Last month, 169 city employees were laid off and over 600 open positions were eliminated in the City of Denver's largest layoff since the Great Recession. But the impacts expand even beyond those numbers.

At least 71 additional positions were lost across the city's independent agencies, such as the Auditor's Office , and independent government branches, like the Denver County Court . These institutions are not under the direct control of Mayor Mike Johnston and, therefore, are not featured in his office's widely reported city department layoff count .

However, many of the excluded agencies say they made staffing cuts after Johnston asked them to reduce their budgets for 2026 to help address the city's projected $200 million budget deficit .

The 71 affected positions include

See Full Page