OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Denver Finance and Business Committee Meeting – April 28, 2026

Council CommitteesTuesday, April 28, 2026
BodyDenver, Colorado
SessionCouncil Committees
DateTuesday, April 28, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:02:12

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

It's time for this biweekly meeting of the Finance and Business Committee of Denver City Council.

0:09

Join us for the Finance and Business Committee starting now.

0:17

All right, good morning, everyone.

0:19

Welcome to Finance and Business Committee.

0:21

Today is Tuesday, April 28th.

0:23

My name is Serena Gonzalez Cutietes, and I'm one of your council members at large.

0:28

We will start with introductions from council members, and it looks like I don't have anybody participating virtually today.

0:35

So we'll go ahead and start with the council members that are here in the room.

0:39

And we will start to my right.

0:46

Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

0:50

Good morning, Darren Watson, flying district nine.

0:55

Chantelist, District 8.

0:58

Great.

0:59

Well, we have a few items on our agenda today.

1:02

We'll be starting with some action items being presented by General Services, followed by a briefing from the Department of Finance.

1:09

It's our 2027 budget kickoff.

1:12

So to get us started, we'll go ahead and start with the action items that are before us from General Services.

1:19

They're presenting on three contracts for the janitorial services.

1:23

I will turn it over to the general services team.

1:25

If you could please introduce yourselves, proceed with your presentations.

1:51

So with that said, we will go ahead and kick it over to you all.

1:55

Thank you.

1:56

Good morning, Kmaj Oli, I'm the director of administration with General Services.

2:01

Good morning all.

2:02

Adrena Gibson, Executive Director of General Services.

2:05

Morning, Roberto Abila, General Services Contract Administrator.

2:10

And before we get started, I want to make sure we um welcome Councilwoman Gilmore.

2:16

Thank you for joining us.

2:17

We're just about to get started.

2:19

All right.

2:20

Thanks again and good morning.

2:22

So we're going to be presenting on the citywide janitorial agreements here.

2:26

There are three agreements that we'll be reviewing as you can see on your screen.

2:31

Normally, I would just uh mention that you would normally get this from Nicole Sudreth, our uh contracts manager.

2:37

She's not available.

2:38

Uh but thank you very much for taking briefings with her uh previously.

2:43

So there was a memo that was distributed uh to you all yesterday with some uh a QA on questions that we had received uh from you all during those briefings.

2:54

Uh so uh happy to take any of those uh questions uh whenever we get to the question portion today.

3:02

Uh so just a very quick overview of uh what is represented within these agreements.

3:09

Uh there are 88 different buildings uh and those are put into seven different portfolios, and the staff hours that you see here under the participating agencies represents uh what we are anticipating uh under these current agreements.

3:28

Uh those are estimated hours, though.

3:30

I will call your attention to the bottom of the screen where we do talk about uh adjustments based on resources, budget, uh uh operational needs, etc.

3:41

Uh but general services, there are 28 buildings, 45 for Denver Parson Breck, uh, human services, there are five buildings, three buildings with Department of Transportation Infrastructure, two with Department of Motor Vehicles, uh, four with a Department of Safety, and one new building with the uh public library that we did not previously have.

4:02

Uh so again, those are the uh the hours and uh call your attention to the appendix uh in the presentation uh that has the actual buildings uh listed there that you can you can take a look at.

4:17

Services covered by these contracts, these agreements are uh what we have seen previously.

4:24

Uh this did not really uh change from the the previous agreements to now.

4:29

Uh I won't uh read these through.

4:33

Uh I think the the one adjustment that we did make was instead of uh identifying uh specific COVID cleaning measures.

4:42

We talk about high touch areas uh that may require some additional um additional cleaning uh functions, but uh essentially this is the normal type of a cleaning that you would see in um custodial agreements.

5:03

I'm not sure why that's going backwards, but here we go, let's go forwards.

5:07

So requirements of during the RFP, prevailing wage and compliance with wage laws.

5:16

We definitely call that out specifically within the RFP process and the current agreements.

5:23

So new contractors, these agreements they'll comply with prevailing wage ordinance, listing the sections there as well as the minimum wage and wage theft ordinances.

5:36

And as well on the right hand side of the screen there, it does talk about fringe benefits covered by prevailing wage.

5:57

And then towards the bottom there, the prevailing wage division within the Denver Auditor's Office must approve those Fringe benefit packages listing those items there.

6:20

And so contractors will comply or shall comply with the city's worker retention ordinance.

6:27

There again are the sections for reference.

6:31

Essentially, that means that contractors are required to retain those qualified individuals, employees from the previous contractor, and there's a transition period of 90 days.

6:42

At the end of that 90 days, the contractor then must perform a written performance review or evaluation with each of those workers, and if they uh their performance is satisfactory, then the contractor must offer the employee continued employment under that agreement.

7:08

Procurement overview.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Fiscal Sustainability██████████████████████████████████████38%
Contracts And Procurement██████████████████18%
Worker Protections███████████11%
Revenue/Taxation████████8%
Procedural███████7%
Engineering And Infrastructure██████6%
Economic Development█████5%
Community Engagement██2%
Small Business Opportunity██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Denver Finance and Business Committee Meeting – April 28, 2026

The Finance and Business Committee of the Denver City Council met on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at 10:30 AM (MDT) in the City & County Building. Chair Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez presided. The agenda included three janitorial service contracts presented as action items, a briefing on the 2027 budget kickoff, and a consent item for land acquisition. Five council members were present; Chris Hinds and Paul Kashmann were absent.

Consent Calendar

  • Land Acquisition Ordinance (26-0566) – Approved by consent, authorizing the acquisition of property interests for the 2023 Pedestrian Intersection Improvements Project at the intersection of East 13th Avenue and North Emerson Street and 1850 South Irving Street (Council Districts 2 and 10).

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Alejandra Aguilera, Director for Property Services at SEIU Local 105, stated that the union anticipates 100% membership among affected janitorial workers and confirmed collaborative transition discussions with the city and new contractors.

Discussion Items

  • Citywide Janitorial Contracts (Action Items 26-0504, 26-0505, 26-0506) – Presented by Adrina Gibson (Executive Director of General Services), Kami Johle, and Roberto Avila. The contracts cover 88 buildings across seven portfolios. AFL Maintenance Group (dba American Facility Services Group, Inc.) was awarded Group 5 for $3.75 million over three years (plus two one-year renewals). CCS Facility Services – Colorado Inc. received Groups 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 for $21.75 million, with a 25% MWBE subcontractor commitment to Alpha Green Cleaning LLC. Roth Property Maintenance, L.L.C. was awarded Group 7 for $500,000. Both AFL and Roth hold MWBE/SBE certifications and are self-performing. The current contracts expire April 30, 2026; a transition strategy includes town halls (April 21–22), translated into Spanish and Korean, and ongoing onboarding events. Council members questioned the competitive bidding process (no preference for incumbents), worker retention under the city’s ordinance (90-day performance review by contractors), and reduction in cleaning hours from ~20,000/month in 2021 to ~16,000/month in 2026. General Services committed to follow up on hour details and a light audit of post-90-day worker retention.
  • 2027 Budget Kickoff (Briefing 26-0574) – Presented by Justin Sykes (Budget Director), Lisa Martinez-Templeton (Chief Economist), and Jackson Brockway (Capital Planning Manager). Key points: 2025 actuals showed revenues within $2 million (0.1%) of projections, expenditures $20 million under budget, and a year-end general fund balance of $197 million (11.5% of revenues). However, 2025 revenue growth was -0.1% year-over-year, and sales tax collections are flat. Economic risks include the Iran war, tariffs, AI disruption, weakening labor market (Denver unemployment 4.6% in February), declining consumer confidence (University of Michigan index 49.8, a record low), and inflation at 4.2% in Denver Metro. The 2027 budget assumes flat revenue (~$1.6 billion), with no capacity to restore 2026 cuts. The Xcel Energy franchise fee ($30 million/year) expires at year-end and may not be budgeted until voter approval. Council members expressed concern about $220 million in cumulative overspending from 2023–2025 and called for a financial task force. Council President Sandoval noted permanent cuts to departments and staff morale, while Councilwoman Gilmore criticized council leadership for not halting contracts to demand transparency.

Key Outcomes

  • The three janitorial contracts (26-0504 through 26-0506) were approved for filing in a block by a vote of 5–0 (Gilmore, Romero Campbell, Sandoval, Watson, Gonzales-Gutierrez aye; Hinds and Kashmann absent). The consent item (26-0566) was approved by consent.
  • The 2027 budget process formally kicked off. The Department of Finance will provide quarterly revenue and expenditure reports per the new ordinance, with the first report due May 14, 2026. Individual agency briefings and a council budget workshop (May 14) are scheduled. Capital improvement plan updates will be integrated into the annual budget for the first time.
  • Chair Gonzales-Gutierrez committed to scheduling additional Finance and Business Committee time for ongoing budget discussions.

Meeting Transcript

It's time for this biweekly meeting of the Finance and Business Committee of Denver City Council. Join us for the Finance and Business Committee starting now. All right, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Finance and Business Committee. Today is Tuesday, April 28th. My name is Serena Gonzalez Cutietes, and I'm one of your council members at large. We will start with introductions from council members, and it looks like I don't have anybody participating virtually today. So we'll go ahead and start with the council members that are here in the room. And we will start to my right. Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4. Good morning, Darren Watson, flying district nine. Chantelist, District 8. Great. Well, we have a few items on our agenda today. We'll be starting with some action items being presented by General Services, followed by a briefing from the Department of Finance. It's our 2027 budget kickoff. So to get us started, we'll go ahead and start with the action items that are before us from General Services. They're presenting on three contracts for the janitorial services. I will turn it over to the general services team. If you could please introduce yourselves, proceed with your presentations. So with that said, we will go ahead and kick it over to you all. Thank you. Good morning, Kmaj Oli, I'm the director of administration with General Services. Good morning all. Adrena Gibson, Executive Director of General Services. Morning, Roberto Abila, General Services Contract Administrator. And before we get started, I want to make sure we um welcome Councilwoman Gilmore. Thank you for joining us. We're just about to get started. All right. Thanks again and good morning. So we're going to be presenting on the citywide janitorial agreements here. There are three agreements that we'll be reviewing as you can see on your screen. Normally, I would just uh mention that you would normally get this from Nicole Sudreth, our uh contracts manager. She's not available. Uh but thank you very much for taking briefings with her uh previously. So there was a memo that was distributed uh to you all yesterday with some uh a QA on questions that we had received uh from you all during those briefings. Uh so uh happy to take any of those uh questions uh whenever we get to the question portion today. Uh so just a very quick overview of uh what is represented within these agreements. Uh there are 88 different buildings uh and those are put into seven different portfolios, and the staff hours that you see here under the participating agencies represents uh what we are anticipating uh under these current agreements. Uh those are estimated hours, though. I will call your attention to the bottom of the screen where we do talk about uh adjustments based on resources, budget, uh uh operational needs, etc. Uh but general services, there are 28 buildings, 45 for Denver Parson Breck, uh, human services, there are five buildings, three buildings with Department of Transportation Infrastructure, two with Department of Motor Vehicles, uh, four with a Department of Safety, and one new building with the uh public library that we did not previously have. Uh so again, those are the uh the hours and uh call your attention to the appendix uh in the presentation uh that has the actual buildings uh listed there that you can you can take a look at. Services covered by these contracts, these agreements are uh what we have seen previously. Uh this did not really uh change from the the previous agreements to now. Uh I won't uh read these through. Uh I think the the one adjustment that we did make was instead of uh identifying uh specific COVID cleaning measures. We talk about high touch areas uh that may require some additional um additional cleaning uh functions, but uh essentially this is the normal type of a cleaning that you would see in um custodial agreements. I'm not sure why that's going backwards, but here we go, let's go forwards.

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