Jefferson County Sheriff Joe Nole is retiring effective Jan. 2, two years before his four-year term is set to conclude. 

Undersheriff Andy Pernsteiner said the early departure was to spend more time with family but otherwise referred questions to Nole, who could not be reached by press time. 

The Board of County Commissioners is expected to choose an acting sheriff to serve from Jan. 3 until a replacement is appointed. Under state law, the county commissioners have up to 60 days to appoint a successor.

As Nole is a Democrat, the Central Committee of the Jefferson County Democrats will submit the names of three nominees. The county commissioners will appoint the new sheriff from those nominees. The Jefferson County Democrats are recruiting nominees to fill the vacancy.

The replacement will serve until an election is held in November 2025. The winner of that race will serve out the remainder of the current term, with the position back on the ballot in 2026.

Nole was first elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. When Nole first ran for sheriff in 2018 he was working as a detective in the department where he had served for 28 years at that point. At varying times he had been a patrol deputy, chief criminal deputy, undersheriff and appointed sheriff.

Nole described his path in a 2018 campaign Q&A: “I didn’t set out to work in law enforcement. I started out as a backcountry ranger in the Buckhorn Wilderness and a high school biology teacher. As it turns out, that was good preparation for this line of work.”

Pernsteiner credited Nole with improving the morale of the department, which he described as “the highest” of Pernsteiner’s 27 years on the department. 

“The community appreciates Sheriff Nole’s long service to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office,” said Lora De La Portilla, chair of the Jefferson County Democrats. “We are interested in hearing from qualified applicants as soon as possible, and we plan to complete our part of the process before the end of January.”