New(ish) sheriff in town: Michael Buglione reflects on first year in office
Jonson Kuhn/The Aspen Times
The Pitkin County jail has been back to housing inmates ever since their return from Eagle County last June, thanks to the quick and thoughtful action of Pitkin County Sheriff Michael Buglione. Now he looks to house his deputies in-county, as well.
It has been one of the more crucial focus points he has had to consider for much of his time in office, and with his first year anniversary quickly approaching in January, providing employee housing continues to be among his top priorities.
“It’s a struggle everywhere; every conference or training I go to – staffing number one issue and the second issue is housing,” he said. “I think for us housing is probably even a little more difficult. Establishing SO housing has been one of my campaign pillars and one of the heavier lifts, without a doubt.”
Buglione said last month he went before the Elected Officials Transportation Committee along with state Sen. Gail Schwartz in an effort to “plant the seed” of establishing housing at Aspen’s Intercept Lot. He added that while housing is understandably important for a number of occupations throughout the valley, specific housing just for law enforcement is the “basics of community policing” that would allow for deputies and officers to be an active part of the community they’re serving.
“I need housing designated to offer it up to existing deputies in Pitkin County or use it as a recruitment tool and retain people,” he said. “It’s hard; when I read in the paper that Snowmass just bought housing from the school, it’s like, ‘How do we do that?’ How does a board say, ‘How do we buy some housing and use it just for the Sheriff’s Office?'”
As for staffing, he said he was excited to be able to promote Dan Fellin within the department as the new jail division chief. Two more inhouse staff will be promoted to sergeants within the jail in the coming year.
For patrol, a lateral hire was brought on last September, with two more recently out of the academy and three more starting. Buglione said he expects that by this time next year, patrol will be fully-staffed – a feat the department has not seen in decades.
Additionally, he said he was also excited to be adding a third school resource officer – a decision he said that was expedited after “swatting” calls from last February in which claims were made that someone intended to shoot students within the Aspen School District.
Next April, he said he looks forward to having a detailed staff assessment for the Sheriff’s Office, including the jail and patrol to determine if additional staff is required because, as he explained, much of the jail and patrol staff have been working with the same number of people for the last several decades.
“Things have changed; on any given weekend in the summer, there could be up to or over 60,000 people in Pitkin County,” he said. “We have 973 square miles with 60,000 people; two or three deputies on a shift is not enough.”
While housing and staffing continue to be ongoing challenges he strives to manage, there are a number of goals Buglione has successfully accomplished within the first year of being sworn in on Jan. 10. In fact, one major accomplishment took place literally within his first hour.
Prior to him replacing longstanding Sheriff Joe DiSalvo, Pitkin County inmates were being held in Garfield County under the supervision of Sheriff Lou Valario due to county officials determining Aspen’s jail unsafe and inadequate in 2021.
Just one hour into Buglione being sworn in, he received an email from Garfield County, instructing him to pick up the Pitkin County inmates with Valario explaining his decision was based on Buglione campaigning on the idea that the jail inadequacies could be resolved onsite.
With some assistance from Sheriff James Van Beek in Eagle County, Buglione was able to continue temporarily housing inmates out of town while working with consultants to see the necessary upgrades made to the jail to make conditions safe for inmates and staff, as well.
“I’m proud that within shy of eight months of taking office, we got our inmates back to where they should be in Pitkin County – not Eagle or Garfield County jail,” he said. “That took a lot of work from everybody – from the facilities, the jail, this office, Undersheriff Alex (Burchetta), Dan Fellin – it took a lot of work to get those inmates back here in less than eight months.”
Another proud accomplishment throughout the year was the, by law, implementation of both body cams and dashboard camera systems, something he said was put in motion before his time as well as was something that, due to Aspen’s general lack of crime, was “frankly” never needed.
“I had another neighboring agency tell me years ago, ‘Michael, you should really get these; they really cut down on customer complaints,’ but my response was, ‘We don’t get customer complaints,'” he said. “But I see it as a necessary tool based on what the .01% of cops do for the rest of us. Unfortunately, we’re all perceived as that .01%, and we’re not, especially here in this valley.”
As for the future, he said he looks forward to eventually utilizing a new technology, similar to that of a Fitbit wristband that inmates will wear in order to help deputies and jail staff monitor pulse, heart rate, along with other vital signs to determine a person’s wellbeing at all times.
He said he also has his sights set within the year’s first quarter at acquiring an accreditation through the County Sheriff’s of Colorado, which would make Pitkin County only the second Sheriff’s Office in the state to have the accreditation. Lastly, though no plans are firm as of yet, he said he has wheels in motion to potentially reduce the speed limit along Highway 82 between Glenwood Springs and Aspen.
It’s been a good year for Buglione – by his own admission, one full of achievements and surprises. And while there’s no doubt he feels he’s faced challenges, one thing he’s never struggled to carry on is the “live-and-let-live” policing philosophy practiced by his predecessors Sheriffs Bob Braudis and Dick Kienast.
“We’re just here to enforce the spirit of the law; we’re not here to make somebody’s day any worse than it has to be. If they did something wrong and need to be arrested, we can still treat them with compassion, dignity, and respect.” Buglione said. “I just think that we have a great team. I love who I work with, I love the community; the people in Pitkin County are great. Everybody says it’s changing, but it’s been changing for hundreds of years. Nothing stays the same, we have to embrace the change.”
To reach Jonson Kuhn, email him at jkuhn@aspentimes.com.
