Denver council deadlocks 6-6 over $600,000 recruitment-video contract expansion
The tied vote defeated a proposed five-year extension and increase for Sunny Side Up Solutions, while leaving the city’s future recruitment-video work unsettled.
The Denver City Council deadlocked 6-6 on Aug. 10, defeating a proposed $600,000 expansion and five-year extension of the city’s contract with Sunny Side Up Solutions LLC for employee-recruitment and employment-branding videos.
The amendment would have increased the contract’s total value to $1 million and extended it through Dec. 31, 2031. The work included launching the #EmployeeTV, #SeeYourselfTV and #SeeYourselfHere employment-branding videos, as well as other citywide video projects aligned with mayoral and Office of Human Resources priorities, the council’s Aug. 10 minutes show.
Councilmember Jamie Torres raised concerns that extending the vendor relationship without a new competitive bid could bypass procurement safeguards. “I just get worried that we’re circumventing some of the process that allows for competitiveness,” Torres said, according to the Denver Gazette’s report on the vote. She also questioned the repeated use of Executive Order 8B, which allows exceptions to ordinary contract-duration and competition rules in special circumstances.
Rob McDermott of the City Attorney’s Office defended the executive order, saying it permits agencies to justify continuing a vendor relationship. Teresa Marchetta, who oversees marketing and communications for the Office of Human Resources, said preserving the city’s employment-brand assets and consistency was important, the Gazette reported.
The minutes list Alvidrez, Hinds, Kashmann, Sawyer, Watson and Romero Campbell as voting for the resolution, and Flynn, Gilmore, Gonzales-Gutierrez, Lewis, Sandoval and Torres as voting against it. The record does not include debate or explanations from the other members, so it does not establish that they shared Torres’ concerns or that supporters had a common rationale.
The failed vote does not establish that the existing Sunny Side Up agreement ended. The available record also does not identify a replacement vendor, rebid, in-house production plan or detailed alternative recruitment strategy. Marchetta said she expected further conversations with council members and was looking for “a path forward,” the Gazette reported. The city has not publicly documented how many videos have been completed, what work remains under the existing agreement or whether it will pursue a new procurement process.