Denver City Council Budget and Policy Committee Meeting - August 24, 2026
Denver City Council Budget and Policy Committee Meeting - August 24, 2026
The Budget and Policy Committee of the Denver City Council convened on Monday, August 24, 2026, at 20:30 UTC. The meeting featured two presentations for discussion and feedback: a proposal to align governance and transparency rules for three sales tax-funded entities, and an initiative to support city employees facing immigration-related challenges. No votes were taken.
Discussion Items
Proposal to Changes to the Sales Tax Initiative
Councilmembers Torres and Sandoval presented a proposal to standardize rules for the Denver Preschool Program, Prosperity Denver Fund, and Caring for Denver Fund. Key elements include:
- Establishing a 1% administrative fee (modeled after Denver Health) for city oversight, with unspent funds returned to the entities.
- Aligning Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requirements across all three entities.
- Prohibiting use of administrative funds for food, beverages, alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco, with exceptions for mission-aligned events.
- Clarifying that Caring for Denver funds cannot be used for employee mental health and wellness services.
- Updating the Denver Revised Municipal Code to rename the "College Affordability Act" to "Prosperity Denver."
- Adding language to allow alternative response programs (e.g., STAR) under Caring for Denver.
- Staggered implementation timelines to respect each entity's budget cycle.
Councilmember Sandoval emphasized that the proposal is a "good governance package" resulting from collaboration with the mayor's office and agencies. Councilmember Torres supported the effort to align policies that were created under different administrations.
Discussion: Councilmember Sawyer asked about aligning the percentage of administrative fees across the entities; Sandoval said it was not fully vetted but would be discussed further. Councilmember Watson raised concerns about potential budget supplantation—whether the city administration could reduce budgets for agencies receiving the 1% fee. Sandoval and Torres agreed to include language preventing such reductions. Councilmember Lewis inquired about the practical implementation of the 1% fee; Megan Paris from DDPHE explained the projection, invoicing, and true-up process, noting that the city currently administers a similar model for Denver Health. The timeline includes a Governance and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee hearing on September 15, 2026, council introduction on September 28, and public hearings on October 5, 2026.
Immigrant Employee Support and Workforce Equity Initiative
Councilmembers Alvidrez and Gonzalez Gutiérrez presented a proposal to support city employees navigating immigration processes, particularly DACA renewals and work authorization delays. Highlights include:
- Approximately 1% of Denver's 14,000+ city employees (around 100 individuals) are undergoing immigration processes.
- Since January 2026, nine employees have been terminated due to expiring work authorizations, costing an estimated $40,000 per turnover, not including loss of institutional knowledge.
- A survey of 17 employees found that 35% spent over $5,000 on immigration filing fees in the past five years, and 41.2% spent between $2,500 and $5,000. Eight of 17 reported immigration processing delays impacted their employment.
- Proposed supports include: dedicated immigration legal services, standardized rehiring processes, paid administrative leave for appointments, reimbursement of filing fees, and employer-sponsored work authorization where possible.
- The Office of Human Resources (OHR) is already drafting career service rule changes to ease break-in-service impacts and improve rehiring.
- Next steps: additional meetings with the Department of Safety, Department of Finance, and the mayor's office; development of a pilot rehiring model; and determining which changes require legislation versus rule changes.
Discussion: Councilmember Watson asked about legal variances in employee treatment based on status and requested a one-on-one briefing. Councilmember Torres advised consulting immigration attorneys specializing in employment law, noting the complexity of employer sponsorships and the potential for budget cuts to legal services funds. Councilmember Hyans questioned the cost-effectiveness of creating a program for such a small group; presenters noted this group lacks typical employment protections. Council President Romero Campbell asked about the city's policy on sponsoring work authorizations; presenters said it is currently restricted for certain positions and will require further legal analysis. The presenters also noted that the survey is still open and more feedback is expected.
Key Outcomes
- Both proposals were discussed for feedback; no formal votes were taken.
- For the sales tax initiative, sponsors will refine language on administrative fee alignment and budget supplantation before the September 15 committee hearing.
- For the immigrant employee initiative, sponsors will continue stakeholder outreach, legal review, and develop draft legislation or rule changes, with briefings planned for council members.
- Both items are expected to return to the committee for further action.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome back to this biweekly meeting of the budget and policy committee of Denver City Council. Join us for the discussion. As the budget and policy committee starts now. And today is Monday. See that? I don't even know what today is. Today is Monday, August 24th. I'm Diana Romero Campbell. I represent Southeast Denver District 4. You were at Budget and Policy. And we have some sessions, but before we get started, let's go ahead and do introductions, and I will start on the east side here with the distinguished gentleman to your left. Good afternoon, Paul Cash from South Denver District 6. Good afternoon, Daryl Watson. Fine, District Nine. Everyone, Savannah Gonzalez Cutiares, Councilmember at Large. Flora Almidrez with Lucky District 7. Jimmy Torres, West Denver District 3. Amanda Sanova, Northwest Denver District 1. Amanda Sawyer, District 5. Chantillos, District 8. Cardin Flynn, Southwest Denver District 2. Chris. Great. We're gonna go ahead and get started with the proposal to changes to the sales tax initiative with uh Council Members Torres and Councilmember Sandoval, and I turn it over to you. Thank you so much. Um we've got a slide deck. Um we will start with uh Councilmember Sandoval kicking us off, but I want to thank all of the um council members that we've already been able to give briefings to and um the variety of conversations that we've had around this. So I will let you start. Thanks. So um I think we've almost talked to a majority of you, and if not, we have it scheduled. Um but what councilwoman Torres and I and the mayor's office started this back, I think over a year ago, was we wanted to look at all of the um ordinances where it's a special sales tax entity, not including healthy food for Denver, because we administer that fund. So we're talking about only the entities that it's a pass through that has their own organization. So we have the Denver approved Denver Preschool Program, the Prosperity Fund, Caring for Denver, and they all operate under different um transparency, city administration and overfight and expenditure rules. So what we wanted to do is we wanted to align the Colorado Open Records Act amongst all three of them. Currently, right now, Caring for Denver is the only one that provides a city staff for us in their fund. So they have someone in DDPHE. Um then DD Denver Preschool Program and Prosperity don't have any dedicated sources of funding for that. The ordinance lacks clear and consistent restrictions on the use of administrative funds. So we looked at our fair election fund as the model for what we can, what we could use these sales tax dollars for. Um CDF Caring for Denver doesn't expressively use, say the funds can't be used for mental health and wellness services for employees. So we just mean employees, the grants. So we want the grant to go out to community. We I we don't I don't believe that these grants should be for the employees of the the people who are receiving the grants for their wellness and their benefit, their like fringe benefits for lack of a better word. So um health insurance and and such. The CFD, the Caring for Denver Ordinance does not have a strifically regarding strategic plan. And this update came from Denver Um DDPHE. They asked us to add a little bit more specificity, and they asked Denver um DDPHE. I'm trying not to use acronyms, Denver Public Health Public Health and Environment, asked us to put in alternative response models for STAR. We're all fans of STAR. So we just want to make sure that that's clear under the ordinance that we could provide funding for those type of alternative response models.
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