Denver voters have option to change how elected officials get raises

The Denver City Council is giving voters a direct say on their elected leaders’ pay raises in the form of a potential law change that would eliminate the council’s role in that process.

On Monday, the body voted unanimously to refer a measure to voters in November that would remove language from the city charter that requires the council to vote once every four years on whether council members, the mayor, the city auditor and the clerk and recorder will receive pay raises and gives the council discretion on setting those raise amounts.

The council is required to vote on raises between Jan. 1 and Election Day of any municipal general election year. Those raises then take effect on the first day of the new term for those offices. In March 2023, the council approved a 9.32% raise for the city’s elected officials. That took effect on July 17 of that year.

If voters approve removing the council vote requirement, elected officials’ raises would be triggered automatically every four years. The charter would base the amounts on one of two metrics. Either officials would get a raise matching the percentage increase of the consumer price index in the Denver metro over the prior four years or those raises would match the percentage change in pay rate for the average city employee over the same period. The charter would default to whichever number is lower.