Last week, the Denver City Council began the process of requesting additions to the 2022 city budget, submitting and ranking over two dozen proposals totaling more than $22.21 million.

The current budget amounts to $1.49 billion, with the most significant delegations being nearly $568 million for public safety, $140 million for transportation and infrastructure, $117 million for independent agencies and $101 million for the finance department.

On Friday, each council member was given 20 points to distribute to their favorite of the 25 budget asks. After ranking the asks in order of points received, council members voted on whether they supported each proposal.

Denver City Council considers over $22 million in additions to 2022 city budget

In order of points, the top 10 addition proposals are as follows:

1. $132,038 to hire an assistant city attorney for the City Council (22 points)
2. $35,000 to sponsor the Denver Municipal Band and fund free, outdoor concerts (21 points)
3. $35,000 to study the potential establishment of an Office of Community Engagement in Denver (20 points)
4. $150,000 to make the Denver Public Library’s four digital navigators full-year positions, instead of half-year (19 points)
5. $350,000 to hire an engineering firm as a subject matter expert for railroad safety analysis (18 points)
6. $500,000 to hire fellows for Denver’s legal defense program for immigrants, split over two years (18 points)
7. $400,000 to provide legal support for Denver’s housing team, funding one full-time employee and outside help (15 points)
8. $1.5 million to expand the Safe Routes to Schools program (14 points)
9. $90,000 to the Office on Aging for services and supplies (12 points)
10. $200,000 to study converting York and Josephine streets from one-way to two-way between East 46th Avenue and East 40th Avenue (9 points)

The proposal to provide $150,000 to the Denver Public Library for digital navigators was the only proposal that received unanimous approval from council members, with all 12 present council members voting in support and Councilman Chris Herndon absent.

Half of the top 10 proposals received 11 votes in support: $132,038 for an assistant city attorney, $35,000 for the Denver Municipal Band, $35,000 to study an Office of Community Engagement, $1.5 million for Safe Routes to Schools and $90,000 for the Office on Aging.

Public health to get 4% of Denver's $1.49 billion 2022 budget proposal

The funding for the legal defense program for immigrants got 10 votes, legal support for the housing team got 9, the railroad safety consultant got 8 and the two-way street conversion got 7.

The only other budget asks that received support from more than half of council members were $270,000 for a full-time contractor to provide trauma response services and $150,000 to establish a health equity director position at Denver’s health department.

The top 10 proposals add up to just over $3.1 million in additions to the budget, far less than the $22.21 million total list.

Nearly all of the most expensive asks ranked the lowest, including $5 million for a community grocery store in northeast Denver, $3 million to renovate a city building, $2 million to purchase a building, $2 million for cooperative business models and $1 million to better track and distribute motel housing vouchers.

Denver's 2022 city budget proposal dominated by public safety

Each of those proposals received only one vote in support from council members, coming from their sponsor Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca.

The council opted to include CdeBaca’s other most expensive proposal — $5 million to create a mental health and substance abuse treatment facility at a city building now used for storage — in their letter to Mayor Michael Hancock, asking him to prioritize the project using existing funds.

The City Council will now further narrow down its list of top-ranked budget additions and present the final asks in a letter to Hancock. The letter is expected to be delivered this Friday, city officials said.