Denver department cuts hit close to home for City Councilwoman Jamie Torres
Make cuts while protecting services. That's what Denver Mayor Mike Johnston set out to do in an effort to bridge a $200 million funding gap for 2026. But some department slashes hit close to home for a member of the Denver City Council.
"It hurt my heart," said Councilwoman Jamie Torres, who represents District 3. She worked for Denver Human Rights and Community Partnerships for nearly two decades.
"My role, specifically, was creating the office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs in 2005, so that's one of the things that agency or division has been able to contribute overall to the city. But it is really our community arm of the city of Denver.
The sign to the agency's headquarters was taken down due to construction, but an employee told CBS Colorado off camera that it represents how they feel right now.
"It's been a department in some version since the 1940s, when Mayor Quigg Newton created the human right committee. Everyone should have access to it."
HRCP has grown into providing services for individuals with disabilities such as Denver's deaf and hard of hearing community, as well as anti-discrimination and other human rights services. But, due to recent cuts, the agency lost 37% of its team between filled and vacant positions. That's the highest percent of impact across all city agencies.
"I've been pleased that most of the core services in the agency have been retained, even if they have a smaller staff than they used to last year," Torres said.
HRCP told CBS Colorado that it's continuing to work to find cost saving opportunities that won't impact public services, and that it will know more when Mayor Johnston delivers the budget on or before Sept. 15.
Torres found that to be a silver lining. Throughout the years, she has seen the department go through both growth and decline, and just last year made a push to protect it.
"Councilwoman [Amanda] Sawyer and I asked the voters to approve last November, adding this to the city charter and adding the director to the mayor's cabinet so that it could never be eliminated. That might have been the saving grace of this agency in our most recent cuts."
The Mayor's office told CBS Colorado in a statement, "Though our current economic outlook forces us all to do more with less, there was never a scenario in which we would have cut the core services that this incredible department provides. Councilwoman Torres has been a steadfast advocate for HRCP, and Mayor Johnston stands shoulder-to-shoulder with her in strong support of the department's leadership, its team, and its mission to fight discrimination and protect the rights of all Denverites."