Denver layoffs deliver big hits to small offices like children's affairs, climate action

Elliott Wenzler, The Denver Post on Aug 20, 2025

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DENVER — Denver’s Office of Children’s Affairs took the biggest percentage hit to its workforce — with about a third of employees losing their jobs — during a round of layoffs and restructuring carried out by city officials this week, according to breakdowns released Wednesday.

Mayor Mike Johnston presented a table with details on the layoffs across departments and agencies during an online town hall with all city employees Wednesday morning, and later to reporters during a media briefing. Workers affected by the layoffs had been informed on Monday and Tuesday.

“Our layoff wave is over,” Johnston said during the employee meeting. “That is complete.”

The job cuts and restructuring come as Johnston’s administration addresses an anticipated $200 million shortfall in the 2026 budget. Johnston announced in May that he would implement layoffs.

This week, his administration told 171 people their jobs had been eliminated. Officials also eliminated another 665 vacant positions, a number that had grown through more than a year of hiring freezes and restrictions. Together, the figures represent a nearly 8% reduction in the city’s authorized workforce of 11,023 positions.

“If you’re heavy on people and low on vacancies, you end up needing to be higher on layoffs,” Johnston said during the media briefing, noting that vacant positions resulted in lower impact on employees.

Wednesday’s department-by-department breakdown of the impacts showed that some positions were moved out of the general fund to different funding sources but were not eliminated — 92 jobs in total.

The Office of Children’s Affairs, which had 31 positions, saw 10 employees laid off and two vacant positions eliminated. That represents about a 39% total reduction in the office.

Johnston said they would reduce the scope of the office to focus on three elements of its core mission: supporting early childhood education, after-school programming and youth development. Other efforts, like the Tasty Food initiative and youth violence prevention were moved under other agencies.

“Instead of continuing trying to do more and more with less, let’s do less and do it better,” Johnston said.

The next-biggest hit by percentage went to the Office of Human Rights and Community Partnerships, which had nearly 38% of its 45 positions affected through nine layoffs and eight vacant positions cut.

Third was the Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency, which had five layoffs and 22 vacant positions eliminated, representing a 28% reduction.

The smallest relative reductions were for Denver Fire and Denver Police, where uniformed personnel were insulated from cuts. Both saw a less than 2% decrease in positions, all through vacancies eliminated.

The mayor’s office laid off three employees and cut eight vacant positions, for a total reduction of 24% of its positions.

The highest number of layoffs of any department or agency in the breakdown was in one of the largest — the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, which laid off 31 employees. DOTI also elimintated 108 vacant positions, with all the cuts representing 9% of its 1,562 positions.

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