Denver’s layoffs of 171 employees — and elimination of vacant positions — helps cut budget gap in half

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration said Monday that city officials would lay off 171 employees, slash vacant positions and shift costs for dozens of jobs as they begin to address a gaping budget shortfall for next year.

The announcement gave firm details of the scale of the cuts to employees for the first time — and about three months after Johnston told the city they would be necessary. The layoffs represent less than 2% of the city workforce covered by the general fund. City leaders also eliminated another 665 vacant positions.

“Hopefully we can get through this,” council President Amanda Sandoval said of the impact playing out inside city buildings during the council’s meeting Monday afternoon. “But it will be a time of adjustment.”

The layoff notices, which were expected to be delivered through Tuesday, come as the city attempts to fill a $200 million budget shortfall next year that’s caused by shrinking sales tax revenue and increasing costs. The city’s reserve fund is also running critically low.

The employee cuts and other reductions or shifts of positions out of the general fund are expected to generate about $100 million in savings, according to the mayor’s office.

RELATED: Were you laid off by the city of Denver? Tell us about your experience.

About 11,000 jobs have been supported by the general fund, the mayor’s office said. A news release didn’t distinguish how many full-time versus part-time workers the city was laying off. Another 92 positions will be moved to other funding sources to reduce costs.

The mayor’s office enacted a hiring freeze earlier this year, which on top of past belt-tightening had caused many of the vacant positions.

The scale of the layoffs was lower than many had anticipated before Monday. In an information vacuum after the layoffs were announced, some observers and employees had speculated that hundreds of jobs — or even more — could be at risk. The high number of vacant positions was one factor that reduced the impact on current employees, the mayor’s office said.

The layoffs were the first major job cuts to play out in Denver city government since 2011.

Scott Gilmore, a longtime manager in the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, was among the people laid off Monday.

“I got a call that basically said, ‘Thanks, but we don’t need you anymore,’ ” he said in an interview. “I committed my life to this city.”

Gilmore, who is married to Denver Councilwoman Stacie Gilmore, was a deputy executive director in the parks department for 13 years, starting before Stacie Gilmore was first elected in 2015. Last year, he became the deputy executive director of mountains parks and special projects, a position he said isn’t paid for out of the city’s general fund — which is where the layoffs were targeted.

Jordan Fuja, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office, said the shifting of some expenses to special revenue funds impacted some non-general fund positions.

Gilmore, 61, had hoped to retire in his position.

“I take my daughter back to college in two weeks,” he said. “I don’t have a job. How do I pay for my daughter’s college?”

A document provided by Gilmore to The Denver Post showed that he was among eight Parks and Recreation employees set to be laid off.

Nearly four years ago, during then-Mayor Michael Hancock’s final term in office, the positions of Gilmore and the department’s other deputy director were shifted from mayoral appointee jobs to career service positions — which insulated them from a change in the mayor’s office. But that didn’t protect them from being affected by broad-scale layoffs.