Although his director of legislative services negotiated many of the details of a proposed “worker retention” ordinance, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said he never pledged to back the proposal.
He said his decision Monday to urge withdrawal of the measure is no change in stance.
“I’ve never changed my position,” Hickenlooper said Tuesday. “I said from the beginning I didn’t see the need for it.”
City Councilman Chris Nevitt will ask the council Monday to pass the ordinance, which is backed by labor. The measure would require recipients of city service contracts to keep the employees of the previous contract holder for 90 days.
The mayor said that only a few employees would be affected, given that service employees are already often retained by new firms.
“It is something that is creating division in the community,” Hickenlooper said. “And that is occurring at a time when people have already lost their homes and their jobs. There are much bigger issues we should be dealing with than trying to create a controversy.”
Hickenlooper said it was too soon to discuss whether he would veto the measure.
Nevitt said Monday that the mayor’s staff negotiated the final version, which he took to mean the mayor was on board.
Opponents fear the proposal will end up increasing costs and bureaucracy. Nevitt said it will protect the working class, and he argues that retaining workers reduces recruitment and training costs.
He said the issue surfaced when he learned window washers at Denver International Airport were in danger of losing their jobs because their firm’s contract was up for renewal. They were not covered by DIA’s existing “worker retention” policy, which covers only those earning less than $15 an hour.
Nevitt said he drafted a citywide ordinance after the mayor’s staff told him the situation should be addressed comprehensively.
Hickenlooper said he warned Nevitt early on that he feared the issue would end up pitting labor against business.
R.D. Sewald, the mayor’s director of legislative services, worked out the final proposal with Nevitt, but the mayor said that never meant he personally had signed off on it.
The mayor said Sewald was “likely just being helpful” and “was trying to make it much better legislatively.”
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
