“I do not believe any Hancock appointee expects to be asked to remain on in the subsequent administration, but there is no such thing as a reason to discount the chance, either,” says Alan Salazar, Hancock’s chief of staff. “Every one in all the appointees loves the town, and I expect some would consider it an honor to be asked to remain on. But that’s for the brand new mayor and a latest city council to ponder.”
Thirty-five of Hancock’s appointees should not have Profession Service Authority protections, and thus no guaranteed job when a latest administration takes over. For instance, the subsequent mayor could carry on someone like Laura Aldrete, the manager director of the Department of Community Planning & Development, as the pinnacle of that agency or tap her for a latest role. Or that mayor could simply let her go.
The identical goes for Joyful Haynes, the manager director of the Department of Parks & Recreation.
Key staffers for Mayor Hancock, like Salazar and his director of communications, Mike Strott, also don’t have any guarantees of jobs with a latest mayor.
But Salazar points out that the mayor’s team is already preparing for a changing of the guard.
“There can be an efficient and supportive transition; we’re already working with executive directors and their Profession Service staff to organize memoranda and other materials to assist the incoming mayor and their team,” Salazar says, adding, “The vast majority of appointees running agencies plan to remain [to July], and for individuals who are moving on — Britta Fisher and potentially Phil Washington — there are experienced leaders and profession service staff to support an efficient transition.”
Fisher recently left as the pinnacle of the Department of Housing Stability to take over because the president and CEO of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless in March. Washington, who serves because the CEO of Denver International Airport, was nominated by President Joe Biden to run the Federal Aviation Administration. But his confirmation process has remained stalled.
Seventeen of the present mayoral appointees could have the choice to (or will robotically) return into the Profession Service positions — which have more protections — that they’d before being appointed by Hancock. Police Chief Ron Thomas and Fire Chief Desmond Fulton will simply revert to a lower role inside their respective departments if and after they get replaced by latest chiefs. And someone like Laura Brudzynski, the newly appointed head of the Department of Housing Stability, who took over for Fisher this month, can revert back to her previous Profession Service role throughout the department.
There are also ten former Hancock appointees who’re already insulated from potential turnover, often because of the Hancock administration switching an appointment to a Profession Service position. Two deputy directors for Parks & Recreation — Scott Gilmore and John Martinez — now serve in Profession Service roles, ever for the reason that administration converted their positions to have those protections in 2021.
Hancock also transformed the chief storyteller position, which is held by Rowena Alegría, from an appointment to a Profession Service role in 2021.
And Theresa Marchetta, an appointed communications director for Hancock, applied for and was hired for a Profession Services position with the Office of Human Resources.
Loads of past Hancock appointees have already jumped ship, too, recognizing that their time in appointment roles could end when a latest mayor takes office.
As an example, Murphy Robinson, the manager director of the Department of Public Safety, stepped down in January 2022. His LinkedIn profile shows that Robinson now runs his own security services firm. The pinnacle of the Department of Excise & Licenses, Ashley Kilroy, left that very same month. And the Denver City Attorney, Kristin Bronson, left in November.
Fisher’s decision to step down was somewhat surprising, on condition that she had expressed an interest in sticking around as the pinnacle of HOST for a future mayoral administration. She’s also quite popular amongst city staff and elected officials. Nevertheless, she says that when the chance arose to succeed John Parvensky because the president and CEO of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, it was too good to pass up.
And that may need been a smart decision by Fisher anyway, as some latest mayoral administrations would definitely clean house.
“We owe it to the voters to usher in individuals with fresh perspectives, who’ve the experience and the vision to support a Calderón administration with taking the town in a latest direction, and never simply recycling a few of same top administrators from a deeply unpopular administration,” says Sarah Lake, the campaign manager for Lisa Calderón.
Other administrations have left open the flexibleness of deciding on appointees if and after they take office.
“My sole focus right away is on the needs and concerns of Denver voters. If I’m fortunate enough to win this election, we are going to construct a various and highly expert team through the transition that can be ready on day one to deliver results for Denver residents,” says candidate Kelly Brough.
Or as Mike Johnston, one other candidate, says: “I’m running for mayor because I do know that Denver’s hardest problems are fixable, but so as to fix them, we’d like to have city officials who can construct broad coalitions of support to get it done. Due to that, I’ll search for the most effective talent in the town and across the country to run these agencies and implement the solutions we all know will work to handle Denver’s challenges, and can consider existing agency heads as open applicants for those positions.”
