 Welcome to another edition of Rational Politics. I'm joined today by Rex Laceby, who is running for the actual position of Boulder County Sheriff. Rex, welcome to the show. Thank you, Nigel. It's a pleasure to be here. Let's talk about the job of a sheriff for a minute, because I don't think many people understand exactly what a sheriff does and all of the responsibilities that fall under that umbrella. So why don't you just give us a brief overview of the multitude of things a sheriff actually looks after? Great question, Nigel. I've been asked that several times, and you're absolutely right. A lot of folks don't know what a sheriff does. It's different in a lot of areas, but Boulder County Sheriff, merged management. The Boulder County Sheriff takes care of the jail, has to make sure that the folks in the jail are safe, that the laws being provided, the folks who are in the jail are being advocated for, the staff members. Boulder County Sheriff also provides protection for the 20th Judiciary Building on 6th and Canyon. So if you ever walk in there, there's sheriff deputies who are making sure that the folks, the lawyers, the district attorney, the district attorney, their staff are safe. There's also a degree of policing that has to happen in the rural areas. So for instance, up in Allens Park, all the way down to Netherlands, Superior has a substation, Lions, there's different municipalities, little areas, unincorporated Boulder County that don't have their own police, and the sheriff deputies have to be responsible for providing the policing, that law enforcement. The largest aspect of the Sheriff's Department is that merged management aspect. And as we saw, the great job that Joe Pelle has been doing and did, the press asking them questions daily about the Marshall Fire, the flood, the different disasters, and the myriad of other things that can happen to the citizens and guests of Boulder County, the Boulder County Sheriff's Office is right there, connected with communications, collaborating with fire, police, state patrol, volunteer organizations, and there has to be a high degree of collaboration that has been going on. I know Joe's been doing a great job of that. So Sheriff's Department, very diverse, very dynamic, and I'm looking forward to being your sheriff. That's interesting. I don't think I actually realized all the different things that a sheriff looks after. Your background, what makes you believe that you're the man for the job? Well, I think I'm the best candidate for the job, not because of my non-existent experiences being a police officer, the other two gentlemen are lifelong police officers, and I've already been hearing questions, well, how is it you are capable of being a sheriff if you are not a police officer? Well, I think that the fact that I'm not a police officer gives me an advantage because I'm looking at this from a different lens. We have an increased crime rate. It's been increasing. We've got so many issues that are coming more prevalent. We've got cyber crimes that have been increasing drastically since the onset of COVID, and a lot of folks don't understanding cyber hygiene. And our biggest threat now is wildfires, and Jonah Goose has said it. I've said it on several interviews. Our wildfire season is year-round. I'm a firefighter. I'm a wildland firefighter. I was on the Cold Springs fire. I was on the Calwood fire. I was first two days straight on the Marshall fire. I understand fire behavior. My background in the military, 21 years in the Marine Corps. I've got a diverse military experience. When I got out of the Marine Corps in 2013, I've been a member of Boulder Emergency Squad, which falls directly underneath Boulder County sheriffs. And where I'm a first responder, I'm a public safety diver, swift water rescue technician. I'm the county's ice rescue trainer. I've been on countless calls, searches, dives, fires, working directly with those deputies, and Joe, and the EOC, and state patrol, and fire. I've got a significant background in fire mitigation. I've been the lead for Team Rubicon, which is the disaster response organization founded by two Marines back 12 years ago now. We do fire mitigation operations. We help the community. I understand the very delicate balance between, you know, municipalities, fire protection districts surrounded by national forests. How hard it is to collaborate and communicate and try to do mitigating selective thinning of very unhealthy forests to try to prevent massive damage from the next fire. And that takes, I think, my background as a firefighter and as a leader all give me, you know, tremendous advantage. So you, from what you've just said, I mean, you are already working with a lot of the groups of people that you'd be also working with as sheriff. Oh, definitely. So they all know you? I have many supporters, fire chiefs, deputies. You know, I've been on several calls as a volunteer. So risking my life side by side with my members from Bullarmorcy Squad on calls, dives, swift waters. I understand how it works. Also from a lens of, hey, I think we could do this a little better because I'm not institutionalized and down this, you know, sometimes, you know, pointy way of thinking. Right, there's one little rabbit hole. But there's a lot of things that we're doing great. And I'm not going to come in and just change things around. I'm going to get where the rubber meets the road. Right. My youngest deputy, one of my correctional officers, you know, deputy or staff member or a nurse at the jail, the folks who are, you know, doing traffic, supporting evacuations. Hey, you know, what do we do better? And you get that, you get that honest feedback by establishing a relationship, by showing them that you actually care about their opinion. And that's something I learned in the Marine Corps. You know, I started as a, I'm enlisted in the Marine Corps right out of high school. And I got my commission on active duty here at the University of Colorado Boulder. And the whole reason I became an officer is because as a, you know, scrappy little enlisted guy, the Lance Corporal, I'm like, why are we doing it this way? This is so, this is just so counterproductive. And I find myself doing the bare minimum, just counting the days till I EAS got an active service. But I've had some amazing leaders, some amazing senior enlisted officers, peers, you know, junior Marines that I had under my command. And I wanted to do better. I wanted to, you know, don't just be a armchair quarterback and should have done it this way. Well, that's why I run for sheriff. I don't want to continue to see the public safety of Boulder County continue to slip. And we're having this huge issue with fentanyl. And it was meth, and meth's still there. And drug addiction. And letting our kids get addicted to these drugs that can just kill you with one dose now. Yep. And the tires, they're coming, cyber crimes almost unlooked at, you know, preying on our, you know, predominantly our seniors and some other underrepresented populations. And our district attorney's office, and Michael Doherty is a dear friend of mine, that their hands are tied behind their back because we're pulling, I've heard that we're actually pulling some detectives from investigating just to have proper coverage. And how can we continue to let Maris Harold do the job she's done here as Boulder police chief? You know, they are understaffed, you know, police agencies all across the region in some areas more predominant than others. Their officers are getting actively recruited from Texas and Florida. Another thing I'm going to do as sheriff, and why I think I'm the right person for the job is because I'm not a police officer, but my experience is working on boards, nonprofits, working with community foundation, the University of Colorado, is we have to join together as, you know, members of society and change how we support and, you know, convey our gratitude sometimes non-existent to our officers. Let me be the officer, the police officer, love and Democrat that knows that if we do not change that narrative, we'll continue to have less and less men and women. So when you do Dial 911, no one's going to be there. Right. And continually the response times will decrease and this has to be a collective, collaborative team effort and I'm, I'm honored that Jonah Goose, myself are friends. I've got amazing friends like John Taylor at the Boulder Chamber and Michael Doherty and Doreen, University of Colorado police chief, do not work with her lately. We've got the best leaders and we've got amazing city council folks in Longmont, in Boulder, in Louisville, Lafayette and we've got these smaller towns that are often, you know, forgotten the mountain towns. Right. And what about their needs? I know that we have folks that are, you know, starting fires and just trying to stay warm, you know, trespassing and, you know, like this whole free camping or the unhoused, it's a problem. So we can't just ignore that problem. We have to make sure that the next Marshall fire doesn't happen. Half of the fires I've been on have become more severe because of our year-long fire season and the increased wind that we've been having. So we can't have folks just out starting fires. No. We're quickly becoming closer to California and their fires and how wicked those have been and, you know, so many other thousands of folks, you know, I've heard 30,000 folks affected by the Marshall fire alone and it took weeks for us to get the power and electricity back on. Yes. So I'm going to advocate for everyone. You know, this is my county. I love this place. I've lived in Boulder and Longmont. I lived in Longmont when I was going to University of Colorado in Boulder. I work with nonprofits all throughout the county and I have a deep-rooted sense of, you know, being a protector. I don't know what it is. I, you know, my mom and dad, I don't know how I was brought up watching John Wayne movies as a young kid, watching, you know, shows like, you know, Star Wars and, you know, great movies that you had these great protagonists that was just such a great moral model and then, you know, my grandma, you know, my grandma was a sweet little lady who would just try to do the right thing and I joined the Marine Corps and I, so I was pretty good at it. That's good. And I want to be here to protect every citizen. I'm going to draw that line and make sure that I'm advocating for the taxpayers and our guests. Right. And crime and emergency management could be number one to me, sir. See, the way I look at things, I actually come from industry originally, so I spent my entire working career in the software industry. One thing I discovered about managers and about bosses, they don't have to know everything about what goes on underneath them. What they have to be good at is getting the right people into the right positions doing the right job. And it sounds to me like that we view the diversity of your background. You seem to have all those qualifications. Thank you. I'm honored you said that. I have the best boss. His name is Brad Sheetam. He works for a smaller aerospace company and I am chief of staff at Aerospace Company with my very sexy history degree. Pretty sexy. That's how you become chief of staff at Aerospace Company. History degree from University of Colorado, Boulder. I must remember that. Let me make a note of that. My software, guys and girls, amazing. My satellite navigation, my aerospace engineers, the ones that can get a rocket that isn't going to launch for a couple of months to hit an object that's not going to be there for several months past that and put it in the right elevation at the right speed, at the right time with a moving planet and sometimes it's 12 minutes, light minutes away. That's right. I can never do that. But I do know the people that can in problem solving and that's part of Boulder County Sheriff or any law enforcement is problem solving. Elon Musk did even better because he launched a rocket and four months later he's able to hit the moon with it. Oh, Elon. Elon is a competitor, technically. Yes. My company is never going to be SpaceX. A lot of my CU students, in fact, we just had a meeting starting Rocket Lab. I love my students. A lot of them go work at SpaceX. Several work at SpaceX now. Yeah. We're never going to be SpaceX or Ball. We want to be of this light agile company that can do certain things. Yeah. But I'm glad we have Elon because if not the United States will have been paying Russia for the last however many years to get. That's right. Well, France with the Ariand. I'm glad that American technology is helping us get into space. I agree. And it's so imperative. Yes. A little earlier in our conversation you actually talked about Team Rubicon. Is it nationwide? Is it local? Tell me a little bit more about Team Rubicon. Your very, the formerly known Prince Harry is actually one of our most famous gray shirts. Team Rubicon, a disaster response organization founded 12 years ago after that terrible earthquake in Haiti. Two Marines, Army doctors, some civilians, some other medics just flew in to the Dominican Republic, crossed the river into Haiti and that was almost like the crossing of the Rubicon back in Rome. Yes. Team Rubicon Disaster Response Organization. It's for veterans and kick, beep, civilians. Anyone could be a gray shirt. You just go www.teamrubiconusa.org and I am honored that they asked me to be the city admin, so the lead for all of the Boulder area region. I've got 600 some gray shirts. We wear gray shirts, call us volunteers. And this is a great way that, you know, someone who just got out of the military or maybe someone whose kids just went off to college and she or he might want to get involved in helping and we did three weekends straight with airmagation up in George Jamestown this summer. We've been helping with burnt tree removal for the 21 homes that were destroyed by the Calwood fire. We've been up in Glenhaven. We've done, helped 5,000 COVID vaccines for seniors with SCL health, food share. As I was fighting the Marshall fire, fill in water back into my Type 6, get ready to go do more structure protection and get ready to go. I've got the best volunteer leaders, all volunteers, planning Operation Fire and Ice, which was Team Rubicon, men and women, and a couple of dogs, going up to staging where Nortzoms used to be at the Flannards Crossing Mall and providing food and bringing coffee and just helping those first responders and those folks from just trying to get the fire stopped and try to start the very slow years worth of recovery that's going to have to happen. I love Team Rubicon. I'm just amazed that I'm sitting here talking to you and it's the first time I've ever heard of Team Rubicon. We're growing. About 300,000 folks. That huge earthquake that happened in Nepal. Yes. Prince Harry was in Afghanistan at the time, heard about it. He's the prince of whatever he did. He said, hey, mom, I got some stuff to do. Got you, whatever. Tasks, some helicopters, filled them full of medical supplies and water, flew in. I'm assuming the prince, I've never met him. One of my great shirts, Susan Denver did meet him, so he was great. He sees all these Americans running around saying, hey, who are you guys like? Prince, how are you doing? They're moving debris and it was a pretty much a recovery effort. And then trying to just save some villages and re-divert some water. And they made him sign up right there. He joined and said, hey, how can I help? And so they made him sign a waiver. Perfect. Gave him a gray shirt. So you can Google Prince Harry, Team Rubicon, and there is the prince. They're logging, moving logs, filling sandbags, talking to kids. You need to talk to his grandma tomorrow and get the official seal of approval. I'll do that. After I'm sheriff, then maybe I'll have the prince over. There you go. We should probably think about wrapping this up now, but is there anything that you would like to say over and above what we've talked about, about why you should become sheriff? Well, the other guys are great. And I met one of them at an event. I was with Jonah Goose. He was one of the hugest supporters of firefighters. Gave him some information helping him write. It was mostly the real, like the experts at fire, but we brought together as much information as we could on what he could convey to Congress to support firefighters more and advocate for different procedures and ways that we can actually be more successful in fire mitigation. So I met great guys there. The other one I was just online with the Longmont area Democrats and they both seem like great guys, but they've been lifelong police officers. We want transparency. We want very positive change to make sure that the Boulder County feels safe that we've got respectable disciplines, men and women who are wearing the badge who've got that arrest authority. If someone's having an issue with a senior officer, I don't know them. I'm going to come here as a fresh start and make sure that I'm looking at this with the most justice seeking lens. Totally open minded. I'm going to get everyone's opinion. I'm going to find out what we need to change. I'm going to support them. I learned that in the Marines. I'm three classes for my Masters of Mercy Management Homeland Security. I have been focusing on cybersecurity in a resilient community. The classes I've been taking have been great. I took this on my own to get more knowledge and how can I better support my community. I'm a warrior. I'm not at war now, but I'm going to be at war with criminal activity. I'm going to do everything I can to support our police and give them as much mutual aid and back up. I'm a first responder now. I've done the diving. In fact, we just did an ice dive Saturday. It's always fun when your glove breaks and your hands freeze and you're like, uh-oh. I've been in charge of twice as many folks in the Sheriff's Office in an area eight times larger in combat. Right. Understanding the rules of engagement there and the lens. How to organize things and how to get communications working correctly. I've got amazing friends. Collaborative effort is something I know we need to do and I'm a community builder. I'm going to make sure that we're doing better communicating, advocating for our officers, making mental health a priority. Trying to get more. This will be a plug for the Sheriff's Office. The Marshall Fire is going to cause years and years of painful recovery and a lot of the folks are dealing with insurance and the process is so slow people are getting stressed out so we need more folks to help folks. Right. This has been an absolutely fascinating conversation talking to Rex Lavesby here who is running for Boulder County Sheriff. Thank you very much for watching this show on rational politics. I'm your host Nigel Laves signing off. Thank you kindly. Goodbye.