DENVER — Denver's annual "State of the City" address had a different ambiance this year, with Mayor Mike Johnston kicking off the event from the Seawall Ballroom.
The city's top politician spent Monday evening touting what he believes are accomplishments during his first two years in office, including decreasing unsheltered homelessness and a significant drop in homicides per capita.
"There’s more work ahead — we’re not slowing down," Johnston said during his speech. "But today, we say thank you to the thousands of city employees and nonprofit partners working every day to make this possible. They deserve our deepest gratitude."
- Watch the full address in the story below
Politics
Here's what Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said in his 'State of the City' address
Ahead of Johnston's address, Denver7's Natalie Chuck sat with people arriving to listen to the mayor.
Most of the people were city employees who did not want to go on camera for fear of retaliation, but they all acknowledged concerns about potential layoffs following a recent policy change that stripped protections for longtime employees. City leaders have warned of likely layoffs due to a projected $200 million budget shortfall in 2026, but no layoffs have happened yet.
Todd Davis, who recently moved to Denver from California for his wife's job with the city, had one big question for Johnston, "What are you doing to protect the livelihood of city employees that are going to be adversely impacted by the economic, shortfall with the financial miss that we have here, when it comes to our budget?"
Johnston responded to that concern, telling Denver7, "We're making every single decision to try to avoid in any situation layoffs. We're trying to focus on cutting contracts, or programs, or services."
"We are intensely focused on making sure we're avoiding layoffs in every place that we can, and that we're going to find a way to restructure our government to make sure that we can deliver government that works better and that costs less," the mayor continued.
- Watch our full sit-down with Denver Mayor Mike Johnston in the video player below
Clarence Burton Jr., who is the CEO for the nonprofit Denver Families for Public Schools, said he "would love to hear about what's the next big thing that Denver is going to do to make sure it's an affordable city?"
"We're really focused on how we can address the single biggest issue making this city unaffordable, and that is the cost of housing," Johnston replied. "And so what we're doing right now is focusing on how we use the dollars we have to bring on more affordable housing, how we can bring on new strategies that allow us to build more affordable housing without new dollars."
Closing out his interview with Denver7, Johnston said, "We think we've got to dig in and work even harder in the next two years, and I'm ready to do that."
