DENVER — Niecy Murray, the executive director of Denver’s Civil Service Commission who earlier Tuesday claimed the city was lowering its hiring standards due to political pressure from the mayor’s administration, was dismissed Tuesday by the commission's board of directors, Denver7 Investigates has learned.
The Civil Service Commission evaluates candidates for the city’s police and fire departments, among other things.
Murray claimed the city was cutting corners in the hiring for those positions due to a quota put in place by the mayor’s office. She said that the minimum score that police and fire recruits must meet was lowered in 2020. She told Denver7 Investigates she was being asked to lower it again.
"I've really felt, especially in the last several months, that there has been a push to ignore some red flags, to give opportunity to try to figure out later whether these individuals will be successful," she said earlier Tuesday. "From where I sit, that's not the way that we go about it."
Civil Service Commission Board Chair Amber Miller confirmed the firing in a statement late Tuesday, saying Murray was let go after "weeks of deliberation."
"Unfortunately, Ms. Murray’s claims to the press this morning appeared to have been a preemptive attempt to block or influence her release," Miller's statement read. "These developments have not deterred us from our course of action, and we have separated Ms. Murray from her position."
The statement added that the board "strongly refuted" Murray's claims.
Earlier in the day, Murray joined three Denver City Council members on the steps of the City and County Building for a news conference on the matter.
"The public's trust is placed in us to ensure standards for safety are being met," Murray said. "The role of the Civil Service Commission is far too important to be diminished to one which is strictly performative... I refused to allow myself to just be a pawn in this system."
Denver's Department of Public Safety sent the following statement to Denver7 in response to the claims:
"Ensuring Denver is a safe and thriving city is the Department of Public Safety’s top priority. We hold our agencies to the highest standards, including a shared priority with the Civil Service Commission to recruit top public safety candidates through a thorough, equitable, and expeditious hiring process. Modernizing the Civil Service Commission process is an essential step in building a diverse, dedicated, and highly skilled public safety workforce, and we must make evidence-based changes to that process to make that vision a reality.”
Denver7 Chief Investigator Tony Kovaleski sat down 1-on-1 with Murray in the moments after she was officially let go.
"This has felt very David and Goliath for me," Murray said.
Murray told Denver7 Investigates she could not point to exactly why the decision was made.
"It cannot be from issues with past performance... There's never been a question in terms of my performance or my integrity, or how I lead the agency," she said. "What I cannot tell you is ultimately what led them to make this decision other than me taking that stand and speaking out and upsetting an establishment."
Denver7 also reached out to the city for a response to Murray's assertion that she was fired.
The city provided this statement:
"The Civil Service Commission is an independent agency, meaning it operates separately from the city. The city has no say over their decisions."
Miller's statement noted that an acting director has been installed and the board will begin a search for a new director immediately.