| District | Name | 9. In 2018 Denver voters approved a 0.25% sales tax to support parks and open space. According to the Game Plan for a Healthy City, sales tax revenues collected in 2021 amounted to more than $37 million, yet only about $12.5 million was spent on park projects and $5.8 million on operating expenses, leaving $18.8 million unspent. What steps would you take to ensure this money is being used for its intended purposes? |
| 1 | Amanda Sandoval | Currently, in Northwest Denver, there is the Near Northwest NPI underway and there are recommendations to create more open space parks within the 4 neighborhoods. I would ask we use the “legacy fund” to help with the acquisition of said open space. |
| 1 | Sarah Truckey | Reasonable, ongoing, and consistent annual audits. |
| 2 | Kevin Flynn | Go out to the community and ask where they envision opportunities for parks improvements and acquisitions, and then aggressively pursue them. |
| 3 | Jamie Torres | Advance projects in the CIP queue including the design and construction of parks in design. In my district, there are at least 3 parks projects that could be prioritized and advanced. |
| 4 | Tony Pigford | This is a significant amount of unspent funding, and many community members I’ve heard from feel the city is unnecessarily dragging its feet. While I hope we will begin to see movement on this issue and many others after these elections, the Council can consider, if necessary, creating more clear deadlines by which the 2A funds must be spent. |
| 5 | Amanda Sawyer | One of the major issues that is a hallmark of the current administration is lack of transparency – and this includes and especially is the case with regards to how funds are being spent. As Chair of the Finance and Governance committee (FINGOV), I have made it a priority to ensure that City Agencies know that Council expects reporting on how budgets are being spent. It is not just Council’s responsibility to oversee the budget – that is theoretical. It is our responsibility to oversee how that budget is actually being used and how much is left unused at the end of each year. |
| 5 | Michael Hughes | Council members have to work with the new mayor and the new parks director to ensure that we are using our resources, building the parks we need most and investing in the operations and maintenance of those parks |
| 6 | Paul Kashmann | I think we need to look at the fund created by voters to see if it may have overshot the mark of funds needed for parkland. It either needs to be spent as intended or we need to go back to voters to consider redirecting some of that fund to other critical city needs. |
| 7 | Nick Campion | As I discussed in my previous answer, we can use the extra money to buy back land to create parks and open spaces. Then, much of the remaining money can go to the maintenance and upkeep of those new parks. |
| 7 | Adam Estroff | Walking around the district, I’ve heard from neighbors in multiple neighborhoods that there is a backlog for our park maintenance and on projects that haven’t occurred yet. I would want to focus on clearing the backlog and keeping our word on existing projects and maintenance commitments. |
| 7 | Guy Padgett | I have noticed that upon close inspection, Denver does not handle earmarked money well. This is just one such example. It has provide endless subject matter for the city auditor to hold up to taxpayers’ attention. I would use my platform as a city council member to spotlight these deficiencies in carrying out the voters’ will. As a side note, if I as a non-profit operations director handled earmarked funds the way the City of Denver does, our viability as a grant recipient would be ruined and I would be fired. |
| 7 | Arthur May | I would seek to understand what potential projects are on the horizon, or what the needs are from different neighborhood parks in district 7. RNOs can help identify these needs. From there I will maintain visibility of projects in our district and ensure the money is being spent. |
| 8 | Shontel Lewis | Enforce the use of those revenues collected to revive parks and green spaces, repair infrastructure in neighborhoods that prevent accessibility and create a stronger plan for auditing operating expenses for use in neighborhoods typically at a disadvantage. |
| 9 | Candi CdeBaca | I would like to first defeat the Park Hill Golf Course development and then utilize eminent domain to acquire if they did not first sell the parcel to the city. Additionally, I spent quite a bit of energy helping DPR approve their acquisition equity framework AND identified parks and parcels for them to connect in my district despite not doing so. I would continue to promote the products of that previously expended labor from my team. |
| 10 | Margie Morris | I am going to City Council with a background in finance and will focus on strong fiscal stewardship. Without more detail than what is provided here, I would ask if it’s possible that the $18.8 in unspent funds was set aside as part of a plan for a large land acquisition in future years vs. an indication of a city office not fulfilling its obligation? A more important question might be why the operating expenses were 32% of total expenditures for the year, which is excessive. Lowering operating expenses is vital to ensuring we maximize the use of earmarked tax revenue to support more parks and open space in Denver! Clearly, this raises questions regarding oversight and the need for departmental best practices that must be addressed. I will refer this to Tim O’Brien for immediate review. As a council representative, I will work to ensure we are effectively using the tax dollars Denverites have generously given to create a Denver we are proud of and that works for all. |
| 10 | Noah Kaplan | The City council is responsible to voters to check on the city’s spending from voter-approved measures. There is an excellent opportunity with 18 million dollars to dedicate to our parks and open space. I am incredibly interested in seeing this money directed towards resources that balance investments in after-school programming for our city and provide more opportunities for young people to recreate. We should think about what our kids need socially, emotionally, and physically to thrive in and outside our classrooms. Suppose we invest in facilities that allow for recreational growth and more excellent utility and equity in open space access, playgrounds, and safe academic spaces to learn new trades. In that case, we can create a safer and more inclusive city. On day one of my administration, I will begin accessing the current investments in programming and start building a coalition to address the future needs and best use of this money. We must honor the example that the leaders of this city have shown in the past when it comes to expanding and preserving our parks and recreation in the county. I look forward to leading a process that creates a new generation of opportunities for the kids in our city. |
| 10 | Shannon Hoffman | As a council member we can both ask the City Auditor to put the parks and open space sales tax funding into their annual auditing plan, and council members, according to the charter, can also leverage their own collective power to ask for information to understand how this money is being used. |
| At-Large | Sarah Parady | ’m not sure exactly what bottleneck in the bureaucracy is causing this large sum to go unspent, but I do believe this money was approved by voters, and the City has a responsibility to make sure that voter-approved programs are carried out effectively. I would happily use my platform as a council member to get some answers here. |
| At-Large | Marty Zimmerman | I spoke with multiple departments in the city and there are a number of reasons why the money is still unspent ranging from staffing issues, increased costs of projects, and the need for a more streamlined collaboration between City departments (For example, 10 different departments worked together on McNichols Park – also known as Dinosaur Park). The holdup is that the staff members are working on fewer projects because prices have increased and because departments tend to be siloed. There is a pipeline of projects, but current staff cannot navigate the internal bureaucracy very well. My approach will be to work with the new Mayor to highlight opportunities for efficiencies and influence collaboration so that the money can be spent as was intended. |
| At-Large | Penfield Tate III | I learned from my experience on the legislative Joint Budget Committee, where you put your money illustrates your values as a society. I’ll work to ensure that money collected from the sales tax initiative goes to the acquisition of more park and open space assets rather than being diverted to ongoing operations. It is imperative that more land for parks and open space be acquired and protected now because our hyper development is going to continue. If we don’t protect the available space now, it will be too late. Period. Once open space is gone, we never recover it. |
| At-Large | Jeff Walker | I would investigate why the funds were not spent. Supply chain and staffing issues have thwarted capital projects across the country and industries. I would want to know if the delay in spend is a one-time event or if the plan and budget are deficient. |
