A City of Denver employee is suing the Mayor’s Office and the Mayor’s Chief Equity Officer. Jessica Calderon’s allegations include sex and national-origin discrimination, retaliation and violations of her constitutional rights to free expression and assembly.
She filed the complaint in August and her attorneys amended it this week. It addresses several years of grievances that span the administrations of former mayor Michael Hancock and Mayor Mike Johnston.
The Denver City Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the complaint, and neither the Mayor’s Office nor Chief Equity Officer Ben Sanders have responded to Denverite’s requests for comment on the allegations.
The suit includes allegations that a former boss created a hostile work environment, threatened to punch Jessica Calderon’s employees and discriminated against her because she’s Latina.
The complaint alleges that Jessica Calderon’s new boss, Chief Equity Officer Sanders, tried to squash her right to free expression by denying her resources, denying a promotion, giving her an unexplained bad review, and icing her out of meetings.
Jessica Calderon said her boss has targeted her during Johnston’s tenure because she supported a different mayoral candidate and participated in a group that criticizes the mayor.
The background:
Jessica Calderon, who has worked for the city for two decades, supported third-place mayoral candidate Lisa Calderón in the 2023 mayor’s race. She also participated in the advocacy group Latinos United Neighbors Association, LUNA. (Jessica Calderon and Lisa Calderón are not related.)
“Because I supported Mike Johnston's political opponent,” Jessica Calderon told Denverite in an interview, “I feel that it cost me a job opportunity, and I've been discriminated against.”
Lisa Calderón and LUNA actually gave a half-hearted endorsement to Johnston in the mayoral runoff. The move was based on his commitments to dozens of policy ideas culled from the Latino community. The group’s enthusiasm faded fast. Since he took office, the organization has been grading him poorly.
Jessica Calderon’s grievances span multiple years.
On Oct. 27, 2023, Jessica Calderon took the day off of work to attend a LUNA scorecard meeting with the mayor. Sanders attended the event. When Jessica Calderon saw her boss, Calderon started to walk out of the meeting. The mayor allegedly approached her and said, “We want you in the meeting very much.”
At the event, Lisa Calderón blasted the Johnston administration, saying he had failed to keep commitments. But while Jessica Calderon spoke at the meeting, she says she did not criticize Johnston.
In meetings between December 2023 and March 2024, Chief Equity Officer Sanders allegedly “confronted” Jessica Calderon about her relationship with Lisa Calderón and LUNA. He told her he wanted to include her in more high-level city meetings. For that to happen, he said, the mayor’s team would need to “trust her.”
Lisa Calderón has her own ongoing First Amendment and retaliation lawsuit against the city of Denver and former Mayor Hancock.
Sanders told Jessica Calderon that associating with Lisa Calderón could reflect poorly on her. In those meetings, Sanders allegedly said he wanted to “build a bridge” with Lisa Calderón, though he described her as a “yeller.”
When Jessica Calderon defended her presence in the LUNA meeting, Sanders allegedly said: “People cannot distinguish between individual intentions because we get put into camps.”
“He talked about how the mayor's office didn't like how [Lisa Calderón] was showing up, that she was highly critical, that it wasn't a good look. It wasn't good for the politics and optics,” Jessica Calderon told Denverite.
“I just let him know that there should be no concern about that,” she told Denverite. “I’ve never given anyone any reason not to trust me.”
According to the complaint, Sanders told Jessica Calderon that she had to choose between her work with LUNA and her role in the mayor’s office.
Fearful she’d lose her job, Jessica Calderon quit LUNA.
In January, Jessica Calderon, who worked on the department’s digital equity project, met with Sanders and said she would like to be promoted.
“That is why we had the LUNA talk,” he allegedly stated. The promotion never happened.
In the following months, Sanders allegedly denied her support and staffing. He iced her out of meetings with the mayor’s team. For the first time since 2019, she did not participate in department conversations ahead of the mayor’s annual budget.
In setting the budget, Sanders deprioritized a position Jessica Calderon was hoping to hire to support her efforts, she said. He told her she needed to justify the positions she already oversaw to the mayor’s office, per Jessica Calderon.
“I felt blindsided because I thought he was going to support that work,” Jessica Calderon said. “My heart sank when I found out that he was trying to do away with that position.”
Ultimately, she’s suing for monetary compensation for emotional pain and suffering and loss of wages. The lawsuit asks for the city to promote her to the position of deputy executive director. The complaint requests a jury trial.
“My hope is to stand up for my rights and have a fair and safe and equitable working environment,” Jessica Calderon said.
