After Denver council approves small-dollar budget amendments, mayor gets the next move

The Denver City Council agreed on several tweaks to the mayor s proposed budget this week as the deadline for final approval approaches but certain members attempts to make major cuts to the police department ultimately failed Now the ball is in Denver Mayor Mike Johnston s court with a Friday deadline to agree to the small changes or veto them The council s decisions came as its members considered amendments on Monday the highest number of budget amendments that have been proposed in any budget cycle in fresh memory according to the city s Department of Finance Councilwoman Sarah Parady sponsored the the majority amendments with Councilwoman Shontel Lewis sponsored The council approved of the amendments with the bulk making changes of less than million in the billion general fund budget proposed for by the mayor which is down from billion this year The council unanimously approved budget changes that would restore proposed cuts in the budgets of the Office of the Clerk and Recorder and the Denver Auditor s Office Councilwomen Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Parady sponsored the the greater part costly amendments both of which would have transferred about million from the Denver Police Department to the Department of Housing Stability They solicited that the department use those dollars to help families experiencing homelessness But those amendments failed on - votes We know that we have families who are living on the street right now stated Gonzales-Gutierrez That is a citizens safety issue Johnston proposed his budget for next year which calls for a tight spending plan in September One month earlier the city laid off employees amid flattening revenues and growing expenses The council suggested changes to the budget in October and the mayor agreed to specific of them The meeting Monday marked the end of the period when the council could ask for changes and the beginning of its members opportunity to force amendments to the city s budget Johnston will have until Friday at noon to either accept or veto the amendments that passed Then the council will have one final chance to override his vetoes an action that requires a -vote supermajority of the council this coming Monday The budget will be finalized that day That will wrap up a process that Council President Amanda Sandoval called one of the hardest budgets she s ever worked on The relationship between the mayor s office and the council has shown signs of deterioration over the last year Those tensions continued to boil over during the amendment meeting The strong mayor form of ruling body may be a strong mayor form of regime but it is not a kingdom Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer mentioned during the meeting Recruiting neighborhood groups The council members frustrations grew as representatives from the city s registered neighborhood organizations announced receiving calls from the mayor s office asking them to use their platforms and the council s inhabitants comment period to oppose the two amendments that would have reduced funding for the police department Certain neighborhood groups did just that Others questioned the tactic Jenn Greiving with the Overland Park neighborhood association mentioned it s normal for the mayor s office to let RNOs know when there is an essential vote But it was remarkable she stated for the administration to urge the organizations to speak against a council amendment It felt like RNOs and their contact lists were being leveraged in a way that positioned RNOs in the middle of council and the mayor she mentioned Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez explained during the meeting that she was disappointed that the mayor s office would try to recruit the groups against an amendment and noted administration personnel mischaracterized the council amendments This misinformation that they re emailing our RNOs is not okay Alvidrez announced A spokesman for the mayor s office mentioned it shared factual information with the organizations and announced it wasn t an abnormal political strategy It s not any different than what we see in the newsletters from council members stated Johnston spokesman Jon Ewing A look at amendments During the near-seven-hour discussion the council also approved amendments to dedicate more dollars for the Safe Routes to School campaign to create a predicament response association at the Denver jail to reinstate funding for the Out of School Time project to fund a grant plan for youth violence prevention to fund the Denver Day Works effort and to aid the WorkReady campaign Related Articles Voters approve Denver s ban on flavored tobacco products Denver voters approve measures to split at-large council elections rename licensing department Salvation Army to lay off Denver employees as shelter operations change hands Coloradans scramble for help as SNAP suspension looms and food banks just don t have enough Denver wants to increase fines against landlords who don t comply with city s new residential rental license plan The council also moved more than from its own budget and from the Department of Safety and police budgets for the Promotion Crew Assisted Response emergency response plan which sends mental healthcare clinicians and paramedics to respond to chosen calls instead of police officers Its members unanimously restored the budgets of the auditor and the clerk Representatives from both offices argued that the mayor s proposed cuts to their offices would impede their work Clerk Paul Lopez disclosed he would have to decrease the number of ballot boxes and polling places for next year s midterm elections if his budget wasn t restored Those changes would cost about million and for the clerk and auditor respectively Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter The Spot