Denver, CO
Denver City Council rejects Gaza cease-fire proclamation in tense meeting
The Denver City Council on Monday rejected a proclamation that would have added Denver to the growing list of American cities that have called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
That final vote — 8-4 — came via a hastily launched virtual meeting after council members vacated the council chamber at the Denver City and County Building following repeated disruptions of the meeting by pro-Palestinian demonstrators. Councilman Chris Hinds was unable to cast a vote due to issues logging into the online meeting.
Once the final vote was tallied and the results were shown on screens inside the room, the protesters — who numbered in the hundreds between the main chamber and overflow room — rallied in the building’s fourth-floor corridor. Chants included “Cease-fire now.” “Free, free Palestine” and “Vote them out.”
“We’re super disappointed but I don’t think it’s a surprise,” Emily Ingraham, one of the protesters who spoke in favor of the proclamation on Monday night, said after the final vote. “But there is always hope and we are going to keep fighting.”
The proclamation would have been a symbolic measure that would have been stamped with the city seal and forwarded to President Joe Biden and members of Colorado’s congressional delegation if approved.
The version the council voted on Monday was significantly pared down compared to a longer original draft that co-sponsors Sarah Parady and Shontel Lewis, two of the council’s most progressive members, discussed with colleagues at a committee hearing last month.
It outlined action steps already released by the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF. Those included calls for “an immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire” in Palestine and Israel and “[s]afe and unrestricted humanitarian access to and within the Gaza Strip to reach affected populations wherever they are.”
“The cease-fire is the floor. We are asking for liberation,” Lewis said in comments that drew cheers from the chamber. “None of us are free unless all of us are free.”
Despite the narrowed language, opponents on the council noted they have received extensive comments from constituents who support Israel that were not reflected in that draft.
“I think that our communities deserve better from us as elected officials,” said District 5 Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer, who revealed during a committee meeting last month that she has a neighbor serving in the Israeli military. “We are divided up in a way that I haven’t seen us be divided in a very, very long time.”
One council member — District 7 representative Flor Alvidrez — indicated that her no vote was motivated in part by the behavior of the pro-Palestinian attendees at the meeting who regularly interrupted speakers they disagreed with.
During the public comment session, several speakers called out rising incidences of antisemitism in Denver and around the country.
One speaker, Elliot Fladen, said the proclamation “doesn’t call for peace, it calls for cessation that will allow Hamas to re-arm.”
Parady addressed antisemitism directly as she laid the case for calling for a cease-fire.
“I am here today to say that the killing in Gaza must stop, and I will be here tomorrow to say that we have to grapple with resurgent antisemitism and the fomentation of bigotry in our politics,” she said.
Parady, Lewis, and Councilmembers Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Jamie Torres voted in favor. Other politicians in the room Monday included progressive state Reps. Elisabeth Epps and Tim Hernandez.
The proclamation language included estimated death tolls from the conflict to date. They largely follow the latest reporting from The Associated Press, which counts the Palestinian losses from the war at more than 28,000 people, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Of those, more than 12,000 are children.
The war was ignited by Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Hamas killed about 1,200 people, a majority of them civilians, and took 250 hostages. According to Israeli authorities, about 100 hostages are still being held by Hamas, The AP reports.
Monday’s meeting was tense even before the cease-fire proclamation was called up. Earlier in the afternoon, the council tried and failed to override Mayor Mike Johnston’s veto of a measure that would have banned sweeps of homeless encampments when temperatures are below freezing. One supporter of that measure, Jerry Burton, got up and shouted at the council members after that vote and was flanked by a Denver sheriff deputy as he walked into the hall. Many protesters Monday were there to support both measures.
Monday was the second time in four months that pro-Palestinian demonstrators have altered the direction of a Denver City Council meeting. In late November, the council walked out of its chambers and postponed the rest of its agenda after protesters refused to stop speaking out against Denver hosting the Global Conference for Israel at the Colorado Convention Center later that week.
Other major American cities have recently passed measures calling for a cease-fire in Gaza including Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta. In Minneapolis, the City Council overrode a veto by Mayor Jacob Frey, who is Jewish, last week to reinstate a cease-fire resolution.
That measure goes much further than the proclamation that was rejected in Denver on Monday. It called for the U.S. to stop funding the Israeli military.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Denver, CO
With contracts near expiration, Salvation Army's future with City of Denver's hotel shelters unclear
DENVER — Contracts allowing the Salvation Army to oversee two of the City of Denver’s hotel shelters are days away from expiration.
According to Denver City Councilwoman Shotel Lewis’ office, the current contracts for the former DoubleTree and Best Western Hotels along Quebec Street expire on March 31. It’s unclear if the city will renew the contracts with the Salvation Army or choose another service provider.
Lindsey Torres and her dog, Flynn, haven’t had an easy road.
“It’s been about a year almost,” said Torres, referring to her time living in city-owned shelters.
Now, she calls the former Best Western home.
“But sometimes I’d almost rather be outside,” admitted Torres.
Inside the hotel shelter is a lack of hot water, bugs and drug use, according to Torres.
“They do have roaches here. I was getting in the elevator and I could hear it walking on the wall,” said Torres.
There’s also a history of crime. Last week, the Denver Police Department arrested an employee accused of sexually assaulting a woman staying at the 4040 Quebec St. shelter. Last March, the former DoubleTree was the scene of a double homicide.
“You don’t want to have homicides happening within facilities in which we have stood up to house folks to get them off the streets,” said Councilwoman Shontel Lewis.
On Monday, Denver City Council rejected another nearly $3 million contract with the Salvation Army for homeless services.
“I would say my experience with the Salvation Army has been disappointing,” said Lewis.
- Hear from Councilwoman Shontel Lewis in the video player below
‘Deep and grave concerns about the Salvation Army’: Hear a Denver councilwoman’s passionate speech on homeless services
The councilwoman said it’s time to turn to community-based organizations for help.
“We have organizations that are providing food for hundreds of families on a weekly basis. We have community organizations that provide housing. We have community organizations that provide behavioral support. What they don’t have is the investment of the city,” said Lewis.
Denver7 took that idea to Amy Beck with Together Denver.
“Some of the people in the grassroots organizations already have connections with the folks here, already treat them with compassion and love and kindness, so it just makes sense,” said Beck.
But Beck said it all comes down to if the city wants to change course with its current plan.
“It comes down to if the mayor’s office wants to move in that direction because he’s already created this homelessness response and it’s not working,” said Beck.
We asked the Salvation Army about the possibility of losing the contracts. In a statement, a spokesperson said, “The Salvation Army is a proud partner of the city of Denver and would like to continue the Housing Now program together. If that’s not possible, we will continue the program with other funding for as long as it’s deemed possible
“We think we’re doing this work well. And we’re doing it from a place of deep care for our neighbors.”
If the contracts do expire, city officials said there are no plans to close the two shelters.
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Denver, CO
Second dean shot at Denver’s East High in 2023 sues DPS, alleging district failed to keep students and staff safe
The second dean injured in the 2023 shooting inside East High School is suing Denver Public Schools and its Board of Education, alleging the district’s discipline policies were “unclear and inconsistently applied” and that staff were not properly trained to search students.
Eric Sinclair filed his lawsuit Friday in Denver District Court, following a similar suit against the district filed earlier last week by Wayne Mason. Sinclair and Mason, as East High administrators, were shot by student Austin Lyle inside the city’s largest high school on March 23, 2023.
Lyle, who had been required to undergo daily weapons searches at the school, took his own life later that day.
Sinclair’s lawsuit was heavily redacted — his attorneys cited student privacy rules — but it alleges East High staff weren’t adequately trained on how to search students for weapons. It also alleges that, by removing police officers from schools in 2020, the board and district “shifted the responsibility to faculty and staff to manage, search, disarm and de-escalate potentially violent or volatile students.”
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges, DPS’s discipline policies, which have been criticized by parents and educators as too lenient, weren’t always implemented as written.
“Defendants actively obstructed East High School and other schools’ ability to suspend or expel students who violated Colorado law and Denver Public School policies and presented a danger to the schools,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit was filed under Colorado’s Claire Davis School Safety Act, which says schools can be held liable if they fail to provide “reasonable care” to protect students and employees from violence that is “reasonably foreseeable.”
Sinclair was shot twice, in the thigh and through his stomach and chest, resulting in the loss of his spleen, according to the lawsuit.
“The events of March 22, 2023, were the consequence of Defendants systematically shifting responsibility for guns in schools onto faculty and staff while denying them the tools to keep people safe,” the lawsuit states. “The result of Defendants’ actions were two tragedies: two deans shot and an obviously gifted but immature and volatile young man dead.”
Bill Good, a spokesman for the district, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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Originally Published:
DENVER — For the first time in 2025, the City of Denver will offer up its e-bike rebate vouchers on Tuesday.
Vouchers for standard e-bikes are worth $450, while those in need of an adaptive e-bike can receive vouchers worth $1,400.
Residents can combine the vouchers with the State of Colorado E-Bike Tax Credit, which is also worth $450. Rebates can cover up to 80% of the e-bike’s total price, excluding sales tax. That means if an e-bike costs $1,000, the Denver rebate and Colorado tax credits can only cover up to $800.
Sue Baldwin, the electrified mobility program manager for the Denver Office of Climate Action, said people should have everything prepared before the website opens up to applications at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Denver7’s Ethan Carlson
“One thousand residents will have the ability to get through and get applications,” said Baldwin. “Typically, we have between 15 and 17,000 people on the website at 11 a.m., so they will go quickly. The best thing to do is have all of your documents uploaded on your computer or phone so that when it hits 11 o’clock, you’re just hitting submit.”
This year, the Denver rebate program is only for income-qualified individuals. The goal is to expand access to transportation options to as many people as possible.
“An e-bike is a little bit more expensive than a normal bike,” said Baldwin. “So, who doesn’t want a little bit of financial support in order to move forward into the next level of technology?”
In order to qualify, an applicant’s income must be either:
- Below 100% of the state of Colorado’s median income
- Below 200% of the relevant federal poverty level
- Between 60% to 100% of the area median income
Denver7’s Ethan Carlson
Over 30 e-bike shops throughout the city participate in the program. Mike Fritz, manager and lead mechanic at Pedego Denver, has seen first-hand how some residents could only buy e-bikes because of previous years’ vouchers.
“It’s the difference between somebody buying an Amazon bike and buying a bike that can actually be taken care of in the long haul,” said Fritz. “A lot of people see the value in having a bike shop actually within their grasp in case anything happens.”
Fritz encourages people to buy from a local shop that can also work on and repair their products. Someone who buys an e-bike online will have to figure out maintenance on their own. The Denver e-bike rebate program helps support these local shops.
“There’s an express need for things like e-bikes, especially for people that don’t have cars, people that are kind of over public transportation,” said Fritz.
If you miss Tuesday’s rebate drop, don’t worry! The city will release additional vouchers on the following dates:
- Tuesday, March 25
- Tuesday, May 27
- Tuesday, July 29
- Tuesday, September 30
- Tuesday, November 25
For more information on the Denver e-bike rebate program, you can check out the city’s website here.
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