Former Denver City Council aide Divenia Johnson accused Councilmember Flor Alvidrez of race-, gender- and age-based discrimination in a federal lawsuit filed June 3.
Alvidrez is the first-term representative for District 7. The lawsuit names the city of Denver, Alvidrez and the city’s Career Service Authority as defendants. It alleges Alvidrez created a hostile work environment and showed preference to white male employees.
Alvidrez learned that Johnson had sued her from Denverite on Friday.
“Out of respect for the legal process, I won’t be commenting on the allegation while the matter is pending,” Alvidrez wrote later.
The city attorney’s spokesperson declined to comment.
Johnson also declined to comment for this story, as did her attorney, Melissa Drazen-Smith, who is in Europe and could not speak to the case until the end of June.
Past and recent claims
Alvidrez hired Johnson on Feb. 22, 2024, shortly after Denverite published an investigation into the first-term council member’s treatment of former aides who claimed she had bullied them.
Alvidrez denied many of those claims against her, though an internal email from the city’s human resources staff stated much of her behavior likely amounted to bullying, as Denverite reported.
“Ms. Alvidrez told Ms. Johnson about her experience being investigated by CSA,” Johnson’s complaint states. “Ms. Alvidrez said she was really upset with her staff because, she said, the things that they said about her were not true.”
Johnson sympathized with Alvidrez, noting she, too, had been “falsely accused” in the past, according to the complaint. Johnson had sued the city over pay discrimination, racism and a hostile work environment in 2023 when she worked for the city attorney’s office. The case was settled that same year.
After Alvidrez described the accusations her prior aides had made against her, Johnson agreed not to read about the controversy online, which Alvidrez appreciated, “because the story needed not to get that many clicks,” the complaint states.
Johnson is a Black woman over 50. Not long after she, started the job, Alvidrez and staff started making “comments that were offensive based on age, race and religion of Ms. Johnson and others,” the complaint states.
One coworker, who did astrological “birth charts” for Alvidrez, offered to do so for Johnson. She refused. In turn, coworkers asked, “Was there color TV when you were born?” and “if (Johnson) got new business cards made for old people,” according to the complaint.
Staff “made jokes about Black patois and mimicked it” and joked about any Black men Johnson associated with, the lawsuit alleges.
“One white male staff member asked her if he was ‘pulling off’ her hairstyle, when he began wearing braids,” the complaint states.
Rude comments were not limited to Johnson, she alleges.
“Ms. Alvidrez noted that a Jewish employee who said his amazon account was off by a dime, must be because he was Jewish,” the complaint states.
After Johnson raised concerns about such behavior to Alvidrez, nothing allegedly changed.
Unequal treatment
The complaint describes differential treatment between Johnson and white male colleagues.
Johnson was allegedly required to give Alvidrez her weekly schedule, including lunches, and two-months advance notice for vacations, while white male colleagues were not held to the same standards, according to the complaint.
White males also were permitted to have flexible workday hours, while Johnson was prohibited from coming in early, staying late or having an hour for lunch, the complaint alleges.
Eventually, Alvidrez stopped talking to Johnson and instead had two white men handle all interactions, the lawsuit states.
Johnson filed a complaint with the Career Service Authority and a week later was fired, she alleges.
The complaint accuses the defendants of violations of the Civil Rights Act and the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.
Johnson is seeking to return to her position and to be awarded $100,000 in pay and loss-of-opportunity costs along with a larger award of damages in a jury trial.
