Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter’s administration has notified 10 top state workers – all appointees of his Republican predecessor, Gov. Bill Owens – that their jobs will expire June 30.
Those workers are among the 55 in “senior executive service” whose contracts are negotiated annually. To discontinue their service in that role, the Ritter administration was required to give them written notice by May 1.
Evan Dreyer, spokesman for Ritter, declined to comment on the contracts or notices of nonrenewal.
Among the contract workers who will not be returning to their high-level appointments are:
Mike Acree, deputy executive director of the Department of Public Safety.
Cynthia Duffy, director of policy for the Department of Public Health and Environment.
George Epp, director of the state Division of Emergency Management.
Barbara Kirkmeyer, director of the Division of Local Government and former interim director of the Department of Local Affairs.
Of those contract employees, only Kirkmeyer had the standard language in her contract altered during the final year of Owens’ term in office.
In 2006, some department directors added a provision to the senior-executive service contracts that provided a guarantee that those people could stay in high- paying jobs on the state payroll.
Early in Ritter’s tenure, the governor’s top administrative appointees notified the 22 Owens appointees who had such terms in their contract that the Ritter administration would not honor the language.
Kirkmeyer said she has consulted a lawyer to determine her rights under that contract language.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
