At least 71 additional positions were lost across the city's independent agencies, such as the Auditor's Office, and independent government branches, like the Denver County Court. These institutions are not under the direct control of Mayor Mike Johnston and, therefore, are not featured in his office's widely reported city department layoff count.
However, many of the excluded agencies say they made staffing cuts after Johnston asked them to reduce their budgets for 2026 to help address the city's projected $200 million budget deficit.
The 71 affected positions include twelve layoffs, 39 hiring freezes, nine eliminations of open positions, and eleven eliminations of filled positions via resignations, retirements, transfers or consolidations, according to numbers provided to Westword by each agency.
Denver County Court accounts for the bulk of the losses, reporting a reduction of thirty positions after it was asked to cut its budget by $3.2 million for 2026. Ten employees were laid off, eleven vacant positions were eliminated or frozen, and nine filled positions were eliminated following redeployments, retirements and resignations.
The court permanently closed its Parking Magistrate’s Office on August 27 as a result of the layoffs, according to court spokesperson Carolyn Tyler. The office was responsible for resolving disputed parking citations.
"The citation dispute process is an administrative one, not a judicial one, and the court must focus on core judicial functions," Tyler says. "As such, the decision was made to eliminate our involvement in the administrative dispute process and five employees were laid off from the PMO."
The court also laid off one deputy court executive, two Driving Under Restraint navigators, and two employees from its Forensic Peer Navigator program, cutting the program's staff roughly in half. Just two months ago, the program was highlighted in a Denverite article for employing people who have experienced homelessness and addiction to support individuals in the justice system, using their lived experience to help guide them out of destructive cycles.
Some of the independent agencies have much smaller workforces than city departments, so any loss of employees is felt deeply.
Up until 2023, Executive Director Lori Weiser was the only full-time employee of the Board of Ethics, tasked with administering the city's ethics code that regulates government employees and officials. Weiser successfully lobbied to add a second employee two years ago, a staff assistant position; that position became vacant in March of this year. Then news of the budget cuts broke.
"I geared up to rehire and completed interviews right before the budget cuts were announced," Weiser says. "Because I have a small budget, mainly salaries, I couldn’t hire or offer at the posted position. So we had to repost for a lower-paying position."
The Civil Service Commission laid off two employees as a result of the projected 2026 budget cuts: two HR data analysts, says Executive Director Gracie Perez. The commission — which oversees testing for hiring and promoting Denver police and firefighters — also eliminated six vacant HR data analyst positions and froze hiring for one vacant HR manager position.
"The Civil Service Commission approached the 2026 budget with a focus on prioritizing our most essential services while meeting the required budget reduction and ensuring funding for entry-level and promotional hiring processes for Denver Fire and Police Departments, as mandated by City Charter and Commission Rules," Perez explains.
The agency has only eleven full-time staff and thirteen on-call investigations technicians.
Budget Battle
The city's budget for the 2026 fiscal year is not yet finalized. Mayor Johnston is set to present his budget proposal to Denver City Council on September 15, beginning a lengthy review process including budget hearings and council recommendations. The final budget is due in November.The city is facing a $50 million budget shortfall for 2025 and a projected $200 million deficit for 2026. Johnston rolled out furloughs, hiring freezes and layoffs throughout the summer to help address the gap, which officials have attributed to the city's growing expenses, slowing revenue and dwindling savings account.
Johnston initially asked each of the city's independent agencies to reduce their budgets by 5 percent for 2026, according to mayoral spokesperson Jon Ewing, though the final proposed reductions will be released on September 15.
"The current economic outlook has forced all of us to make sacrifices," Ewing says.
This decision has been criticized by some, including Denver Clerk & Recorder Paul López, who told Colorado Politics that Johnston is trying to "raid" the budgets of independent agencies. López reportedly claimed this is the first time he has seen a mayor do such a thing in his eighteen-year city career.
"The mayor asked us to cut this year’s budget by 5 percent even though we have twice as many elections to conduct next year," says Ben Warwick, spokesperson for the Clerk & Recorder's Office, which administers elections in addition to managing campaign finance, public records, access to marriage licenses and various other duties.
Ewing says city staff from the Department of Finance and the Mayor’s Office worked with some independent agencies "to identify areas where budgets could be reduced without significant impact." He claims López refused to participate in such a collaboration.
"This process worked very successfully for other city departments, including independent agencies," Ewing says. "We believe we could have helped identify ways to save money. For instance, we would have recommended that he use space at the Webb Municipal Building that we spent $2 million to renovate at his request last year, only to be told after the fact by the Clerk that his needs had changed."
Warwick says the Clerk & Recorder's Office had already cut its budget by $1 million for 2025, which required staff eliminations, reallocations and hiring freezes. The office of 69 employees has reduced its staff by two full-time positions since last year, with additional positions being combined.
"We have held multiple positions open for months to create vacancy savings and currently have multiple critical roles unfilled," Warwick adds. "We also took furlough days in solidarity with all other city employees to create nearly $100,000 in savings. We currently have three positions the mayor’s office has frozen and won’t allow us to hire."
The budget constraints forced the Office of the Independent Monitor to eliminate an unfilled deputy monitor position that was approved in 2023 because of the office's workload increase. While it has not conducted layoffs, the office had to implement "a significant budget cut to the OIM’s Community Outreach and Youth Outreach Project," says Independent Monitor Lisabeth Pérez Castle.
The Denver District Attorney's Office is holding twelve positions vacant in 2026 and will continue furloughs "in order to maintain as much of our staffing as possible while addressing the reduced budget we will be receiving," says spokesperson Matt Jablow.
The Auditor's Office is freezing hiring for all open positions: nine full-time and three on-call. The Career Service Hearing Office — a three-person agency — is freezing hiring for a fourth position of a law clerk. Another three-person agency, the Board of Adjustment, is not pursuing staffing changes due to the budget cuts as "it was deemed to have too significant of an impact to our services," says Austin Keithler, technical director of the board.
Denver City Council, an independent branch of government, is participating in furloughs, but "any additional cuts would significantly impact our ability to operate and help our constituents," says Bonita Roznos, executive director of the Office of the City Council.
"We want to assure the public that we remain fiscally responsible," Roznos adds. "Over the last five years, we have returned an average of $400,000 to the City’s General Fund. The full 2026 proposed budget will be released on September 15, and we will revisit this decision once we have had time to review it."
The following institutions are listed as independent agencies in the city's 2025 budget, but report that Denver's budget cuts will have no impact on their staff or operations: the Denver International Airport, Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Zoo, Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Denver Art Museum.
The last remaining independent agency, the Office of Municipal Public Defender, did not respond to inquiries from Westword.
