The director of the city agency tasked with screening recruits for the Denver police and fire departments on Tuesday accused Mayor Mike Johnston of pressuring that agency to lower its standards so the mayor can meet his promise to hire 167 new police officers this year.
Niecy Murray is the executive director of the Denver Civil Service Commission, an independent city agency tasked with working hand-in-hand with an appointed board of five commissioners to set and apply standards for hiring, promotions and disciple within the ranks of the city’s police and fire departments.
Originally a commission member appointed by then-Mayor Michael Hancock in 2018, Murray on Tuesday issued a news release in coordination with City Council members Shontel Lewis, Sarah Parady and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez that directly accused Johnston of interfering in the commission’s work.
The accusations include pressure to reduce standards for new police recruits seeking admittance to the department’s training academy to the point of outright ignoring a psychological evaluation that would have disqualified an applicant from moving forward.
“The public’s trust is placed in us to ensure standards for safety are being met,” Murray said during a brief news conference in front of the Denver City and County Building on Tuesday morning. “The role of the Civil Service Commission is far too important to be diminished to one which is strictly performative.”
Murray did not take questions at the news conference. The three council members who joined her in calling out the mayor and his public safety leaders say Murray’s concerns have been raised internally and Murray coming out publicly was a last resort.
Denver public safety officials on Tuesday pushed back on the idea that the mayor is exerting pressure on the Civil Service Commission or Murray. As many as 50% of new applicants abandon efforts to join Denver’s police and fire departments before ever receiving a final opinion from the commission because the application process is so long and complicated, a longstanding problem in the city that is driving away qualified applicants, those officials said.
“Modernizing the Civil Service Commission process is an essential step in building a diverse, dedicated and highly skilled public safety workforce, and we must make evidence-based changes to that process to make that vision a reality,” Armando Saldate, executive director of the city’s Department of Public Safety, said in a statement Tuesday.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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