A bill for an ordinance amending the annual salaries of certain appointed charter officers. Amends Section 18-91 of the Denver Revised Municipal Code to adjust annual salaries for appointed charter officers in accordance with limitations set forth in the Charter and applied retroactively to January 1, 2022. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 4-5-22.
13 Eyes. Resolution 20 2-366 has been postponed and will be back in front of council on Monday, April 25th. Madam Secretary, if you would, put the next item up on our screens. Councilmember Sandoval, would you please put Bill 383 on the floor for publishing? I move that council bill 383 be ordered published. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded questions or comments by members of council. Councilmember CdeBaca Yes, I called this out tonight. These are the salary increases for our mayoral appointees because we discovered that this is not required at this time. I think it's inappropriate to do, especially since it will be retroactive at the tail end of this mayor's term. I think we should allow the next mayor to come in and make some decisions around pay equity throughout the entire city organization before we give increases that in some places are over 20% increases. When we have employees in the city and county of Denver who can't afford to pay rent and also don't qualify for city benefits. We've got major, major structural issues that I think are making it challenging to fill many of our vacancies in the city. And so we should be looking at this more holistically. And so I'm a no on this tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember CdeBaca. Council members will. Hear things when I'm president. I think that Councilwoman CdeBaca makes some really good points, and it's something to consider. Absolutely as we look at this contract. However, I also appreciate the testimony that we heard at committee, you know, regarding this situation where we have executive directors who are making less than their than their staff. You know, we want to make sure that whoever the next mayor is, they're set up for success. They are going to have to go through a council approval process for all of their cabinet appointees. And the things that we can do to help set that mayor up for success include equal or median, I guess, pay for for their executive directors. Like I said, it's not okay that we have a situation where some of our executive directors are making less than their staff members because their their salaries are set by ordinance. So this is always an uncomfortable conversation to have, but I think it is an important conversation to have. And I will be supporting it and I. Thanks. Thank you. Councilmember Steuer, Councilmember Sandoval. Thank you, Madam President. I also agree that these are really important points that are brought up and talking about anyone's salary and having to vote on it is an uncomfortable position for myself. I also want to acknowledge that some of when I was learning about this contract and this ordinance, I did not realize that the appointees listed here did not receive a merit increase every year. So although our everyone in the city and county in Denver receives a merit increase, these appointees have been at the same rate this entire time. So someone from I'd say the executive director of Parks and Rec has been making the same entire exact salary for over six years without a merit increase. And that does not feel equitable to me. That does not feel fair. And that was something that I gave to consideration as I was thinking about this proposal. And I also did had the conversation, as with the mayor's office, about could the next mayor come in and we do this? Could the next mayor come in? We have a general election coming up and we'd have a new mayor in July of 23. And could they come and bring a proposal, an ordinance and undo this proposal? Yes, they could do it. Has that happened in the history of Denver? Yes, it has. We did have a mayor that came in and actually reset all of the salaries of our appointees there, the mayor's appointees. And I think we have been playing catch up since then. So I gave this contract and this ordinance a lot of thought since I got received my briefing. And although it makes me very uncomfortable to have to talk about other people and have to vote on other people's salary. I will be supporting it this evening because once again, these executive directors have not received a salary increase. And at the same time, when I asked if they had to participate in the furloughs that everyone else had to participate in. Yes, they did participate in the furloughs. So they participated in the furloughs. And most people got the merit increase in 2021 and they did not. So this is again, I'm going to say it for the record, an uncomfortable conversation to have appeared to be talking about. But given that I did give it consideration, I will be supporting it this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Sandoval. Councilmember Cashman. Yeah, thank you, Madam President. I looked at this carefully as well. And these posts are the leaders of our departments of the big city government. And we're, as with all big cities, in a position right now where we've got some real challenges that we face and we need the best people possible that we can get into these positions. These salary increases do not put these people at the top of the heap compared to other cities. It puts them in the mid-range compared to other cities. And the if you look at the total, I added it up earlier this week and forgot to bring my numbers in with me. But if you look at all the dollars that we're talking about, while in some cases the percentage increases are substantial in in face of the leadership that we're asking for and the comparatively low dollars that this bill increases, the total salaries, it's minimal. And I'm glad to support this. I'd actually wish we could get our department heads rather than aim for 50%. I'd like to look at 60% and 70% of average. Like I say, I want the best people possible leading the city. And, you know, sometimes it helps to show people a little love dollar wise. So that's where I am on this. I will certainly support it. Thank you, Councilmember Cashman. Councilmember Herndon. Think about the president. You know, I was just asked the question, what were you doing in 2006? Most of us can't remember because it was that long ago these positions in front of us, with the exception of excise and license, because marijuana was added to their job description. So you could say 2017 for that individual, that's when they last got a salary increase. And if it was not management. People would be up and like, how could this be possible? But for some strange reason, because they're part of the executive team or the C-suite, it's a it should be questionable. And that's absurd. It's absolutely absurd. People should be compensated for the work that they do. We're the third busiest airport in the world, and our compensation for our CEO is paltry. And so for the next mayor, this is actually doing them a favor because we're upping the hours they can choose to keep the people on or they can look to hire new people. And it will be a challenge to hire new people if we keep our compensations at the levels that they are for the responsibility that they have. I said this at committee and I second Councilman Cashman. I wish this didn't take them to the midpoint. They should be paid. They should be compensated higher. But I'm happy to support this and I hope my colleagues do as well. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you. Councilmember Herndon Council Pro-Tem Torres. Thank you so much. I'll also be supporting tonight. I think our executive leadership, in addition to the past two years of what we've all experienced, have done a tremendous job. We may disagree on a lot of different individual policies, but overall the work that is loaded upon them is pretty heavy. And I do. Agree. Councilwoman Sandoval mentioned we have had mayors in the past and coming who have asked their starting cabinet to take pay cuts. That was at a time of recession. We may be looking at that again in a couple of years. Who knows what it really looks like? But we should be able to attract key folks. To these positions for what Denver needs and where it's going. I will say that cumulatively, in terms of. Actual. Raises, city employees earned an average of 18% since 2016. The average here is at about 16%. So it's not far off from what our employee. Structure. Also received in that period of time. So I will be supporting tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Council Pro-Tem Torres. Councilmember CdeBaca, we have you back up in the queue. Is it okay if I go to Councilmember Ortega? All right. Go ahead, please. Councilmember Ortega. Thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to add, I won't repeat what my colleagues have already said. This is being covered by the budgets of the various agencies. So this is not requiring a separate supplemental budget appropriation to cover the cost of these salaries. So I will be supporting it tonight as well for all the reasons that have been expressed earlier. Thank you, Councilmember Ortega. Council members say the Baca thank you. I just want to thank my colleagues for their comments and also point out for the public that it was a choice of our mayor not to give merit increases annually that could have been done annually. It's a strange time to do that, given what we've just been through and what we're facing. Additionally, employees within the city who do receive merit increases do so based on their performance. That is not the case with our appointees. There is no evaluation process, no evaluation system, and often no recourse for staff in an agency when there is poor leadership or when there are things within the agency that they don't approve of. So it is a little bit different when we're talking about appointees and merit increases versus regular employees and merit increases. Additionally, when we talk about employees rights in the city and the pay inequity that's happening right here in all of our agencies, we explicitly prohibit our employees from collectively bargaining. And so I challenge my colleagues, if you truly do believe people should be paid what they are worth, to recognize that we have to then allow our employees throughout the city, not just a couple of select agencies who are some of the highest, who are led by some of the highest paid appointees on this list to collectively bargain. Everybody should have that right. And so still a no on this. And I hope that my colleagues think about the potential for creating equity in pay across our city agencies. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember CdeBaca. Councilmember Hines. Thank you. Council President A couple of things that my colleagues have already said about the third busiest airport in the world. It's crazy that our CEO is getting paid 40% less than than industry average. And we've had pay raises for most employees. And most employees have had several pay raises since 2016, but not these positions. Two things that haven't been covered so far are a point we just had in our budget and policy conversation this afternoon, an update on our the strength of our city in 2021. And and the appointees that we had, the leadership of the various agencies saved more money than we were expecting in 2021. And so I would say that the appointees directly did a better job in in being frugal with our our funds in 2021. But also in the same presentation, we learned that we, we collected more sales tax than for. And our income was greater than expected in 2021. So I recognize that 2020 was a tough year for everyone. But but we we found in this afternoon's presentation that 2021 was better than expected. And that's in part because of the leadership of our city and creating our recovery stronger than the state and national average. Thank you. Council President. Thank you, Councilmember Hines. And not seeing anybody else in the queue there. Madam Secretary, roll call on Council Bill 22, Dash 383, please. CDEBACA No. Clarke. All right. Flynn. I. Herndon, I. Hi. All right. Cashman Can each I. Ortega Excuse me, I. Sandoval. Hi. Sawyer. I. Torres, i. Black eye. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and announce the results. When they. 12 Eyes. 12 Eyes. Resolution 22, dash 383 has been ordered published. That concludes the items to be called out this evening. All bills for introduction are ordered published. Councilmembers remember this is a consent or block vote and you will need to vote I. Otherwise, this is your last chance to call out an item for a separate vote. Councilmember Sandoval, would you please put the resolutions for adoption and the bills on final consideration for final passage on the floor? I move that proclamations and resolutions be adopted and bills on final consideration be placed upon final consideration, and do pass in a block for the following items. Zip. 44142138348349350. 351375376382360361364372433365367434320. All right. Thank you, Councilmember Sandoval. And we've got that moved and seconded. Madam Secretary, roll call black. I CdeBaca. I, Clark. All right. Flynn. Herndon. I. Hi. Cashman. Hi, Kenny. I. Ortega. Sandoval. I swear, i. Torres. I. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, to close the voting and announce results. 13 eyes. 13 eyes. The proclamations and resolutions have been adopted and the bills have been placed upon final consideration and do pass. Our pre recess announcement this evening. Tonight there will be a required public hearing on council bill 20 2-168 changing the zoning classification for 4116 to Cater Street in Sunnyside required public hearing on Council Bill 20 2-169 Changing