Denver Charter Changes for the November 2003 Election
The Rocky Mountain News [August 12, 2003, "Mayor's concession won't kill reform"] is running an editorial in support of Mayor Hickenlooper's compromise on basing City worker's raises on a salary survey. From the opinion piece, "Hickenlooper's compromise allows for a wage survey, but at the council's discretion. More important, it stipulates that both the mayor and council can accept or reject the resulting recommendations. That would give them the flexibility to retain staff by adjusting wage scales. We suspect Hickenlooper wanted to eliminate the salary survey altogether, since it wasn't in his original proposal. But if labor groups such as the Colorado Federation of Public Employees can accept such a compromise, then so can the other holdouts. This isn't about whittling away at the rights and privileges of city employees. Or about giving the mayor and council unlimited powers to abuse. But it is about providing the mayor and council with the management tools they need to intelligently run the city."
Fred Oliva, the current Undersheriff, was walking on thin ice last Friday at a meeting about Charter changes that would make his position appointed by the Mayor instead of by the Manager of Safety, according to the Rocky Mountain News [August 12, 2003, "Reprimand sought for undersheriff"]. At issue was his desire to keep speaking after he was told to stop and some other sarcastic remarks directed at Councilwoman Kathleen MacKenzie. MacKenzie is the chair of the Charter review committee. In her role, much of the criticism during the current hearings, has been directed at her personally. Councilwoman Rosemary Rodriquez is seeking a note in Oliva's personnel file, "that says that I objected to his treatment' of MacKenzie, 'It was unacceptable".
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