Sheriff’s deputy Michael Sparks grew up in a law-enforcement family, so there was never any doubt of his career path.
“He saw me since he was 4 years old, coming and going in uniform,” said his father, Division Chief Ronald Foos, who runs Denver’s county jail. His mother works there too, at the pre-arraignment detention facility.
“It’s in the blood,” Sparks, 21, said. “It’s in the family.”
Last year, after beating nearly 100 other applicants who tested to become a deputy and after completing a 14-week training course, he joined Dad and Mom working at the Denver Sheriff’s Department.
“That day we took the oath and got our badges was the proudest day of my life,” Sparks said.
Now it’s gone.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper on Wednesday fired Sparks and 10 other sheriff’s deputies to help close a mushrooming budget gap of $56 million.
Kelly Brough, the mayor’s chief of staff, said the projected deficit could get worse, forcing more difficult decisions. The mayor’s previously announced plans for closing that gap — cuts in safety agencies, furloughs for city workers and dipping into emergency reserves are just some of the measures announced in December — may not be enough.
January’s sales-tax collections came in 10.3 percent below what the city collected in January 2008, a rate that translates into a decline of $3 million. Hickenlooper identified $56 million in cuts based on a scenario that projected sales-tax revenue would be flat this year.
“That’s a pretty generous assumption at this point,” Brough said.
“There are 12,000 workers for the city, and we will be a team as we go through this, and we will pull all of us together and weather the challenges we face today,” Brough said.
Sparks no longer feels a part of the team.
“I feel incredibly betrayed by Mayor Hickenlooper’s decision to terminate any position that has committed their life to public safety because it affects the entire public,” Sparks said Friday.
The firing of the deputies came after the union that represents them rejected the mayor’s request that it accept salary and benefit reductions of 2 percent.
Now Sparks and the other deputies — including Steve Shannon who at age 52 left a job as a bodyguard in Los Angeles and moved his wife and two daughters to Denver — don’t know where their lives are headed. All they know for sure is that their paychecks are scheduled to stop coming in two weeks.
The administration believes the deputies will be competitive for newly created jobs as “detention specialists,” which are not law-enforcement positions and pay $8,000 less annually than what deputies earn.
Wednesday, the day they lost their jobs, the deputies reluctantly filled out the applications.
An e-mail came back Thursday afternoon from Denver’s director of corrections, Bill Lovingier, who oversees the jails.
“Unfortunately, we have been informed by the Career Service Authority that the applications completed yesterday cannot be accepted due to the fact that the security specialist position is not currently open,” the e-mail read.
The positions come open Monday and will remain open for four days, the e-mail said. Those interested must apply online.
“I don’t know what is going to happen,” Sparks said.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
