Wed, Jun 3, 2026·Denver, Colorado·Council Committees

Denver City Council Health and Safety Committee Meeting - June 3, 2026: DFD Audit Response Briefing

Discussion Breakdown

Contracts And Procurement56%
Public Safety32%
Legislative Affairs8%
Fiscal Sustainability4%

Summary

Denver City Council Health and Safety Committee Meeting - June 3, 2026: DFD Audit Response Briefing

The Health and Safety Committee met on June 3, 2026, to receive a briefing from Denver Fire Chief Desmond Fulton on the department's response to an audit of its Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs) with Englewood, Glendale, Sheridan, and Skyline. Chief Fulton presented the audit findings, agreed to all recommendations, and highlighted the mutual operational and financial benefits of the IGAs.

Discussion Items

  • Chief Fulton presented the four IGAs, their revenue, terms, and locations. He noted that the audit focused on process and documentation, and he agreed to all recommendations, including developing formal renewal processes, tracking costs, cost-benefit assessments, payment tracking, late payment conditions, expense identification, monthly reconciliation, and establishing joint advisory boards. He committed to implementing most by July 1, 2026.
  • Chief Fulton provided a five-year call volume analysis showing that a significant percentage of calls from these stations serve Denver: 76% of Glendale station calls are in Denver, 55% of Sheridan station calls are in Denver, and 12.5% of Englewood station calls are in Denver. He argued that these IGAs provide critical emergency response coverage and that losing them would require building new firehouses and degrade response times and accreditation.
  • Councilmember Sawyer praised the relationships and the value of the Glendale station to her district, noting the January 2026 fire in District 5 that was contained thanks to DFD and partners. She questioned the administrative burden of the joint advisory boards and suggested alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Chief Fulton agreed that the boards may be overly formal.
  • Councilmember Flynn asked about cost allocation and reopeners. Chief confirmed the IGAs are net positive financially and that reopeners exist but he prioritizes maintaining relationships.
  • Council President Sandoval highlighted that audit recommendations sometimes conflict with charter or fail to account for intangibles like accreditation (ISO 1) and relationships. She noted that losing IGAs could jeopardize accreditation and insurance rates. Chief agreed that losing even one company could impact ISO rating and accreditation.

Key Outcomes

  • Chief Fulton agreed to all audit recommendations and committed to implementation by July 1, 2026.
  • Council members expressed strong support for the IGAs and the value they provide beyond financial metrics, emphasizing the importance of relationships and emergency response coverage.
  • No formal votes were taken; the briefing was informational.

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, everyone. Welcome to the uh June 3rd, 2026. Well, the green light just came on again. Welcome everyone to the June 3rd, 2026 meeting of Denver City Council's Health and Safety Committee. My name is Kevin Flynn, and I am the vice chair of the committee filling in for the chair who is absent today. And uh we have only one item, and it's a briefing from our uh Denver fire department uh on the response to the audit findings. And so before we start uh introduce Chief Fulton, I'd like to ask uh vamping for other members. Sorry. Members get here. Let's have introductions uh by members of council. Let me start to the uh to my left. Uh good morning, everyone. Serena Gonzalez Cochez and one of the council members at large. Good morning, Amanda Sawyer, district five. Hi, and we have one member online. Uh, Council Pro Tem. Go ahead. Uh good morning. Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4. Thank you very much. Uh Chief Desmond Fulton, the Denver Fire Department. The floor is yours. Thank you, sir. Uh I we the Denver Fire Department uh went through an audit uh related to our IGAs. So Denver Fire provides fire and emergency response to four different areas. We've we provide this for a skyline. Uh we provide this this service for Sheridan, the city of Sheridan. We provide the service for the city of Englewood and the City of Glendale. Uh we met with the auditor for a final presentation roughly a month ago, and uh I wanted to go over the findings. Um, I'm sure you're all well aware you guys had an audit somewhat similar last year, and it's not as easy to express the totality of things when you're limited uh to 140 characters. So I wanted to take the time to ensure that you had a chance to ask any questions and ensure that there's clarity um when it comes to our ability to respond not only to these IGAs but into the city county of Denver. So with that, use yes, sir. Uh introduction and background. Um Denver Fire has had IGAs in place uh for 20 plus years. Uh again, as I stated Inglewood, Glendale, Sheridan, and Skyland Protection Fire District. These are all different links. Um most of these were in place prior to my tenure. Um but um that said we have had a renegotiation with the city of Sheridan and with Skyline uh very recently. Um that as I proceed forward, um, I will go into the specifics of the lengths of these terms, the monetary uh components related to these terms, and then what the recommendations were from the auditor's office and how we plan to comply with the recommendations. Uh Denver Fire Department IGAs, uh Inglewood. Uh, just to give you some perspective, the revenue that we generate from Englewood providing services is 7.3 million dollars a year. Uh we have a three percent escalator on that, and that term goes through December 31st of 2035. Glendale uh the revenue is three million dollars again with a three percent escalator on that. Uh fire protection services go through the term of 1231 of 38. Sheridan, uh the revenues two point six million dollars. A little bit different on this one. There are some different escalators built in. It's a 3% and 26, a 4% and 27 and a 5% in 2028.