Denver Mayor and City Council Meeting: Great Government Update on City Services (March 19, 2024)

The Mayor and Denver City Council convened on March 19, 2024, for a weekly session featuring announcements, a briefing on the administration's "Great Government" performance initiative, and a motion to enter executive session. The primary agenda item was an update on efforts to improve city services by reducing response times for the top three resident concerns, with a focus on solid waste and business license processing.

Announcements

• Councilwoman Chantel Lewis wished her son a happy 21st birthday and thanked Councilman Darrell Watson for his work addressing a 14-day water outage at 2300 Welton Street, involving DDPHE and Denver Water.
• Councilwoman Diana Romero Campbell announced a community cleanup along Hampton Avenue on March 23, 2024, at 10 a.m., in partnership with Spark the Change.
• Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez invited residents to a coffee conversation on March 21, 2024, at Prodigy Coffee House in the Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods, noting the site won a Denver Design Award.
• Councilman Darrell Watson reported that the Reconnecting Neighborhoods grant program awarded $35.4 million for projects along Washington Street in Globeville and Elyria-Swansea, with federal support from Congresswoman Diana DeGette and Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper. He also detailed the water outage at Welton Street Apartments, where low-income residents endured 14 days without consistent water during cold temperatures. DDPHE is investigating, and Gray Star properties will be reviewed.
• Councilman Paul Cashman announced a virtual District 6 Academy on March 27, 2024, from 6-7:30 p.m., titled "Taxes, Fees, Mills, and Levies."
• Council President announced the first meeting of the reformed City-School Coordinating Committee on March 22, 2024, at 4 p.m., with co-sponsors Councilmembers Sandoval and Gonzales-Gutierrez, and representatives including Councilwoman Sawyer.

Discussion Items: Great Government – Improved City Services

Administration officials (led by Mayor and Laura Dunwardy from Technology Services) presented a slide deck on a new initiative to reduce response times by 20% for the top three constituent concerns identified through the 311 system:

• Solid Waste – Cart Delivery: Time between request and bin delivery. A backlog occurred during volume-based pricing rollout. The current target is 10 business days; performance has been underperforming. Root causes include truck breakdowns, staffing/logistics challenges, hiring issues, weather delays, supply chain delays, and Salesforce process issues.
• Solid Waste – Missed Trash Pickups: Despite over 90% success rate, high volume leads to approximately 70,000 misses per month (15,000-18,000 per week). Officials acknowledged communications breakdowns during snow emergencies, as noted by Councilwoman Sawyer.
• Excise and License – Business License Processing: Times range up to 150 days across ~100 license types. The goal is to set clear expectations, improve automatic status updates, and create a system similar to college admissions processes.

Council members raised additional concerns and suggestions:

• Councilman Cashman questioned delays in the composting bin rollout for District 6, which is still a year out. Officials cited bin and truck availability issues but said lessons from cart delivery could apply.
• Councilwoman Romero Campbell noted secondary issues such as fee structures and rebate confusion, and the closure of a drop-off compost/recycling site in Southeast Denver, requesting mobile drop-off options.
• Councilwoman Sawyer highlighted a personal experience with missed trash communication during a snowstorm and urged better proactive notifications to council members and residents.
• Councilmember (unidentified) asked about open-sourcing data for rezoning and liquor license applications, to allow real-time public tracking similar to what is planned for excise licenses. Laura Dunwardy suggested this could be replicated using the same CLA system used by permitting.

Key Outcomes

• The administration committed to a deep dive into each of the three priority areas: cart delivery, missed pickups, and license processing, using a tiger team approach to identify root causes and solutions, with the broader goal of building a citywide culture of metrics-based performance.
• The presentation served as a status update; no formal votes were taken on these initiatives. A follow-up on 311 and communication services is scheduled for the Finance and Governance Committee in May 2024.
• The council unanimously voted (all in favor) to move into executive session pursuant to DRMC 234 A13 and 4 to discuss real estate management for temporary shelter and housing, health and safety security arrangements, and related legal advice.