Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper must clarify his priorities for the city budget and stop deferring to the City Council.
Half of the general fund budget goes to fire, police and sheriff’s departments. Thanks to an indulgent City Council and strike threats leading up to the 2008 Democratic Convention, the police budget is fat. The department is overstaffed by 60 officers and enjoys an unprecedented 14 percent, three-year raise. But police refuse to defer wage increases, running the risk of layoffs on the force.
Mayor, here are some ideas for cutbacks:
• Abolish the Manager of Safety’s Office and the Safe City Office. Civilian oversight is the mayor’s responsibility. That’s why the $675,000 office of the independent monitor comes from the mayor’s budget. Police administration can conduct the balance of the manager’s administrative duties, absorbing youth diversion grants into its work plan. The monitor and the civilian review board should be retained as the public’s advocates.
Fire, medical and crime calls to 911 are routed through safety at a cost of $9 million. Emergency medical service calls could go directly to Denver Health dispatch, eliminating redundancy and reducing costs.
• Abolish the Department of Environmental Services and return most functions to Denver Health (where they were prior to 1997). Environmental health oversees community health, public health inspections, environmental quality, the coroner and the dog pound. The coroner is legally required to be independent of the hospital. Privatize the dog pound, which is chronically under-funded and poorly run.
• Abolish the Mayor’s Office for Education and Children for a savings of $1 million. The office supports DPS initiatives, oversees Head Start and directs Denver’s education efforts. Denver’s tax-funded preschool program could integrate Head Start. The mayor and other leaders can use the bully pulpit to advocate for DPS without city-funded staff.
• Eliminate the Office of Cultural Affairs and save $1.2 million. Send the One Percent for Arts program to public works or planning. Promoting Denver’s cultural assets is done best by the institutions and the Scientific & Cultural Facilities District.
• Denver’s Office of Economic Development was born in 1987, at the urging of the business community. Prior to that, federal Community Development Block Grants and other government funds and grants were part of Community Planning and Development. Eliminate all but the small-business division, job training and housing and neighborhood development. Job creation and business recruitment are the work of private-sector booster organizations, abetted by political support from elected officials.
• Turn over irrigation and maintenance of Denver’s parks and parkways to Denver Water. Denver Water should complete the citywide non-potable irrigation system for parks and parkways, repaying the capital investment through water savings. Park policy, use and programs should remain with the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Denver faces a $120 million shortfall in its $900 million operating budget. Spiraling personnel costs and dim prospects for recovery — given Denver’s reliance on sales and use taxes — call for systemic change in the city’s budget.
Hickenlooper once promised to get rid of the “fundamental nonsense of government.” He must clarify what is nonsense and what is not.
Susan Barnes-Gelt (sbg13@comcast.net) served on the Denver City Council.
