Limitations on use of city funds and city staff time for election matters.
Denver Revised Municipal Code § 15-43
in effectSec. 15-43. - Limitations on use of city funds and city staff time for election matters.
(a) Use of city funds and staff time. Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c), no department, agency, board, commission, officer or employee of the city, may expend city funds or use city staff time with the intent to further a campaign for the nomination, retention, election, or recall of a person to a public office in an election or with the intent to urge electors to vote for or against a:
(1) Municipal ballot issue or ballot question, after the clerk and recorder has approved the contents of the affidavit, ballot title, and petition sample, as specified in section 8.3.2 of the Charter;
(2) Statewide ballot issue or ballot question after the title has been fixed;
(3) Statewide or municipal referred measure after final passage of the bill referring the measure;
(4) Municipal measure for the recall of an elected officer, after the clerk and recorder has approved the contents of the affidavit, ballot title, and petition sample, as specified in section 8.3.2 of the Charter; or
(5) Measure for the recall of a state elected officer upon the final determination of sufficiency.
(b) Exceptions. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a department, agency, board, commission, officer or employee from:
(1) Providing the text of an issue, question, or measure, or report the details of any official action taken to refer an issue, question, or measure;
(2) Taking actions necessary to compile and distribute the fiscal impact estimate and ballot information booklet authorized in article I of this chapter, or necessary to comply with any of the provisions of this article;
(3) Passing a resolution or proclamation analyzing and commenting on an issue, question, or measure or report the passage of such resolution or proclamation;
(4) Permitting or allow an individual or group to use a city facility or city staff time for political purposes if the facility or city staff are offered or available to the public on the same terms regardless of the use and content of the activity;
(5) Responding to unsolicited questions or requests for information about a candidate, issue, question, or measure;
(6) Expending fifty dollars ($50.00) or less of city funds, or city staff time calculated by an hourly rate, in the form of letters, telephone calls, or other activities incidental to expressing their opinion on a candidate, issue, question, or measure; or
(7) Dispensing a factual summary of an issue, question, or measure, that includes arguments both for and against the issue, question, or measure, which does not contain a conclusion or urge electors to vote for or against the issue, question, or measure.
(c) Elected officials. Nothing in this section shall prohibit an elected official from expressing their personal opinion on a candidate, issue, question, or measure at any time provided that the elected official may not use staff time in excess of fifty dollars ($50.00) as calculated by an hourly rate, nor may the official directly expend more than fifty dollars ($50.00) of city funds incidental to such expression.
(d) Penalty. A violation of this section shall be a noncriminal violation subject only to the penalty authorized in section 15-45.
(Ord. No. 1676-24, § 1, 2-18-25)
Source: City and County of Denver, Revised Municipal Code and Charter (Municode Library, library.municode.com)URL: https://library.municode.com/co/denver/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TITIIREMUCO_CH15EL_ARTIIICAFI_DIV1GECAFIRE_S15-43LIUSFUSTTIELMAFetched: 10/27/2026