Later this month, friends and supporters of Denver political fixture Dennis Gallagher will gather to view a new documentary about his decades in public service, most recently as Denver auditor.
It’s been a long run for Gallagher, who will leave office in July after 12 years as Denver city auditor, following service on the Denver City Council and in the state Senate and House, going back to his first election win in 1970. The Democrat has said he is retiring and , despite recurring entreaties from some supporters to run against Mayor Michael Hancock this year.
Denver City Councilman Chris Nevitt.
This week, he told The Denver Post he is endorsing one of the two candidates who have filed initial paperwork to run for auditor, the only open seat outside council matchups, in the May 5 election.
He has thrown his support behind Chris Nevitt. The two-term City Council member and former council president .
Timothy O’Brien, candidate for Denver auditor. (candidate handout)
The other candidate, in the race since last spring, is Timothy O’Brien, who sits on the Audit Committee that receives and reviews audit reports from Gallagher’s office. He has an accounting background and worked for years in the Colorado state auditor’s office, including 12 years as the top appointed state auditor.
Gallagher noted that O’Brien is his appointee to the Audit Committee and said, “O’Brien is very good, too.”
O’Brien wasn’t surprised by Gallagher’s choice. He said he asked Gallagher as well as Hancock not to consider endorsing him. He wants to maintain independence from any political influences, he said.
Still, Nevitt’s name is the one with brighter political wattage in Denver, and he’s been fundraising aggressively.
Gallagher told me that he decided to support Nevitt because “he’s committed to continuing the Denver model, which we have fought for for the past few years.” The focus of the post changed after a 2006 charter change passed by voters gave the auditor strong performance audit power over the rest of city and county government.
“He understands the role the office has in managing prevailing wage for the city (in contracting), and he’s worked hard to build support for his candidacy around the city,” Gallagher said about Nevitt. “He’s got a record on council of promoting best practices on city matters, so I think he’ll fight to hold the agencies accountable and be independent. That’s what we’ve tried to do.”
Nevitt said Gallagher ushered in positive changes in the auditor’s office. “Dennis Gallagher and I don’t necessarily agree on everything,” he said, “but I think what he has done with the auditor’s office is no less than a transformation, and he’s put the Denver auditor’s office on the national map. People refer to the ‘Denver model,’ and that’s something that we should be proud of in the city.”
O’Brien lays out some ways he thinks the auditor’s office could be more effective , including by conducting financial audits that zero in on how agencies are spending money.
“Audit reports should provide information to the Mayor, the City Council, and the citizens of Denver concerning how funds are used and if they are used in accordance with our city ordinances,” his website says.
In an interview, O’Brien added: “The financial audit really answers the question, has the bureaucracy — has the administration — really been a good steward of the tax dollar? … Gallagher is doing some things that have never been done by the city auditor, and I applaud that. I think I can take it to a whole new level.”
As the auditor’s race starts to heat up, Gallagher is in a reflective mode.
The documentary echoes that. Titled “Gallagher: One of a Kind,” the 67-minute documentary was made by a team that included his communications director, Denis Berckefeldt, who says he produced and wrote the movie. “What we wanted to do was not just talk about Dennis Gallagher’s life and political career,” Berckefeldt said, “but to talk about that in context of what was going on in Colorado and in Denver contemporaneously.”
Among those interviewed: Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Govs. Bill Ritter and Dick Lamm.
The documentary will be unveiled at an invited screening Jan. 28 at the Oriental Theatre in North Denver, Gallagher’s longtime political base.
