Denver City Council approves shorter contract for Caring for Denver Foundation with eye toward more transparency

The Denver City Council on Monday awarded the Caring For Denver Foundation a one-year contract to continue administering grants funded through a dedicated city sales tax stream amid questions about the organization’s transparency and efficacy.

The council was originally slated to consider a five-year agreement with the foundation that since 2019 has been tasked with distributing funding collected by the 0.25% Caring for Denver sales tax that voters adopted in 2018. Those dollars are earmarked to fund public and nonprofit programs that are focused on providing Denverites with mental health support including substance use treatment, suicide prevention and programs that present an alternative to jail.

But council members worked with Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration to draft the shorter-term agreement to manage the fund, according to Councilwoman Jamie Torres, who delayed the contract vote last week. Over the course of the one-year deal, city officials plan to examine all of the city’s existing dedicated sales tax contracts with an eye toward improving and standardizing those agreements, council leaders said.

“We’re working closely with the mayor’s office and the Department of Finance to review and assess dedicated sales tax entities such as Caring for Denver,” Council President Amanda Sandoval said Monday. “Our goal through this review process will be to implement consistent ordinance language across the board. By focusing on process and transparency, we aim to provide a solid framework for responsible governance and equitable outcomes for our city.”

The delayed vote and shorter-term agreement come after Colorado Public Radio published a series of stories that examined Caring for Denver’s track record in delivering on its promises to combat substance use and mental health challenges in the city.

CPR’s reporting also scrutinized the qualifications and highlighted the criminal records of some grant recipients. It also raised questions about Caring for Denver’s transparency after the organization declined to provide records that the news organization requested under the Colorado Open Records Act.

Despite the shorter contract, council members defended Caring for Denver and many of its grantees at Monday’s meeting. Councilwoman Sarah Parady, a lawyer, supported the organization’s argument that not all of its documents were subject to the state’s open records laws because Caring for Denver is a nonprofit, not a government entity.

The council approved the contract unanimously as part of a block voter with other legislation. During a public comment session later in the meeting, representatives of several organizations that have worked with Caring for Denver spoke in support of the foundation.

“Denver faces a mental health crisis marked by rising rates of what public health (officials) call the diseases and deaths of despair. The best antidote for this is often the type of empathy and human connection that no licensure or certification can provide,” said Jason Vitello with the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

The Caring for Denver tax was projected to bring in $50.5 million in revenue by the end of 2024, according to city finance officials. It had collected $209.2 million as of the end of 2023.

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