 Let's now move to item number 10. Item number 10 is proclamation honoring the life of El Paso County Deputy Sheriff Andrew S. Peary, Stan Vanderwerf Chair, Board of County Commissioners, Cami Bremmer, Vice Chair, Board of County Commissioners, Holly Williams Commissioner, Board of County Commissioners, Kerry Geithner Commissioner, Board of County Commissioners, Lohino-Sconzales Jr. Commissioner, Board of County Commissioners. Mr. Chair, it is my honor to move for approval of proclamation honoring the life of El Paso County Deputy Sheriff Andrew S. Peary. Whereas, with a heavy and broken heart, this Board honors the life and selfless sacrifice of El Paso County Deputy Sheriff Andrew S. Peary, who was tragically killed in the line of duty on Sunday, August 7th, 2022, as he answered a desperate call for help. And whereas, the senseless act of violence that took Deputy Sheriff Peary's life deprived his wife Megan of her husband, his two children Matt and Amy of their father, his mother Sandy of her son, his siblings Davey, Matt, Mark, Donovan, and Sarah of a brother, and countless others of a loved one, hero, neighbor, and friend. And whereas, Deputy Peary dedicated his life to the service of others. He served in the United States Army from 2001 to 2014 as a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, where he was part of the U.S. Army's Contingency Response Force that provided rapid forces to the European, African, and Central Command areas of responsibility. During his time in the United States Army, he deployed to Iraq three times, developing over 600 military ops in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. And whereas, after separating from the U.S. Army, Deputy Peary continued a life of service by enrolling in the police academy, graduating on August 15, 2014, and joining the Bakersfield California Police Department that same year, a decision that placed him on a similar path as his father, David, who served as an officer for the Los Angeles Police Department and a Kern County California District Attorney Investigator, and his older brother, Matt, who also served in the United States Army and is a 24-year veteran of the Bakersfield California Police Department. And whereas, in 2016, Deputy Peary joined the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, where he served and protected county residents as a highly decorated and well-respected SWAT operator. Wherein, his fellow deputies described him as a leader, a good follower, passionate, brave, a skilled operator who was roundly loved, and a Sergeant Jason Garrett described him, he was the best of us. And whereas, on August 7, 2022, Deputy Peary's life culminated in the most sacred and ultimate sacrifice a public servant can make, keeping true to the values he forged as a man, a veteran, and a law enforcement officer until the end. And whereas, we echo the words of Sheriff Bill Elder, who in a tender message to Deputy Peary's wife, Megan, said the following, Megan, we are so sorry for your loss. Your husband is a hero, not for how he died, but for how he lived. Thank you for sharing him with the Sheriff's Office. Now therefore, be it resolved that the El Paso Board of County Commissioners honors the life of service, life of service lived by Deputy Andrew S. Peary. Now therefore, be it further resolved that we likewise thank him for the sacrifice he made for all of the residents of El Paso County and for his service to our great nation. Now therefore, be it further resolved to all who mourn the life of Deputy Peary, particularly his wife Megan, his children Matt and Amy, everyone who served with him, and to those who joined Andrew that night to help Alex Paz, we pray that the spirit will heal your broken heart, bind your wounds, and bless you with peace. May we all take comfort in the promise of the Lord as found in Isaiah who said, Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. I will help thee. I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Done this 23rd day of August 2022 at Colorado Springs, Colorado. Signed the Board of County Commissioners of El Paso County, Colorado, Stan Vanderwerf Chair, Cammy Bremmer Vice Chair, Lohinos Gonzalez Jr., Holly Williams, and Kerry Geithner members. Attested to by Chuck Borman, County Clerk and Recorder. Second. All right, very good. That's been moved and seconded. Thank you for the reading, Commissioner, and do we have anybody that would like to come up and speak for a moment? Good morning, Sheriff. Good morning, Commissioners. Sheriff Bill Elder. I don't know how much I can speak. That's tough. You know, I got a bunch of staff with me. Once you guys come up here, maybe I'll do something where I won't cry with you guys standing behind me. You know, the toughest thing we do is bury one of our comrades and Andrew was a good guy. And this is the third time for us. And it's tough and it's old. And I thank you for, as a board, as a, you know, to a person, the people that sit up here, for the things that you've done to support us and the care that you have, that you have shown in your hearts. And I appreciate that. And I know that, you know, every one of the men and women that are behind me and the men and women of the Sheriff's Office do the same. Anybody else want to bail me out here? Nobody? I'm Lieutenant Jim Vidmar. I've been assigned since this incident occurred as the liaison representative from the office for Megan, Matthew and Amy. And they're beginning to get back, take baby steps into getting back to their day-to-day activities. So Megan went back to work today. But I can tell you that they very much appreciate all the support and the outreach from everyone in the community and from the Sheriff's Office and the county. And they're extremely overjoyed with all the support they've received since this happened. Thank you. You know that it has been my life honor to serve here doing what I do for the last eight years as your Sheriff, but doing what I've done since 1979. And I know that I'm leaving it in the extremely capable hands of this crew behind me. And I'm excited for the future of the organization. I'm excited for the future of El Paso County. This, you know, and I've said it a bunch of times, but this is the largest Sheriff's Office in the state by quite a bit. And we have some of the most talented people working here. Not only the command group that's behind me, but people like Andrew. And I just, and I thank you for the work that you're doing to take care of them, to compensate them, to help us recruit and retain people. And I just, thanks for doing this today. It's a big deal. Thank you, Sheriff. Anybody else? All right. Seeing none, I'll bring this up to the dais and ask for comments from my fellow commissioners. Commissioner Gonzalez. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, I'm proud to be, have my name on this and for the county and the given support to the Sheriff's Department and to Deputy Peary's family and remembering how he lived and all the great things that he did as a hero to our community. These are, these do hit hard. As the Sheriff mentioned, this is the third. And so, I know two of us have been up here for all three. And then seeing, you know, we ran into Rachel at the ceremony as well, the memorial and bringing all that back because it does hit hard. Anytime we lose one, it's one too many. And we know that and we know it hurts the Sheriff's Department the hardest. And so, I appreciate all the work that you've done for our community. Appreciate the difficulties you all do. And I tell this every time I do speak at some law enforcement where I'm always supportive of them. I've gone to these pro police rallies and they've occasionally let me speak and I tell the same thing. I was active duty military for 20 years deployed to the Middle East. And when I was deployed, and even in some Latin America areas, when I was deployed, that's when I was worried. But when I was back here at home, I always felt safe. And for law enforcement, it's every day. And it's every day for your families. And he did both. And so he lived that and his family lived that. And so what I felt just, you know, part time when I was deployed, this is what you go through. And this is what your families go through every day. So I appreciate all the dedication that you do. And just I just want to pass that on to the family. God bless and thank you for everything. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Bremmer. Thank you. Thank you all for being here today. I know it's been a rough few weeks to say the least. And I just appreciate the extra effort that it took to to come and do this. And we are more than happy to do any efforts we can to make sure that Deputy Perry's life is celebrated and remembered. And that more than that, the service that that you do every day, you know, Sheriff, I'm glad that you had them stand up and stand behind you because it was it's a beautiful and moving visual of of what the blue line does. You stand behind each other and that line shuffles from time to time and you figure out how how you can stand behind those who need you and stand in front of those who need you. And that's just an overwhelming visual today. So thank you for being here. Thank you for for standing that line with around Megan and her kids and for all of those including yourselves in the department that are hurting with the loss of your colleague. You know, one of the things that struck me both at the at the Memorial and then we heard it again today was the thank you from the sheriff. Thank you for sharing Deputy Perry with the sheriff's office that was delivered that message was delivered to Megan. And I'd like to reinforce that and say thank you for sharing him with our entire community. Because that's he clearly had a heart of service and one that that should be celebrated. And I know that many of you share that same heart of service and our community is deeply grateful for that. And you probably don't hear it enough. I'm glad you can hear it directly from us today. Thank you, Commissioner. Great comments. And as is our tradition, we'll have the commission that read the proclamation provide the closing comments. So I'll provide mine now and then I'll pass this to Commissioner Geithner. And I'd like to just start by saying thank God that we have such fine men and women in the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. Every one of you is dedicated to public safety in our community. And I thank every one of you for doing that. And of course, we want to thank Deputy Sheriff Perry for his sacrifice and his work to keep our community safe. And many of you have heard me share this, but I'm going to share it again. Commissioner Gonzalez and I served in the military. I served for 28 years. I sometimes commanded large organizations, and I sometimes commanded them overseas. And I felt very fortunate to have never lost anybody on my watch during those 28 years of service. I had to become a county commissioner to lose people on my watch. And now it's three. That's very important to me. And it tells me the work you do is so important. It also tells me that sometimes the battles are not overseas. Sometimes the battles are right here in our own neighborhoods. So I can tell you that I thought the celebration of life was a great event dedicated to memorializing Deputy Sheriff Perry. It was important. I thought it was healing. It was good for me as well. It's been tough for all of us. And I want to offer my prayers to the Perry family. They're suffering too. We all know that. But we are strong, and we're going to make it through this. We've done a lot to honor Deputy Perry, and we need to continue to honor him and everybody else in law enforcement that has lost their lives or been otherwise harmed in some way and thanked them over and over again for all the great things that they've done to keep everyone of us safe. And those are my comments. And at this point, I'll pass it over to Commissioner Geithner. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate all of the comments of my colleagues. And I was honored to be able to read this proclamation. So thank you for allowing me to do that. Deputy Perry and his family were on our residence of my district in Falcon. And so I feel this very closely to the community. And I know there are others here too that are part of that community and know how deeply we care for our local folks and how much we want to make sure that the family is supported. But Commissioner Gonzalez said something that echoed very strongly with me that I have thought about as well, is that when he was deployed, those were the days you worried, but most of the time, even as a military member, when you were home, you knew you were safe. And that's not different for spouses. When my husband was deployed, it was a very scary time. And I worried every single night that I would wake up the next morning with someone at my door. And that was just a year. And so I know that this family and each one of your families have those worries and anxieties every single day that you're on the job. So I'm so grateful that you are all willing to continue that. And I'm grateful to Andrew Peary. And I am grateful to his family for the tremendous, you know, not just one year. And not to say deployments aren't a very scary place. And we don't have many service members who serve over and over again, as Deputy Peary did. But you do it day in and day out. And so did he. And so I am so grateful for that. And as I said, I know, I know all of El Paso County cares deeply. And we'll do everything that we can to continue to support his family. But I know my community of Falcon, especially, is is leaning in on this. I'm sure that most of you have seen, I know that there are a few people that have been around the office have been doing things. And I know that that will continue. And I am honored to be charged with that as a citizen of this community to continue to uphold that family. So thank you all for being here. Thank you for what you do every day. Thank you to Andrew Peary's family. Thank you, Commissioner. And thank you to all my Commissioner colleagues for your great comments. We have some brief business to do. And that is to vote on the proclamation. Let's go ahead and proceed with that. We do have a motion and a second Commissioner Geithner. Hi, Commissioner Gonzalez. Hi, Commissioner Bremer. And the chair votes aye that passes 4-0 with Commissioner Williams excused. Let's take a brief recess.