SEE JOGAN

He later told Jogan CEO Dan Dietrich that the department would no longer give the company new work. In June, Jogan’s final project ended. That same month, Douglas County extended its contract with Jogan until the end of 2022 with a maximum payout of $3.5 million.

Michael Hill, the public health director for Douglas County, said he was unaware of why the state was no longer working with Jogan.

“I know they did some contract changing as the pandemic was winding down a little bit,” he said. “I assumed it was because of just that slowdown.”

Dietrich did not respond to detailed questions about CCM’s reporting on Jogan.

Hill added that the Douglas County Health Department hasn’t had any complaints or issues with Jogan.

“I feel confident we’re getting what we’re paying Jogan for,” he said. “They’re very impressive people, they’re very dedicated and I think they’re doing an outstanding job.”

CDPHE paid Jogan $74.3 million for their services before deciding not to extend their contract. During that time, Jogan administered more than 175,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“From the state’s perspective, Jogan Health did meet its obligations with the state,” according to an emailed statement from CDPHE.

State complaints

According to public records, the state received complaints that Jogan staff had administered expired doses of vaccines, that leadership from the company displayed “aggressive behavior” toward its staff and that it struggled to provide enough vaccine supplies for clinics.

“We have received complaints from multiple sources and for multiple areas,” Rockwell wrote about the expired vaccines.

Dietrich responded to the state’s emails about complaints, saying he needed more information to respond to some allegations. Regarding expired doses, he said it was simply staff who misunderstood the difference between manufactured dates and expiration dates and refused to administer the vaccines.

In response to complaints about vaccine clinics, Hill said this hasn’t been an issue because Jogan doesn’t distribute vaccines for the county. Tri-County still runs those services, he said.

The state’s labor and employment department is investigating Jogan following a complaint, a spokesperson for the department said. No further information was released about the nature of the ongoing investigation.

Douglas County litigation

A civil case in the county settled in June shows further allegations that Jogan failed to pay one of its subcontractors $5 million for more than six months while simultaneously purchasing multimillion-dollar homes. A judge granted a temporary protection order against Jogan in March, ordering the company and Dietrich not to use or transfer Jogan’s financial assets.

In October 2021, SMS alerted Jogan that the company was past due on its payments for services, according to the lawsuit.

Public records show that in September 2021, a company called Jogan Properties Colorado, also formed by Dietrich, purchased a $3 million home in Parker. In December, another Dietrich company called Jogan Properties Hawaii purchased a $3.5 million home in Hawaii.

When the lawsuit was filed in April, the debt to SMS was still owed, according to the document.

The lawsuit filed by SMS also claims that Jogan used false credentials to gain legitimacy and work with them and then used SMS’s background and abilities to gain contracts with CDPHE, acting as if the accomplishments were Jogan’s.

The same format and references used by Jogan for its state health department application appear in one from SMS to work for the Louisiana Health Department.

Garner Environmental, one of the companies listed on Jogan’s application as a reference for their work, told Colorado Community Media they have “no association” with Jogan “either directly or through a subcontractor.”

Three times since Jogan Health was formed in January 2021, the Colorado Department of Revenue contacted Dietrich regarding unpaid taxes, according to court documents. The latest was in June. All cases were closed the same day they were filed.

Jogan Health is one of eight companies founded by Dietrich since 2020. He also founded Jogan 5G, Jogan Security, Jogan Traffic and Jogan Thermal Checkpoint.

In June, the SMS lawsuit was settled out of court.

Douglas County responds

Douglas County’s health director Michael Hill says none of the information he’s heard about Jogan has an impact on their current contract.

“As long as they’re doing what we’ve hired them to do and their invoices check out and the state keeps paying us for paying those invoices, it would not be in the best interest of Douglas County to discontinue at this point and then have to re-invent that wheel on the fly, again, in a pandemic,” he said.

Hill says that while the county hasn’t seen any issues with Jogan’s work, new information about the organization could impact future contracts with them.

A Douglas County records custodian said there are no applications or background information from Jogan for their request to work with the county and the company was considered to have already been vetted by the state.

The state pays for Jogan’s services with Douglas County through federal grant money.

Split from Tri-County

When Douglas County first voted to leave Tri-County’s jurisdiction, they entered into an intergovernmental agreement with the agency that stated the county would continue to receive all public health services from Tri-County until at least 2023.

Under the IGA, the county health department is in control of things like governance and county-wide public health orders.

In October, the county health board began considering a health order that would give any individual the ability to opt out of mask mandates in the county and for parents to be able to opt out their children.

Jennifer Ludwig, deputy director of Tri-County and soon-to-be director of the Arapahoe County Health Department, emailed the Douglas County board of health president, calling the action “greatly concerning” and saying it would make it difficult for Tri-County to continue providing COVID services.

After the order was approved on Oct. 8, Ludwig told Douglas County they would no longer provide COVID-19 services, and by early November, the county chose Jogan to do so instead.

In an email sent through a spokesperson, Douglas County staff member Jon Surbeck said the county looked at six other contractors before choosing Jogan.

“Jogan Health offered an on-site staffing solution within Douglas County that we could easily visit/ monitor and utilized secure computers rather than personal devices,” according to the email.

Hill said Douglas County is not considering ending its contract with Jogan early.

“We would be right back in the frying pan trying to do an emergency solicitation for somebody to take over,” he said. “We aren’t staffed up to take on that much work, and Tri-County isn’t going to take it back up.”

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Happy for kindness

In a recent cross-county trip to see my brother, I saw and experienced several acts of kindness that I am hoping are signs of good things changing in the country.

Over the last few years, I feel like political division, a pandemic and the economy have created some bitter, angry citizens. This means seeing more fi ghting, angry groups and less kindness in public.

FROM THE In fl ying recently, I was brought to

EDITOR tears a few times. Or, maybe, close to tears is a better way to describe it. I was traveling with my children who are now 6, 8 and 17. No husband on this trip. I was a parent fl ying solo and that is tough any time. Due to a lengthy drive from my brother’s home and to save on some costs on my rental car — I had to go to the airport extremely early, meaning

Thelma Grimes Thelma Grimes my 6 a.m. fl ight from Newark to Denver meant almost all night in the airport. I had no idea how much Newark worked to prevent sleeping in the airport. Chairs are screwed down, big metal bars prevent you from stretching out on other chairs. The fl oor does not have carpet. There may as well have been signs say, “Do not try to rest here.”

Anyway, it was what it was. My kids and I were going to tough it out. However, after about an hour of us trying to fi nd ways to get comfortable — just picture a 17-year trying to sit cross-legged, backwards in a chair against the wall — it was not going well.

Then, a man who worked at the airport came through. He did not speak English but shook his head as he walked by me. The pessimistic side of me fi gured I was being judged as a not-so-good mom having my kids there.

Instead, he pulled out a key, went into a storage room and came out carrying four cots. He gave each of my kids a cot, a blanket and a pillow. He got one for me and encouraged me with his hand gestures to get some rest as well.

When my kids seemed overwhelmed with his gesture and thanked him with their tired voices — I was brought to tears.

I am a true believer that most people are good. I just love having that belief reaffi rmed in a strange place.

Once on the plane, I saw another act of kindness that was not aimed at me but still mattered.

An older woman who also did not speak English took her seat next to my son and myself. Come to fi nd out, she was not in the right seat. However, my Spanish has gone way downhill since living in Arizona and the fl ight attendant struggled.

Before long, a man in a nearby seat came over and helped translate, easing the woman’s stress and alleviating a tough situation.

On the news, I have heard reports of families being separated from their children on fl ights. This happened to me as well. My son and daughter were put in a different row, and I sat with my 6-year-old separately.

I trusted my 17-year-old to manage my 8-year-old (praying they would not argue over some nonsense). I wasn’t happy but did not raise a stink with the airline.

After the fl ight, my daughter told me a nice woman sitting near them opened her arms and allowed my son to sleep against her, telling my daughter his comfort mattered to her.

I hope this is a sign that we are getting better. I hope these instances can become regular again as we travel or go about our daily lives.

Thelma Grimes is the south metro editor for Colorado Community Media.

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The tidal wave of complacency

There is plenty of discussion happening around what is being called “The Great Resignation.” The impact of people not willing to work has a vast-reaching impact and implications on every aspect of life. We are all experiencing fractured supply chains, an understaffed service industry, and gaps in inventory resulting in shortages around the world, just to name a few.

This disruption and rising inflation are causing severe emotional and financial stress, leading to anxiety for businesses and many of us at home. When will it end? That is a question no one can answer, with some experts believing that it will be around longer than we think and whether that is a little longer or a lot longer.

What many businesses are experiencing that is worse than “The Great Resignation,” is a tidal wave of complacency. When the pandemic began, both employer and employee were trying to figure out the whole remote work situation. In the beginning, there were struggles with working from home, and leaders were anxious because they felt work might not be getting done in the same capacity. But within just a few short months, employees became extremely comfortable and grateful to be able to work from home, especially those who had difficult commutes.

The work-life balance began to get better for most of us. We became aware of the fact that we could decide to work when we wanted to work and take a few hours off and then return to our work in the evening. This strategy worked well for some, but it also created an opportunity for complacency for others. We would convince ourselves we would do the work later, and then later became tomorrow, and tomorrow became next week. We lost any sense of urgency that we may have had before. Hunger and desire have been replaced by distractions and atrophy of our business muscles and attitude. Where we once strived for excellence, we have settled into striving for mediocrity. We know that talent without effort breeds mediocrity. We have fantastic people on our teams, and we know they can do more, do better, and once again be capable of striving for excellence.

There is so much great content around how we can break out of our comfort zone, or as I heard this week, how we can break free from our confinement zone. Comfort zones are breeding grounds for mediocrity, and confinement zones hold us hostage, as they hamper our enthusiasm and our creativity. Just because we may work from home or have a hybrid work schedule does not mean we should settle for doing the minimally acceptable level of work. We owe our company, customers, co-workers and ourselves more than that. We owe ourselves and all of them our absolute best effort.

We become frustrated because we cannot find what we need at the store because of no inventory. We have the right to be upset because it takes our meals longer to come out because the restaurant is short on help. Our impatience grows because

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Highlands Ranch Herald

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