FILE – Scott Gilmore, then-deputy executive director for Denver Parks and Recreation, addresses Denver City Council, Aug. 7, 2018. Gilmore was one of the nearly 200 city workers laid off during 2025’s major budget deficit.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Updated 8:39 p.m.
The husband of a Denver city council member is among the 171 city workers being laid off this week. Scott Gilmore, who is married to Councilmember Stacie Gilmore, had been an executive with the parks department for more than a decade.
“Thirteen years of service to the City and County of Denver. That means that when he started serving, our youngest daughter was 7 years old,” Councilmember Stacie Gilmore said at Monday’s regular council meeting.
The council member was visibly emotional, pausing at times to compose herself.
Scott Gilmore served most of his city career as a deputy executive director, a job that frequently put him front-and-center for media interviews and conversations with neighbors. But he recently became deputy executive director of mountain parks and special projects, a seemingly more specialized job.
He started working for the city before Stacie Gilmore was first elected in 2015. In her comments, Gilmore seemed to imply that he was fired as retaliation for her battles with Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration.
“He is a 61-year-old man that only wanted to serve out the last four years of his time until he was 65,” Councilmember Gilmore said. “And because of his sassy loudmouthed wife, he got let go.”
Scott Gilmore agreed with his wife — he said he felt targeted because he and his wife have been outspoken behind the scenes.
“Ever since this administration took over, I’ve had questions about communications, transparency,” he said in an interview. “And this hasn’t been a very transparent process.”
Scott Gilmore alleged a hostile work environment.
Scott Gilmore originally was appointed to parks leadership by former Mayor Michael Hancock. But in 2021, the Hancock administration converted Gilmore’s job and a colleague’s to career service authority positions, as CBS Colorado reported.
The change made it more difficult for the city’s mayor — including its new mayor, Mike Johnston — to dismiss Gilmore. The change included a raise to a salary of $170,000 a year and drew criticism from Councilmember Amanda Sawyer, CBS reported at the time.
Now, Gilmore said he is only one of seven people who are being laid off from the parks department, including himself.
“I have had a very influential position and role within the city and department over the past fourteen years. I have directly hired a large majority of the Park Operation staff and the removal of my leadership of this team could have been done to minimize my influence on decision making within the department,” he wrote in an email, adding that the elimination could be “perceived as a retaliatory action of this administration.”
In the email, he said that he had encountered a hostile work environment since July 2023, which is when Johnston’s administration took power.
Scott Gilmore said that Stacie Gilmore had criticized the city’s budget decision and its spending on homelessness. The councilwoman also raised concerns about the administration’s plan to study nuclear power at the airport, which was recently delayed as a result.
Stacie Gilmore ended her remarks on Monday by saying the “dog muzzle” had been removed from her and her husband.
Mayoral spokesperson Jon Ewing said the city couldn’t comment on individual personnel decisions.
The city used a formula to determine layoffs, with decisions based on an employee’s years of service, skills, abilities and performance. Agency leaders could adjust those factors’ weights on a department level. But administration officials said last week the system was designed to avoid reverse engineering that could target individuals.
Scott Gilmore pointed out that his current job was not paid from the general fund. The city is looking for savings in the general fund and targeted most of the layoffs and job closures to related positions. But city officials said last week there were some circumstances where a person could be laid off even if they weren’t paid out of the general fund.
Councilmember Gilmore represents far northeast Denver and is one of the longest-serving members of council. Scott Gilmore’s brother owns Gilmore Construction, a prominent local company; the connection has occasionally drawn criticism.
Other council members called for more transparency and denounced parts of the layoff process.
City Council did not get a say on whether there would be layoffs and how they would be administered, a decision that vexed some council members.
“I cannot safely say that these are the steps that needed to be taken, [a] direct to hit to our city workforce,” said at-large Councilmember Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez. “I would’ve loved to partner with the administration and our Department of Finance to find some other creative solutions.”
The criticism lined up with a similar one from Michael Wallin, the president of AFSCME Local Union 158 and an employee of the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, who told Denverite that the city should have explored other options, like early retirement, before resorting to layoffs.
Council members also expressed their condolences for the scores of other workers who will be laid off on Monday and Tuesday. The city is trying to close a $250 million budget gap for this year and next year.
“It’s a loss for our residents. It’s a loss for people I know in my family,” said council president Amanda Sandoval.
Editor’s note: This article was updated with additional information and comment from Scott Gilmore.
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