(DailyVantage.com) – The city of Denver, Colorado, recently announced a new policy that would reduce certain city workers’ hours per week to zero due to the ongoing migrant surge unfolding in the city. Denver officials specified that only city workers would suffer reduced hours due to adjustments to the city’s budget. According to reports, Denver’s city officials plan to reduce the city’s budget by over $4 million, most of which would come from the city’s park department.
Denver would use the $4 million reduction to provide more resources to the city’s ongoing migrant aid effort. While city officials haven’t announced which jobs would be impacted the most by the budget reduction, Jolon Clark, the city’s park department director, said that most of the employees affected by the work time reduction would be on-call employees. Clark claims the city’s decision on which job positions see reduced hours isn’t final, meaning city officials could find other Denver employees subject to hour reductions.
Clark claims that among the employees targeted by the hour reductions are various athletic team coaches, safety employees like lifeguards, and employees in clerical roles like secretaries. Denver’s mayor, Mike Johnston, released a statement regarding the looming budget reduction and announced that city employees could apply for unemployment until the city could assign more hours. Johnston also said that the city’s decision to remove its employees’ work hours differs from a company’s decision to lay off its workers, as city employees will retain their positions for the foreseeable future.
In a press conference, Johnston discussed the budget reduction and became critical of the Biden administration while discussing the immigration surge’s impact on Denver’s city employees. According to Johnston, the federal government isn’t doing enough to help ease the burden of immigration on city resources. Johnston became emotional during the press conference and said he believes the Biden administration won’t help Denver or other cities despite the outcry from public officials.
While discussing Denver’s resources for the migrant crisis, Johnston claimed Denver officials expect to spend about $180 million to address the large number of illegal immigrants flooding into the city. According to Johnston, Denver requires more financial support or different border security policies; otherwise, the ongoing expenditures on the migrant crisis will not be sustainable. Although Denver has already closed multiple migrant shelters to reduce the burden on the city’s resources, Johnston expects the migrant crisis to continue for the foreseeable future.
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