Denver Mayor-Council Post-Budget Meeting and Announcements – November 21, 2023
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Denver Mayor-Council Post-Budget Meeting and Announcements – November 21, 2023
The mayor and city council members met on November 21, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. in a celebratory post-budget completion session. The mayor congratulated the council on passing the first unanimous city budget since 2017. The planned agenda included briefings on the state special session and property taxes, federal budget negotiations, and an executive session on collective bargaining. No agenda or minutes were provided; this summary is based on the raw transcript, which covers introductions and council announcements.
Introductions
- Councilmembers present: Flor Alvidres (District 7), Diana Romero Campbell (District 4), Garrett Watson (District 9), Amanda Sandoval (District 1), Chris Hines (District 10), Sarah Parody (At-Large), Paul Cashman (District 6), Kevin Flynn (District 2), and Jamie Torres (District 3).
Announcements
- Councilwoman Alvidres announced that next week is the Turkey Trot and that training is going strong, noting it has been good for her mental health.
- Councilman Watson announced the first Barbershop Talks, to be held tomorrow evening at House of Hair, 5023 East 28th Avenue, featuring former Speaker of the House Terrence Carroll and current Senator James Coleman.
- Council President Pro Tem Sandoval announced that the city-school coordinating commission committee passed last night and set a date to convene in January. President Torres will appoint two council members to the committee. Sandoval expressed hope for a different relationship with DPS and emphasized supporting students, teachers, and the next seven generations of Denverites.
- Councilwoman Romero Campbell promoted turkey trot events in Southeast Denver and announced a senior luncheon on Wednesday, November 29 at 11:30 a.m. at Welshire, with live music, lunch, and treats.
- Councilman Hines asked the mayor about a Friday 5:15 p.m. event, possibly digital tree related. The mayor confirmed he would be lighting the tree Friday afternoon.
Key Outcomes
- The mayor noted that the city budget passed unanimously last night, the first unanimous budget since 2017.
- No formal votes or decisions were captured in the available transcript; the meeting concluded with announcements and an anticipated executive session.
Meeting Transcript
Next in out, slowly left turning left. City agencies brief the mayor and council members on various proposals and projects across the city. This meeting of the mayor and city council members begins now. Good morning, you all thank you so much. Welcome to Mayor Council. Delighted to have you here. Welcome to the celebratory post-budget completion mayor council meeting. Um we will start with introductions. Councilman Alvidres, you want to begin? Sure. Florida Alvidres, uh, Councilwoman for Lucky District 7. Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver, District Four. Good morning, Garrett Watson, fine District 9. Amanda Sandoval, Northwest Denver District 1. Chris Heinz, Denver's perfect 10. Hi, folks, Sarah Parody. I represent the city at large. Paul Cashman. South Denver District 6. We're just pleased to be here. Good morning, Kevin Flynn, South West Denver's District Two. Home of the highest natural point in the city. There you go. Jamie Torres, District Three. We're going to start calling Councilman Flynn the highest council member. Uh although it would be a most likely council member to have run a college radio show. I think has to be Councilman Hines at this point. You can tell in natural voice. I did. Exactly. Um, great to see you all. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Um congratulations, obviously, on all the fantastic work on the budget. Very excited that thanks to all of your leadership. I think we passed the first unanimous budget in six or seven years last night since 2017. So thank you for all the incredible work you all did to both uh bring your values to life and get to uh I think a document that's gonna be great for the city over the next uh twelve months. And so uh congratulations on all the hard work that thing paid off. Excited to be a part of that going forward. Uh, I do want to open up for announcements, and then I'll just give you a qua the your uh cruise direction for the morning are um now that you've solved all of city government, that's great. We're gonna now take you up to the next level and see if you can solve state government and federal government. Um so we are going to give some briefings this morning. One on the special session that's coming up, including the debate about property taxes in the wake of H H's failure. Uh, we want to give you a briefing on what we think is coming there, what the opportunities might be for your update information. The second is we do want to give you an update on federal negotiations that are happening of the next three days over both um budget and continuing resolutions and some of the things that directly impact our work. And so that's most of our uh update for for today. Then we do have a special session, our executive session uh as well on uh discussing collective bargaining updates. So that's our that's our agenda for the morning. But before we do any of that, I'd love to open it up for announcements. If any council members have those that they would like to make. Yes, Councilwoman Alvides.
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