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Mayor John Hickenlooper recently learned of the departure at the end of July of his brand new press envoy. Marlena Fernandez Berkowitz had been on the job little more than two months when she declared that she would be leaving to spend more time with her family.

Such announcements materialize with alarming frequency.

Staff turnover among the mayor's appointees is a recurrent problem for Hickenlooper.

In a recent one-year period, a fourth of the administration's appointed management positions turned over. Probably particularly painful for the mayor was the departure of about half of his Latina appointees during a single 12-month period.

The parks division of Denver's Parks and Recreation Department has recently lost its deputy manager and planning director, the only "new blood" besieged Manager Kim Bailey was able to attract to top management slots.

The departure of these two professionals leaves only longtime middle managers in place at the top of the organization to shepherd some of the city's most treasured assets.

Other high-priority programs are drifting as well. The city's economic development office lost its director a few months ago (the post is still vacant), and the mayor's principal staff aide for economic issues recently departed as well.

Making matters worse is Hickenlooper's tendency to abandon important functions when the person performing them leaves.

Since original chief of staff and close friend Michael Bennet left in 2005, Hickenlooper has had no in-house consigliere with the capacity to act as an alter ego, both top manager and trusted policy adviser.

Since Dana Bryson left her post as accountability and reform director in 2004, the function has been, for all practical purposes, abandoned.

Kelly Brough, the mayor's current staff director, nominally filled the accountability post for a while, but chose not to pursue what had been its main responsibilities.

Now, the title (and function) no longer exists.

Other than lots of new names and faces for the City Hall career staffers to learn, does all this make much difference?

The answer appears to be yes - Hickenlooper's agenda has been crippled by the turnover turmoil.

His infrastructure bond issue/mill levy increase exercise has been bloated with seemingly nonessential items piled onto the proposal. Months of discussion have stretched on to nearly a year with only weak public participation.

The mayor's "million tree" initiative seems to be stuck in four figures, as the infant forest withers from lack of irrigation and care. The mayor's climate change initiative has produced few concrete results. The boldest initiatives conceived by a well-respected "Greenprint" advisory council have been dismissed by a nervous mayor without significant public discussion.

Both housing developers and neighborhood residents complain bitterly of an unresponsive, if not comatose, city construction review process.

In its first year, the city's vaunted 311 citizen complaint tracking system, it turns out, was reporting requests as fulfilled after no more than a referral to another city agency had been accomplished.

With such current and upcoming challenges, the popular mayor needs to ask himself why his management team continues to witness such numerous departures. Denver taxpayers may be curious as well.

READER COMMENTS

It does sound like the axes are grinding at full tilt here. I know because I've awarded myself an honorary BS in Blameography. A BS is the only kind of degree available in this elite discipline.

The mayor has done a good job overall. One person here said his is the most poorly managed administration in recent history, but I think a well-managed administration is really good at administering, and administering is usually a great way to live in a bureaucratic fantasy that things are getting done. I like to think the mayor has encouraged those who sought the jobs just to have the jobs to move on. That would mean he is a leader, not just a manager.

Also: when the budget is tight, some functions have to go. The vain ones go first.

The city is looking better and better. I had my issues with the mayoralty's method of funding homelessness solutions and some of its anti-civil libertarian legal baggage, but then there have been gains in that effort too. It could be a more self-sustaining program but that's another subject which doesn't spike the rest of the mayoralty's accomplishments in my view.

I frequented a bar not to far from his restaurant and heard a lot from his prior employees. Not much good was said. Being a prior small business owner myself, I found that an exit interview was the best and hardest form of criticism I ever received. I retired at 48 years young and owe a lot to those same employees. They really helped to fix some major problems that I was overlooking or didn't put much effort into fixing.

It almost seams that if you didn't eat or live in the neighborhoods close to his prior restaurant, then you just won't get the quality of city services that we were accustom to. The certified falling property values are a real report card. Most in his position would really take notice. This city is only as strong as it's weakest neighborhood. Technology is being used by these residents to have a say, to bad he does not hear it.

Loosing 40% of hard earned property value by no fault of yourself, but from the invited guests of the Mayor is even harder to endure.
Loosing a leg to cancer, not enough equity to save it.

It is not unusual for appointees to leave their posts around election time - it is far less usual for the vast majority of appointees to hold on for four years before leaving (as something like 90% of Hickenlooper's did). The average tenure of an appointee is something like 18 months - as seen in the past several mayoral administrations. The jobs do not pay well (particularly under this Mayor - Wallach's was a gross exception) but are considered an honor and an opportunity to serve in the public sector.

One thing is certain: being on the receiving end of this type of animosity on a daily basis is no picnic.

By the way the city looks, he does not run it very well. Graffiti in the 2600 west Cedar Avenue area has been turned in numerous times for over 90 days. The last attempt on 311 directed me to call the Det. of Graffiti investigation.. got a message " won't be back till vacation is done" with no one left to follow up??? Wouldn't happen in Cherry Creek area. I guess were just not hip.

All of the comments so far are dead on. I am one who opted to leave early rather than be part of one of the most poorly managed administrations in the last 3 decades. The obvious lack of repect for staff who are leaders in their subject matter throughout the country but not within the city they work for is a waste of valuable talent not to mention the huge investment that the city made in that employee.

Some will say that the city should not expect highly qualified individuals to stay in a government job because government cannot compete with the private sector. That is just an excuse to cover up a horrible and outdated management style and the arrogance of the "leadership". The city pays well and the benefits are extremely generous. Good employees do not leave for the money. They leave and continue to leave because they are not respected at the highest levels for their contributions as dedicated public servants.

I for one have seen the lowest standard of living of my life due to his performance. I can only feel sorry for city employees. He encouraged this city to become a sanctuary city and the flow of illegals was on, just like how he ran the restaurant. He opted out as owner, but we can't.

Supposedly the311 system are to help expedite the City’s services. However, if you use the service once you will never use it again! It’s a joke and costing the City thousands of dollars to man the operation.

To echo the comments above, it has become apparent that this Mayor thought he could make his mark by applying the same principles he used to manage his restaurants to an 11,000 employee public entity. Unfortunately, those principles apparently included treating employees as expendable commodities, for which his primary goal is to spend as little as possible (witness the Cherry Cricket's now infamous use of cheap, illegal alien labor). Consequently, employee morale is at or near all-time lows.

It is also well known within City ranks that this Mayor completely disregards staff recommendations, if those recommendations are contrary to his preconceived notions. Without being too specific (for obvious reasons), there have been several high-profile situations where Mayor Hickenlooper has cavalierly swept aside near-unanimous dissent by staff professionals best able to judge the merits of a particular project. I think we saw early hints of this type of arrogance during the 2003 campaign, when during candidates' forums, then Mr. Hickenlooper grilled various City professionals as if he knew more than they. Yet, if you understood the topic at hand, it was readily apparent that his knowledge was minimal, at best. This character trait (flaw?) of assuming far greater knowledge on a subject than he actually possesses should have been a warning of things to come.

The bottom line is that this Mayor needs to learn soon that you get the employees that you're willing to pay for, and that the professionals whose careers have been built around particular disciplines probably know far more than he does about those subjects, and should be listened to, when critical decisions are at hand.

If you think Upper managment turnover is curious, look at what is happenning within the ranks of Career Service employees! Departments are being staffed at absolute minimum levels; some agencies have vacancy rates in the 15-20% range. Senior employees who can retire are choosing to leave sooner, rather than later to avoid the constantly shifting responsibilities these chronic staffing vacancies cause. Maybe the small business model of a restaranteur, doesn't fit the reality of a large municiple corporation. Citizens of Denver, take note, a popular Mayor, may not be the best thing that happened to your City, indeed it may leave scars the citizens will have to deal with for many years to come.

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