Good morning, Mayor Michael Hancock.
While you might not be mayor as you read this, you will be shortly after 11 a.m.
And good morning, Denver City Council.
Soon, your 13-member institution will consist of six new members: Debbie Ortega and Robin Kniech, as at-large members, and Susan Shepherd, Mary Beth Susman, Albus Brooks and Chris Herndon representing four of 11 districts.
With a new mayor and a council that has so many fresh faces, it is indeed a time of change for Denver. But it is also a time of great opportunity in the face of big challenges.
In the near term, you must:
• Put the finishing touches on next year’s budget, which, though no longer forecast at being $100 million short, will require cuts and creativity;
• Maintain the commitment the city has shown to stemming police discipline and weeding out those officers who give the rest of the city’s men and women in blue a bad name; and
• Determine what to do about the city’s library system and whether its future should be as an independent district with a dedicated revenue stream.
We are eager to see how Hancock, who as a teen proclaimed he would one day grow up to be the mayor of Denver, operates now that he has achieved that childhood dream.
Hancock has demonstrated a focus on economic development and fiscal acumen through a series of round-table discussions on the business climate and in the selections of a chief of staff with practical experience in the business arena and a former state treasurer as his chief financial officer.
And Hancock deserves credit for leading his council colleagues on pension reform in June.
With a logjam seemingly at hand, Hancock led his colleagues to near- unanimous support for changing the city’s pension from a “rule of 75,” which allowed people to retire with full pensions by age 55 with 20 years of service, to a “rule of 85,” meaning new hires won’t retire with full pensions until age 60 and a minimum of 25 years of service.
It’s a move that will one day save Denver millions of dollars annually. And it’s the first of what will no doubt be many difficult decisions as the city addresses its “structural deficit.”
Beginning this fall, the mayor and City Council will review and then act upon the work of a task force that is supposed to offer a set of recommendations to confront forecasts that the city’s expenditures could outstrip revenues by some $500 million by 2030. Those decisions could fundamentally change the way the city operates and have the potential to provide a moment in time that future generations look back upon as a point where leaders and residents continued to build this great city.
We also hope that in the debates over the relocation of the National Western Stock Show and completion of the Regional Transportation District’s FasTracks plan, Hancock maintains the commitment to regionalism that was one of the hallmarks of the Hickenlooper administration.
During his campaign, Hancock hatched the idea that “We are all Denver.” Here’s hoping that Hancock and the new council keep a Denver a city that we are all proud of.
