Larimer County reviews 2024 performance measures for human and economic health

Larimer County commissioners heard a one-hour update Aug. 13 on 2024 performance measures for the county’s human and economic health services, including child welfare and child support, public health indicators and immunizations, extension and agriculture programs, economic and workforce outcomes, and behavioral-health metrics tied to the Longview acute behavioral health facility.

The presentations, led by county program managers and department directors, summarized each department’s key indicators for 2024 and identified items staff will track or return to the Board for additional information. Laura Walker, director of human and economic health, described the session as a “snapshot” of wider program activity and thanked staff for compiling the measures.

Human services director Heather O’Hare reported on federally tracked child welfare and child support measures. O’Hare said the county’s reinvolvement measure — the share of children who return to the child-welfare system within six months of case closure — was 98% for 2024, near the federal 97% goal. She said the percentage of children served who remained in their family home during involvement declined to 83%, citing increases in case severity such as substance use and domestic violence and rising costs for in‑home services. For children who returned home from out‑of‑home placements, O’Hare said 95% did not reenter care within 12 months. On child support, she said the county collected roughly $19,000,000 in 2024 and that the share of cases with a current collection was about 63%; the child-support program is staffed at roughly 35 positions and the county provides a 34% match to the program budget.

Public health director Tom Gonzales and epidemiologist Jared Olsen described measures aligned to the Colorado Foundational Public Health Services. Gonzales said the department identified five focal measures: disease investigation, child immunizations provided by county clinics, food-safety inspection risk factors, completion of communicable-disease interviews and WIC participation. Jared Olsen said county clinics document roughly 1 immunization for every two uninsured children (about a 2.0 to 1.8 ratio in recent years) and that 2024 saw 20 county-issued news releases or alerts (not including CDPHE-issued air-quality alerts). Public-health staff reported fewer than 2.75 foodborne-risk factor violations per inspection (about 2.3 in 2024), completion of 88% of required communicable-disease interviews (above the 80% CDPHE expectation) and a 24% increase in WIC enrollment to over 4,000 participants in 2024. Gonzales and Jared Olsen noted the department will continue outreach (including 22 off-site back-to-school immunization clinics) and monitor trends such as air-quality and heat-driven ozone exceedances tied to a Tinmath monitor and EPA ozone thresholds.

Extension director Carrie Weiner highlighted community education and local-food indicators: 125 master-gardener volunteers (a limit the program reached this year), an increased farmers market sales goal (raised from $700,000 to $1.5 million annually), continued support for SNAP and WIC at markets, and 4‑H enrollment of about 865 youth with more than 200 volunteers. Weiner said 4‑H project completions edged down and staff are adjusting outreach and project-orientation approaches to increase completion rates. She also noted a new measure for home food‑safety program outcomes based on about 300 survey responses.

Mark Johnston, economic and workforce development director, gave workforce measures tied to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and county economic development investments. Johnston said the public workforce system served about 10,000 Larimer County residents in 2024, with 4,000 receiving deeper staff-directed services and about 300 enrolled in the dislocated worker program. He reported median quarterly earnings for participants who entered employment at roughly $12,000 (about a $50,000 annualized figure) and a second-quarter employment retention rate that dipped to roughly 71% (about 70.6%). Johnston said the county participated in 56 attraction projects in 2024 through the Regional Economic Development Initiative (REDI), with 26 projects in heavy machinery, 21 in energy and 7 in IT.

Behavioral health director Amy Martinis reviewed metrics funded by the county’s 2018 behavioral-health sales tax (25¢ per $100). Martinis said the Longview acute behavioral health facility had 6,659 visits in 2024, representing 3,647 unique clients of whom 2,860 (78%) reside in Larimer County. She said 95% of behavioral-health sales-tax budget dollars went to services and programming in 2024 and the Impact Fund provided $3,000,000 to 41 organizations; 82% of proposed grant objectives were met as reported, and 100% of 2024 grantees were in compliance with county grant procedures. Martinis also noted a rise in suicide deaths reported for 2024, and that the two-year average for 2023–24 was 72.5; staff are analyzing age and risk patterns with the coroner’s office and public-health epidemiology to inform prevention work. Emergency-department visits primarily for behavioral-health complaints showed a declining trend, she said.

Across departments commissioners requested follow‑up data and next steps. Commissioners asked staff to provide: trend data on air-quality and high‑temperature alerts; updated vaccination figures for 2025 as they become available; business‑retention and workforce‑retention analysis to accompany the attraction-project counts; and more detail on 4‑H geographic gaps (for example, Estes Park). Health staff said they recently received state grant funds to convene a community group to plan for projected gaps if Medicaid coverage changes, and public‑health staff described planned outreach clinics and continued partnerships with local Federally Qualified Health Centers such as Sunrise Salud.

No formal votes or motions were taken during the work session. County managers and department directors said they will return with requested trend data and deeper analyses in later briefings.

The meeting adjourned after roughly one hour of presentations and discussion.