In a month, Denver city workers will likely start receiving layoff notices. And they still don’t know the criteria their bosses will use to determine who has to go.
On Tuesday at 9 a.m., the Career Service Board will continue its already five-hour-long meeting to consider more changes to how layoffs should be handled by the city.
The current proposal reduces protections for the workers who have been with the city, instead focusing on a variety of performance and skill-based metrics to determine whether a worker is kept or let go, including years of service.
Meanwhile, city employees say they’re growing more frustrated with Mayor Mike Johnston, who has led the city as it has fallen into a $250 million budget hole. Employees have written Denverite, expressing their frustration with Johnston’s budget shortfall, his excessive spending and the city’s changes to its layoff rules, which would also bar workers from automatically reclaiming their old jobs if they reopen.
Rule changes weeks before layoffs have many on edge.
Some departments will see up to 20 percent cuts, city officials told the Career Service Board.
The Johnston administration wants the city to continue to deliver “world-class services” despite these massive layoffs. The goal: government efficiency.
“This change is needed to bring the rule into alignment with a merit-based system and to ensure there is no interruption in service delivery with a reduced workforce,” Human Resources spokesperson Theresa Marchetta wrote in an email. “Denver residents trust the city to have the best people doing the jobs they depend on and with fewer people to do the work, that will be especially critical.”
In letters to the Career Service Board provided to Denverite by the Office of Human Resources, dozens of city workers blasted the proposed changes.
Some are frustrated the rules are being considered just months before city workers will have the right to unionize. Others say they are undermining morale and trust in Denver’s leadership.
“Implementing such a major change just one month before anticipated layoffs raises serious concerns about fairness and transparency,” wrote Tara Nguyen, a senior recruiter for the Office of Human Resources. “It gives the impression that the rules are being rewritten to facilitate a specific outcome rather than to improve the system thoughtfully and equitably. Changing the rules immediately before invoking them undermines employee trust in leadership and the integrity of the process.”
Eliminating seniority as the main criteria has frustrated people at all levels of city government. Some argue the current rules already allow the city to eliminate people based on poor performance.
“These rule changes promise to undermine the city's long culture of cultivating employees over their careers,” said Denver Auditor Tim O’Brien, the city’s elected watchdog, in a letter. “They will send a clear signal to our workforce that their loyalty to the city will not be rewarded, as promised. They will also undermine the ability of government to do its work, and do it well, by harming employee morale.”
Many city workers say eliminating seniority protections punishes people who have dedicated their lives to serving the city and counted on the city to support them through retirement.
“I am deeply concerned that this change opens the door to biased and inconsistent decision-making,” wrote Bobbie Alexander, with the Office of Social Equity & Innovation, who has been with the city for 19 years. “Seniority has long served as a clear, equitable, and objective factor in layoff decisions-especially in a government system where neutrality and procedural fairness are critical.”
City workers, including attorneys who work for the city, say they fear the changes to layoff rules could punish workers who have criticized their managers and the administration.
“Changes to these rules should have been contemplated and made well before any decision to commence layoffs,” wrote Brian Pinkerton with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure. “I believe this opens the city up to significant risk of a successful legal challenge.”
While many city workers objected to the change, a few supported eliminating the seniority system.
“To require layoffs based on a system of greatest-to-least seniority risks losing young, talented staff that will build a great City government for the future,” wrote Matt Monaghan with General Services. “We need that more than ever in this current crisis.”
In response to criticisms over eliminating seniority altogether as a consideration, Human Resources eliminated language that stated “years of service” would not longer be considered in most cases.
Another widely debated aspect of the changes is that the right to reinstatement would be eliminated in the proposed rules.
If passed, laid-off workers will have to reapply for their former job if it becomes available again — a frustration to many.
Do the layoffs really need to start in August?
Johnston’s administration and the Office of Human Resources say the rule changes must be finalized weeks ahead of Aug.1. That’s the earliest date city agencies will likely start sending out layoff notices in what may be one of the largest city layoffs in Denver history.
The goal of the numerous layoffs is to close next year’s $200 million budget deficit. (The city is also short $50 million for this year’s budget.)
Councilmember Sarah Parady doesn’t believe that layoffs must start in August – or even this year — to balance the budget.
“Considering that budget savings arise no matter when workers are laid off throughout the 2026 budget year, the January 1 deadline strikes me as having much more to do with the new, voter-granted unionization rights that kick in on that exact date,” she wrote Denverite.
She was referring to the administration’s assertion that layoffs must be completed by the end of 2025.
But layoffs take weeks to months for each employee, Marchetta wrote. “The city must prepare for this scenario and the time it takes for employees to go through this process.”
Employees must have at least 30 days of notice before layoffs. Those under 40 years of age will have 21 days to consider their severance agreements. Those over 40 years will have 45 days to consider.
Laid-off employees will receive accrued paid-time-off balances a few weeks after their final paychecks are issued. Employees near retirement age will be allowed to stay up to 90 days so they can retire with the city.
Layoffs could be staggered so the City Attorney’s Office and OHR can review and approve plans before layoff notices and severance agreements are issued.
Yet officials say the sooner the layoffs happen, the more money the city saves.
