OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Denver City Council Health and Safety Committee Meeting – April 22, 2026

Council Committees — Wednesday, April 22, 2026
BodyDenver, Colorado
SessionCouncil Committees
DateWednesday, April 22, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:32:14

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council.

0:09

Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now.

0:19

Good morning and welcome to the Health and Safety Committee for April 22nd.

0:23

My name is Darren Watson.

0:24

I'm honored to serve as the chair of this committee as well as the city council member representing all of the fine district nine.

0:32

We have two briefings today and uh one consent item.

0:36

But before we go to our items, uh why don't we go around the room and have introductions?

0:40

We'll start on our right.

0:42

Uh Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District Two.

0:45

Amanda Sawyer, District Five.

0:47

Paul Cashman.

0:48

South Denver District Six.

0:51

Good morning, everyone.

0:52

Serena Gonzalez Cut is one of your council members at large.

0:56

It appears we have uh several uh council members uh that are virtual.

1:02

Let's go first to Council President Pro Tem.

1:07

Uh good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

1:13

And Tim, I'm just gonna wait a second to see if anyone else was joining in.

1:20

Perfect.

1:21

Well, I'll take uh a quick moment.

1:23

Uh today is uh administrative professionals day.

1:26

Um we don't have a ton of administrative professionals per se by title um within council, but um we have them throughout the city, and I want to say to all of the administrative professionals throughout the city, um I'm hoping you're enjoying your day.

1:40

I'm hoping your boss gives you a hug if you allow that, and um say thank you for all the good stuff that you do.

1:47

But for our council aides, I'll overlay uh make a council aid um professionals day to our council um aides.

1:55

Thank you so much for all the work you do throughout the city and county of Denver, do for our offices to my wonderful council members, council aides that are sitting over there.

2:03

Thank you for keeping um this train moving for.

2:07

So with that, I was pausing to see if anyone else was signing on online.

2:11

I see no one else, so our good friend Lores uh Meinhold.

2:15

Were you leaning in, sir, for uh well, I was just gonna throw in a happy earth day.

2:21

Yes, and thank thank the planet for taking such good care of us, and we'll try to return the favor a little bit better.

2:28

Words from the Gloriax of City Council.

2:30

That is that is awesome, and that is important.

2:32

And see, it's good for delays because I would like to welcome our uh good council member.

2:38

I think it's time you could still introduce.

2:39

Thank you, Jimmy Torres, West Denver.

2:42

So thank you everyone for being here, and uh we'll turn it over to our friend Lores Meinholf for the executive director for caring for Denver for your annual report.

2:51

Excellent.

2:53

Thank you.

2:53

Always appreciate the opportunity to be in front of all of you and answer any questions you have about caring for Denver.

2:58

This is our annual presentation.

3:00

We submitted to you all to the mayor's office to the city auditor our annual report on uh March 31st as required by the ordinance, but then we also like to follow up and just make sure that understand answer any questions.

3:14

And we've continued to evolve this presentation, sometimes based on questions that we've gotten from you.

3:18

So if there's something that's not in there that you'd like to see, just let us know.

3:24

So uh just our 2025 overview.

3:27

Uh we had uh received from the city 46,326,405.

3:35

Sorry, not enough coffee yet this morning to read big numbers.

3:37

Uh but we allocated about 43 million dollars.

3:40

Uh it's sort of uh shapes in our different funding areas, which is youth, innovative, community-centered solutions, and our alternatives to jail, which this year we changed the name to be care over incarceration.

3:52

Sometimes there was a lot of confusion around alternatives to jail and what that could be, but really wanting to center it around the mental health and substance misuse services.

4:01

Um but this is the five-year grant summary, how much uh we've given away in each of the areas.

4:07

Just a reminder, our first two years we actually uh shared money back with the city around facilities, so that's what that facilities number is.

4:15

And then uh what we have also received and awarded, we are about 96% awarded.

4:21

Meaning of all the dollars we've received, we've given out 96 or allocated 96 percent.

4:27

Sometimes they're multi-year, so we hold on to them until they're until they're dispersed.

4:34

Uh so 37,000 people have in Denver have received clinical services.

4:41

18,000 um are receiving services in a residential or outpatient setting.

4:47

Uh 27,000 engaged in groups or services with peer specialists, so train peer professionals that help people in the recovery and help them see possibility.

5:00

And 12 over 12,000 folks receiving training supervision to better support people with mental health or substance misuse needs.

5:06

In total we've touched 88,367 Denverites in 2025 with these services.

5:14

And the shaded areas means that it's heavier in those darker areas so mirroring the equity index a bit but most of our all of our grants are are many are citywide and we try to share with each city council member as we're meeting who are some of those nonprofits that are operating within your district and that can be a service to your community.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Public Safety████████████████████████████████████36%
Mental Health Awareness██████████████████████████████████34%
Data Management██████████████14%
Procedural█████5%
Civic Infrastructure███3%
Racial Equity██2%
Fiscal Sustainability██2%
Personnel Matters██2%
Community Engagement█1%
Summary of Proceedings

Health and Safety Committee Meeting – April 22, 2026

The Health and Safety Committee of the Denver City Council met on April 22, 2026, at 10:30 AM in Room 391 of the City & County Building. Chair Darrell Watson presided with Vice Chair Kevin Flynn and members Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, Amanda Sandoval, Amanda Sawyer, Jamie Torres, Paul Kashmann, and Diana Romero Campbell present. Sarah Parady was absent. The committee received two briefings and approved one consent item.

Consent Calendar

  • 26-0541: Approved a contract amendment with Clayton Early Learning, adding $18,000 for a new total of $1,988,083, to provide Behavioral Support Services for eligible students in Head Start and Early Head Start classrooms as a delegate agency of Denver Great Kids Head Start (DGKHS). The term remains unchanged and serves Council Districts 3, 7, 8, 11.

Discussion Items

Briefing: Caring for Denver Annual Report (26-0545)

Lorez Meinhold, Executive Director of the Caring for Denver Foundation, presented the 2025 annual report. Key points:

  • In 2025, the city provided $46,326,405 in sales tax revenue to the foundation, which allocated approximately $43 million. Over the program’s five years, $257 million has been received and $246,928,883 awarded (96% of funds).
  • Services reached 88,367 Denverites in 2025, including 37,000 who received clinical services, 18,000 in residential/outpatient settings, and 27,000 engaged with peer specialists.
  • The foundation shifted its funding area “Alternatives to Jail” to “Care Over Incarceration” to better reflect mental health and substance misuse focus.
  • New initiatives: Urban Peak’s SPARC recovery neighborhood, MSU behavioral health scholars program, Denver Health peer specialist program (reduced wait times by 94%), and capacity-building grants for nonprofits.
  • Council members asked detailed questions about fund balances, demographic data, geographic reach, and reporting of outcomes. Councilmember Sawyer expressed dissatisfaction with the annual report’s lack of trend data and outcome measures for multi-year grants, requesting better reporting. Councilmember Flynn asked about sales tax collection ($48 million draft reconciliation) and fund balance. Councilmember Sandoval inquired about grantee geography and alignment with Nest neighborhoods. Councilmember Gonzales-Gutierrez requested demographic data on service recipients.

Briefing: Denver's Clinical Response System Updates (26-0546)

Erin Attensio (Director, Roads to Recovery), Andrew Dameron (Director, Denver 911), Chris Richardson (Director, Crisis Services), and Tristan Sanders (Director, Community Behavioral Health, DDPHE) presented updates on the city’s behavioral health response system. Key points:

  • 911 Embedded Clinicians: Three clinicians (funded by Caring for Denver at $385,000 over three years) will be placed at 911 to triage mental health calls, resolve issues over the phone, and coordinate with first responders. They will work staggered shifts, not 24/7.
  • STAR Program: Civilian response pairing clinicians with EMTs/paramedics operates 7 days/week, 6am-10pm, with up to five vans. The city is moving to hire clinicians directly (instead of contracting with Wellpower) to improve efficiency and data integration. The RFP for EMT/paramedic services is ongoing. A public-facing dashboard is planned.
  • Co-Responder Program: 10-year program pairing clinicians with police officers, now also serving sheriff’s department evictions and fire department follow-ups. In 2025, less than 2% of encounters resulted in arrest or citation. Clinicians are assigned to each district (two per district on staggered shifts).
  • System Integration: The teams are working to coordinate across all entry points (911, STAR, co-responder) using the Roads to Recovery system and shared resources. A new dedicated STAR dispatcher position is being developed to improve triage.
  • Councilmember Sawyer expressed concern about hiring clinicians as city employees, citing past issues with city control. She also noted domestic violence cases are rising and the co-responder program lacks sufficient clinicians. Councilmember Torres asked about the system flow diagram and co-responder deployment. Councilmember Gonzales-Gutierrez noted that the city already employs licensed clinicians (e.g., in Human Services and jail) and emphasized the importance of sustainable funding beyond grants.

Key Outcomes

  • Consent Item Approved: Resolution 26-0541 passed unanimously by consent.
  • Requests for Follow-Up: Several council members asked for additional data and reports, including:
    • Councilmember Sandoval: Clarification on Warren Village’s service location in District 3.
    • Councilmember Flynn: List of organizations serving District 2.
    • Councilmember Sawyer: Improved annual report with multi-year outcome data and a list of District 1 grants.
    • Councilmember Gonzales-Gutierrez: Demographic data on service recipients and breakdown of funds by government vs. community vs. school entities.
  • Next Steps: The Clinical Response team will continue hiring clinicians and developing the STAR dashboard, with an expected operational transition by fall 2026. They committed to providing regular updates and data to the committee.

Meeting Transcript

Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council. Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now. Good morning and welcome to the Health and Safety Committee for April 22nd. My name is Darren Watson. I'm honored to serve as the chair of this committee as well as the city council member representing all of the fine district nine. We have two briefings today and uh one consent item. But before we go to our items, uh why don't we go around the room and have introductions? We'll start on our right. Uh Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District Two. Amanda Sawyer, District Five. Paul Cashman. South Denver District Six. Good morning, everyone. Serena Gonzalez Cut is one of your council members at large. It appears we have uh several uh council members uh that are virtual. Let's go first to Council President Pro Tem. Uh good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4. And Tim, I'm just gonna wait a second to see if anyone else was joining in. Perfect. Well, I'll take uh a quick moment. Uh today is uh administrative professionals day. Um we don't have a ton of administrative professionals per se by title um within council, but um we have them throughout the city, and I want to say to all of the administrative professionals throughout the city, um I'm hoping you're enjoying your day. I'm hoping your boss gives you a hug if you allow that, and um say thank you for all the good stuff that you do. But for our council aides, I'll overlay uh make a council aid um professionals day to our council um aides. Thank you so much for all the work you do throughout the city and county of Denver, do for our offices to my wonderful council members, council aides that are sitting over there. Thank you for keeping um this train moving for. So with that, I was pausing to see if anyone else was signing on online. I see no one else, so our good friend Lores uh Meinhold. Were you leaning in, sir, for uh well, I was just gonna throw in a happy earth day. Yes, and thank thank the planet for taking such good care of us, and we'll try to return the favor a little bit better. Words from the Gloriax of City Council. That is that is awesome, and that is important. And see, it's good for delays because I would like to welcome our uh good council member. I think it's time you could still introduce. Thank you, Jimmy Torres, West Denver. So thank you everyone for being here, and uh we'll turn it over to our friend Lores Meinholf for the executive director for caring for Denver for your annual report. Excellent. Thank you. Always appreciate the opportunity to be in front of all of you and answer any questions you have about caring for Denver. This is our annual presentation. We submitted to you all to the mayor's office to the city auditor our annual report on uh March 31st as required by the ordinance, but then we also like to follow up and just make sure that understand answer any questions. And we've continued to evolve this presentation, sometimes based on questions that we've gotten from you. So if there's something that's not in there that you'd like to see, just let us know. So uh just our 2025 overview. Uh we had uh received from the city 46,326,405. Sorry, not enough coffee yet this morning to read big numbers. Uh but we allocated about 43 million dollars. Uh it's sort of uh shapes in our different funding areas, which is youth, innovative, community-centered solutions, and our alternatives to jail, which this year we changed the name to be care over incarceration. Sometimes there was a lot of confusion around alternatives to jail and what that could be, but really wanting to center it around the mental health and substance misuse services. Um but this is the five-year grant summary, how much uh we've given away in each of the areas.

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