May 28, 2019

Dear Leaders of Denver’s Latino Community,

Thank you for your letter and for the opportunity to address the issues you feel are important to
Denver’s Latino community and residents. I’m sorry that you feel these issues were not appropriately
addressed in the recent 9News debate, because the issues that you have identified in your letter are the
issues that have been and will remain a priority for me and my administration.

I actually challenged my opponent to do more debates, but she declined. Unfortunately, she also
declined or failed to show up at five other forums that were organized by communities of color.

Our campaign slogan “We Are All Denver” is designed to reflect a value I have held and maintained over
my years in public service, going back to my days as the Director of the Urban League, namely, the value
of inclusion. Denver is a diverse city with vibrant ethnic communities that reflect our history, but more
important, that reflect our future. It’s important that Denver elect a Mayor who understands this
instinctively and does not have to be learn the importance of diversity.

Let me address your concerns:

1. What do you believe to be the top issues impacting the Latino community and what is your plan to
address them?

The Latino community is diverse; it reflects long-standing generations of families who helped found this
city, along with many new immigrants. The top issues impacting this community are much the same for
every other community, including housing, affordability, educational opportunity and transportation
options. With respect to new immigrants and refugees, we will continue to be a welcoming city, and I
expect that so long as Donald Trump is in the White House, we will need to reaffirm this and continue
our policies of protecting our DACA kids, and our undocumented residents with legal services and push
back against unconstitutional efforts by federal immigration authorities (ICE) to have city officials
involved in immigration enforcement.

Other top issues include creating more affordable and attainable housing; mitigating displacement,
eliminating disparities in services that improve quality-of-life for all families and neighborhoods, and
given Denver’s great prosperity, we need to expand employment opportunities, minority contracting
and subcontracting opportunities, and, more than anything, we need the next generation of Latinx kids
greater educational opportunities. These are issues that my administration has been focused on from
the day we took office and while we have more to do, we have made significant progress. We spend
more on housing than the entire State of Colorado, and last year we were able to double new housing
investments with a dedicated affordable housing fund. We are attacking the issue of affordability and
opportunity from all sides, including an historic $15 per hour minimum wage, rental assistance, fair
housing protections, property tax rebates for low-income families, energy assistance, and a hard-fought
effort that now gives every kid in Denver free access to our recreation centers and RTD fare to get
around the city.
Frustrated by status quo numbers that reflected a flat trajectory for minority contracting, last year we
completely restructured our economic development program efforts, our general contract process and
Airport contracting accountability. Now, every department of city government has small business
utilization plans aimed at improving economic opportunities for minority-owned businesses.

The issue of gentrification is a deep challenge. We anticipated this issue in 2015 when I directed the
city’s economic development office to develop our first ever analysis of changing neighborhoods. And
last year, to mitigate displacement, we created the Neighborhood Equity and Stabilization Team (NEST),
led by former State Senator Irene Aguilar. NEST works with residents, businesses and neighborhood
organizations to deploy resources specifically tailored to neighborhoods under threat of gentrification.
These resources help keep families in their homes and in their businesses.

Finally, I am proud that we are one of only a handful of cities with a robust equity agenda. My entire
administration is undertaking equity and implicit bias training, and our Department of Human Resources
and Community Partnerships (HRCP) has been leading efforts to improve cultural awareness, preserving
the history of our various neighborhoods, and including the Latinx community at all levels.

We are actually doing more than I can easily summarize here, but our commitment is to continue to
include and improve the Hispanic community broadly and deeply in the decision-making that drives
Denver. That includes everything from new parks, directing resources equitably (think the “inverted L”),
addressing the challenges of homelessness, affordability, mental health services and every challenge a
great city has to prosper.

2. The Latino community represents 31.2% of Denver’s population. If elected will your cabinet reflect
this demographic? We expect monthly reports to city council from Human Resources on how the
city’s workforce reflects the diversity of Denver’s population, particularly from the Latino community.

I have always strived to ensure my cabinet is diverse and reflects the community we serve. To name a
few of our leaders, I am proud that Alan Salazar is the first out gay Hispanic man to serve as any Denver
Mayor’s Chief of Staff, and I am proud of others in my administration, including Denver Police Chief Paul
Pazen, our Human Services Director Don Mares, Cristal DeHerrera, the Denver Airport’s first Latina Chief
of Staff, Romaine Pacheco, who heads Boards and Commissions, Tim Sandos who heads the NDCC, to
name a few of our top leaders. I have also strived to ensure that the city’s department, agency and
office leadership is highly qualified to undertake the level of excellence the people of Denver expect
from our city government. The same goes for the people who make up the more than 14,000 city
employees. I would be happy to work with the Office of Human Resources and the members of City
Council to set up regular reporting on the demographic makeup of our city employees, as well as
provide reports when asked for by yourselves or members of the community.

Finally, I think you can judge a campaign by the people who are engaged in it, and the quality of their
reputations and public service. In that regard I am particularly proud of the campaign staff, our
campaign co-chairs and the endorsements we have earned that broadly reflect the Latinx community in
Denver. My opponent cannot boast the same.
3. Denver equity maps show Latino communities suffer negative impacts in the following areas:

a. Health care disparities exist and have not been addressed. Latinos are at high risk of chronic
liver and kidney diseases, diabetes, high cholesterol, asthma, obesity, heart disease,
depression and other mental health issues;

We have worked with Denver Health to create more community health centers in underserved
neighborhoods. A new recreation center in the Westwood neighborhood was a priority for inclusion in
the Elevate Denver Bond package. In addition, we have implemented the most comprehensive air
quality monitoring program in the country thanks to a Bloomberg Philanthropies grant. There are 40
sensors placed on schools throughout the city to give us real-time data on air particles and pollution that
can help us track health disparities and causes near schools. We expanded healthy meals and snacks
programs to more neighborhoods and provided more before and after school programs for our kids. We
set up the Office of Behavioral Health Strategies to tackle the growing mental health challenges that
were affecting our communities.

I also campaigned for the Caring4Denver sales tax increase directed at expanding mental health services.
The chair of that effort, State Rep. Leslie Herod supports my re-election because she knows of our
commitment in this regard. We are beginning the process of structuring how these dollars will be
distributed and am confident that the Latinx community will be included at all levels.

b. Disproportionately high concentration of marijuana & alcohol establishments;

When voters passed Amendment 64 in 2012, one of my priorities was ensure that new marijuana
establishments that would be set up would not affect the quality of life in our neighborhoods. That
included area restrictions, similar to those we have for alcohol establishments, to avoid a concentration
of marijuana businesses especially in underserved communities. Our policies around marijuana
regulation will evolve and be refined, and like with alcohol establishments, we will continue to work
with our neighborhoods to avoid an over concentration of these businesses from affecting quality of life
in our neighborhoods.

c. Failure to reduce access to and impact from marijuana, tobacco & alcohol among Latino
youth;

Our Department of Excise and Licenses and Office of Children’s Affairs are working in partnership with
our community to create new programs and public awareness campaigns to reduce youth usage of and
access to legal marijuana. We also recently proposed raising the minimum wage to purchase tobacco
products to 21. As far as impact, we know that communities of color are more negatively impacted for a
longer time when there are minor drug offenses in their past. That’s why I have implemented the “Turn
Over a New Leaf” program to expunge low-level drug convictions.
 d. Food deserts/lack of healthy food;

We will continue to work on finding new opportunities to bring grocery stores and healthy foods into
communities that need access to them. Examples include the Re:Vision food co-op in the Westwood
neighborhood, and the Natural Grocers on Brighton Blvd. Ultimately, this expansion requires a very
intentional effort that includes deploying economic development resources, willing food delivery
partners and businesses that can be persuaded to make investments. Transportation and mobility
strategies are also an important part of securing these facilities. Over the course of my administration I
have attended national conventions of food delivery and grocery companies to pitch Denver. It is
painstaking and personal, but we will continue this push. I have also championed Blessings in a
Backpack – a national philanthropic organization that has partnered with us to bring healthy food
options to low income kids in a way that does not stigmatize them, and with supportive services they
need. We are one of only a handful of cities to build this partnership.

e. Lack of access to community resources such as affordable health care, training & livable
wage jobs, affordable housing, recreation, and quality education;

I addressed some of this in my response to the first question, but let me elaborate a bit more. With City
Council’s support, my administration led efforts to turn a $15/hr. minimum wage proposal for Airport
workers into an across-the-board effort aimed at lifting up all city employees and employees of city
contractors and subcontractors. I also testified and supported state legislation passing a measure this
session to allow local governments to set a more appropriate minimum wage for all of our communities.
We will begin the required stakeholder outreach laid out in the statute to do so across Denver. We will
continue to refine and expand our workforce development programs to connect more residents to
better, higher paying careers in growing industries. We made rec. centers free to access for all Denver
kids with the MY Denver Card and we will be prioritizing new parks in neighborhoods that are not within
a 10-minute walk to a park. We will continue to prioritize new affordable housing in neighborhoods that
need them most, and recently expanded our property tax relief program to now cover low-income
families. And we will continue to prioritize more before and after school programs in communities that
lack access to quality programs.

f. Too many Latino children fail to graduate from high school;

We have always aimed to support every child’s education success early, which is why I proposed
reauthorizing and expanding the Denver Preschool Program to cover more of Denver’s youngest
students. Through expanding our commitment to providing more before and after school programs,
we’re providing more of our kids more access to supportive places to learn. And we will continue to
work with Denver Public Schools to shrink achievement gaps and ensure more students of color are
graduating high school.

Unlike my opponent, I took an active role in campaigning for passage of a sales tax increase to fund
scholarships for Denver kids. I was an original supporter of this measure in previous elections, but we
were finally successful in the last election. This effort will fund scholarships for hundreds of Denver
kids, particularly impactful for kids of color.
 g. Poor transportation and connectivity options - including inadequate access to multi-modal
options;

Bringing more transportation options – including bike lanes, sidewalks, bike share, improved access and
connectivity to transit, and more – to those neighborhoods that lack them is a priority of my Mobility
Action Plan. I am also excited about the pilot program we started this summer with RTD to give free
rides to teens 12 -18 years old with their My Denver Card.

h. Lack of basic infrastructure (curbs, gutter, sidewalks, bus stops);

Nearly half of the Elevate Denver Bond funding is dedicated to transportation infrastructure projects.
These projects are targeted to neighborhoods that have lacked this basic infrastructure. We are
improving signs, striping and paving to ensure that people can move around the city more efficiently and
more safely. Many of the targeted areas for impact a safety through our Vision Zero efforts are in
predominately Latino neighborhoods. I will continue to make these goals a priority in my administration.

i. Insufficient assistance from Economic Development Office, DEN, Denver Small Business
Opportunities, and Environmental Health to have access to resources and business
opportunities;

We are continuously working to improve access to resources and business opportunities provided by
Denver Economic Development and Opportunity and Denver International Airport. As part of my Equity
Platform, we will be ensuring that residents living near major public construction projects are targeted
to fill those new jobs. We will also strengthen efforts to better prepare our minority and women-owned
businesses to take part in the billions of dollars of public investment coming to our city, as well as
making it clear that we expect the private sector – contractors and developers – to do their part as well.

j. Lack of engagement with Latino communities regarding community benefits agreements

from projects impacting their neighborhoods; and

I have championed Community Benefits Agreements and we are on the verge of crafting an innovative
and impactful CBA for the communities that make up the neighborhoods around the new National
Western Center. We are particularly proud of having saved the National Western Stock Show, and
believe it has tremendous national and even international potential to bring resources to these
communities. Our appointments to the NWC Authority Board include vigorous advocates for the
community, including Lilliana Flores Amaro, former State Senator Lucia Guzman, and Monique Lovato.
Engagement with the community is also part of the founding mission of the North Denver Cornerstone
Collaborative (NDCC) led by Tim Sandos and Chris Pacheco.

k. Latinos (youth and adults) are over-represented in the criminal justice system.

I have been a leader in pushing for Criminal Justice Reform in Denver and nationwide, have actively
worked to reverse the decades of harm these policies have had on our communities of color. In 2016, I
directed City agencies to “ban the box” and no longer ask applicants for many jobs about their criminal
backgrounds in order to give prior offenders a second chance. We can absolutely do more to give our
youth the best chance to succeed and to end the preschool to prison pipeline that has existed in
communities of color for decades. At the federal level I have worked with Congressional leaders and as
Chair of the Democratic Mayors Conference, I have led other mayors in pushing federal criminal justice
reform.

We have completed a complicated set of reforms in the Denver Sheriff’s Department, including training
for deputies that goes farther than many other cities. I have also directed Denver Police Chief Paul
Pazen to convene youth stakeholders, to review our curfew policies and our Department of Public Safety
has led an entirely new and nationally innovative effort called the “Denver Opportunity Index” designed
to look at the root causes of crime, and directing resources to communities in need.

4. How will your administration work with the Latino community on these issues?

My administration will continue to include and reflect Latinx leadership. We will work in partnership
with Denver’s Latinx community to create the community-focused solutions that will best address these
issues, including increased engagement, improved communication from the city to our neighborhoods,
and allowing our communities and neighborhoods more of a voice in how these solutions are shaped so
that they better address the various needs of different neighborhoods. We are also continuing to
expand information provided in Spanish about City programs and services to ensure residents have
better access in-person and online.

In 2017, we created the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Engagement, led by Grace Ramirez, and
including outstanding bilingual staff, Christian Jimenez. This team, including other staff directed by
Grace, reports directly to me and the Chief of Staff and have been working to make our office more fully
aware of neighborhood issues and constituent concerns. I will also continue our “Cabinet in the
Community” program that takes my whole administration for half-day visits to neighborhoods across
the city.

Finally, I am deeply aware of Denver’s many communities and have worked to maintain direct access to
many Latinx organizations and leaders. I have close relationships with nearly every Hispanic leader in
Denver, and will continue to embrace their advice, counsel and wisdom.

5. Will you commit to seeking genuine community input in a timely manner on matters relevant to and
impacting the Latino community and neighborhoods?

Absolutely – the timely input of the communities and neighborhoods impacted most in these matters is
key to shaping the most appropriate solutions to these challenges.

6. What steps will your administration take to inform Denver’s communities of color on your
commitment to Race and Social Justice, including the implementation of racial equity tools and the
expectation that all City departments will be accountable for incorporation racial equity within their
policies, programs, projects and initiatives.
In my 2018 State of the City Address, as part of the Equity Platform, I announced a new Race and Social
Justice Initiative that will train and prepare city agencies and employees to identify, evaluate and
address the economic and racial impact of new city programs city, and help achieve better outcomes for
working families and communities of color. This training is already underway, and each member of my
administration has committed to a citywide equity scan that will be used to establish a baseline of
current equity, diversity and inclusion related efforts at the agency and department level to inform the
strategic planning of our Race and Social Justice Initiative.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to these questions that deeply impact Denver’s Latino
community. I look forward to continuing to work with you all to improve access to equity and
opportunity in all of our neighborhoods and communities.

Respectfully,

Michael B. Hancock
Mayor