Mayor Michael Hancock will lay out for residents the accomplishments of his first year in office — and the challenges that lie ahead — when he delivers his first state of the city address Monday.
Having watched Denver’s 45th mayor closely in his rookie year, we thought we’d offer our view.
Though several big challenges remain to be tackled, count us as pleased by Hancock’s promising start. Among other accomplishments in his first year on the job, the new mayor can point to:
• Hiring a police chief from outside the department who’s taking aggressive steps to improve how the agency serves and interacts with the public.
• Identifying $25 million in budget cuts and delivering a balanced budget in the face of a $100 million shortfall (interim Mayor Guillermo “Bill” Vidal outlined a plan to cover about $75 million of the gap).
• Supporting and signing into law a ban on overnight camping.
• Landing direct international flights to and from Reykjavik, Iceland, and Tokyo.
• Leading a successful campaign to defeat a citywide “sick pay” ordinance at the ballot in November that would have increased costs for small businesses and put Denver at a disadvantage to neighboring communities.
• Handling his first blizzard with ease.
It’s clear that the former city councilman’s familiarity with the workings of city government have helped him from the outset.
That’s not to say everything has gone perfectly.
Though he landed many cabinet members with impressive credentials, we would have liked to see him move more quickly to fill key posts: notably the job of planning director, which has been vacant all year, and the independent police monitor’s job that has gone unfilled for six months. The mayor also has been unnecessarily bogged down by disappointing performances of friends he appointed to jobs as his communications director and driver.
But all of that pales in comparison to Hancock’s achievements in running the city.
Perhaps the biggest measure of his first year in office will come Nov. 6, when voters decide whether to “de-Bruce” property taxes in the city.
After months of consensus-building, the mayor in June selected that option as the best way for the city to close a $30 million (and growing) structural gap between revenues and expenditures that is expected to persist each year even in good times.
In coming months, Hancock must work hard to convince voters why the city should ultimately be allowed to keep an additional $67 million in annual property tax revenue (it’s currently refunded), and explain how the money will be used.
We expect he’ll succeed.
If not, the state of the city’s budget will be the dominant issue for him in his sophomore year.
It would join an extensive to-do list that includes tackling the fate of the National Western Stock Show; delivering substance on his Denver Compact, which is an education-improvement effort with Denver Public Schools; redevelopment at Denver International Airport; building on improvements to the police department; and pushing economic development in a still sluggish economy.
But if his first year is any indication — and barring any surprises — Hancock is up to those tasks.
