Eagle County lawmakers answer questions about mental health in schools, horses, Marshall Fire and more
John LaConte/Vail Daily
Sen. Dylan Roberts, Rep. Meghan Lukens and Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, Democrats who represent Eagle County in the state legislature, on Tuesday updated voters about the 2023 legislative session and hosted a brief question-and-answer session for those in attendance at a Gypsum Town Hall event.
Attendees asked about the funds Colorado would receive from the national opioid settlement, the cause of the Marshall Fire, extending the legislative session, transporting horses for slaughter, and several other issues.
On the opioid settlement, Roberts said the Attorney General’s office has set up councils across the state to determine how the money will be spent, and District Attorney Heidi McCollum is on the council that will determine how the money in the Eagle County region will be spent.
Colorado will receive approximately $270 million over 15 years from the recent settlements, which is in addition to the approximately $400 million Colorado has begun receiving from prior opioid settlements, the Attorney General announced in a press release issued Friday.
“It needs to go to things like harm reduction and substance abuse treatment and it needs to be related to the crisis that the money is coming from,” Roberts said.
Support Local Journalism
On the cause of the Marshall Fire — which was just released on Thursday, more than 18 months after it occurred — Velasco pointed to SB23-013 “Fire Investigations,” which was signed into law May 12 and will create a new fire investigation fund to determine the cause of wildland fires in Colorado.
“At the state level, we only had one fire investigator,” Velasco said.
Velasco worked in wildland firefighting as an on-scene public information officer with incident management teams across the West before joining the legislature.
“The Marshall Fire was the most destructive ever in our history, destroying over 1,000 homes in an hour, and to find out that it was because of an electric line, definitely we have to hold Xcel accountable, to make sure that we’re taking care of aging infrastructure,” she said. “I think that more structures need to be weatherproof, fireproof, and that we’re doing that work ahead of time so that we’re not in that horrible situation.”
Legislative wins
In updating the group on the accomplishments of the legislature, Roberts said he was most excited about his work on affordable housing, citing SB23-001, “Authority Of Public-private Collaboration Unit For Housing,” which was signed into law from Dowd Junction in May.
Be more informed in 2025.
Sign up for daily or weekly newsletters at VailDaily.com/newsletter
“This is a bill that’s going to allow local public-private partnerships to form, to build affordable workforce housing on state-owned land that’s either being underutilized or unused, and the Dowd Junction project is a great proof of concept for how this will work,” he said.
The Dowd Junction area has a parcel of land that’s currently owned by the state land board and leased by the Colorado Department of Transportation, which has entered into an agreement with the town of Vail, the town of Avon, the town of Minturn, and Eagle County, to “engage a partnership between those municipalities and a private developer to build workforce housing on that parcel of land,” Roberts said. The first phase is expected to contain 80 housing units, but there’s room on the parcel to add another 250 units.
“This bill will provide funding to help get that land ready for development, and then incentive that public-private partnership to engage a private developer to build housing,” Roberts said.
Lukens said the most recent legislative session, her first as a newly-elected representative, contained historic wins for education. Lukens was a teacher at Steamboat Springs High School before joining the legislature.
The top among the wins was SB23-287, “Public School Finance HB23-1003;” Lukens said.
The bill increased per-pupil funding by an additional $1,000 per student, “so each student in the state of Colorado will be allocated $10,000 for their districts to utilize,” Lukens said. “I and other rural legislators advocated for an extra $30 million specifically earmarked for rural schools, and an extra $30 million specifically earmarked for special education.”
Velasco, who is also wrapping up her first legislative session as a newly elected representative to House District 57, lived in mobile home parks in Eagle County as a youth. She said she was particularly proud of her efforts to get HB23-1257, “Mobile Home Park Water Quality,” passed in 2023.
“In our state, we have 800 mobile home parks, over 300 of those are here in House District 57,” she said.
House District 57 includes Dotsero and the Roaring Fork Valley portions of Eagle County, both of which contain mobile home parks. The bill addresses data gathering and testing from the state water quality control division, which is only a first step to ensuring trailer parks have clean water, Velasco said.
“I look forward to continuing that work in the future,” she said.
Following issues
But not all discussions on Tuesday were related to bills that made it through the legislature.
One attendee asked what happened with SB23-038, “Prohibit Equine Slaughter For Human Consumption,” which didn’t make it through the legislature.
“The bill was creating new felony offenses for transportation or slaughter of horses; the issue I found — as an attorney myself — was you can’t make a law in one state that felonizes activity that happens in a different state or even a different country,” Roberts said.
In asking how to follow along with any future activity on the issue, Lukens acknowledged it can be hard to engage with bills that are being floated in the legislature.
“My best suggestion for interacting with bills that you care about is join email lists with interest groups or lobbying groups about a specific issue that you care about,” Lukens said.
In discussing the large breadth of topics that come before the legislature, one attendee asked if there has ever been any talk of extending the legislative session in Colorado.
“I don’t think there’s an appetite to extend it past 120 days,” Roberts said. “I do think there’s a group working to maybe reduce it to have fewer than 120 days.”
Children and schools
Attendees also asked several questions about public schools in Colorado, including HB23-1003, “School Mental Health Assessment;” and the gaps between Latino and non-Latino students in test scores.
Velasco, who speaks three languages, attended Battle Mountain High School and worked as a translator there. She said language access in schools creates a gap when attempting to serve the Latino community.
Velasco said HB23-1263, “Translating Individualized Education Programs,” which was signed into law on May 25, could help bridge the gap in some areas of language access. The bill allows for the creation of an individualized education program for special-needs children so that the program can be translated into the dominant language spoken in the child’s home.
“I think language access is a huge issue for our community,” Velasco said.
On HB23-1003, the legislators were taken to task by Tony Martinez, chair of the Eagle County Republican Party, who asked them to explain why they voted in favor of the bill. HB23-1003, which was signed into law June 5, allows students 12 years of age or older to participate in a mental health screening even if the student’s parent opts out of the screening.
“We have seen that the councilors in the school systems are activists in a sense in that they are manipulating children 12 years of age or otherwise into believing that they may have mental health issues that they may in fact not have,” Martinez said.
Lukens, who was named Mental Health Legislator of the Year by Mental Health Colorado, said educators are seeing concerning rates of suicide and mental health-related issues in schools.
HB23-1003 ensures that students, “if they are experiencing something in the realm of mental-health crisis, they will receive support that they need,” Lukens said. “And there are unbiased ways to test that; often with youth it is harder to put words to what you are experiencing, and this is a way to support the mental health crisis that our youth, specifically, are experiencing.”
Roberts said it’s important to note that the bill doesn’t allow for the provision of mental health treatment.
“It’s a screening,” he said. “And then it would notify the parents and the school that this student may benefit from mental health services.”
Martinez said the language in the bill was concerning “because it takes away the parents’ rights.”
Martinez also said the rise in mental health issues corresponds with “the rise of the indoctrination from the Pride community.”
Lukens said if a student wants access to mental health services, they should be able to receive mental health services.
Another attendee thanked Roberts, Lukens and Velasco for voting in favor of the bill.
“I would say as a parent I’m really excited that I get to teach my kids how to advocate for themselves,” the attendee said. “And if I couldn’t show up for them in a way that they really need it, that there’s a community of folks in the school system that is looking after them, and get to show up in those ways.”
