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10 18 24 Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on Mexico trip, Aurora migrants, proposed budget
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Tell us a little bit about this summit that took place earlier this week, the conversations that you had with the two. What were some of the biggest topics that were discussed? You bet. Yeah, good morning. Great to be with you all. It was a convening of 150 mayors from around the world all working on different challenges to solve. Obviously, one of the topics on the table was migration. We were really talking about Denver as a model for how we've been able to turn this crisis into an opportunity. We've been able to get people connected to work, which is what they most wanted. They can both support themselves and their families. We're really proud. A year later, we don't have any migrant encampments in the streets. We have folks who are all in housing and/or working and they're going to contribute to the economy. As you all know, we'll cut the budget for our migrant services on more than 90 percent playing in the next year's budget to both be able to provide key services to people and be able to have them help our economy. Actually, Guatemala City is on the other side. A lot of cities have the opposite problem, which is they're losing people. They're not losing people that are leaving to migrate to places like Denver. We know that in the great economic end of life, you want to be a city where people want to move and that's a benefit Denver has. We just want to end up into a benefit, which we think we have. Mayor, how many migrants are we seeing? Are they coming, say, from Guatemala? What did the mayor reflect to you about how they're dealing with it on their end? Are people from other Central American countries like Venezuela, others coming into Guatemala? There are some coming into Guatemala. They still see more leaving than arriving. Our arrivals are down dramatically, so we have had, you know, we've closed all eight of our shelters. We don't have any folks in shelter right now. We've only had a couple of people arrive probably over the last month. So down from nine months ago, it was 10 or 12 buses a day. We have very, very small numbers of arrivals and very manageable for us as folks focused on work. And so, yeah, I think there are a lot of places even, a lot of companion cities in the U.S. who wish that they had net arrivals of people because those cities are shrinking too and need to grow their population. So again, it's my daddy's face, I'm going to be worse than being hated as being loved, but you know, Denver is a top destination for people around the country. College graduates, New York, California, Texas, as well as folks from other countries. So we, because I was a benefit, if we can, we're into positive economic growth. Immigration migration, it's, it's the top of everybody's mind. I'm going to ask you about what was been in the news cycle of eight. I'm sure you're aware of it, but Aurora City Councilwoman Daniel Jurinsky has alleged you and the governor of secretly smuggling in potentially what thousands of migrants into her city into Aurora. First off, when you heard that, what was your reaction and have you had a chance to have a conversation with the councilwoman? I have not talked to her, I think, you know, it's completely false claim and I think she's more interested in making headlines and solving problems. I have regular conversations with Mayor Cauffin, who I think is a thoughtful, reasonable partner and we work on these issues together, but we've obviously done nothing of that sort. And so we've been placing people directly into housing in Denver and supporting them with services. And what we found is, you know, when you have a proactive approach to this and you're both connecting people to services, connecting them to work, they can make a positive contribution. And when you're also really proactive about law enforcement and public safety, we're not very clear about the fact that anyone breaks the law, we don't care where they can come or what national they are, we will hold them accountable in the rest of them in a fair foreign national and we'll seek to deport them. So we've held the line on being clearable support services and we'll hold people accountable and that's why we feel very good about where Denver's ended up. So I leave it to Aurora to decide how they want to handle that, but I think it's clear if you look at the last year that those places like Denver that have offered services and accountability have not seen the problems they've seen. Moving off those services, Mr. Mayor, Aurora City Council also approved a measure to investigate some of the nonprofits that are helping migrants. Do you know of any migrants in the Denver area who have moved to services in Aurora in order to be assisted? I don't. And Aurora has not been providing services. So there's no reason why people would do that, but obviously people look for apartments wherever they're affordable. So I think we know we have plenty of folks that work in Aurora and live in Denver and we're happy about that. It's not a wall going up between our two cities and so we'll keep supporting all the reasons we know people from Aurora want to come to Denver for services and supports and economic opportunities. And we'll be the same. We think the thoughtful way to process is through partnership, not through thrown bombs across the border, but we'll be ready for our own plan here in Denver. We're happy to partner with them or whatever they want to. In other topics, Mr. Mayor, the Denver City Council came back to you with about 22 changes for the 2025 budget, totaling $29 million. Now I know you've been proposing a much more slim down budget. So are there some items on there that you would consider and some other ones from the City Council that you believe are completely non starters? Yeah, we're always open to finding a path to work together. And so we're really proud of the budget that we've put forward. As you mentioned, we are, for the first time, about 15 years, reducing the growth of government and reducing the size of government. And we think that's the right thing to do in these economic conditions. But we're still prioritizing the most important things in the city. We're still not expanding, for instance, our investment into police officers and 911 call responders. We're expanding the number of roles in those places and making key investments in housing and economic recovery. And so, and I think that this is how the process works. Council takes a close look. We look at things we can partner. We think there are a lot of things in those lists that we agree on, and we're going to work on a response to the council today, but I think the council's going to do it in thoughtful partner on this. And we think about it on the scale of a $2 billion budget, $20 million of changes. There's not a huge number, but we're going to work cloudy with them in the next week. I think we'll get to a good outcome. Now, we talked to you about this before, but the Denver Basic Income Project is one that the council does want, but you've nixed it and probably making a hard choice. But are you going to reconsider that based on what the council thinks the budget should include? I think we'll have to figure out together what their top priorities are and what ours are. And I think that there are a number of items on that list, and we know obviously we can't do all of them. And so I think they'll be able to work together to save what the highest impact investments are. A lot of priorities. And that's what people elect us to do is to make hard decisions for the scarce amount of resources. We're not the federal government. We can't print money and just hand on that. We ought to actually balance the budget every year. And so I think we'll have a good path to do that. Thank you, Denver Basic Income Project, as we discussed previously, have done some very good work. We haven't seen the data yet to show that it's successfully delivers outcomes to get people housed at the same price as other strategies we have. And so we're always trying to look at how we get the best results for the taxpayer dollars we have. So I'd be sitting here next week. Mr. Mayor, last important question for you and wrapping up with you. Pretty nice to be celebrating a victory Friday off of a Broncos win on Thursday, right? Yes, I have my Broncos victory belt buckle on this morning. And I, you know, I just feel like I want to make it clear that there's room on the bonus bandwagon for everybody. So I know some of us were very early adopters, but you were bandwagon number one for sure. Oh, we are really excited. Yeah, it's just great fun to have everybody around the country watching your team on national television. Look fantastic. And so last night was a lot of fun and, you know, thought we could have got the Chargers last weekend, but happy to go into the buy four and three and I can't wait to have the Panthers at home in two weeks and back up another web. Denver Mayor, Mike Johnston. Thank you. You bet y'all. Have a good morning. Well, there's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one member FDIC. I have a way to make your morning more efficient. You can get caught up on the news in about seven minutes. That is my promise to you as the host of the seven podcast from the Washington Post. And in that time, I will run down seven stories, everything from the most important headlines to fascinating new information you might miss otherwise. My name's Hannah Jewell. Go follow the seven right now, wherever you're listening. And we will get you caught up. Light up your holidays with Visio's 65-inch Quantum Smart TV, now just 448 at Walmart. Immerse yourself in a world of over a billion vibrant colors with Quantum Dot Technology. Plus, wide viewing angle ensures that everyone gets the perfect view of your holiday favorites. 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