Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said Friday that a move by some council members to boost salaries of city workers $2.6 million over what his budget proposes has the potential to unravel important initiatives he considers hallmarks of his tenure.
“It’s of significance,” he said in explaining why he asked for a meeting with the editorial board of The Denver Post to discuss the subject. “It’s cultural of what we’ve been doing and how difficult it is and how important it is.”
Councilwoman Carol Boigon’s plan to boost the pay for about 7,500 city employees was first reported in Friday’s Denver Post. Supporters have looked at the mayor’s bonus program as one way to pay for raises.
Hickenlooper said he feared the effort would damage the city’s emergency reserves and his new bonus- pay program.
He said the $130 million reserve fund his administration has built up would keep the city operating for two months in the event of a natural disaster.
“That’s not a big reserve,” he said. “In the business world, they like to keep three months.”
He said his bonus-pay program, which rewards city workers for fulfilling specific, data-driven goals, was similar to how he ran his restaurant business before he became mayor. Then, he helped drive down costs by giving dishwashers extra pay if they could reduce the amount of silverware they lost.
The bonus program has forced the city to come up with a way of statistically measuring performance, the mayor said, and the incentives foster team-building and worker productivity.
Boigon wants to budget $9.6 million for merit pay for city workers, upping the $7 million in Hickenlooper’s budget. Boigon wants to take the money from the city’s $130 million reserves, which Hickenlooper boosted to 15 percent of the $866 million general fund.
Councilman Rick Garcia, who has joined forces with Boigon, prefers taking the money from the bonus program.
Meanwhile, two other council members said they want better pay for city workers. Councilmen Doug Linkhart and Chris Nevitt both said they think city workers are underpaid.
“People I’ve talked to at the city say morale is down and people are leaving,” Nevitt said. “I’m concerned that we need to compensate people enough to keep them from leaving the city.”
He added that despite the mayor’s push back, the council still has a budgetary role. “It’s not just his budget,” Nevitt said.
The council could amend the budget with a seven-vote majority. It would take nine council votes to override a mayoral veto.
The issue revolves around the pay of 7,500 city workers who aren’t represented by unions. Boigon’s plan wouldn’t affect police, firefighters or sheriff’s deputies, who are governed by collective bargaining.
Boigon’s plan would boost pay 2 percent above the 3.25 percent budgeted for merit pay raises at the middle of the year. That increase would be the base amount to which raises the following year would be applied.
Hickenlooper officials say she’s ignoring his bonus-pay plan, special pay bumps for certain city jobs and benefits. Once those factors are included, the mayor’s budget would increase pay 6.24 percent next year, according to the administration.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
