Denver Health and Safety Committee Meeting - October 28, 2026

The Denver City Council Health and Safety Committee met on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, at 10:30 AM in Room 391 of the City & County Building. According to the minutes, members present were Kevin Flynn, Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, Jamie Torres, Darrell Watson, and Paul Kashmann; Vice Chair Amanda Sandoval and Diana Romero Campbell were listed as absent, though the transcript appears to include Romero Campbell in the discussion. The committee received an update on the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Program and approved two consent items.

Briefing: STAR Program Update

• Tandis Hashemi, operations and clinical crisis services manager, and Marion Rorke, access to care manager, Department of Public Health and Environment, presented the update.
• STAR is a civilian crisis response team pairing a master's-level licensed behavioral health clinician with a paramedic or EMT. It operates citywide seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and is dispatched by Denver 911. It provides person-centric, trauma-informed response for mental health crises, substance use concerns, homelessness-related needs, poverty-related crises, and other nonviolent situations that do not require police, fire, or EMS response.
• Program goals include reducing unnecessary encounters with the criminal justice system and unnecessary emergency department visits, connecting people to appropriate resources, improving resource allocation, and reducing reliance on emergency services. STAR also provides case management and post-crisis follow-up through its Community Partner Network.
• Timeline: launched in June 2020 with one unit in one police district operating Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; expanded in 2022 to five units per day, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, with the Community Partner Network added; expanded to eight units per day in 2023; added mobile data terminals in 2024; and in August 2026 brought clinical services internal to DDPHE.
• The internal transition has maintained the same hours. The city hired 12 clinicians and 2 supervisors. About half of the clinicians previously worked on STAR, and the rest had other crisis-related experience. Training now runs about six to eight weeks, including classroom work, shadowing with 911 call takers and dispatchers, partner overviews, supervisor and peer shadowing, and supervised field work before sign-off.
• Budget: the 2026 general fund was about $4.4 million, including one-time costs of $580,000, of which $80,000 came from City Council and another portion was supplemental; the 2027 general fund decreases because those one-time allocations are not repeated. Caring for Denver grants are $1.6 million in 2026 and $2.7 million in 2027, with some rollover from the 2026 grant because Denver Health was again awarded the RFP and the planned overlap of two providers did not occur. DDPHE personnel costs increase in 2027 because clinicians were hired partway through 2026. The wraparound network contract has a slight increase for cost-of-living adjustments. There is no clinician contract in 2027 because clinical staff are now city employees.
• The program previously had eight vans and now has six, and was never fully staffed at 16 clinicians. Staff said the priority is meeting demand within current hours before expanding to 24/7; overnight call volume is lower, but some STAR-eligible calls are likely missed overnight. Staff also said most funding is lapsing, making hiring and sustainability difficult, and non-lapsing funds would help.

Discussion Items

• Councilmember Paul Kashmann asked whether vans are assigned by district. Staff said response is citywide, with District 6 and District 3 among the busiest. Kashmann asked for call percentages by district and later requested clinician salary and benefits information. He also asked about 24/7 expansion; staff said meeting current demand should come first. Kashmann compared STAR's budget, just under $4 million, with the Denver Police Department budget of over $300 million, expressed strong support for STAR, and called the current funding level 'paltry' and 'embarrassing.' He later said the city has made no substantial commitment to STAR, called that 'outrageous,' and suggested shifting money from DPD to STAR so eligible calls are not answered by uniformed officers. He said 'don't tell me your values, show me your budget.'
• A councilmember identified in the transcript as Romero Campbell, despite the minutes listing her absent, asked whether the presentation was about budget or the internal transition, asked whether the 2024 evaluation finding that 94% of STAR-eligible calls fell within existing STAR hours remained true, and asked what happens to after-hours calls. Staff said the figure is likely similar but not certain, and would follow up. She asked about the January evaluation recommendations, including underrepresentation of the Latino community and data integration and service tracking infrastructure. Staff said bringing services internal creates more opportunities to link data, build dashboards, and report on outcomes, and they plan to return with recommendation follow-up. She also asked whether moving clinicians internal was for cost savings; staff said the goal was efficiency and program integrity, not cost savings, and that new job classifications pay more than WellPower did. Staff noted STAR currently does not receive Medicaid reimbursement, while WellPower did; the city is exploring Medicaid reimbursement, but it is a slow, complex process.
• Councilmember Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez asked about connections with Colorado Access, the Behavioral Health Administration, and the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to pursue Medicaid reimbursement. Staff said other DDPHE staff are exploring this and would follow up. She asked about barriers to staffing additional vans; staff cited the need for clinicians with specific crisis experience, though the internal hiring process drew many qualified applicants. Gonzales-Gutierrez noted grant funding creates instability and said the city is 'cobbling together' a nationally recognized program with grants and small general fund pieces rather than making a real commitment. She said she would follow up with the mayor's office about sustained investment.
• Chair Darrell Watson asked about coordination with Denver Health and Servicios. Staff described weekly meetings, shared supervision, joint training, and efforts to break down silos, and mentioned exploring a 'STAR Academy' for combined clinician and EMT and paramedic training. Watson asked what clinician staffing would be needed to serve a higher share of eligible calls; staff said they need post-transition data and that any clinician increase must be paired with more EMTs and paramedics and case management and wraparound capacity. Watson requested a first- or second-quarter follow-up with outcome data and projections, praised STAR, and noted survey satisfaction upwards of 90%.

Consent Calendar

• 26-1579: Approved by consent a $5,000,000 contract with Peak Environmental, Inc. for a term of five years to support asbestos removal and regulated building material abatement, indoor air quality and mold remediation, emergency response support, and environmental litigation support and expert technical analysis, citywide.
• 26-1581: Approved by consent an amendment to a revenue intergovernmental agreement with the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) adding $1,370,255.08 for a new total of $2,665,043.48 and extending the end date one year to June 30, 2027, to continue receiving payments from HCPF as incentives for providing Medicaid eligibility-related work within the City and County of Denver, citywide.

Key Outcomes

• Both consent items were approved by consent.
• No formal committee vote was taken on the STAR briefing; it was received as an informational update.
• Staff committed to follow up on: call volume and district-level data; the share of STAR-eligible calls answered; after-hours call outcomes; clinician salary and benefits information; Medicaid reimbursement exploration; data dashboard development and evaluation recommendations; and a future Q1 or Q2 report with outcomes and workforce projections.
• Councilmember Gonzales-Gutierrez indicated she would follow up with the mayor's office about sustained city investment in STAR.