Friday, September 25, 2026, 9 a.m. (Denver time), Parr-Widener Community Room, Room 389
The Budget Hearings meeting of the Denver City Council heard a presentation from the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP) on its 2027 budget. The department described its mission, its entertainment licensing rulemaking that takes effect April 1, 2027, after-hours enforcement rotations, and a budget philosophy focused on stability and retaining all existing programs after 2026 reductions and restructuring. Council members asked about personnel cost increases, hearing officer funding and due process, consumer protection staffing, scrap metal enforcement, short-term rental compliance and geography, and revenue trends versus licensing fees. No votes were taken; the item was discussed and the meeting adjourned.
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0:12 have Colson Whitehead. You
0:15 know who is amazing two-time
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0:19 a car doing or what Denver. So
0:21 he is speaking tonight and
0:22 Cowboys, which is our one
0:24 Denver folks, if you want if
0:25 you just happen to be a fan,
0:28 like I would not know what 2 2
0:32 we'll believe inside hopes
0:33 yet. Mentality, governor this
0:34 afternoon and what the
0:35 different district, 7 to the
0:38 dollar look-alike contest
0:39 She's so many of the confirmed
0:40 that he's going participate
0:45 you are going to be and looked
0:49 like kind test time are nba
0:51 this afternoon in 4 mark and
0:52 much like district 7, we'll
0:54 reading the City Council
0:57 proclamation that we had
1:00 hearing all important and her
1:04 And but we're here listen to
1:07 lovely folks that licensing
1:10 consumer protection before we
1:13 hear presentations, Lettieri
1:14 introductions. Let's start to
1:15 the distinguished Gentleman's
1:19 from District 6. It's all the
1:20 morning. Paul Kashmann South
1:21 Denver District 6. Good to see
1:25 everyone. You know, the man
1:26 Good morning. Amanda Sandoval
1:29 our customer district, one,
1:32 family Burnett chief operating
1:33 officer morning said that
1:37 consults tennis councilmember
1:40 at large. So the Muslim
1:41 southwest tumors often mayor's
1:42 office just in Sikeston
1:44 Department of Finance, might
1:47 do the same licensing consumer
1:49 protection courage licensing
1:50 consumer protection at the and
1:52 licensing and consumer
1:54 protection under Taiwan
1:55 relations seemed to sum
1:55 production answer to retired
1:59 assistant district 3. Could it
1:59 be that is the key district 7
2:00 in morning. Diana Romero camp
2:01 southeast Denver district
2:03 court. The call any chief
2:06 financial officer, just the
2:08 mayor. And I don't think an or
2:09 just myself, I'm Chris
2:12 hindsight Denver City Council
2:14 content license protection.
2:19 Please take a wait. All right.
2:20 Good morning, everybody. Thank
2:23 you so much for having us here
2:24 today. We're happy to be here
2:24 again this year and highlight
2:26 some of the great work that
2:29 happened and licensing and
2:30 consumer protection before we
2:31 jump. And of course, I do just
2:33 want to recognize the great
2:33 team that we have a deal, cp
2:34 and a lot of the great work
2:37 that they do. We really do
2:39 have a great team there and
2:40 the people a group of people
2:41 that really care deeply about
2:43 customers that we serve and
2:43 the work that we do, the
2:45 the impact that has on the
2:47 community. And I think you'll
2:47 hear throughout our
2:49 presentation today that we
2:51 couldn't do the work serve the
2:51 community without the folks
2:52 that we have in the hard work
2:56 that they do. And as leaders
2:57 of our 2 main divisions and
2:59 deal cpi do just want to
3:00 recognize and appreciate give
3:00 special thanks to rot in
3:01 Erica. They've been really
3:02 great partners throughout this
3:05 year as we you know, went
3:07 through a lot of change and
3:08 challenges. They just both
3:09 also really understand the
3:09 work and also care about the
3:13 people that do it as well.
3:14 That means if you have hard
3:15 questions, I'll pass them to
3:21 them to some. Pushing the
3:26 right buttons. I something
3:35 wrong on I don't know who's
3:38 controlling Anybody. Yeah,
3:43 that's it. We're not a This is
3:47 a Is it one by the time summer
3:49 You're going I know that we're
4:00 working that. Had just claims
4:05 They got All right. Challenge
4:07 number ok? So here is our
4:08 mission and vision as the
4:09 Department of Licensing and
4:10 Consumer Protection. Our
4:12 mission is to protect the
4:13 public's health, safety and
4:14 welfare by serving our
4:14 community through the
4:18 regulation of businesses. And
4:19 support economic in
4:19 our mission vision is to
4:23 neighborhood vitality. A
4:23 varsity through licensing and
4:25 business compliance. And as
4:25 you all know, we ran a
4:26 successful budget, a ballot
4:28 measure last year to change
4:30 the name of our department
4:30 from excise and licenses to
4:33 licensing consumer protection.
4:34 But what we did not change was
4:35 this mission and vision. And
4:38 so really what the name of
4:40 change allowed was for us to
4:41 have a name that is much more
4:41 reflective of this mission and
4:43 vision. And what you'll hear
4:45 throughout our presentation
4:47 today is that we continue to
4:48 work hard to maintain and
4:50 deliver our core services. And
4:54 quickly, licensing and
4:54 so just go through those care
4:55 permitting services include
4:57 Iran to end application review
4:58 and processing of over 100
5:00 different types of business
5:01 licenses. And that includes
5:03 occupational licenses as well.
5:05 So through this course
5:06 service, we assess both
5:08 businesses and individuals and
5:10 getting licensed to set up and
5:11 established their business or
5:13 if you're an individual
5:14 occupational license to, you
5:15 know, find that meaningful and
5:17 gainful employment as a part
5:19 of this core service, we do
5:20 have an in-person customer
5:20 service counter that is open 5
5:24 days a week. And something
5:26 that we've seen is just an
5:28 increase in usage of our
5:29 virtual appointments. So those
5:30 continue to be available as
5:32 well and something that our
5:32 customers are increasingly
5:37 accessing. Consumer protection
5:38 is our next course service.
5:38 And this is really the
5:39 enforcement arm of our
5:41 department and it addresses
5:42 noncompliance so that we can
5:42 ensure businesses are
5:45 operating in a way that serves
5:45 the public health and safety
5:49 of the community. And finally,
5:51 we apply an innovation lambs
5:52 to our outreach, our
5:52 communications and policy
5:53 development so that we can
5:54 make sure regulations are
5:56 keeping up in adapting to any
5:56 changes that we see in the
6:02 business environment. So
6:03 looking into 2027 and our
6:04 strategic priorities, we
6:05 focused on ways in which we
6:06 can continue to protect public
6:09 health and safety as well as
6:11 provide services that are
6:11 business friendly and support
6:13 business development and
6:15 growth. So every year starting
6:17 at the top there we have a
6:19 goal around policy review and
6:22 modernization. And really this
6:23 is so that we address any
6:23 emerging issues that we see
6:26 within the business community
6:29 in 2027. This will start with
6:30 finalizing the rulemaking
6:30 process of the entertainment
6:31 licensing framework that we
6:35 worked with you all to pass
6:36 earlier this year and will
6:36 become effective on APRIL.
6:40 First of 2027. So that will
6:42 start with some rulemaking
6:45 actually later this year with
6:45 some rulemaking around when
6:47 hearings would be required for
6:49 entertainment businesses. And
6:50 then we'll finish this year
6:51 and going to 2027 with some
6:53 rulemaking around security
6:55 requirements and all these
6:56 will be a final steps that
6:57 allow us to have everything in
7:00 place for the APRIL first
7:01 effective date. As of then
7:02 APRIL, first, new
7:03 entertainment licenses will be
7:04 in place and they'll be a
7:07 higher standard for the ways
7:08 in which businesses have to
7:11 operate to protect public this
7:12 has really been a key part of
7:14 our strategy around improving
7:15 night life safety and
7:17 improving some downtown
7:19 safety. And so this will be
7:21 something that we continue
7:22 into 2027 and roll in some
7:22 other initiatives next year as
7:28 well. Also in 2027, we will
7:29 continue to identify and
7:31 pursue additional process
7:32 improvements and reducing any
7:36 red tape and our processes.
7:37 The last 2 years and going
7:41 into 2027 as well. We have met
7:42 and chief to goal of
7:43 identifying process Save
7:45 50,000 hours of customer
7:47 service. Time. So we haven't
7:48 met and exceeded that goal the
7:51 last 2 years. We'll probably
7:53 achieve that again in 2026 and
7:54 will maintain that goal going
7:57 into 2027. And the goal is to
7:59 utilize p principals to reduce
8:00 barriers and remove red tape
8:05 from our processes we use and
8:06 rely on really on our
8:06 licensing technicians and our
8:07 staff to identify these as
8:08 they are. They're the ones
8:10 that are in these processes
8:12 every day. And look for ways
8:12 in which they can make our
8:13 process is more business
8:20 friendly. We will also
8:21 something start. We also
8:23 started in 2026 and carrying a
8:24 2027 is we are developing a
8:26 system to measure how
8:27 impactful our enforcement
8:31 tools are. And so we're
8:33 looking at throughout 2026 and
8:34 measuring the effectiveness of
8:35 those enforcement tools and
8:37 will be able to have that full
8:38 year of data. At the end of
8:41 2026 so that we can make any
8:42 adjustments to our enforcement
8:44 strategies and 27 so that we
8:45 are utilizing the implementing
8:46 the enforcement tools that
8:47 really helped drive compliance
8:52 and increase safety. And then
8:53 something again, a new focus
8:56 of this year was to increase
8:57 our presence and enforcement
9:01 during after hours. So we know
9:02 that a lot of activity in
9:03 non-compliance concerns come
9:04 up not during 9 from 9 to 5
9:07 Monday through Friday. So we
9:08 have implemented a rotation of
9:09 our inspectors that are out in
9:13 the community and out, you
9:15 know, doing compliance
9:15 inspections and investigations
9:17 on the weekends. And evening
9:19 hours now. And so this is
9:19 something that will continue
9:23 to roll into 2027 and we have
9:24 some additional things that we
9:27 want to turn our focus to look
9:31 into in 2027 around night.
9:32 Life safety, downtown safety,
9:35 things looking at our
9:36 enforcement efforts around
9:38 unlicensed food vendors,
9:38 additional updates that could
9:42 improve safety of parking lots
9:44 and then also continuing to
9:45 explore pilot a localized
9:46 pilot around extending hours
9:50 of entertainment. And then
9:51 finally, I will just keep
9:52 driving home today. How
9:55 important our staff our to our
9:56 successful operations how we
9:58 will prioritize can employee
9:59 engagement and keeping
9:59 turnover low so that we can
10:00 continue to see the success
10:06 these projects. So here's an
10:08 overview of our approach and
10:10 philosophy for the 2027
10:10 budget. I think you'll find
10:11 it's pretty similar to how
10:13 what we presented last year
10:17 and after a year changes and
10:19 reductions in restructuring in
10:20 2026, we focused on
10:21 maintaining some stability in
10:22 maintaining our core services
10:26 going into 2027 deal. Cp is a
10:27 pretty small agency, but we
10:28 have a very high volume of
10:32 transactions. And so for this
10:33 reason, we really wanted to
10:34 prioritize our existing staff
10:36 resources so that we can focus
10:38 on making sure our processing
10:40 times remain steady and that
10:42 we can ensure complaints are
10:42 thoroughly investigated and
10:46 resolved. We also just took
10:46 the approach to retain all of
10:50 our existing programs. And so
10:50 while we did, see have to make
10:56 to small reductions. We aren't
10:57 we we're not we're not
10:57 removing or, you know,
10:58 eliminating any programs but
10:59 will be retaining those in
11:04 there entirety. So this
11:08 philosophy and approach
11:08 allowed us to minimize
11:09 minimize any negative impacts
11:11 on our core services and
11:12 allows us to maintain all of
11:13 our programs through a focus
11:16 scope of work. So, for
11:17 example, we know that rental
11:20 enforcement both long-term
11:20 residential rentals and
11:21 short-term rentals continue to
11:22 be a priority for city
11:23 council. And it's also really
11:26 a pillar of our equity
11:30 strategy. These programs
11:31 through investigations and
11:32 complaints of focus. Well, we
11:33 just we'll have a focus scope
11:33 of work on those which will
11:36 allow us to be responsive to
11:37 the value that we all have
11:39 around protecting residents
11:39 and protecting their housing
11:46 quality and the affordability.
11:47 This is our organizational
11:48 structure. It is essentially
11:49 unchanged from how we have
11:51 been operating throughout
11:53 2026, we will continue to have
11:54 2 main divisions with
11:55 licensing and strategic
11:56 planning and then policy and
11:58 communication. Consumer
12:00 protection. And so there's a
12:01 little bit of detail here
12:02 around the different teams
12:04 that income for us. Those 2
12:06 divisions. And we've just
12:07 strategically allocated our
12:08 resources within those teams
12:08 to align with our core
12:16 services and our workload. Are
12:16 key performance metrics that
12:19 we use and look at when we're
12:19 thinking about our operations
12:20 and our service delivery and
12:24 our resources up on the upper
12:25 left is license records
12:27 created. So this is a pretty
12:29 telling workload measure for
12:32 us what you can see here is
12:36 that what it looks like is you
12:36 know, we seen a little bit of
12:37 a decrease in a climbing back
12:40 up in our licenses. But I just
12:43 want or note that this these
12:43 numbers include residential
12:44 rental licenses, which is our
12:48 highest value. My sons. And in
12:49 2023, we issued 15,000 of
12:52 those licenses alone. We now
12:54 have over 30,000 of those
12:56 licenses. But there are only
12:58 for your license so they will
12:59 be coming back up for renewal.
13:02 Those 15,000 that we issued in
13:02 2020 team will be coming back
13:06 up for renewal in 2027. And so
13:07 with that, we will see an
13:08 increase in our license
13:09 records created. But we have
13:11 made a lot of efficiencies in
13:12 our process is particularly
13:14 within that license category.
13:17 And so, you know, being able
13:18 to process and manage increase
13:23 is something we can manage.
13:24 And then I do just want to
13:26 know, too. If you take out the
13:27 residential rental licenses
13:29 from those numbers, we but we
13:31 do see annually for the for
13:31 the last couple of years has
13:33 been about a 5 to 10% increase
13:33 in licensing activity.
13:38 Year-over-year. On the bottom
13:40 left is our inspections and
13:41 investigations. And again, you
13:42 can see in this graphic is
13:45 showing that we are decreasing
13:46 in our investigations and