozich asked why the city didn’t hire one of the three finalists for the permanent police chief position. Metteer said she didn’t feel any of them were an appropriate fit for the department and the city.
Asked what she was looldng for in the next chief, Metteer said there needs to be a “cultural fit that incites the need for more community engagement between the community and the Ouray Police Department, so the community feels more at one with the department.”
“I didn’t feel we would get that with the applicants,” she said.
Metteer suggested she has a plan to look for a police chief but didn’t specify what it is. The city paid KRW Associates $18,000 to conduct the initial search.
