November News Briefs
Compiled by Cara DeGette, Editor, GPHN
2022 Audit Plan To Target Homeless Response, Affordable Housing
The Denver Auditor plans to tackle the city’s response to homeless encampments, residential permitting and affordable housing in 2022.
Denver Auditor Timothy M. O’Brien released his 2022 Audit Plan in mid-October.
“While a variety of factors impact which audits we add to the plan, this year’s list is exceptionally responsive to community input,” said O’Brien in a statement. “Our residents are letting us know what’s most important to them, and I applaud the widespread interest in our city’s key issues.”
According to a news release from the auditor, many members of the community, city leaders, members of City Council and others have all shared concerns over the past year about how the city is managing its response to encampments of people experiencing homelessness.
Other key audits in O’Brien’s 2022 Audit Plan include:
• How the Department of Housing Stability uses its funding to effectively and efficiently manage affordable housing projects.
• Mental health services in Denver’s jails and a possible assessment of continued support following release from the jail system.
• The city’s permitting process for residential dwellings.
• Airport construction.
• Continued assessments of contract compliance, cybersecurity, and construction projects.
The auditor, elected by the people of Denver, is required by the city charter to publish an Audit Plan for the year ahead. The Audit Plan is flexible — allowing for change and for audits that may carry over from year to year, such as our planned audit of diversity, equity, and inclusion in city agencies.
Once completed, the audits are released to the public. The independent audit function serves as an essential measure for accountability, good government, and transparency.
The complete list of planned audits for 2022 can be read at this link: tinyurl.com/DenverAudit
City’s Parks & Rec Bosses Get Big Raises Amid Critical Audit
A Denver Channel 4 News exclusive determined that two top managers in Denver’s Parks and Recreation department have received nearly $40,000 pay increases and been given an employee classification status that would make it much more difficult to remove them from office.
Deputy Parks Director Scott Gilmore and Deputy Recreation Director John Martinez, both political appointees of Mayor Michael Hancock, were reclassified in September as career service employees, according to the Oct. 16 CBS4 report by Brian Maass. That means whoever is elected mayor after Hancock is term-limited from office in 2023 would have a harder time removing either director, if he or she wanted to do so. In their new positions, both Gilmore’s and Martinez’s salaries rose from $139,000 to $170,000 per year. The two work directly under Parks and Recreation Director Happy Haynes, who is also a Hancock appointee.
Denver City Councilmember Amanda Sawyer was critical of the move, describing it in the CBS4 report as “shady… favoritism… (and) cronyism.”
“That’s what it looks like and that’s what people see,” she said.
Gilmore is married to City Council President Stacie Gilmore. In recent months he has been in the spotlight for his role in coordinating the controversial land swap for a public park in the private development project Park Hill Commons at 29th and Fairfax. Gilmore Construction, which is owned by Gilmore’s brother, was hired to build the park.
Five days after the CBS4 story aired, city Auditor Tim O’Brien released an audit of Denver’s parks system, in which he determined “Denver isn’t doing enough to keep its parks clean and safe, even as it buys new parkland using voter-approved tax dollars.” In addition, “the Department of Parks and Recreation also isn’t sufficiently letting the public know when the city uses the designated tax dollars,” he reported.
“When the public sees graffiti, human waste, drug paraphernalia, and unsafe conditions at parks, it’s reasonable for them to wonder where those tax dollars they approved went,” O’Brien said in a news release. “The city has millions to spend but a lot of work to do before the parks are in the condition expected by anyone who cares about our city.”
Library Seeks Nominations For Black Leaders In Denver And Colorado
The Denver Public Library is accepting nominations for its annual Juanita Gray Community Service Awards and the Blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame. The awards are for African American men, women and youth who are setting exemplary examples of leadership and civic engagement in Denver and Colorado.
Award recipients are selected by a committee of library commissioners, community members, past awardees, and library staff.
Nominations are due by 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 3, and may be submitted at tinyurl.com/DPLNominate.
The community service award is named after former library staffer Juanita Ross Gray, who helped found the Blacks in Colorado Hall of Fame and who had a strong commitment to Denver’s African American community.
The Hall of Fame honor is bestowed upon a Coloradan who has been the first African American to accomplish a professional goal or have been a pioneer in their field while actively supporting the African American community.
Nominees and award recipients will be notified in early February. An awards ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022, at 1:30 p.m. at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library. For more information about the awards, questions about the criteria or assistance with the nomination form, please email jgcsa@denverlibrary.org.