Mayor Mike Johnston's move to lay off 171 employees and cut nearly 700 jobs has roiled the city’s elected officials.
“I'm feeling a lack of trust,” said at-large Councilmember Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez. “And I'm feeling a lot of anxiety and concern for what things are going to look like for 2026, and how are we going to be able to continue to provide services and resources to people?”
She was one of several Denver City Council members who criticized Johnston’s handling of the budget crisis and layoffs, while others said the mayor made the best of a bad situation. Denverite contacted all 13 council members for this story and spoke to six.
Some, like Councilmember Stacie Gilmore, were directly affected by the layoffs. Gilmore, whose husband Scott Gilmore was laid off, castigated Johnston in personal terms, posting on Facebook that he “is trash & has been trash.”
Johnston, meanwhile, is working to rebuild trust and maintains he is going above and beyond to communicate with the council. He described his efforts to reach out to council members as “extra-transparent.”
“We're going to do three rounds of individual private briefings with every city council member, and we're going to do three rounds of public briefings in mayor-council meetings on department changes,” Johnston told Denverite.
Meanwhile, some council members, including Shontel Lewis, Sarah Parady and Gonzales-Gutierrez, are hosting town halls where laid-off and current employees can meet with union representatives — who are trying to organize city employees — and labor lawyers who could help challenge layoffs.
“Don't sign any paperwork until you talk with a lawyer,” Gilmore said in an interview.
Other members of council said the administration hasn’t been transparent enough about the budget situation or the looming layoffs. Council President Amanda Sandoval said she was unable to get information about which agencies were hit hardest until the mayor hosted an employee town hall last week.
“I did share my utter disappointment with Mayor Johnston and the new administration that Council had not been briefed prior to that last Wednesday,” she said. “I expressed my extreme disappointment.”
The mayor says the city shared as much information as it could while respecting ethical boundaries.
“We shared information with [council] on the number of layoffs before they were public,” Johnston said. “We showed information about the department totals before they were public. But we couldn't, obviously, share individual impacts. That would have been unfair to the city employees.”
Johnston first announced possible layoffs in May.
Rumors spread in the meantime— even among council members. Some council members speculated more than 2,000 people could be terminated, said Councilmember Kevin Flynn.
“It created a feeling of deficit in the city,” Sandoval said.
Still, Flynn was grateful there were far fewer layoffs than he initially feared.
“My initial impression, based on very limited input from what I've heard so far from people, is that there's a great sense of relief, but I have a concern,” Flynn said.
He’s worried that the elimination of hundreds of open positions may hinder city services. Last week, he met with the mayor and agency staff to review organizational charts.
“My biggest concern is, when we eliminate currently vacant positions, they might not be distributed according to what the core mission of those agencies is,” Flynn said.
The mayor’s office says agency leaders know their departments better than anyone and decided how to cut costs and find savings while prioritizing core services.
“The very first priority we had when we made these changes were: ‘What is the core mission of this organization, and how can we make sure we deliver on that core mission and deliver core city services,’” Johnston said. “And every change we've made has been aligned to that vision.”
Mayoral spokesperson Jon Ewing similarly told Denverite that the city’s Department of Finance had gone “far beyond the usual process” to provide several briefings to council over recent months, and underlined the administration’s commitment to answering questions.
He also said the budget process is following its usual course: “As written in the City Charter, the administration’s job is to create and develop the budget. Council’s job is to approve and amend it.”
Debate over seniority protections
The city recently eliminated the “last in, first out” rule that had protected many senior employees in previous layoffs. A majority of council members criticized that change before it happened.
“This change would create confusion, undermine employee morale, and open the door to inequitable treatment and legal risk,” 11 of 13 council members wrote the Career Service Board, which passed the new rules. Two members were out of town.
Councilmember Flor Alvidrez said she is concerned now for city employees.
“They're very stressed,” she said. “With the chatter of how the layoffs have been retaliatory, I think they're afraid to speak their mind at work or talk at work about any of their thoughts about their jobs. They're afraid to talk to the media. They're afraid to talk to council members. They're just in a state of fear for their financial well-being.”
The city administration argues the layoff process was objective, asking agency leaders to rate employees on their skills, ability and performance. The layoff formula also gave some weight to seniority.
Some laid-off city workers said they were considering suing the city for wrongful termination. But according to Johnston, the city has broken no laws. All terminations were reviewed by the City Attorney’s Office.
“There's no reason you should be worried about legal action against us,” Johnston said. “People can sue for anything. It doesn't mean they have any valid reason to sue or that the case would be sustained.”
A looming budget debate
Johnston said these would be the only staff cuts of the year, at least. The layoffs will total about $100 million in annual savings — but that still leaves another $100 million in cuts to balance next year’s budget, which has been knocked out of balance by rising costs and a slowing economy.
The administration is set to release a draft budget in mid-September, as usual, which the council will then debate. And tensions are already rising among some council members.
Multiple council members said they do not receive regular updates about city revenue throughout the year.
Gonzales-Gutierrez said she is frustrated with the budget process.
“I think there's still a lot of details that are left to be uncovered to really know why we have a shortfall, to really truly know if the $200 million is, in fact, the proper amount,” she said.
City Clerk Paul López called the layoffs “unnecessary,” a “deliberate, hand-selected purge” and a “betrayal.”
Alvidrez even questioned whether the budget deficit had been fabricated to justify job cuts — an assertion the mayor described as “some sort of perverse fantasy.”
“I think those statements are completely false and irresponsible and disrespectful to city employees who are working hard to balance a difficult budget,” Johnston told Denverite.
“The $200 million [projected deficit] is a clear description of what the current growth of city government would have required, what the drop in sales tax revenue was, and what the projected increases in departments were that we would have had to have managed if nothing went changed,” he said.
City officials say a slowing economy is expected to result in dropping general fund revenue next year. If that happens, it would be the first time since the pandemic that revenues declined, and one of the only times it’s happened in recent decades.
Councilmember Darrell Watson, who spent the past week speaking to former colleagues and friends who were laid off, is eager to work with both the Johnston administration and fellow council members. He’s hopeful for a 2026 budget that does not require further layoffs.
His message to city workers: “We're going to fight to make sure this is a smart budget that we approve and none of the decisions we make are going to adversely impact your ability to continue enjoying employment with the city.”
Johnston is well aware that tensions are boiling across the city. He is optimistic that as more information is shared with council members, he will be able to make headway with the 2026 budget.
“There's challenges and complaints. There’s hard things to resolve,” he said. “And of course, no one wants to be in a budget crisis. We don't want to either. But being angry doesn't change that reality. It just means that what we have to do is find a way to collaboratively resolve it.”
Councilmember Amanda Sawyer declined to comment for this story, and council members Chris Hinds, Sarah Parady and Shontel Lewis were not available to comment before the deadline. Council members Jamie Torres and Paul Kashmann could not be reached for comment.
Denverite editor Andrew Kenney contributed to this article.
