The department-head pay bill is filed: automatic raises every four years, and a 2027 market adjustment with no dollar figure

The proposal to set a formula for what Denver pays the people who run its biggest departments is now a bill. Council Bill 26-1762, sponsored by Council member Amanda Sawyer according to the Council's records, is listed as an action item for the Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee on Tuesday, Nov. 17 (agenda items).

Why it matters: these 12 appointees, from the airport's chief to the city attorney, hold some of the highest-paid jobs in city government. Today the Council votes on each round of raises. Under this bill, most future raises would happen automatically.

We first wrote about the plan when the city's human resources office presented it to the Budget and Policy Committee in October (our story, 26-1612). The bill text, prepared by the City Attorney's Office, fills in what the slides left out.

What the bill does

An automatic adjustment every four years. Beginning in 2031, on the same date elected officials' pay changes under the city charter, each appointee's salary would rise by the lesser of two numbers over the prior four years: the change in the Denver-area Consumer Price Index or the change in the average Career Service employee salary. The bill says this happens "without further action by the council."

A one-time market adjustment on Jan. 1, 2027. Salaries would be raised to the "market median" of actual pay for comparable jobs in other U.S. cities and counties, based on a 2026 survey by the Office of Human Resources, adjusted to the Denver market. Comparable jobs are to be picked by duties, not title. Because few cities run an airport of Denver's size, the airport manager's pay can be compared with a survey of large commercial airports instead.

The bill does not list the adjusted salaries. It sets the method, not the dollar amounts. Neither the bill nor the October slides say how much each salary would go up on Jan. 1.

A market review every four years. HR would repeat the survey before each automatic adjustment and send it to the mayor and Council by June 30 of the year before. The Council could then pass an ordinance to give any appointee more. That would not hold up the automatic raise.

Annual reviews. Each appointee would get a performance review from the mayor or a designee at least once a year. The bill says no raise depends on the review being done or on how it turns out.

No cuts. If inflation or average pay falls, the change counts as zero.

The salaries in the bill

The bill keeps the salary table already in city code, with one addition: the executive director of Human Rights and Community Partnerships, at $170,000, is added to the table. That salary was set by a separate ordinance in 2025, 25-0592, which passed 13-0.

• Manager of Aviation: $346,975
• City Attorney: $216,061
• Manager of Safety: $206,481
• Transportation and Infrastructure: $195,220
• Public Health and Environment: $188,766
• Finance: $185,366
• Community Planning and Development: $184,257
• General Services: $177,332
• Human Services: $175,876
• Parks and Recreation: $170,523
• Human Rights and Community Partnerships: $170,000
• Licensing and Consumer Protection: $154,381

What our records add

It copies the approach used for elected officials. In 2024 Sawyer sponsored 24-0347, which set elected officials' salaries under a charter change on how those raises are decided. It passed 11-0 with two members absent.

The last round drew pushback. In May 2025, a committee advanced raises of 30% to 40% for some of these appointees, CBS Colorado reported. The bill would make the Council's vote unnecessary for routine adjustments after 2027, though members could still change the ordinance later.

Also on the Nov. 17 Governance agenda

• A briefing on the 2027 state legislative session (26-1757).
• A $236,538 amendment and one-year extension, to Nov. 8, 2027, for Versaterm Public Safety's SPIDR Tech Engage platform, bringing that contract to $1,648,051.81 (26-1726).

What's next

Nov. 17, 10:30 a.m.: Governance Committee. HR's October timeline then had Mayor-Council review and two Council votes in the first two weeks of December, before the Jan. 1 market adjustment would take effect.