🛴 Is the city's new scooter deal in trouble?

💥 Is the Mayor Plotting to Oust DIA Chief Washington?

That was among the allegations DIA general counsel Everett Martinez made in a new lawsuit against the City of Denver and three of Mayor Mike Johnston’s appointees. According to Martinez, City Attorney Miko Brown told him to “get on board” with a plot to oust DIA CEO Phil Washington or alternately, “get a noose and hang yourself with it.” A spokesperson for Mayor Mike Johnston called the lawsuit “40 pages of horses*** from a disgruntled employee.” [Denverite; Denver Post 🔒]

• ✈️ What does this have to do with ICE? Martinez alleges that he warned top city officials that the FAA could cut funding for the airport if City Council rejected a proposed contract for Key Lime Air over exclusively ideological concerns (ICE also contracts with Key Lime Air for detainee flights). Council voted the contract down last December, with 11 members against.
• ⛳ And the Park Hill Golf Course is involved too? Last year, Mayor Johnston announced a land swap – the airport would give up 165 acres of land to Westside Investment Partners in exchange for the 155-acre Park Hill Golf Course. Martinez said he thought the airport was getting less than market rates for the land, and he alleges that city officials instructed him to withhold certain records of the negotiations from the FAA.
• 🗯️ What is Mayor Johnston’s response? “Martinez has not been asked to violate the law or city policy,” said Ewinn. “What he has done is violate his ethical obligations to the city by taking personal positions that were in opposition to those held by his own client.”

📺 FCC Approves Nexstar Acquisition of TEGNA

The consolidated media company will own 259 full-power television stations television stations across the country, including Denver’s Fox31 and 9News. The decision came one day after Colorado’s Attorney General Phil Weiser sued to block the $6.2 billion Nexstar/TEGNA merger, arguing that “not only will this merger reduce the quality of local TV offerings, but consumers will also end up paying more for monthly cable TV or satellite service as a result.” [9News]

🪧 Mayor Announces New Name for César Chávez Day

After the mayor and City Council president Amanda Sandoval met with community leaders on Wednesday evening, they announced on Thursday morning that the city holiday on March 31 would be renamed “Sí Se Puede Day” this year as a tribute to United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, who has accused César Chávez of sexual assault, and the labor movement. [City of Denver]

• How did they come to this? “Last night folks said over and over, this movement was never about one man,” said Mayor Johnston. “It was always about one big idea. And that idea is sí se puede.”
• What about next year? The plan is to call the holiday “Si Se Puede Day” this year and start a community conversation about what to do next year and beyond.

🛴 Council Postpones Veo Scooter Contract Vote

City Council unanimously agreed to postpone a vote on a contract with DOTI’s proposed micromobility licensee Veo, because they haven’t been given a copy of the contract yet. “You can’t ask this body to vote on things that we don’t read,” Council President Amanda Sandoval said during Wednesday’s council committee meeting. “I just can’t do it anymore. I’m tired of doing this.”Veo is hoping to drop truckloads of e-scooters and cargo trikes by May 1, when the current contracts with Lime and Lyft are set to expire. [Westword]

🏠 Is the Mayor’s Homelessness Work “Poorly Planned”?

Denver’s Auditor, Tim O’Brien, published a new audit this week looking into Mayor Johnston’s work to end street homelessness in his first term, which was his top campaign promise when he ran back in 2023. O’Brien found $20.1 million in underreported costs associated with All In Mile High and no centralized system for tracking expenses related to the housing work.