Denver council introduces charter measure on auditor wage-law enforcement
The proposed Nov. 3 special-election question would ask voters to explicitly preserve the auditor’s role enforcing city wage and worker-protection ordinances.
Denver City Council introduced a charter measure June 29 that would place a Nov. 3, 2026, special-election question before voters to "expressly clarify" that the auditor’s office may continue enforcing wage laws, worker-protection laws and other workplace-rights laws under city ordinances.
Public records cited in the measure indicate the referral is intended to restate existing authority, not create a new one. Denver Labor says the city’s Civil Wage Theft Ordinance, adopted in 2023, vested implementation and enforcement in the auditor’s office, and the office’s labor division says it already enforces prevailing wage, minimum wage, Davis-Bacon and civil wage-theft laws.
The June 29 council agenda also described the proposal as an effort to "expressly clarify" the auditor’s authority and said the Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee approved filing the bill May 19. The council meeting record shows the measure was introduced on the legislative calendar as a committee item.
The available record does not identify a specific legal dispute or proposed reduction in powers behind the referral. If council approves it, voters would decide in November whether to explicitly keep the auditor’s wage- and worker-protection enforcement role in the city charter.