DENVER — Denver's mayor is getting pushback on his call for "shared sacrifice" from city departments to address the migrant crisis.
Paul López, Denver's clerk and recorder who runs the city and county's elections, says he won't comply with the budget cuts requested by the mayor in the middle of an election year.
"The cuts that are being asked of my office, in a year like this with what we’re up against, is absolutely unacceptable," López said.
López says Denver Mayor Mike Johnston asked him to cut nearly a million dollars out of his budget to help the city pay for the cost of the migrant crisis. Johnston has said the city is short $180 million this year, putting the blame on the more than 40,000 migrants who’ve arrived in Denver. Every office from the police department to the animal shelter is facing cuts.
"It’s a slippery slope when you talk about defunding elections. It’s slippery slope especially now when our democracy is at stake," López said. "A million dollars means you’re cutting operations, you’re not fulfilling security mandates, or you’re cutting personnel."
The office of clerk and recorder in Denver is an independently elected, non-partisan position. The mayor’s office told us budget cuts were “merely requested, not required” for offices like López’s that don’t directly report to the mayor. López says Johnston never actually reached out to him to talk about budget cuts before the mayor’s office sent the directive.
"I hope that there’s more transparency, more collaboration, I hope that there’s a willingness to learn about what we do before we are asked to cut from it," López said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Johnston's office said, "While the Clerk's office is not required to identify cost savings, our office did ask Clerk Lopez to work to identify $934k in savings to support the Border Crisis Special Revenue Fund. We know that supporting newcomers is a shared priority for both the Mayor and the Clerk. We will continue to work closely with Clerk Lopez to prioritize both election security and newcomer support."
The nearly one million dollars that the clerk and recorder's office was asked to cut is about 5% of their total budget. They’re part of the same category as the district attorney. 9NEWS was told that office has also been asked to cut 5% of its budget, but they have a choice not to do it, because it is an independently elected office.
In a presidential election year that also will see several local elections, López says cutting a million dollars from his budget will leave elections and election workers vulnerable.
"Under no circumstance am I willing to sacrifice the safety, security, transparency or the accessibility of our elections for the voters or the people who make democracy happen," López said.
Most departments that report to the mayor don’t have a choice about whether they comply with the budget cuts. That includes offices like the police department, fire department and department of public safety. They’re all looking for places to save money already. The mayor's office says it is also looking at budget cuts.
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