Councilmember Amanda Sandoval will be City Council’s next president after serving as pro tem for two years.
Council newcomer Diana Romero Campbell will be the next pro tem.
City Council unanimously elected Sandoval and Romero Campbell on Monday, and the changes take effect immediately. Each term lasts one year. In recent years, Council presidents have served two terms.
Sandoval represents District 1 covering northwest Denver. Romero Campbell represents District 4 covering southeast Denver.
Sandoval is replacing outgoing Council President Jamie Torres, who held the role for two years.
“I think we have really thoughtful, dedicated and compassionate public servants who make up this body of City Council right now, and I'm really excited to work with all 12 of them,” Sandoval said.” Denver has some really pressing issues facing us right now, affordable housing, people experiencing homelessness, our zoning code, how are we going to get as many affordable units built in Denver that we need to, lots of planning initiatives.”
Sandoval is currently serving her second term on City Council after working as an aide for former District 9 Councilmember Judy Montero.
She has made zoning a large focus of her political career, rezoning portions of her district for increased density to help grow Denver’s housing stock.
As president, she said she is looking forward to working with Mayor Mike Johnston on his recently announced affordable housing plan, which includes asking voters this November to approve a sales tax gain to fund housing. Along with Torres, she also started City Council’s new South Platte River Committee, working on the future of the South Platte River.
“As someone who's been born and raised in Denver and lived my entire life in Denver, I'm so proud to have this opportunity to lead Denver City Council and have the faith of my colleagues to be in such an important role,” Sandoval said.
Romero Campbell will serve as pro tem, second in line behind the president.
Romero Campbell was elected to City Council for the first time in 2023 after running an after-school literacy nonprofit. She said she wants to bring her nonprofit leadership background to Council to help how the body runs and is organized.
“When I think about the work that we have to do and what it means to be a public servant today, this is an area I care so deeply about, the City and County of Denver and its residents and my district,” she said. “I think that this is just an additional way to be able to serve and to give back.”
As her term as President concludes, Torres said she is proud of her work on housing and fair wages.
Torres represents District 3, which covers much of west Denver. She helped City Council pass wage theft legislation that led to the city recovering millions of dollars for workers in the past two years.
Torres also pointed to her work with Denver’s mobile home parks, where residents risk displacement when parks go up for sale.
After years of tricky legislation including moratoriums on development and other rule changes, a group of residents at a park in her district successfully purchased their own land, becoming the first cooperatively owned mobile home park.
Next, Torres hopes to pass more comprehensive zoning reform to support at-risk mobile home park residents.
During her second term as Councilmember, Torres oversaw the transition to Denver’s first new mayor in 12 years in 2023, along with six new councilmembers.
“Being in leadership while the city transitioned, one Council to another Council, one Mayoral administration to another Mayoral administration, I think is a pretty unique thing to be a part of,” she said.
A big part of the job involves coordinating a range of council offices and interests behind the scenes, Torres said. As she goes back to her regular Council role, she said she is looking forward to seeing Sandoval do the job.
“I'm really thrilled to pass this leadership seat and see Councilwoman Sandoval take it on,” she said. “To watch her have come from being an aide to council members to being a really strong Councilwoman in her own right, it's really thrilling to see her move to this level and gain the trust of the whole body to be Council President.”
